Checking to see if there are any vacancies in another campground.
Month: July 2015
People
On the heels of the previous rant about generators, we continue the story of our most memorable neighbors:
They roll through the campground and ask existing tenants if sites are reserved.
Drive their trucks across the medians between campgrounds.
Idle their boats on their trailers. Yes, really.
As I deployed the awning and raised the flags this morning, I watched one of them stagger out (yep, probably) at 7:30 with a 5-gallon gas can to fill up their 9kw noise-maker.
Turn around and see Bubba-J pouring a large portion of the contents from said can all over the ground between their trailer and their generator.
“Are you pouring gas on the ground?!” a passerby exclaims.
“Who?” he counters.
“You!” came the response.
“Oh, uh, I’m killing the ants.”
No, you ignorant moron. You may not drive your trucks through the state park grasslands.
No, you may not run your electric-making rattle-trap for hours past quiet time.
And, no, you may most certainly not kill ants by pouring three gallons of petrol on the ground in a very dry, stiff breeze.
It’s not even 8:30 yet.
Generators
Don’t be the person at the campground with the cheap, unmaintained, builder-grade generator. Just. Don’t.
“But it’s the best/biggest thing I could afford!”
You’ve approached it by trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem is not, “How much wattage can I get for $1,000?” It should instead be, “How much generator do I actually need balanced with how badly do I want to annoy the hell out of everyone around me?”
Save a few more dollars and buy the best-quality, inverter-style, eco-throttle, RV generator available to you. You and your neighbors will be extremely grateful.
And, yes, a 2KW generator really will run your RV’s air conditioner.
After having to listen to the neighbors on both sides run their 9kw Champion and 8kw Honeywell generators for the entirety of the non-quiet hours and well-into quiet hours, I find myself pondering the plausibility of a remote generator-disabling mechanism.
–
For my own, future reference, I’ll leave these here:
My #1 pick, if I can find a good spot to mount or install it is the Honda EU3000iS:
I wonder if it could be fit into a 5th Wheel’s typical generator bay.
I hear (hah!) it’s the quietest generator in its class. There’s one here at the campground that I walked by and I’m quite impressed with it.
There’s also a nearby site with a Yamaha ES3000iSEB, which, too, is quite nice:
There are, of course, built-in options available from Onan – maybe the RV QG 5500 LP would be well-suited to the task.
I think the Honda is the way to go. Prices vary. In my experience, paying a bit more for better quality up front, and caring for machines and implements properly will greatly reduce their overall cost of ownership and improve their reliability and usability in the long run.
For now, I’m going to try to enjoy the 100F heat without resorting to running my own generator and contributing to the noise pollution.
Boat-Dog?
Bella the Boat Dog, perched where she can be highest and see the fishes.
Independence In Isolation
We’re spending Independence Day weekend boondocking at John Martin Reservoir State Park. As today is only July 2, there are only two other campers in the campground: a class A and a group in tents. Tomorrow afternoon, it’ll fill up–then it’ll clear out completely on Sunday morning.
the rest of me 