Jerry,
The generator Andrew had was actually mine. The happy brown truck didn't show up with his until after the Nats. You're right about the quiet part. It only puts out 56db. Andrew's running two 18 amp power supplies on it without problem. However, we quickly discovered that not all power supplies are created equal. The type we have are called the switching type which means nothing to me since I'm electronically-challenged. However, they seem to be of a more solid-state design than the type having a large transformer and are supposedly much more efficient meaning less draw on the generator. In any event, the Honda easily handles two of those 18 amp power supplies and each of those has 2 Astro 109's attached for a total of 4 chargers. From what I've heard here and read elsewhere, your Orbits and some of the other chargers need more amps and it doesn't appear that our power supplies would run even one of them, much less two. Maybe Chad or one of the more electrically knowledgeable guys could educate us. I do know that the Honda eu1000i is rated at 900 watts continuous/1000 watts surge if that helps. It also has an economy setting which reduces the throttle (and noise) depending on the load and it is never anywhere near full throttle with the setup we're running. The other thing we learned quickly is that the Pyramid power supplies up to 15 amps don't work well for our purposes. The 15 Amp model (transformer type) doesn't have a cooling fan and usually overheats and shuts down before a charge cycle is complete which is very frustrating. And this is with only 1 Astro 109 connected. The main question I'd have is whether the Honda could handle the power supplies needed to run the high-end chargers. There are portable Hondas that put out 2000 watts and another model that puts out 3000 watts, but each successive model means more weight, more noise, and more money.

Peter recently puffed a TP 5300 pack shortly after putting it on the charger without waiting for it to cool down. I wasn't there and have no idea how hot the battery was at the time but his packs were usually in the 125 F range after a typical flight. Not waiting for a cooldown period may have had nothing to do with the pack puffing, but it did happen shortly after it was put on the charger. Both Andrew and Peter are pretty meticulous about setting the charger correctly so I doubt it had anything to do with operator error.

Verne Koester