Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 09:49:05 -0800
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Friday: Camping, generators, solar
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I've posted before about generators and camping. They're awful, when
it's not YOUR generator.
I know there are some with compelling reasons for running their
generators while camping. However, that does not erase the intrusion that
generators always create, no matter how "quiet" the generator is thought to
be by it's owner/operator. I urge you who camp in your vanagons or
motorhomes, and I know there are many on these forums who also have larger
motor homes, I urge you to consider others who may be camping nearby
before you fire up your generator and impose that sound on those within
hearing... the sound of your motor running, sometimes for hours at a
time....
Now many say..."my generator is really quiet, you can hardly hear it"
That may be so, when you are inside your motorhome or you've pointed the
exhaust some direction to minimize the noise you hear, but consider that on
a silent evening or morning.....that generator will be the loudest thing
around...Your nearby camping neighbors won't be able to hear the hooting
of owls, or the distant song of a pack of coyotes....they will hear only
your Honda and it's nagging drone.....When you fire up that generator, you
are taking away some of all the other people's enjoyment of the outdoors.
We who camp in Westies are especially prone to hearing those crappy
little motors, right through the tents of our pop tops...How many of you
have been forced to 'close-up' to minimize a nasty generator droning away
nearby, when camping in their Westie?
I realize I am perhaps 'dreaming' when I wish for people to consider
those around them as they 'recreate'....We recently had this very fancy 5th
wheel trailer with a diesel cab over tow vehicle, boat on top, motorcycle
on the bumper....the whole package,,,even had a pop out on a pop
out...never seen that before.....they 'camped' near us in the desert.
Plenty of solar panels on the rig, too....but he brought out the generator
and turned it on morning and night.....When they finally moved on it was
like having a toothache fixed! Did they 'need' that generator?...maybe
they did. Did we need to hear them running it? Nope. Did they need to
camp a few hundred yards away, in an almost wide open desert?...Nope, but
people seem to like to camp really close, and moving away from Generator
Campers, that would mean moving very frequently...for no reason other than
the Generator Campers unthinking actions...
So if you simply MUST run a generator when you camp, how bout choosing
your campsites with that in mind? And Solar power actually makes better
sense, since it is100% silent.
Ok, thanks for listening, if you haven't hit the delete key and labeled
me a lame tree-hugger.
Don Hanson
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