We just got back from our first boondock where we were testing out our 3500w dual fuel champion inverter, water and gray/black tank management before we leave this Monday for a 4 day country music festival where we will be staying in a fair ground parking lot in 90 degree heat. Since we are newbie RV'ers we needed to see how far we could stretch our tanks and how much propane we would need to haul with us as a family of four.
Off a 30 lb propane tank the generator failed to start my 13.5 btu AC, the first time, 3 out of 6 times. Nothing else in the trailer was on. Each time it failed to start the AC, I shut down the generator, restarted and it fired the A/C no problem. I suspect I was trying to fire up the a/c to quickly after turning on the generator because when we shut down the AC to use the microwave or for my wife to blow dry her hair, the AC fired up no problem when she was done. We were camping at about 5400 feet and it was around 90-95 each day, but the generator was partially shaded so I can't see heat being a factor. Other than those three hiccups the generator performed well. I used about 3/4 of a 30 lb tank for 16 hours of run time ( I installed an engine timer on mine and yes it now reads 21.2 so I did my 5 hour break in ) Ran the a/c, a string of lights my wife made me put up, and the occasional light here and there. We ran the WH and fridge off gas. No other overloads no other problems.
As for noise I have nothing to compare it to. There was a lot of room behind us so I parked my truck across the front of my TT and chained ther genny to the aFrame to deflect sound away from my sister and brother in law whose camp ring was about 25-30 yards from the generator, and toward us. wife and I were very pleased with how quiet it was. Asked my SIL about it at her site (they were tent camping) and she said you can hear it, but barely. I did hear some very loud generators running in the campground, obviously not inverters so I wasn't the biggest DB on the block;)
I too read up a lot on the big boys versus the champion generators...though I don't know why, I couldn't afford one anyway! I feel like I would sleep better with the red or blue box sitting in my garage, but that will have to wait. Hopefully the yellow box treats us well.
