Generator noise

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I remember when my dad bought the coleman powermate 1850 generator in 95 or 96 they advertised it as being campground friendly in terms of noise, it even was built with a case around, not a typical open frame design. That generator, although functionally fine, is now a dinosaur by modern standards. I broke down this year and finally bought a Predator 3500. The decibel level is much nicer, the power output is great, and the electric start is the best thing since sliced bread.
 
The town I used to live in tried to enforce noise rules and after a year had to give it up as they had no way to certify that any measurements that were made were accurate.
 
One of the main reasons we bought our Honda 2000 so many years ago was it was Forest Service certified with a spark arrester. We weren’t thinking as much about noise (no experience with how bad it could be!), but the open frame generators of the day were causing forest fires. That little workhorse kept my kid’s freezer working for 13 days after the Iowa derecho summer of 2019, stopping only for fuel adds. Pretty good for a 20 year old unit. We also used it during power outages to keep our sump pump running at home a couple of times, though never for so long. Very, very reliable and long running unit.
 
To answer the OP question. It is very rare but can happen, as discussed here. I have not had this happen in 10 years of camping. Sorry this happened to you, enjoy the rest of your trip.
 
I have a built in Onan 2500LP in my trailer. I wished it were the newer inverter model, but is isn't and it had a rather annoying Poot-poot to the exhaust note. I added an Onan resonator to it (glad I did, I found some cracks in the exhaust pipe at the attachment to the genny end). It helped the sound alot, although it probably is still a little louder than I'd like, the sound is smoother and not so annoying. If I am somewhere that I will need to run the generator, I try to get a site where the there is no one to my left so they don't have to listen to it.

I removed the pipe and took it to a one man exhaust shop. Since the cracks were stress from a broken hanger, he welded them up, no rotten metal, and then took out a section of the pipe and welded the resonator in, so its underneath the trailer.

My short 40 sec video of experimenting with the resonator

And yes, "etiquette" is rather commonly accepted by anyone who has been camping for any time at all.

Long Long Honeymoon video on campground etiquette (and they should know, they have been traveling 4 to 8 months of the year since 2007 and are the longest running RV channel on Youtube. HOW TO NOT BE A RUDE & INCONSIDERATE JERK - 10 Tips! (RV Campground Etiquette) The generator example is at 2:38 into the video.

And another LoLoHo video For Beginners: RV "Boondocking" Etiquette!

Larry N. said:
Wow! Just, Wow!
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Yes, I agree.

Charles
 
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JayArr said:
LOL - I hope we can disagree and still be friendly.
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I agree. I will add that throwing out terms like "Cancel Culture" just minimizes other peoples legitimate viewpoints. Give your opinions and respect those of others, no need to add disrespectful terminology or offensive monikers. Let's be friendly means being open to others.
 
I recently purchased a Champion 3400 that is supposed to be running in the high 60 to high 70 db range. It seems much louder than that, but not much louder than my RV's Onan 4000 "microquiet". It seems to run just about as loud as the Champion. But with the increase in power outages here in our neck of the woods in CAlifornia, the Champion is proving to be worth the money. That being said, any changes you want to make need to be made before 2024. That's when the new laws against purchasing gas powered tools (generators included, even in an RV) go into effect. I am planning to buy one extra of each kind of gas powered tool I own before then. The law doesn't say you can't use them, only than you can't buy them.

By the way, etiquette extends to my neighbors in my housing tract. I just put the Champion in the garage with the door shut, and put a small fan on it.
 
One thing about sound..... dB is one of the measures of sound. waveform is also important.

A 2-stroke engine may be the same dB as a 4 stroke but due to the different waveform it will be much, much more annoying.

Fans are not as "Loud" as Internal combustion motors at the same dB level

It's all due to the waveform and envelope of the sound.
 
Domo said:
For some reason, it seems your response to my post was confrontational and you were offended in some way? Please help me understand why.
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Absolutely not, no intention of that. My suggestion was to show the neighbor how extremely loud it could be (few people with loud any generators probably pay any attention to which way the exhaust is pointing).

But now, thinking about this, you may be suggesting that turning it the other way and inviting them over would show them how much quieter it can be with the exhaust pointed the right way (hopefully toward woods, bushes, etc)

Sorry, no harm intended.

This is an old enough thread that it should be locked. No real reason to rehash this. I forgot to look at the dates on the posts till it was too late.

Charles
 
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