Quiet Generator fot 23ft TT

[OttoB]

Good evening all,

Looking for thoughts on a generator that is quiet, has enough power, and is as light as possible for our new Koala 23ls.

As usual, I value your opinions.

Thanks in advance.

[beyacork]

Hey guys I just wanted to chime in on the boliy. I have a 38 foot freedom elite(keystone) with two airs. I bought the boliy because of the power rating, pure sine wave, the weight and the remote start. The remote start is great when the battery is charged. I have a battery tender with extra connectors so I soldered an extension from the battery out of the case so I could hook up the tender. My problem is my battery is now dead because I forgot to turn off the remote start button on the generator. I tried hooking up a slightly larger version of the exiting battery through the battery minder connection but it doesn't seem to work unlike in a car. The pull start is easy so I am not worried at the moment. The problem I have is access to the battery. The 5th wheel came generator ready so to speak. I set up the boliy as a permanent install where an Onan would typically go. I made an exhaust pipe out of conduit and use one of those glass pack stinger mufflers. The system is very quite. When the generator starts it turns on 250 cfm ac fan which pulls air in and out through holes next to the generator. On the right side of the generator are two large intake and exhaust pipes 3 to 4 inch diameter. The intake covers the out going exhaust pipe. I also have 4 6 volt deep cycle batteries in the same compartment protected by a metal shield. The batteries stay reasonably cool. The system has worked great for three trips so far.

[chezmoose]

We just got the Yamaha EF2400ISHC and love it! After adding gas and oil, it started with half a pull. Weighs about 75 lbs, is VERY quiet and will power our 13.5 AC unit if we ever need to...

[Marcusjolaine]

Home Depot had lots of good reviews of the Westinghouse on their website.

[RVcircus]

mkirsch wrote:


It's not "cheaper enough" to justify taking a chance on it it instead of the Honda, IMHO. If it was 1/2 price of an eu2000i, sure.

You have no idea how quiet it really is. I have listened to a lot of these knock-off generators, and own one myself. Their owners kinda squint their eyes and scrunch up their face and say, "It's not *THAT* loud, is it?" You politely shout "NO!"

For $300, you get known quantities with the Honda. You know how quiet it is. You know what the quality is. You know you can get it fixed.

That said, those little eu2000i's can really BELLOW if you put the spurs to 'em.

Good point...I don't want to waste $700 just to save $300. That unknown generator could quickly cost me over the $300 savings.

[PAThwacker]

I dropped a grand on Yamaha 2000W inverter. I justified it to run battery charger, 1500w heater, or microwave while off the grid! Who cares about AC if the kids need mac n cheese at 2240 with a side of nuggets.


I have 12vt HD/DVD combo for entertainment. Off the grid Glamping!

[mkirsch]

RVcircus wrote:
Does anyone have experience with the Westinghouse 2100 watt generator being sold by Home Depot? I've seen very limited review, but it sounds pretty good deal for <$700.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Westinghouse-2100-Watt-Digital-Inverter-Generator-WH2000i/204633538#custo...

It's not "cheaper enough" to justify taking a chance on it it instead of the Honda, IMHO. If it was 1/2 price of an eu2000i, sure.

You have no idea how quiet it really is. I have listened to a lot of these knock-off generators, and own one myself. Their owners kinda squint their eyes and scrunch up their face and say, "It's not *THAT* loud, is it?" You politely shout "NO!"

For $300, you get known quantities with the Honda. You know how quiet it is. You know what the quality is. You know you can get it fixed.

That said, those little eu2000i's can really BELLOW if you put the spurs to 'em.

[Marcusjolaine]

Keep in mind, if you plan on coupling two generators you will also need to purchase a parallel kit, which adds to the cost. I think the Honda kit is $40. I've seen combo specials for about $2200.

[KevSchofield]

Another Champion 3100 user here.. I just couldn't afford a Honda 3000.

The Champion has been flawless, it's quiet, and it starts/runs my 13,500 btu AC while set on economy mode.

I paid $849 shipped through Amazon..

[RVcircus]

Does anyone have experience with the Westinghouse 2100 watt generator being sold by Home Depot? I've seen very limited review, but it sounds pretty good deal for <$700.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Westinghouse-2100-Watt-Digital-Inverter-Generator-WH2000i/204633538#custo...

[jaycocreek]

I've owned about every gen out there at one time or another and none exceed the Honda 3k-is. The quietest gen out there except for the Yamaha 1000. Quieter than my Honda 2k.

Runs for like 20hrs at 1/4 load. I just leave it in the back of my pickup and all out takes is a twist of the key to start, no yanking on the rope for the wife. Electric start is great.

I much prefer it over my Honda 2k except for the weight although the smaller is a great little generator we use alot when it's not hot out as it runs everything except the air, but does run the air fan.

A lot of gens won't run the air when it's over 90 degrees out like the Yamaha 4kES I had. Some only run a couple hours before having to fill up again like the Champion I had. My Onan was good but noisier than my Honda and temperimental... My Generac 4k is a solid reliable generator but to loud.

[RoyB]

I had to take a different approach here on the East side of the US. As it turns out for us camping off the power we have to really deal alot with generator run time restrictions as most all of the places we visit have such things in place. The East side of the US has little DISPERSED TYPE camping locations and it seems for us only PRIVATE locations let you get away with running your generator anytime you want to.

With this in mind I went the route to beef up my OFF_ROAD POPUP 2008 trailer with smart mode charging converter/charger, added more batteries, and changed out all incandescent 12VDC bulbs to LED boards.

Then we had to decide what we wanted to run appliance wise that would match up with our installed battery banks which of course does not include Air Conditioning and running some of the very high wattage items like the Microwave (we run a small manual type white faced microwave from WALMART with good success when camping off the power grid).

With my 255AH battery bank we can do almost everything we do at regular electric camp sites including running all the interior and outside lights we want, watch HDTV and play DVDs every night, run my NOAH WX Alert radio, computer and cell phone chargers, fans, even an occasional lap electric blanket. I also get to play some with my Ham Radio hobby... This includes all of the parasitic items the trailer requires to have on 24/7 when camping.


All of this planned out to allow us to to camp one day/night off the batteries and then connect our trailer shore power cable directly to the 2KW Honda EU2000i sitting secured in the tail gate corners of my truck bed which is also locked with a FOLD-A-COVER bed cover. Using the smart mode technology PD9260C converter/charger I can re-charge my batteries to their 90% charge state in a quick three hour generator run time each morning when allowed to run our generator. My 2KW Honda Generator runs very quiet sitting on the tail gate of my Truck when being used.


Been doing this now since 2009 and it works out very success for us camping off the power grids around the high country here on the east side of the US.

These are just some of the things we campers here on the East side of the US have to put up with. When I lived in the Arizona area in the late 60s early 70s it was no problem running a generator anywhere we wanted to. We tent camped all over the high country of Arizona with our Jeep buddies pulling util trailers loaded up with our Tent camping supplies.

This is a google photo of how we all looked back in those days


My camping off the power grid story...
Roy Ken

[chr_]

I went a different route. I bought a low hour Honda EV4010 watercooled RV generator and built a generator compartment for it. It's 216 lbs, but made to run for days on end.

I see too many people buying replacements for the hondas because they get stolen at large events.

Plus, All I (or my wife) have to do is hit the start button and fire it up when we need juice. It's 4000 watts, and will run everything at the same time. We have a 15K Carrier Low profile Heat Pump.

Just a different perspective. Don't get me wrong, If I went the portable route, dual Honda 2000eui's are the way to go.

[Mr__C]

I've got a Yamaha 2400 that ran the 13.5k BTU A/C in our old trailer, but it will not run the 15k BTU A/C in our new one. I really thought that it would, since when the A/C starts up, the blower starts first and the compressor is time delayed. Maybe a hard start kit is needed for the comp. We never used the gen for camping, but it was nice to know that if needed, it worked.

[HappyCamperjk]

We bought the Honda 3000 and it weights 78lbs and it runs everything very well. It is so darn quiet too.