making generators quiet...

[dakotamouse]

Just got back from a 2 week teardrop vacation.............pictures and some details to follow later....... the last day out we were in the primitive area of the campground next to a large tent with a couple in it. After experiencing days and days of hot humid weather this was the first pleasant day in 2 weeks. So there we are enjoying the fine weather and the company of the birds when they fire up the generator. For a tent....no air conditionor, no fan, didn't need a light yet. They sat in their tent the whole day. All I can figure is they were watching a DVD. So couldn't they do that at home?

No...I wouldn't actually do anything to their generator..........but I can dream!!!

[doug hodder]

You can dream about mothballs in the fuel tank!!!! Doug

[Wolfgang92025]

You can dream about mothballs in the fuel tank!!!! Doug

Doug,

Hate to burst your bubble,

Myth Busters proved that one wrong. The car ran just fine, no problem. Same goes for sugar in the gas tank.

Now a sledge hammer, that should work just fine, but you would work up a sweat........

Wolfgang

[Btennison]

Way I understood it (back when the world was young), engines didn't develop the temperatures they do today, with unleaded gas. Valves and rings were iron and could be damaged by sugar which would and burn the valves. In these days of chrome rings and stainless valves, not so much.

Bob T

[2bits]

Sorry for some of the hostile remarks, hopefully you can see they were directed at the generators not at you Many and most of us camp at state parks where you can just plug in so what is the point of a generator. Beyond that if you are rural camping hopefully there would not be anyone in earshot but it still defeats the serenity of camping IMO. If you are at a NASCAR race, not too many people are tent camping if any and it's a mad house anyway so that's no big deal, but people still try to considerately locate them. from the stories I have heard, I am surprised people had such bad experiences. I can't imagine someone tent camping with a generator either.

[Larwyn]

Even if the rules dis-allow generator use, that is the extent of the offense. The person running the generator may be evicted from the campground but that's about it.

Vandalizing someone's generator is against the law in every state as far as I know. Doing so can get you arrested, fined, even jailed if the law catches up with you. If the owner catches up with you first the penalty can be even more painful and/or permanent leading to even more serious criminal activity (assault or even worse).

Camping in a remote location is one way to assure you will not have to endure listening to someone's generator (unless it is your own), camping where there is AC power available is another choice. If you choose to camp when and where generators are allowed by the rules you have made your choice. As much as we would all like for the rest of the world to play by our own rules, it ain't going to happen. Generators are kind of expensive to own, run, and maintain. If you talk the person running a generator you will probably find that there is a good reason for it to be running. If the campground allows generators and you cannot get them to change that rule for you, changing campgrounds would probably make you, the generator owner and the campground host all happier campers. I have been annoyed by generators in campgrounds, I have run my generator in campgrounds, and I have been the campground host, in my experience the most unreasonable people fit in the first category (the annoyed).

Why not just get out there and enjoy the camping? That generator will run out of fuel eventually, long before it has run as long as you feel like it has been running.

[rowerwet]

Ryobi now has a quiet generator cheaper than Honda, the jury is still out on the reliability..., $500 at HD
http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/outdo ... rs/RYi2000

[stevem50]

i fooled around with a bunch of ideas to quiet that thing, finally even running the exhaust into a water tank. gave up and returned it. it was too loud for me to put up with, i would not ask someone i did not know camping next to me to listen to it. i'm still saving my pennies for a honda eu2000, but if this is quieter....hmmm. either way, i still have battery power if there is no hookup.

i was not gonna be "that" guy when i'm camping.

[Ratkity]

I couldn't afford the quiet one either and was worried about it walking away as well. I went solar! No AC, but got me a fantastic fan to keep me comfy.

Hugs,
Ratkity

[stevem50]

yep, the hondas are spendy... i'm thinking hard about solar, but going to skin the roof with aluminum before i do it. i was talking with a lady at a meet this past weekend who did a solar set up and it worked great.

[stumphugger]

I would shop for one in Humboldt County, CA. They need quiet generators there. I used to hear them advertised on KMUD, along with "Citizen Alerts."

[bdosborn]

Check out the forums over at rv.net. Lots of guys working on making noisy generators quiet. It's not easy and takes a lot of work. And they're a lot more hostile than over here. ,-)
Bruce

[bdosborn]

Oops, posted to another old post again ...

[Aaron Coffee]

Just a couple ideas, try to get a camp spot on the edge of the campground and move the generator away from any neighbors. Or if building a box use some kind of egg crate foam as insulation, maybe build chambers, where the sound has to make some 90 degree bends before exiting. Will try to make some kind of drawing to explain what I mean. My generator quit generating and would have cost more to fix than a new one, never replaced it, although I still have a small coleman generator, I think, My brother borrowed it last september and haven't seen it since.
I don't mind kids, cause that's what they do, make noise, and that's how they unwind from being couped up in a car for extended periods of time. What I don't like are the people who go camping to party, and have cars coming and going all night.

[Engineer Guy]

One fella had a noisy ole 4500 Watt 'Generac' like mine. He took off the Stock Muffler and added a 'Pep Boys' Car Muffler mounted in the horizontal plane.

One detail that made sense... He made sure the Muffler was held by the Motor and Generator; not by the Frame. As the Motor vibrated, the Muffler 'rode' with the Motor, relieving potential stress on the connection from the Motor to the Muffler.