Yes, that generator is loud.

[raineman]

It all comes down to consideration for others. Sadly the mere thought of considering others is foreign to many as seen on this thread. It is a growing trend. We have experienced our share of rude neighbors and it sucks that these knuckle daggers only care about themselves. There is a huge correlation between inconsiderate behavior and lack of intelligence.

[1bigmess]

I don't think that is necessarily true.

I've encountered incredibly intelligent people that are incredibly inconsiderate.

I've also encountered people that are clearly very uneducated and incapable of figuring out very complex things, but are the nicest and most accommodating folks you'd ever want to meet.

There may be many hypotheses on behavior, but I don't think the intelligence level is always the deciding factor.

[timetogo]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

I fired up my gennie at almost exactly 8am after seeing my neighbors up and moving around. I shut my gennie off at 8pm last night.

Did you run it nearly 12 hours straight? Just curious.

[DDDonkey]

I have one of those "noisy" champion generators that I take camping with me even though I have my Onan built into my camper. I use it every time for maybe 2 hours total, but I am always the first person up there to get the spot, use it before anyone get there and thats it. I have it as a back up, it is too loud to exercise in my neighborhood but needs to be used. On the rare occasion someone needs to use it I loan it out, but they use it as little as possible because of the noise. The group that I go camping with likes our quiet hours, and there is usually a kids taking a nap so no loud generators. I have invested in 300 watts of solar to help and upgraded to 4 batteries. This season should be even quieter!

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by timetogo

Did you run it nearly 12 hours straight? Just curious.

No. I would charge the computer, and if the radio wasn't being operated, the gennie is shut off.

I can't go look at solar today, the shop is closed on the weekend. No biggie. I can be there Monday morning, and I have the rest of the weekend to do some exploring.

The campground is emptying out pretty quick.

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by DDDonkey

I have invested in 300 watts of solar to help and upgraded to 4 batteries. This season should be even quieter!

I'm working on solar. I have Harbor Freight panels and PWM controller back in the PDX area, but they didn't seem robust or light enough to bring with me, and there are six panels to get ninety watts. Too much to deal with. I'm looking at either 160 or 200 watts suitcase style panels with PWM and all the trimmings for $599 and $699 respectively, and a Full River 85 amp/hr AGM deep cycle battery for $209. I'd go larger on the battery, but the 105 amp/hr is pretty heavy, 55 vs 67 pounds.

I know I am hijacking my own topic, but somebody try to talk me into spending $300 on a battery that is *heavy*.

[BRex45]

I have a "special" neighbor next to me outside of the city limits. When I asked him if he could turn down the bass on his kid's rock band speakers, so as to not rattle our windows day and night, he became highly offended and told me he moved outside of the city so he would not have to worry about laws or ordinances. I brought up the concept of consideration, being neighborly, the County Nuisance Codes etc. It did not affect him in any way and he is still a turd neighbor who is passing this attitude down to his now teenage kids.

As in a campground, we bring our morals, ethics and upbringing with us.

[JFNM]

1bigmess, I realize that every situation is different and there is no one "right" solution. That said, 6 volt golf cart batteries are very hard to beat in terms of RV "house" battery performance and price. Two of them wired in series will typically yield about 200 amp-hours at 12 volts. This then gives you 100 amp-hours of usable capacity which, for the items you listed, is a good bit of power. Of course, space for batteries is always an issue. I apologize if you already know these things, I'm never sure...

Again, not sure if it helps but sometimes seeing another person's style of use is helpful... My $1,200, 650 watt/MPPT solar charging system charges a 440 amp-hour battery bank (four 6 volt batteries). I run the inverter from this which powers everything I require - lights, refrigerator (on lp) tv, satellite receiver, laptop computer power supply, power supplies of various gadgets, short microwave oven use, furnace blower, water pump and so forth. The only time my generator runs is if the weather has been very bad for several days and the solar has not charged the batteries or if it is so hot that I must run the air conditioning. As you know, both of these are pretty rare in the west as long as you head up in elevation during the hot parts of the year.

[1bigmess]

I have two GC2 batteries for house batteries.

The AGM I am thinking of buying will be for amateur radio and the laptop, and maybe the cell phone for internet access. It will run the radio straight off the battery, the cell phone will charge with a 12v adapter, and the laptop will get powered through a small inverter with no fan.

When i'm not using the PVs for radio and laptop, I can use them to charge the house batteries.

I'll run the gennie for the microwave and other larger electrical needs, which is maybe once a week.

[SkiSmuggs]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

I have two GC2 batteries for house batteries.

The AGM I am thinking of buying will be for amateur radio and the laptop, and maybe the cell phone for internet access. It will run the radio straight off the battery, the cell phone will charge with a 12v adapter, and the laptop will get powered through a small inverter with no fan.

When i'm not using the PVs for radio and laptop, I can use them to charge the house batteries.

I'll run the gennie for the microwave and other larger electrical needs, which is maybe once a week.

A 100w Renogy suitcase might be all you need to keep that single battery charged. 100 Watt 12 Volt Portable Solar Suitcase | Renogy Solar

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

How does Champion test their noise levels? How is that different from how other manufacturers test?

I have noticed Champion likes to publish the noise ratings of their generators running AT NO LOAD! This is not a real world comparison, but allows them to publish low numbers. Also they like to measure the noise at 23 feet whereas Honda publishes their numbers measured at 9 feet, and they publish both 1/4 load and 100% load numbers.

The Db scale is logarithmic so YES 68 is a LOUD generator compared to 59

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by SkiSmuggs

A 100w Renogy suitcase might be all you need to keep that single battery charged. 100 Watt 12 Volt Portable Solar Suitcase | Renogy Solar

I ended up with a Z Amp solar 200 watt suitcase style panel set with PWM controller. I also got the big 115 amp/hr battery at an advertised 73 pounds (!).

I wasn't concerned about keeping batteries charged. I want to be able to use the panel power to run a 100 watt radio (maybe 25% duty cycle at the very highest use), and a laptop that uses a little less than 200 watts max, and that is when the computer is charging the battery while starting up.

The sun just went down, and I'd had the battery charging for about an hour and a half, and it was roughly 75% charged out of the box. I've been on the computer and charging a smart phone for about 45 minutes, and the voltage at the panels is 12.5 just as the sun dipped below the mountain ridge to the west.

I made sure I had more than enough truck when I bought a travel trailer, and I hope I bought enough solar panel and battery for what I want to do.

[Phil G.]

We solved our "generator noise problem" at Quartzsite several days last week:

We drycamped so close to Highway 10 that the noise from it drowned out any noise we could make. We could run our built-in Onan generator to charge our batteries all we wanted and it couldn't be heard outside ... I know ... I tried to hear it from outside, but the big rigs on 10 won. What guilt-free generator freedom that was!

By the way, the modern Honda inverter generators are not the quietest. We also carry along, and use for battery charging in our Class C ... an ancient but superb Honda EX650 four-stroke suitcase generator for ultra-quiet battery charging due to it's constant 54 dB noise level at all loads.

I find the EU2000i Honda inverter generator's sound level and frequency spectrum very irritating when it revs up past it's idle level.

[Mr_D]

I just figured generator use was a given in QZ. I don't like the contractor units though and most of them should be checked to see if the spark arrester is legal on US lands. We have 400 watts of solar, 4 8D 12V batteries and a 12.5 Onan gen. But the rig is an energy hog too with its home refer and all the other amenities. DW likes her TV and sat every night late into the night.
I might try a week at QZ again someday, but twice was enough for us.