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My kid had a converted ambulance. The ambulance did not have an on-board generator or a secondary 120v electrical system. One of those Yeti "solar generators" was the perfect choice for that application.

For my 37' motor home with 2 a/c units, a microwave, and an entertainment system, I feel like the on-board Onan is a better fit.
The Yeti type Chinese generators do have decent capacity and power, but they aren't made to last. We build Grid Point power boxes here in the United States, with name brand components like Victron Energy and Blue Sea. The batteries can go through 6000 full cycles before reaching their lifespan, so these systems are meant to last decades. Since it's modular, components can be replaced or swapped if something should fail.
We have put a Grid Point power box in a Class A motorhome, but it's only meant to run one of his Air Conditioners. You are right, you would want an Onan or something like a dual Victron Multiplus system to run both.
 
All claims aside on generator noise levels, I have never heard of anyone saying their other brand generator is quieter than a comparable Honda. Shall we say that Honda is the Airstream of generators?

If you are sensitive to noise, I'm not sure what to say. Many campgrounds do not have power, and thus have generator hours and quiet time. What happened to Long Long Honeymoon can happen to anyone if the camper the next site over is not considerate. This video will start at the appropriate point, but if you want to watch it all, just slide the bar back to the beginning.


While decibel levels are not linear, it is logarithmic, (ie. 30 dB, is 100 times louder than 10 dB, and 40 dB is 1,000 times louder than 10 dB.) I stole this from Google. BUT..... Sometimes its the tone, not the actual sound level. My generator (built in Onan) had a annoying poot-poot sound to the exhaust and by adding a resonator to the exhaust, I did not change the volume significantly, but did get rid of the poot-poot sound and made what you do hear, more pleasant. (Youtube converted this to a "short" long after I posted it, and I have no way to convert it back to a "normal" video, however the three vertical dots in the upper RH corner will bring up the menu with description, etc.)


Liars figure, and figures lie, thats what I always heard, and with generator sound levels, this is so true. Claims made by the generator manufacturers can almost be disregarded as they are all based on different measuring techniques and distances. Things that can be done with portable generators to reduce the sound is to simply move it away from the camper. If you are backed up to a wooded area, with no campers behind you, simply move the generator close to the wooded area and POINT THE EXHAUST TOWARD THE WOODS AND AWAY FROM THE CAMPER. Leaves, trees, bushes, etc, do an excellent job of absorbing noise and not reflecting it back to you.

Charles
Actually with the Grid Point Generator being near silent since it's all electric, and housed in an aluminum enclosure, I would call it the true Airstream of generators!Box Open.JPG
 
Congratulations! Have fun!

I am impressed with my son's Predator 3500 inverter generator from Harbor Freight. Quieter than my P3000 Briggs and Stratton and it has more power.
To offer a bit more information, when I made our purchase 4+ years ago, I did a lot of research at the time. I understood well that Honda or Yamaha inverter generators were the standard for performance and noise levels but I did not want to spend that much money. I also wanted something that was American made. I can not confirm the P3000 B&S model we purchased was actually made in the USA but I decided to go with a known American company. We got it as a "warehouse damaged" unit (or called something like that) from Amazon) for about $900 - the box was scuffed up but everything else was brand new. We have been happy with the B&S and it can run our 15,000 BTU air conditioner.

As noted, our son has a Predator 3500. I camped with him at the Phoenix NASCAR race track in November a few years ago. We used his Predator to run his RV including his 13,500 BTU air conditioner. I can tell you from direct experience that his Predator is noticeably quieter than our B&S unit under similar loads. As a bonus, it has electric start.

We also camped near another camper for a weekend who was using two Honda 2000 generators running in parallel. There was nothing quiet about that weekend in general as we were outside of Turn 3 at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis. We were on "shore power" that was being supplied through a distribution system powered by a large industrial Cat diesel generator - a distictive sound that was very notable. The Honda generators still made themselves easily known and they were about 30 feet away. I thought they were loud.

I still have a strong preference for supporting American products but the value and performance of the Predator 3500 would be hard to ignore if I was buying again.
 
No inverter generator is going to be quiet if producing more than about 60% of its rated wattage. It has to ramp up engine speed to handle the increased load and is going to make much the same amount of decibels as a constant-speed generator. The excellent Honda engine typically has less NVH (harsh sounds) than other engine brands, so may be less annoying even when loud.
 
The Grid Point power box has 9000Wh of power and can output 3000Watts. So it can output 3000 Watts for hours. I'll admit it's not light, but it's comparable to a gasoline generator and takes up about the same amount of space. The great thing about electric power is it can be charged for free with solar. The batteries can be cycled 6000 times before they start to show detriment, so last for decades.
I get that, but 3-6 hours isn't a lot when running an a/c in summer weather. And when you run out of watt-hours, it takes a lot longer to get that a/c going again - you can't pour in more watt-hours like you can gasoline. Putting 9000 watt-hours back into the Grid Point with 1-2 portable solar panels isn't exactly quick. It's an all day job even with multiple high wattage panels.

It's seems clear to me that this type of power generation is best suited to relatively brief power needs, e.g. backstop for a couple hours of outage or some other temporary demand.

I should add that I own a modest sized battery-generator (an Ecoflow) for exactly that sort of thing and recommend them to my friends, but it's not the right tool for every need.
 
Grid Point Designs is trying to sell us their generators so every one of their posts/replies is an advertisement for their product. Wouldn’t it serve the forum better if Grid Point Designs purchased advertisement space rather than use the forum as their vehicle to sell their product?
 
Grid Point Designs is trying to sell us their generators so every one of their posts/replies is an advertisement for their product. Wouldn’t it serve the forum better if Grid Point Designs purchased advertisement space rather than use the forum as their vehicle to sell their product?
Hello! We have been training and troubleshooting solar systems for years, so are only trying to give advice where we can add value and assist. That's what we did at AM Solar for years.
You'll we have about 30 replies and very few mention our product. But to assure we won't offend, we'll tone it down.
 
The Grid Point power box has 9000Wh of power and can output 3000Watts. So it can output 3000 Watts for hours. I'll admit it's not light, but it's comparable to a gasoline generator and takes up about the same amount of space. The great thing about electric power is it can be charged for free with solar. The batteries can be cycled 6000 times before they start to show detriment, so last for decades.

Would you be so kind to post spec sheets on this particular unit. I've been online and am unable to find any data that I can study. Anything regarding the 6000 cycles would be appreciated.
 
Here is a video that is a comparison of a regular 3600 RPM Onan QG2800 installed in a Class B (and with the resonator I show in a video earlier in this thread) and another class B with a Onan QG2800i which is an inverter model. This is an entirely new unit, slightly different dimensions, huge improvement in exhaust pipe connections (side exit vs bottom exit) and the comparison is rather equal otherwise.


My complaints with James' methods are the use of a sound app on his smartphone vs a real sound meter, and the vehicles being parked on pavement and parallel to a curb serves to reflect as much sound as possible toward the "sound meter". James also fails to mention that the new generator is in fact, an inverter generator. It took me some research after I saw the video (the generator was very new at the time) to understand what was different about it.

Forest River is introducing two different inverter generator gas powered models that are basically the same size and shape as the Onan 3600/4000 units. (built in models used in motorhomes).

Charles
 

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