Air Conditioners and generator Noise

[Al F]

A couple of years ago we stayed in a very large rv park in New Braunfels. Around 10 pm a large reefer truck pulled into the site beside us and plugged the reefer unit into the power! For the rest of the night every time the unit cycled it woke me and by 4 am I was considering something drastic. When I went to the office they apologized saying it was a "mistake" but guess who was back the next night.

That is the kind of info which needs to be noted in websites like RVParkReviews.com.

 

I hope you weren't committed to staying at the RV park longer than a couple of days.

[Al F]

...........Another issue, which far to many generator users don't consider is how much their generator disturbs a neighbor that is not using a generator or AC. Like the person above, (not saying you do this) with the generator in the back of the truck and not being able to hear it in the trailer. Well, yea, you can't hear it. You have all your windows and doors closed and the noise from the the AC and the fan does a very good job of drowning out the noise of the generator. However when that same generator is parked within 50 to 100 yards of a neighbor not using a generator, it becomes very aggravating to hear the constant noise.

 

Some folks claim their generator is no louder than people talking. Well with some generators it is loud talking. If you happen to be the neighbor, not using a generator, and sitting outside enjoying the piece and quiet of the out doors, the constant sound of the generator, as loud as people talking, is not what you want to hear. Now if you are the person w/o the generator and you parked beside the noisy generator, you only have yourself to blame. But if you are already camped, and someone pulls up beside you, parks and cranks up the generator and goes inside to the air conditioned RV, it really makes people unhappy.

 

I'll stop my rant now.

I kind of started the generator noise conversation with my post I quoted above.

 

Let me add, I have no problem with people running their generators, just as long as they park far away (1/4 mile or more is best) from someone already parked out in the boondocks who is NOT running a generator.

 

Now if you are pulling into a boondocking area, like say Quartzite, and there are RV parked every 50' and most folks are running their generators, then no problem. Everyone is doing the same thing or don't mind that others are running their generators or they wouldn't be there. They would park somewhere else.

 

In spite of what some people have seemed to imply that there just are not that many places to get away from the noise, so just live with it. There really are lots of boondocking spots around where there are very few RV's parked. Those that are there many times park 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart.

 

I also agree that there are places where there are lots of RV's parked with lots of noise. Big highway rest stops come to mind. Boat launch ramps with RV'ers parking all over the place. If you choose to stay there, you just deal with the noise. Just as there are places with railroad noise and highway noise.

[Al F]

To hopefully put this generator issue in perspective, I would like to share an example of a boondocking area with areas of peace and quite and a noisy area. Along with a few additional comments.

 

On the Washington side of the Columbia river just down stream from the John Day Dam. There is a boondocking area we really like. We get to park right on a bluff on the edge of the river with a great view of the barges and boats going in and out of locks to take them above or below the dam. Very quiet and peaceful. There are frequent freight trains which roll by about 150-200 yards away, but they don't blow their horns. Yes, we can hear them at night with the windows open. If the windows are closed we don't hear the trains at all. These trains are not bothersome. Partly because they are not very loud, but much more importantly, we CHOOSE to stay here. The train noise is about the same as a 3000 watt Honda generator at 100-150 yards running an air condtioner. However if someone comes up, decides to park a 100 yards away, and then runs their generator all night long, I would call that being inconsiderate to other campers. It would also make us quite unhappy that they parked so close.

 

In this same area, about 1/3 mile away, is a very popular shore fishing area. On weekends there may be 4-6 RV's parking there, some running their generators. In general it gets quite busy, therefore lots of noise. If for some reason we were to choose to park there then we would accept the noise and deal with it. If we don't then we shouldn't stay. Granted, if we had decided to boondock here starting on, Tuesday and now Friday afternoon, all these RV's pulled up to go fishing, That would not make me happy. However, I would accept the fact that we choose, by mistake, to stay in a highly used area and just deal with the noise, or leave.

 

This is not much different than staying at many NF, BLM areas, State Parks etc. The CG's are nice and quiet, and mostly empty, Sunday evening through Thursday or Friday and then all the weekend crazies come in. We just live with and deal with the working people who only get to come out into these nice places on the weekend. They certainly have the right to come and camp in these public places. Come Sunday evening we get our nice quiet CG back.

 

The main issue with generators is that some of us choose to find and park in fairly remote boondocking areas, then someone drives up and parks 20-50 yards away and cranks up their generator. Not nice! Hey there are other spots 1/4-1/2 mile down the road where you could park by yourself and run your generator to your hearts content. Don't just assume we welcome you parking right next to us unless we were to invite you to stay.