Generator, Honda vs Champion and Predator

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by Rain

Not sure which model, it was sad to see though since it reflected poorly on Airstreams being for the “rich insensitive showboats”.That comment is a quote from one of the more perturbed campers, and honestly, it sure seemed that way. Airstreams are clearly overpriced on a feature by feature comparison with other units and beyond the reach of most people trying to experience nature with their families. We buy them because they’re cool and iconic. As such, keeping a low impact profile helps dispel that showboat image. If image doesnt matter, why buy an Airstream? I could care less about genny brand, like the campground hosts earlier comment though, I care greatly about my impact of using it on others and the genny is likely the highest impact accessory in the kit. Remember the be kind rewind slogan for rental video tapes?, this is more like be sensitive, be silent. As an aside, I would’ve been mortified if my family was the subject of the ire of our fellow campers over a genny. This thread sought advice about gensets, noise for us, is the only consideration. Opinions vary but if your family is ever the subject of ridicule (or campground complaints) over a genny, righteous indignation over the price differential isn’t likely to enhance your relaxing vacation. This is a comment based on experience and offered up for the consideration by the original post - happy camping,

Image doesn't matter to most of us who own AS's, I am sure. Folks I know purchased for same reasons we did; love the design, tows great, upkeep is minimum on outside compared to SOB's, structurally built well/lasts a long time, and most important: wife wanted an AS!

As for the re-occurring argument of noisy generators, I think most of us here understand the goal of living peacefully amongst our fellow campers. Most all the inverter type generators today are in the 53-57db range, but some folks here are fixated on red or blue, for sure. Unfortunately, state and national parks don't have a consistent noise rule, so you get some of these folks who don't camp much or don't care about the noise. If I encounter this, I try to move...same with boondocking.

[Roadtech]

I don't think Rain understands the difference between contractor style generators and inverter style generators. Honda, Yamaha, and Champion all make contractor open frame generators and they are all very loud and none of them should be used in a campground.

[r carl]

Originally Posted by Larry C

I'm sure this has been cussed and discussed before, but I'm looking for a 2KW generator, Honda, and Yamaha, are about twice the price of the Champion and the Predator......

Can anyone give the pros and cons of each? Thanks for the input.....

Larry C

You did not skimp on your selection of a trailer, so don't pinch pennies on your generator.

[Countryboy59]

This is a good example of something that’s more of a big deal on the Internet than it is in real life. Tiny single cylinder engines make noise. Inverters vary the engine speed and exhaust note with load.

Don’t drive yourself nuts trying to be courteous. Some people will see a yellow generator and think it’s going to put an end to camping forever. Crack a beer and relax.

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by r carl

You did not skimp on your selection of a trailer, so don't pinch pennies on your generator.

^^this^^

[franklyfrank]

Originally Posted by Roadtech

I don't think Rain understands the difference between contractor style generators and inverter style generators. Honda, Yamaha, and Champion all make contractor open frame generators and they are all very loud and none of them should be used in a campground.

I at times get annoyed by an open frame gen set running next to me. However after taking a closer look it is usually someone with a beat up old SOB pulling it with a 15 year old rusted out truck with a couple of kids running around.
Brings back memories of me with a young family struggling financially yet trying to enjoy life a bit limited by finances.
The last thing I am going to do is walk over there from my shiny 30' Classic and lambaste the man for his cheap loud gen set.
Live and let live. If your biggest problem is someone annoying you with a noisy gen set in a campground count your blessings.

[Rain]

Originally Posted by Roadtech

I don't think Rain understands the difference between contractor style generators and inverter style generators. Honda, Yamaha, and Champion all make contractor open frame generators and they are all very loud and none of them should be used in a campground.

I understand gensets, this is not personal or brand. If you can get s quiet one, regardless of brand-do it. BTW, every 3dB is double the noise signature, a 53 dB genset puts out half the acoustic signature of a 56dB one. Please note, I haven’t endorsed any brand...

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by franklyfrank

I at times get annoyed by an open frame gen set running next to me. However after taking a closer look it is usually someone with a beat up old SOB pulling it with a 15 year old rusted out truck with a couple of kids running around.

Brings back memories of me with a young family struggling financially yet trying to enjoy life a bit limited by finances.

The last thing I am going to do is walk over there from my shiny 30' Classic and lambaste the man for his cheap loud gen set.

Live and let live. If your biggest problem is someone annoying you with a noisy gen set in a campground count your blessings.

That’s wisdom. Well said!

[Rain]

Originally Posted by Rain

I understand gensets, this is not personal or brand. If you can get s quiet one, regardless of brand-do it. BTW, every 3dB is double the noise signature, a 53 dB genset puts out half the acoustic signature of a 56dB one. Please note, I haven’t endorsed any brand...

This is a complex subject, this forum does a reasonable job of making it comprehensible:

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/167378-how-much-is-3db/#comment-2084286

Bottom line is we have a narrow sound perception range, and within this range even a 1dB difference can be either huge, or inconsequential depending on the frequencies and listener. 3dB is double the power, however depending on the acoustic signature and listener it can again be massive or subtle. For gensets, it is typically huge for a young individual with undegraded hearing. I’ll end this thread for me, just wanted to throw my experience in, a quiet gensets more important than the “color” or brand. Karma’s a _itch, the cure to the loud neighbors genset might well be blasting music, for us we can only recommend buying the quietest genset you can find.

[Rain]

Originally Posted by franklyfrank

I at times get annoyed by an open frame gen set running next to me. However after taking a closer look it is usually someone with a beat up old SOB pulling it with a 15 year old rusted out truck with a couple of kids running around.
Brings back memories of me with a young family struggling financially yet trying to enjoy life a bit limited by finances.
The last thing I am going to do is walk over there from my shiny 30' Classic and lambaste the man for his cheap loud gen set.
Live and let live. If your biggest problem is someone annoying you with a noisy gen set in a campground count your blessings.

In this case the guy with the old truck and kids had a quiet genset, the crabby SOB in the Airstream had the loud one.

[xyzabe]

Originally Posted by franklyfrank

So my neighbor running his gold plated red clad overpriced Honda looks over and sees my cheap yellow plastic clad Champion and is immediately offended. That cheap son of a so and so should have bought a Honda that Champion is too loud and driving me crazy.
Never mind that the champion is no louder than the Honda.
Perhaps these Generators should come with Bass ans Treble knobs to dial in just the right sound .
Then of course how do you please every one if on the other side the neighbor is running his overpriced blue clad Yamaha :-).
I know, I will paint my Champion Red on one side and Blue on the other.
That should work, no ?

We ran into that this past summer while in a USFS campground in Montana. Another camper, set up about 300 feet away walked over to say hi, saw our Champion Inverter 3100/3500 and said it was too loud. I took out a tape measure, my sound meter, measured 25 feet from the exhaust and took a measurement. Then said let's see how loud your Honda 2000 is. We did the same thing, measure 25 feet from the exhaust and took a measurement. Our unit was 53dB and not working hard, his was 59dB and running full bore.

I asked him how our unit, 300 feet away, could be so noisy to bother him when even if it as 25 feet away, he would never hear it over his Honda. His answer was "I know Champions are noisier" even after seeing proof. I went back to my rig.

A few hours later the camp host stopped by saying the other guy had complained about our generator being too loud. I told him I had measured both and told him I'd be happy to do it again so he could see. "Don't bother", he said, "your neighbor was complaining as we were standing next to his generator and he had turn it off so we could talk without raising our voices. Your unit isn't a problem at all".

The host joked maybe I should just paint the case red and stencil Honda onto it. Then, if anyone asks, tell them Honda is experimenting with a quieter unit made for them by Champion. (He also owned a Champion Inverter).

That evening someone complained to the camp host about a guy running a red generator that was too loud. That guy was in a tent site about 50 feet away from the RVer who complained about out Champion earlier. He was told either shut it down or leave. After an argument, the RV left.

[Rain]

After surviving an in theater spinal cord injury and battling around in a wheel chair, I’d like to say my biggest issue is not some hypothetical guy in a rusty truck having a noisy or “yellow” generator. That’s making this personal and is inappropriate, have some compassion, a lot of people continue to put it all on the line so we can enjoy the freedoms we have.

Acoustics are complex, if you read some on it via the thread I previously quoted you’ll find a wealth of info, including how the point measurement of retail meters are inadequate to use for a comparative analysis. The voracious opinions on this topic should at least indicate how contentious generator use is and how minimizing the acoustic footprint is an important consideration. This forum provides a great resource for us all, opinions vary but facts don’t and making any post personal is just plain inappropriate.

[Mollysdad]

Generator snobbery has gotten out of control.
I've dealt with generators, both mine and others, in everything from Nascar infields to PGA tournaments. Inverter generators are all pretty quiet. Open frame a generators are all pretty loud. It's amazing what you can do with a simple baffle. It can be as simple as a sheet of plywood leaning against the generator. Most people are not bothered by a generator as long as the sound is consistent. You just tune it out as part of the background.
If someone complains about an inverter generator 300' away, they want to be offended. I've stayed in campgrounds next to an interstate, and when I went inside, I didn't hear it.
I'm amused by those who rail against generators but then post about having Airstream install outside speakers so they can force me to listen to their music! Or their campfire smoke blows my way, or their kids are riding their bikes through my campsite, or their dog barks all day.
On the annoyance scale of one to ten, a generator rates about a 2.

[AirMiles]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Generator snobbery has gotten out of control.
I've dealt with generators, both mine and others, in everything from Nascar infields to PGA tournaments. Inverter generators are all pretty quiet. Open frame a generators are all pretty loud.

Agreed. Start an inverter generator, of any brand, next to me and I'll walk over to get a closer look and thank you for purchasing that inverter generator. Start an open-frame contractor generator next to me and I'll pack up and leave. Arguing over which inverter generator is the quietest is splitting hairs. Many RV Air Conditioiners are louder than an inverter generator.

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Generator snobbery has gotten out of control.
I've dealt with generators, both mine and others, in everything from Nascar infields to PGA tournaments. Inverter generators are all pretty quiet. Open frame a generators are all pretty loud. It's amazing what you can do with a simple baffle. It can be as simple as a sheet of plywood leaning against the generator. Most people are not bothered by a generator as long as the sound is consistent. You just tune it out as part of the background.
If someone complains about an inverter generator 300' away, they want to be offended. I've stayed in campgrounds next to an interstate, and when I went inside, I didn't hear it.
I'm amused by those who rail against generators but then post about having Airstream install outside speakers so they can force me to listen to their music! Or their campfire smoke blows my way, or their kids are riding their bikes through my campsite, or their dog barks all day.
On the annoyance scale of one to ten, a generator rates about a 2.

Agree with you 100%! We don't need that option! Many SOB's have these (outside speakers) and the owners seem to be ignorant of other campers. when in use..let alone the generator noise of this topic! We simply use the new small Bose portable speaker with Bluetooth to our AS stereo...works well, very nice sound, small, and no one can hear beyond our area of use... I was thinking about moving my TV outside in some instances when a good game is on and people are over, but have not done that yet...guess that could bother some folks too...

[Pruckles]

I bought a brand new Honda 2200i 3 months ago and seem to have problems starting it. Just saying. I have several Honda products, no problems , but the generator has been an issue in my experience. I get it going but only after I let some cuss words fly.

[Rocinante]

Plenty of assumptions here. As a camp host walking the loops every day, I hear loud generators before I see them. So, when I hear them, I don’t know the brand. When I walk up to check out the noisy generator, it’s always an SOB, never a Honda or Yamaha.

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Plenty of assumptions here. As a camp host walking the loops every day, I hear loud generators before I see them. So, when I hear them, I don’t know the brand. When I walk up to check out the noisy generator, it’s always an SOB, never a Honda or Yamaha.

In reading your posts, and you said you did do Glacier last year....I think your a little sensitive...if it's not red or blue! IMHO...I stay all over in Glacier during the summer, as well as lots of other parks. There are some folks from time to time, who have a loud contractor type generators...and sometimes even a nice camp host, which I am sure you are, can't do anything because there is not noise law in some areas. I find some of the parks now have a "no generators allowed" area...which I think sucks for us who have quiet generators...elites and tent campers taking over our turff!

[Rocinante]

In return , I honestly think you’re trying a bit to poke me with a sharp stick to see whether I’ll bite. I’ll ignore that, other than to point out that when people say “IMHO,” the opinion is almost never offered humbly.

Yes, we are nice hosts, thanks. We know this empirically because we’ve been asked back for next year.

I stand by what I said: I hear the gennies before I see them, and afterwards, out of curiosity I check the brand. Note that until I see them, I cannot know what color they are. The noisy ones are never Hondas or Yamahas.

[Larry C]

Originally Posted by r carl

You did not skimp on your selection of a trailer, so don't pinch pennies on your generator.

Well, Carl, here's the deal.......I've had a lot of experience with generators, Honda, Yamaha, and other brands, operation repeater radio stations in remote areas......I don't usually "pinch pennies" on anything that I buy......but I do like to get the best value for my money....that's why we have a 1996 Airstream, as I think the best value was to buy that, and customize it to our tastes. We didn't want to be stuck with what everybody else has when they buy a new Airstream..... this is our 4th Airstream, I've remodeled the other 3 also.

As for generators, I will buy what I perceive as the best value for my dollar....I am the OP on this thread, my request was for honest comparison of small gen sets in the 2 to 2.2 KW capacity. No request was made for financial advice....