All electric coach

[MikeStarr]

https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/201...-IH-5010113324


We are in the process of doing our research before purchasing a motor home about a year from now. We will be full timing. Our RV experience is limited to a 2 week rental in Alaska last year but we have also done quite a bit of research so far.


Can you tell me the pros and cons of an "all electric coach" like the one above?


My worry is that we wouldn't be able to boondook very long at all with no propane. We believe we will most likely be staying places with hook ups at least half the time, but also want to be able to boondock for 5-7 day stretches.

[Teamfoxy]

With all electric you will need to run the generator a lot no matter what anyone tells you about solar panels, big battery banks and inverters. OTOH, if its hot enough to need AC, then you will be running the generator for that with a propane coach as well.

So it really comes down to preference and I prefer to cook and heat water, and the coach with propane and have a fridge that works with either AC or propane. It gives us more flexibility in places to stay. We have friends that have an all electric coach, but they always stay in RV parks where they can plug in. We often stay with no hookups 3-10 days at a stretch.

[Kjlunda]

We have an "all electric" coach. Advantages, IMO, no propane to run out of! Most coaches are coming with residential refrigerators and a small inverter to power it. As far as boon docking, we are currently sitting in Arizona in a friends yard with no hook ups. The generator has an auto start function to keep the batteries charged, while the rest of the time the inverter powers all except the stove top and convection oven. Microwave works.
After owning this coach, I'm spoiled and probably couldn't go back to propane.

[MikeStarr]

Originally Posted by Kjlunda

We have an "all electric" coach. Advantages, IMO, no propane to run out of! Most coaches are coming with residential refrigerators and a small inverter to power it. As far as boon docking, we are currently sitting in Arizona in a friends yard with no hook ups. The generator has an auto start function to keep the batteries charged, while the rest of the time the inverter powers all except the stove top and convection oven. Microwave works.
After owning this coach, I'm spoiled and probably couldn't go back to propane.

Forgive me, but one of the main things I dont yet understand is how everything in an RV is powered.


The invertor doesnt "power" anything does it? I thought it just changed the battery power (DC) to normal 110v power for the fridge? If that's true then the batteries are running down at all times. How long will they last before the generator needs to come on?



The RV we rented in Alaska was a small cheapo 31' Minnie Winnie unit. Without the generator we basically had almost no power. Even the wall outlets didnt work.


So my question is with an all electric coach that is not hooked up to power, what limitations will we have? Can we still use the outlets, the TV, inside lights, fridge..ect? Or does the generator need to come on every hour? Does it need to come on for 1 hour twice a day under normal use for example?

[MikeStarr]

Also, do all residential fridges in RVs run only off of electricity, regardless of whether or not its an all electric coach?

[PanJH]

We have an all electric coach and pretty much always stay at places with hookups. We travel with pets, so we need to make sure they have AC , so it's not a big deal for us to go to a place with at least electric hookups.
To answer your question about the inverter, just about everything in the coach is powered via the inverter. The exceptions would be the air conditioning, electric water heater elements and electric stove top. All other outlets and appliances run off the inverter. The genset can be setup to start automatically based upon certain conditions. For example, when your house battery bank gets below a set voltage or when the interior temps rise above a set temp. You can set the duration of time it will run under those circumstances and you can also set up "quiet time" hours so it won't start during that period.

[twinboat]

The inverter in most diesel pushers run the fridge, microwave, maybe stovetop, and a bunch of outlets.

Generator run times, with good batteries, should be about 4 to 5 hours every 24 hours, split between two run times. 2 hours in the AM and 3 hours before bed.

Your not going to be doing laundry or washing dishs on battery, but that can happen when running the generator.

Heat, but not heated floors, will run on battery but if hot, you will need the generator for A/C.

Inverters use battery power to make household power by using the batteries. Batteries are there to be run down and recharged and if managed well, will last for 5 or more years.

All RVs with factory residental fridges will have inverter to power them. Some have inverter for only the fridge and big RVs like your looking at will have larger inverters to run more stuff.

[hypoxia]

Originally Posted by MikeStarr

Can you tell me the pros and cons of an "all electric coach" like the one above?

I boondock quite a bit for a week or so and don't see any reason to have propane. So what if you have to use the generator, that's what it's for. The key is to have AGS (Automatic Generator Start) which many coach's have and many don't depending on who ordered it. I wouldn't want a coach that didn't have it regardless of boondocking or not.

[MikeStarr]

Originally Posted by twinboat

The inverter in most diesel pushers run the fridge, microwave, maybe stovetop, and a bunch of outlets.

Generator run times, with good batteries, should be about 4 to 5 hours every 24 hours, split between two run times. 2 hours in the AM and 3 hours before bed.


So the main advantage to having propane is that the generator will run less? Any idea how much less?

If we used enough power to need the generator to come

on for 4-5 hours with an all electric coach, how much less would the generator need to run if we had propane? I guess Im asking how much extra generator use if the residential fridge that doesnt use propane requiring?



Your not going to be doing laundry or washing dishs on battery, but that can happen when running the generator.

Heat, but not heated floors, will run on battery but if hot, you will need the generator for A/C.

Inverters use battery power to make household power by using the batteries. Batteries are there to be run down and recharged and if managed well, will last for 5 or more years.

All RVs with factory residental fridges will have inverter to power them. Some have inverter for only the fridge and big RVs like your looking at will have larger inverters to run more stuff.

This really helps. Thx

[Mr.Mark]

After renting three coaches that had propane (one class C, two class A's), I DID NOT want propane when we decided to purchase. Sometimes, propane was hard to find. I just wanted to deal with 'one fuel', diesel!

In our first coach that we had built (2008 Monaco Dynasty), we had one 2,800 watt inverter and we could use all normal outlets. When I boondocked in Quartzsite, AZ, with my RV buddies, I would run the genny a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening which coincides with breakfast and dinner.

Our second coach (in sig), is also all electric with a diesel fired Webasto system similar to the Aqua Hot we had in the Dynasty. Our generator is in a 'hush-box' so you only hear a light hum even if you are outside.

In this coach, we have four 3,500 watt inverters so we can run almost EVERYTHING off of the batteries including air conditioning. We have three Lithium Ion house batteries that will last about 15-16 hrs. with just lights and the fridge, we do not have solar. The Auto-Gen will come on when the batteries reach a 30% state of charge.

So, your question depends on the coach that you buy. If you like propane there is certainly nothing wrong with it. The 'three-way' fridges are fairly small.

We could 'boon-dock' for quite a long time since we have a 230 gallon diesel tank, 189 gallon fresh water tank and 189 combo black/grey tank. But, we are generally pole to pole RV'ers.

The way that I see it, you are going to be using 'fuel' no matter if you have a propane equipped coach or an all electric coach. The diesel tank will last a lot longer than your propane tank. Our cooking is usually done with the convection microwave and/or on the grill outside, we never used/use the inside cook-top.

Safe travels,
Mark

[les.warden]

2017 Phaeton 40 QBH all electric here. First MH we’ve owned. Had it 3 years this month. Everyone has spelled out most of the nuances above. We’re NOT full timers but travel anywhere from 1-3 months at a time. Plus some weekend bouts with local friends.

Some of my experiences and how we operate are:

Inverter is 2000W, plenty to run stuff.
AGS is set to 12.2V to kick on and run for 2 hours.
When traveling long distances to a destination, we’ll go for two or three days boon docking overnight, running off genny when needed, until tanks need dumped or DW wants to hit a campground. Our boon docking consists of the usual asphalt lots. Out west, we have overnighted by the road in Pie Town (google it) and beside the snake river in Idaho. Beautiful!! When boon docking, genny will run 2 hours before bedtime. This charge will last overnight before genny kicks again next morning. I have 6 lead acid flooded batteries for the house. Genny is needed if air conditioning is gonna run.
For heat, we have AquaHot 450D. The AH is plumbed as such; when running down the road, you have hot water. You can preheat the engine. You can heat the water for showers in 10 minutes or less. You can heat the entire coach and wet bay. It has two heating zones, front & back. Back does the wet bay. I think it uses about 1-1.5 gal/hr of diesel. Insignificant from a 100 gal tank.

Like I said, this is our first MH. Our experiences are only 3 years of some-timing. I read a lot on the forums and my summation is that if you want to boon dock a lot with one of these coaches, and don’t want to run the genny that much, you should have ~1500W of solar. We don’t boondock that much so not a problem here, but if we started, that would be the solar W I’d target for installation.

All in all, DW and I both like the all electric. If we ever got rid of Phancy Phaeton, I would go electric again.

My $0.02
-les

[Props2]

Ummm.....Mr. Mark's rig is in a class of it's own and probably out of reach for us mere mortals.
That being said,I believe it's all about water. Get the biggest tanks you can get if your going to be boondocking. I know its put a dent in a few of our boondocking trips.

[Filthy-Beast]

One of our must have's is all electric. I prefer to cook with Induction and have switch to it instead of gas in our home.


Residential frig works in all altitudes, doesn't have to be level, doesn't have to be shut down going through tunnels, lowers risk of a fire.


Love the idea of an aqua hot or oasis instead of a hot water tank and a furnace.



One less fuel to deal with and worry about.


If boondocking your limiting factor will not be electricity it will be water. So you run the generator a bit longer to charge the batts while you boil water for a pot of noodles.

[jth camper]

We just went from a propane coach to an all electric coach. The old coach the hot water heater, cook top stove and a forced air heating system used propane. We've only spent three weeks continuous dry camping in the all electric coach. I really did not notice a difference.

What I didn't like about the propane coach; finding propane and how difficult it would be to get the coach close enough to the propane refill tank. The stress of nearly running out of propane on a holiday weekend in Utah where temps were low to mid teens and all only two places to buy propane were closed due to the holiday.

I'm looking forward to spending winter in the new coach with an Aquahot system.

So far I would not go back to propane.