Simi Mike wrote: I just have to pipe in here....I picked mine up yesterday at the local Kragens for $299+tax. After I gave it a short warm up, with some new gas out of a clean tank, I plugged in the Trailer and flicked on everything I could think of. The Champ took it all (Like its name). It hardly sputtered when the A/C came on.
The noise was a little more than I had anticipated so I will be researching a lightweight sound enclosure for when I might need it. I think I could use it without in most daytime applications.
I did notice that most of the sound came from the crankcase and not the muffler. It should be easy to use some foam like the type used to quiet boat engines or A/C compressors, applied directly to the engine. Has anybody tried this? I may try running the genny with a thermometer against the crankcase without the foam and then with a thermometer imbedded in the foam to see how much heat the crankcase is rejecting.
Thank you to everyone for doing the hard work here,
Mike
Mine is much quiter if I put a thick rubber pad under it, when running on concrete it was alot louder. Alot of the noise is mechanical instead of the exhaust and the rubber pad asorbs it. Mine is very quite sitting it the back of th PU on a rubber mat, not much difference than a motor home generator. National park rangers have heard it and are satisfied. I also have a Honda EU2000i but like using the Champion.
Wgeorge11 wrote: There has been a lot of thought and effort re quieting the Champ, and posted in this forum. I recall the Professor was especially interested in the subject. A quick search turned up p286. Best do an indepth search as there are a lot of posts looking for sound abatement solutions over the past two years.
referencing page numbers doesn't work for a lot of people, my page settings must be different then yours because this post, is showing on page 167 of 167 when I posted it. so I don't even have a page 286 that you are refering to.
Hey, I found it, my preferences is to show 20 post per page, yours must be 10, so I looked at page 143 and found it.
A king size bed sure beats tent camping, not as young as I used to be, that ground sure got hard
2005 Cardinal 312BH with king size bed
2001 F250 Supercrew Longbed 7.3l diesel with banks power kit
I just completed my "project" that I eluded to in some posts in this thread and in the Beginning RVing section.
If you recall I purchased a Wen PowerPro 3500 unit ($249.99) and rewired it according to the instructions on Page 90 (well, I did the simpler thing by wiring it directly to produce 120V 30A (actually 28A) only, IIRC those directions were around page 92 - Wyatt-S's post).
In any event, the next part of the project was to build a sound box with the intent to get the noise to that of an Honda e2000i or less and keep the temperature within operating specs of the unit (not more than 140 degrees interior).
So, after contacting Fleetwood to see what load I can put on my FW's bumper (I was assured that the bumper could handle up to 500 lbs.), I initially installed a bumper receiver hitch ($35.00) and attached the cargo carrier ($75.00). I then built the sound box using plywood and sound board to line it. That was created from plywood that I already had (no cost there) and sound board (MBX) and various parts. Cost there was approximately $55.00 including hardware - "L" brackets, screws, vent covers, etc.) With plywood, it might have come closer to maybe $75.00.
I mounted the generator inside and then took a test drive for weight.
Well, while the cargo carrier (75 lbs.), the sound box (36 lbs.) and the generator (appox. 100 lbs.) were well under the 500 lbs. static, driving produced a force in excess and I could see from the shadows cast that this would not work. I had to have a receiver hitch welded to the frame of my FW.
So, I had that done and mounted the unit onto the new receiver hitch ($230.00 complete). So far so good.
Now for the sound test.... I had the opportunity to camp with my fellow moderator, Tony (Firedude) back in February, who owns a Honda e2000i. We had talked about the project over the course of the year and he was very interested to see how it would turn out.
We first fired up his Honda and put it into eco-mode then stepped back. Sounded nice and quiet. We then put a load onto it and again stepped back. We also had a California State Park Ranger take part at one point to give us the "official's" word as to noise level. We now had our "standard."
We then started up my unit and stepped back. It was actually quieter than his Honda (when not in eco-mode). We applied a load, and it was no different (small amount of lugging, then back to normal).
We then looked at temperatures. With no vent holes (other than the exhaust pipe, a blower motor ($29.00) to bring in fresh air and an exhaust fan ($25.00), the temperature went high (to around 200 degrees F). That's no good. So, we started cutting vent holes in the cover. I was concerned that we were creating holes for the noise to escape as well, but figured, this was part of the project. We started with three holes and that helped a bit. We added three more and the temp was now down to around 160 degrees F. Still a bit high for my liking. The sound, however, was still quieter than his Honda (non-eco mode). I was pleasantly surprised.
So, we attached a vent pipe and cap to the blower motor to direct the incoming air directly over the motor ($30.00). I also added a second exhaust fan ($25.00).
That did the trick. We were now at 140 degrees F and still quieter than the Honda. We confirmed this with the park ranger who said that the noise level was very acceptable at the state parks.
I did replace the circuit breaker ($30.00) that came with the generator as when I applied a full load (air conditioner + microwave), it would pop the breaker. I also beefed up the wiring between the generator head and the outlets so that the wires could handle the full 30 amp load if need be (12/2 for 4 feet - 2 from the generator hot to the CB, and 2 from the CB to the outlets hot terminal, and 2 from the generator neutral to the outlets for the neutral terminal; the ground is grounded to the trailer chassis and to the outlets ground terminal).
Total cost for the project: $784.00 (that puts out 30 amps and is quieter than the Honda e2000i)
Cost of a Honda e2000i: $999.00 (that puts out 20 amps), you might be able to get it at $899.00 but I haven't seen it cheaper.
Cost of a Honda 3000i: around $1200.00 to 1500.00 (and louder than the two previous items).
The "cleanliness" of the output has already been discussed by another poster in this thread, and I'll tell you that the electrical output from this generator is cleaner than my own home's electricity.
So, finally, here are the pictures of the results.
Lou Leopold
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel Quad, SWB, 3.55:1, Rhino Lining
2000 25' Mallard M-23 5M 5th Wheel
Husky 15K w/EZ slider
Wen PowerPro 3500 Generator in a sound box
And I continue to tent camp!
The Roamer wrote: Does anybody use this gen. at 7000 Ft.
Yes, on several occasions. That would be the minimum elevation that I have used it at. What I will say is that I was unable to run my A/C and microwave simultaneously at about that level.
Has anyone out there had a problem with fuel leaking from the fuel tank/cock connection? I've had three tanks leak, and tightened one until it broke. I need HELP! Please
LLeopold wrote: I just completed my "project" that I eluded to in some posts in this thread and in the Beginning RVing section.
Good looking results. What was the published noise level of the Power Pro 3500 before you started. IIRC these were just a little louder than the Champions to begin with (although not much).
I would consider a setup like you built with larger fans, to carry in the bed of my Pickup rather than the back bumper of my TT.
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