Ventana - All electric or gas?

[Beach Livin]

Originally Posted by Tilzbow

I’m considering buying a smaller 2020 Ventana in 34’ or 37’. Although we’ll likely take an extended 2 - 3 trip month once or twice a year for a few years we won’t be selling our house and going full time. I estimate we’ll have hookups 30% - 50% of the time while many spots we stay and prefer, such as Forest service sites, won’t have hookups.

I’ve got travel trailer experience and have never owned a full electric RV. Money aside, for my described use, what’s the best option and why?

If full electric should I order it with solar or add after market?

Thanks!

Much like you we do extended camping with 50% of our sites being non-hookup. We tend to camp in National Parks and Forests whenever we can. We own an all electric 3717 and love it. Wife does not like propane. We have Lithium Batteries (1050Ah) and Solar (1020 W) to meet most of our electric needs.

"money aside"
I would add a larger lithium battery bank before solar.
Lithium batteries do not care if they are only partially charged, can be safely discharged to 20% of capacity and will fully charge faster than typical Lead Acid or AGM batteries. So you can run your genset while you cook in the evenings to charge the batteries for a couple hours and partially charge your battery bank to extend time off the grid. The stock Magnum charger/Inverter you get with the all electric will charge at approx. >100 amp per hour. So if you conserve power in two hours you can put back approximately 2/3 of your power consumption for the day. These are rough calculations based on my experience but can vary significantly depending on temperature and how much power you use.

If you have not broken the bank with the lithium's I would add solar. Lots of battery and solar combinations to consider. If you are considering solar get the solar prep from Newmar. Not the best for large solar system but workable and a lot easier and less costly then fishing wires after delivery.

I would not recommend buying the Newmar Solar System. I would buy the solar system aftermarket from a reputable solar installer not a dealer. Most dealers are not knowledgeable about solar systems and are more expensive as well.

Lastly remember you will have a generator that can meet most if not all of your charging needs with some conservation. So if you want all electric go for it. You would have to burn a lot of diesel to justify the cost of Lithium's and/or Solar.

Notice we totally disregarded my last we don't like using propane or diesel generator if we can avoid it. We want to be able to camp 3-4 days in the shade with no sun and not use the generator. So ….. we spent the $$$$$.

[ScotS]

All electric in my case, and opinion. I am a full-timer during the week for work in another state from where I live.



I have many years experience in the fire alarm and life safety business some years ago. Propane in a tight closed environment scares the hell out of me. My last gasser was propane and I worried all the time about a leak and tested the detectors way too often.


I also worked with a man (in the 80's) that was blown up and out of his grandparents motor home due to a propane explosion. He spent a LONG time at John Sealy's burn unit in Galveston getting scrapped every day due to the burns. No thanks.

[Tilzbow]

Thanks for all the comments! I’m pretty sure I’ll go all electric and add solar post purchase. Lots of solar installers around now days.

[snowhawk2]

Originally Posted by Tilzbow

I’m considering buying a smaller 2020 Ventana in 34’ or 37’. Although we’ll likely take an extended 2 - 3 trip month once or twice a year for a few years we won’t be selling our house and going full time. I estimate we’ll have hookups 30% - 50% of the time while many spots we stay and prefer, such as Forest service sites, won’t have hookups.

I’ve got travel trailer experience and have never owned a full electric RV. Money aside, for my described use, what’s the best option and why?

If full electric should I order it with solar or add after market?

Thanks!

From our experience it's not even a debate. We have have both a Ventana LE with propane on board and then an all electric Ventana and now a Dutch Star. We will never ever go back to propane because it has to be replaced when used which is just another thing to consider all the time. It can be dangerous. An all electric coach give you more batteries, runs off of electricity and the generator, offers a bigger inverter and you never have to think about it. You don't need propane. If the coach you are considering has propane heat than that is another reason to get an all electric coach. Propane heat creates moisture which is not your friend in a coach. Also it will go through propane like crazy if you use a propane heating system. Good luck with you decision. The advantages from our experience are all on the all electric coach side.

[bluefin]

This is our first all electric unit. We love it. We will never go back to propane!

[C.Martin]

In complete transparency....

The all-electric comes with Oasis. Although it is a very nice system...it is not without some nuisances.

The diesel burner, in my opinion, is a tad bit loader than a propane furnace burner.
The exhaust is smelly as compared to propane.
The unit...at least the 2016 version...had pumps in the distribution module that were prone to failure. ITR has since began mfg. their own pumps...which will hopefully have a longer service life.
There are servicing requirements, which add to annual cost of ownership...fuel filter, air filter, nozzle cleaning/replacement and o-ring replacement...igniter, and an occasional optical flame detector.
I recently had a combustion fan go bad.

I have found the support from ITR to be first rate. No problems there. They have always been a complete pleasure to work with and get parts out right away.

The system is relatively easy to work on. It has some added features that I am not sure you would have with Propane furnace...such as the engine, while driving, heats your domestic water. The ability to add a pump to use Oasis as an engine preheater.

It really is a very neat system...but be prepared for the possibility of frustrations.

If I had it to do over again...I would still go all-electric.

[lwmcguire]

We got caught in an unexpected severe cold front and ice storm a few years back in the Landmark

Luckily there was a vendor storage 40# bottle facility on site as even with two space heaters we used a bottle per day for a week

Due to low voltage we could run the space heaters on low

With our all electric Tuscany we could easily go a week in the same weather and still have adequate fuel if the generator was needed

[Driveby]

We regularly camped in Provincial and State Parks with no hook ups at all. For a family of 4 on a weekend in ~50-60 degree temps we'd suck a tank of propane. the furnace fan is *loud* and it sucked battery juice fast too.

granted we were in a decently insulated Itasca gas coach but I would imagine it wouldn't too huge a leap to say you'll be in similar situations. Finding propane that I could fill (vs the bbq stuff at regular gas stations) was a bit of a pain.

for those two reasons I vote all electric. Either spend $$ on batteries/solar etc or just run the generator when driving from place to place. Or in place if need be. Bigger fridge space, less need to be level (over propane absorption fridges) and overall one less thing to fill means all electric.

[joelminer]

I know I am in the minority here, but IMHO I would save the money.

We purchased our 2018 Ventana 3436 as a prior year's model off the dealer lot, so we did not have much choice in options. Our coach had a propane refrigerator and cooktop with the OASIS. The OASIS took up about 1/4 of our limited bay storage. A propane furnace and water heater would have fit in the house area with virtually no impact on storage. I have added 3 100W solar panels and can go 2 days of dry camping without turning on the generator. We have only filled our propane tank once after over 150 nights in the coach

We live in California and like to go to the State parks where the generator hours are from 10am to 8pm. When dry camping, you must use the diesel burner on the OASIS for hot water and/or the furnace. When the diesel burner is running, it sounds like a quiet generator when outside the coach. So if you run the OASIS outside of generator hours, you may get a ranger knocking on your door. We also think the noise level inside the coach is noticeably more with the OASIS than with our previous propane furnace.

Also, when the outside temperature falls below 40, the electric element on the OASIS is insufficient to keep the coach warm all night, so even if you have full hookups, you must again use the diesel burner. If you are in a tight RV park, your neighbors will hear it every time it comes on at night.


Finally, we have had a number of mechanical issues with our OASIS as well, having to go without hot water on more than one occasion.

IMHO, unless your objective is to get to an all electric coach, I don't think the advantage of having continuous hot water is worth the other disadvantages. As you can see from the previous comments, many others disagree.