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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / RVs / July 2005Loud Generator
We just got back from a GREAT four-day "weekend" at a "local" state park. I prefer to "dry" camp for the increased solitude it provides. Also, the "primitive" sites in this particular campground are "undefined" allowing me to pull well back from the road. This increases our "front yard" and gives a nice buffer in which to corral the 2-1/2-year-old granddaughter before she gets run over and killed by the inevitable @$$hole speeding down the lane to get to their campsite. A small group of campers arrived LATE Friday evening and set up their tents. Some time later, just before it got really dark, the assistant superintendent drove up to my camp and got of his truck. He said that among that group of campers was one with a "heart condition". (It was never specified what the condition was.) He said that they needed electricity all night. Given we were in the primitive section with NO hookups, that required they run a generator ALL NIGHT. The ranger asked if that would be OK with me. The group then fired-up their genset. It HAD to be a OLD 3-hp lawn mower engine with more than a few years on what little muffler it had to begin with. IOW, it was quite loud - even from our ~150-feet away. All night? I mentioned that it was quite loud, and the ranger went back to their camp. After some rearranging of the genset, the ranger returned and asked me again if it was too loud. There was virtually NO change in dB. It was LOUD. Folks, I am a reasonable guy, even accommodating most times. I was rather upset that *I* was made "the heavy" in this situation. I said that I would find trying to sleep with this racket - with my windows open - ALL NIGHT, difficult if not impossible. Anyway, they did NOT run the genset after all and the weekend was fine. I think it is incredibly presumptuous of someone to arrive LATE on a Friday during "high" season, make their camp in a primitive site (no hookups) then ASK their neighbors to put up with a LOUD generator all night. If one KNOWS they need electricity, I believe it is incumbent upon them to arrive early enough to get a site with electricity. JR  Signature2000 Skamper Ultra 249 TT 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Vortec 8100 - Allison 1000 >We just got back from a GREAT four-day "weekend" at a "local" state park. > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >JR I agree. Most campgrounds have set times for generator start up (like 0800 hours) and shut down (like 2200 hours). If electricity is an all-night necessity, then electric hook-ups should be used. The last state campground I went to had an unreasonable period of 1000 hours to 2000 hours. I won't be going back there. Mark Filice 2004 Homestead Settler 255RS 1999 Chevrolet Suburban 2500 On our Labor Day (04) trip we experienced an unpleasant generator in a state park. Saturday morning a 6:30 am this guy decides to fire it up (quiet time is 10pm-6am). This generator was loud as a lawnmower. Even though the campground rule state "no construction generators", the campground host did absolutely nothing. I felt sorry for the 4 families that were directly across the road from them. Just for grins, I kept moving my Honda generator closer to the trailer to see how close I had to get it to hear it over the noise (we were 70 yds away). It was less than 15 ft when I finally heard ours. Since at that time we were still in our pop-up, it was annoying as we couldn't even go inside to escape the sound. At 3:10 pm his finally ran out of gas. It was hilarious to here the cheers coming from those camped around him. The next day he didn't start it until 3 pm (I think he got the hint). My biggest fear however was he would leave it run until 10pm. As I understand it, some of his kids were playing in the road and a dog with the group across from them started barking. With his generator blasting, he went to the campground hosts to complain about the barking dog. The campground host talked to the dog owner requesting it be kept quiet. The owner said "sure, as long as that guy shuts off the generator", and at 3:25 pm, it was silent. One of the campers later that night stopped by to ask us how we power the rope lights under our awning (and told us the dog story). I told him "we use a generator" and then pointed toward it (EU1000i). When listening closely, he could hear it, but otherwise he never new it was there. The wife and are primarily dry campers, and situations like this remind us why. Jeff 05 Savoy 29RKS 05 F250 PSD Chandler, AZ >One of the campers later that night stopped by to ask us how we power the >rope lights under our awning (and told us the dog story). I told him "we use >a generator" and then pointed toward it (EU1000i). When listening closely, >he could hear it, but otherwise he never new it was there. The Honda's are really quiet. If I go to a place to camp (not just a place to spend the night on the way to somewhere, but actually a final destination), I like to find a place with no one else around. This generally precludes developed campgrounds. Paul Below Battle Point Astronomical Association Bainbridge Island, WA, USA http://bainbridgeisland.org/ritchieobs/ I have a couple of generators, both Honda, a 2000 EU and a 5000SX. The 2000 is quite quiet, the 5000 isn't too bad but . . . I have found that If I run the 5000 inside my camper shell with the exhaust directed towards the open tailgate and both side windows open, and the tailgate directed towards an uninhabited area, it greatly reduces the nuisance to my neighbors. If I put the 2000 inside, nobody even knows it's running. I have considered building an insulated box for the 5000 since it's primary use is emergency backup power for the house and I might be running it for extended periods and don't want my neighbors to become too envious or covetous. Why 2? The 2000 is fine for everything but running the A/C and sometimes we are somewhere where we really do need to use it. |
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