Any tips on how to cut the noise of a generator

[walleye977]

I have a Coleman 5000 watt gen wondering if there is any tips out there to quite it down out on the ice. I got my ice shack set up to run on batteries but going to need to run gen for a few hours in the evening to charge them back up. I know by a Honda but not in the budget right now.

[aanderud]

If you have a pickup, I would try running it in the pickup bed with the tailgate up. The pickup bed side rails should have a tendency to reflect the sound 'up' at least somewhat (rather than allowing it to go sideways straight into your shack). Something like the sound barriers alongside the freeway. You might also park it with the pickup facing your shack, so that you have the entire pickup cab as a dampener between your shack and your generator. It's not much, but seriously just small things sometimes make a big difference with respect to sound.

Another advantage of running it in the pickup bed over running it on the ground is that it's not sitting on the ice vibrating like that. The truck bed, suspension and tires should dampen the sound that the fish hear quite significantly.

[Jim Almquist]

The only thing that I can think of is to build an enclosure for the generator and line it with soft foam. Make sure to give it room to breath and allow the exhaust to escape.

[chad austin]

Before we bought our Honda we kept our Coleman in the back of the truck with the tailgate up. We also pointed the exhaust away from any other houses that were near by.

[Hawg]

Don't worry, the guys within 100 yards of you will blow it up first time out. Sorry to be insensitive but they shouldn't be on the lake, they are offensivly loud and you will destroy the fun of anyone within 1/4 mile.

[aanderud]

Why is it that you need to buy a $1000 or more generator for it to be quiet? Seems like an aftermarket muffler system for these engines would be a gold mine. I wish I knew something about muffling engine noise.

I can see where the OEM wouldn't want to spend the extra cash on a muffler system that works -- they're trying to sell these generators as cheaply as possible -- but I wonder why a third party hasn't come and made the "make your cheap generator quiet" solution for say a few hundred bucks. I'd gladly add a $200 or $300 muffling solution to my $200 4kwatt generator before I go buy a honda that costs $1500 for the same 4kwatts. I can't believe the $1300 difference is all in muffling technologies

[walleye977]

Ok I'll try it in the truck I was thinking it might sound like a tin can rattling in there ill get some rubber to set it on to. More worried about making the neighbors on the lake upset sure I won't be the only one on lake of the woods with one running for a few hours. Had any one tried to run the exhaust into the water just wondering about back pressure.

[aanderud]

One more possible suggestion -- if you're just using the generator for a couple of hours to charge batteries, why not run your truck and charge them off that (either with jumper cables or with an inverter and a battery charger or something). I can't imagine it's that costly to idle a truck (gas-wise). Probably slightly more than the generator but way less annoying. What kind of battery charger are you running?

(sad that a 300+ hp truck engine is quieter than a 5 hp generator engine, but I guess it comes back to me saying earlier there has to be some way to muffle a cheap generator for reasonable amounts of money)

[aanderud]

OK, a little bit more googling leads me to think you can muffle these things on a budget but they're still quite a bit louder than you'd guess, even with the exhaust muffled.

Search for "Joe's Garage quiet generator" and you can find one example of a guy who did it. It's a couple-page article, so I won't quote it all here but just a couple snippets:

Quote:

I don't remember what the price was, something around $300, but it was darn cheap for a 5kw generator (burstable to 6250w)! I knew the silly thing would most likely be louder than I really wished, but I figured, "WTH, might as well." (I would really really really like one of those fancy Honda super-quiet EU jobbies. That would rock. But I just can't swing the $2000 bucks for the appropriate sized unit.) So I came home with the Coleman/Briggs & Stratton option.

One trip to the desert and I wondered if I had made a mistake! The noise inside the trailer wasn't horrible...the roar of the A/C did a nice job of filtering out the racket of the generator...but the noise outside was considerable. I felt sorry for my buddies that were camping with me. (Although they all had there own generators running as well.)

So began my quest to try make this generator quieter.

...

After his modified exhaust system installed:

Quote:

After one trip to the desert I'm quite pleased with this setup!

...

In doing a little research for this project I found that most people did say "You'll be surprised how much actual engine noise there is once the exhaust is toned down." It's true! These little engines aren't designed to be quiet. I don't know what's actually producing the noise, but there's a considerable amount. I guess it's the combo of bearings, valves, crankshaft, rod, lifters, and piston all added together that makes the noise. At any rate...I would highly recommend anyone make this mod to there small generator to help quiet it a bit. For around $50 it's well worth it!

[duck2]

I would have to agree with Hawg. Those of us out on the lake to enjoy the solitude of ice fishing are really annoyed by the drone of generators. However, I appreciate the discussion seeking ways to minimize the noise.

[walleye977]

Good to see both sides of this hope more chim in on the good, bad and uglyI got a diehard charger think its 2/10/50 amp and a 800 watt inverter wonder how long it would take to charge batteries using the truck. I have used this gen bow fishing at night to run the lights and have had only one guy tell me to go fly a kite.

[DaveZman14q]

We use a very long extension cord so the generator/noise is no where near our ice house (we usually dont fish by crowds so this doesnt bother others). Also we set it in the bed of the truck on top of some old fluffy blankets in a large carboard box. Seems to be quiet enough for us... doesnt seem to scare the fish away either (most importantly).

Same set up works on top of an SUV with a couple bungees so that thing doesn't rattle off the roof...

[Boar]

I just bought a 3500/400 champion generator an is rated for 64 decibles, not much higher than a honda, I can hold a conversation standing right next to it. On smaller lakes i can understand ones animosity agints them, but I fish LOW an being such a big lake if one dosent like the noise then they have plenty of other spots to pick from. plus a generator will keep others a distance away, I plan on buildin some noise deflection panels too.

[aanderud]

I just bought a 3500/400 champion generator an is rated for 64 decibles, not much higher than a honda, I can hold a conversation standing right next to it. On smaller lakes i can understand ones animosity agints them, but I fish LOW an being such a big lake if one dosent like the noise then they have plenty of other spots to pick from. plus a generator will keep others a distance away, I plan on buildin some noise deflection panels too.

I have the 3500/4000 Champion too, and I wouldn't use it in the same sentence as honda unless it was to say "it's much louder than a honda". I don't ice fish with it, but even when our power goes out I feel semi-bad about running it in the driveway while powering my freezer/fridge/wifi

[slammer]

I saw a setup with one of those atv "stealth" mufflers attached to a good sized generator last year. It was pretty quite. Wonder how these noise reducing systems affect the performance of the motors over time. The change in backpressure would be of some concern I would think. Maybe someone with small engine knowledge will chime in.

[MJ1657]

Why is it that you need to buy a $1000 or more generator for it to be quiet? Seems like an aftermarket muffler system for these engines would be a gold mine. I wish I knew something about muffling engine noise.

I can see where the OEM wouldn't want to spend the extra cash on a muffler system that works -- they're trying to sell these generators as cheaply

as possible -- but I wonder why a third party hasn't come and made the "make your cheap generator quiet" solution for say a few hundred bucks. I'd gladly add a $200 or $300 muffling solution to my $200 4kwatt generator before I go buy a honda that costs $1500 for the same 4kwatts. I can't believe the $1300 difference is all in muffling technologies

Unfortunately it is more involved then just having a quiet muffler set up. Engine design has slot to do with how loud an engine is. There are some engines you aren't going to get real quiet no matter what you do.

[Hawg]

The truth is, even with a honda most times I put it in a pick up box so no one else gets annoyed by it. Those noisy ones are just plain rude. Just like a smoker never sits in his own smoke a guy with a loud generator never points it at his own house to block the noise. I bet you've discovered-you hit my hot button.

[aanderud]

LOL. Sounds like a touchy subject.

I will say that in all my years of ice fishing there are 2 things I've never done.

a) Never useed a generator (I just have a portable house only)

Never been so annoyed by someone else's generator that I have found the need to complain about it (either at that time, or heaven forbid months/years later on a HSOforum)

Maybe it's because I don't follow the crowds as much or feel the need to set up within 100 feet of the giant wheelhouses that are more likely to be running them? I don't really know why exactly.

[aanderud]

...diehard charger think its 2/10/50 amp and a 800 watt inverter wonder how long it would take to charge batteries using the truck...

If you can actually use your charger in 50-amp mode, it'll charge just as fast off the truck as it does off the generator. The charger doesn't care where it's getting its power FROM (truck or generator) -- in either case, it's still going to deliver 50 amps of current at 14 volts to the batteries.

Only thing is, I'm not sure that you'll be able to run the charger at the 50 amp rate using the 800 watt inverter. It would be tight, as 50 amps at a normal charging voltage of 14 volts would be like 700 watts...and I'm not sure how efficient the charger is. It might draw >800 watts to deliver the 700 watts to the battery. If it does, the inverter will likely just beep at your a bit and flash some error codes that indicate that you're drawing too much load. It's definitely worth a shot, I'd say. You definitely want to hook the inverter directly to the battery with the alligator clips, rather than in the cigarette lighter.

[Fishin4fun_MN]

I do not recommend using the 50 amp setting to charge your battery(s). That is a boost setting on most chargers and is only to be used in short burst to start a vehicle. It is something like 3sec on 5 min off ( on my oxide charger anyway).

[leech~~]

If you don't like generator noise I would not going fishing in any of the groups of houses out on Mill Lacs! I use a sled and portable and try to stay away from everyone as much as I can. What I have seen a lot of them do is run a long ext-cord and build a little box or three sided box for it to try and keep it quieter. But, I never fish by them at night when they run them the most.

[blue_healer_guy]

just my 2cents. if you have something like that fish way away from the crowds or buy a honda.

[nofishfisherman]

If you don't like generator noise I would not going fishing in any of the groups of houses out on Mill Lacs! I use a sled and portable and try to stay away from everyone as much as I can. What I have seen a lot of them do is run a long ext-cord and build a little box or three sided box for it to try and keep it quieter. But, I never fish by them at night when they run them the most.

I've run into loud generators numerous times on Mille Lacs and I don't even fish it that often. If I see one or hear one anywhere near where I hope to fish I just keep on going to the next spot. They can't annoy me if I'm not around them.

If you have a loud generator you want to use the best thing to do is just make sure to set up away from the crowds. Don't pull into a spot near others and plan to run the generator without at least a few dirty looks. If you are out on a spot by yourself then don't worry as much about the noise. Just run it as needed since you're only annoying yourself.

[eyehunter78]

Try some sugar in the gas tank, that worked one time a few years back.LOL No,really I've seen guys rig up small car mufflers on there big beasts to quite them down and it seems to help and a fairly cheap fix depending on the muffler price and a few clamps........

[BartmanMN]

From the posts it sounds like the people with the loud generators keep others away from them. Don't know why they would ever want to get a quiet one when their loud one keeps others from fishing by them.