All Electric or Not

[fitzjohnfan]

So I guess most of you electric only folks don't go boondocking or even plugged in camping in the Colorado mountains in the spring or fall. Several times, the nights have dropped into the 20s and I was glad to have an ample supply of propane to keep my family warm. Having the propane option for cooking and keeping the fridge cold is nice flexibility in my book.

My parents had a 1957 Fitzjohn motorhome which was all electric, and it was nice not to worry about going through tunnels,but when we went skiing, and ran the generator to keep the space heaters running, we were almost overcome by carbon monoxide. Be sure your CM detectors are working properly if camping in cold weather!

[jones47172]

We like all electric with diesel Aquahot. No more having to deal with propane and it’s various safety issues.

[wjohnson913]

Originally Posted by dmctlc

Out of curiosity you don't have a propane grille either nor heating if need be? In fact that question might apply to others that state they went to all electric. Did you remove the propane tank completely from your MHs and carry no 20 #ers?
I like the idea of all electric but never could go camping without my propane grille. Love the smell of chicken, steak or hamburgers cooking on an outdoor grille.

Weber electric grill works great
https://www.amazon.com/Weber-5502000...17442708&psc=1

[David Jarrett]

For my money, propane is plenty safe. We have been RVing since 1980 in various rigs and have never had a problem with propane. Our Dometic side-by-side absorption fridge has performed flawlessly for the life of our present (2003 Country Coach) coach, and I too like the option of having a refrigerator that works even if the power goes out.

[RSteele]

I wouldn’t have a problem either way as long as the floor plan of the coach was to my DW’s liking. My current fiver came with a no cold 18 cu ft polar max absorption refer, I was worried about it when I ordered the fiver but it was the only option but because it is a toyhauler just like any manufacturer they think boondocking and propane is the easy choice. I would love someone to think outside the box for once and put a 12v compressor refrigerator in a toyhauler. The technology is there but to my knowledge no major manufacturers make a large one. The Norcold polar max retails for $4000, you can buy 4 really nice residential refers for that. My last two RV’s were DP’s and had the 12 cu ft 4 door Norcold models and worked waaaay better than what is supposed to be the cats meow of absorption fridges the 18 cu ft Norcold polar max. I boondock exclusively for off-roading so reliable a refrigerator is a must. I added 2 centrifugal fans pulling air out of the upper refer slide vent and 2 pushing air from the bottom up and the fridge defend. The fridge cooled down 4x as fast from off to 40 degrees but would not go much below 40 even with ambient temps of 30 at night. Dealer said the refer was fine twice and Grand Design did a good job installing it with baffles. Sadly a residential option was not available on early 2020 models when I ordered, now it is. I removed the Norcold and installed a 16 cu ft residential fridge after much research to find a counter depth unit with no handles that would not hit the island when the slide was closed. Never measured but I believe the Energy star residential unit uses less power in a day then the Norcold did on propane. I then installed 3 170 amp hour LIPO batteries I got on an Amazon Black Friday deal for $1100 a piece. 6 200 watt solar panels, Victron 150/100 charge controller, Victron 3000/12/120 pure sine wave inverter charger, Victron 712 battery monitor. I like the Victron stuff because it is reliable and can be monitored and programmed/adjusted with your cell phone. Even on cloudy days I have zero generator usage unless I need to use the second or third a/c unit. The living room a/c is wired to the inverter but uses a lot of battery power so I don’t run it for more than an hour, any more I start the generator, it also has the micro air soft start unit on it. All electric is nice and absolutely doable boondocking, you can go indefinitely with the right set up. It doesn’t cost as much as you might think either. DP’s already have the inverter but you may have rewire your main breaker panel to your liking to get the circuits you want powered. My 1200 watts of panels cost less than $1000 if you get used residential panels you can cut that $ in half. Combiner box and buss bars I built myself for $30 wire $150. You can get away with a $200 charge controller, Victron = $750. LIPO batteries are not cheap but the benefits are worth the $ do some research, there are many hours of reading and videos online. You can get a no frills 100 ah lipo battery for $500 better quality more $. Battleborn batteries ($949) are very popular and just like any lipo batteries they will outlast lead acid many times over and are maintenance free just don’t try to charge them in freezing temps, a good lipo battery won’t let you damage it because the built in bms will shut the battery down before any harm comes to it. Batteries will be the biggest cost in your system no way around that. I did the installs myself because labor will cost you more than the parts. Never installed solar before this but watched a lot YouTube and read so you could do it too. I don’t fear all electric even boondocking just depends on what you want to do, anything is possible.

[augerdogger]

I vote for all electric. Propane was a real pain and a worry to find plus the hassles of tunnels. We have had 2 Featherlite conversions and could run everything off batteries for awhile; 8 - 8d and 2 - 4kW inverters. Aquahot kept us warm in the winter, several occasions dry camping at 20 below. Diesel generators will last 20k hours. Never kept a coach to get close to 10k hours. Traded down to get a shorter RV because 45' was too long for our intended destinations. Gen is not as quiet but acceptable.

[Streamintrip]

Well, after Airstreaming for many years with gas cooktops, which we liked, and propane furnaces, eh ok, we bought an all electric Coach with Aquahot heating, and we won't go back to propane.

A 12v pump and diesel fuel heats the Coach and hot water. A solar system and good batteries handles all our boondocking electrical needs unless the genset is needed for short periods.

If not boondocking, then the induction range, convection oven, three 15k heatpumps and a powerful electric fireplace amidships provide all that is needed.

The Mountainaire with all electric would be a great choice!

[Streamintrip]

Oh yes, a residential fridge will totally spoil you, and, they are not a big electrical draw while boondocking with a good solar system! With shore power, who cares!

[96 Wideglide]

Originally Posted by jcussen

I wish I had my Newell for that storm, it had 325 gallons of fuel and 175 gallons of fw.

Now that, is some serious fuel tank!

Where was it mounted?

[BobRay]

Originally Posted by danny644

Oh yes, a residential fridge will totally spoil you, and, they are not a big electrical draw while boondocking with a good solar system! With shore power, who cares!

Couldn't agree more. I recently switched to a residential fridge after spending about $4,000 on my Norcold (which never cooled properly on the road). The residential was about $1500 -- a French-door model that cools reliably has *way* more room inside, and will keep things cool on the road as long as I run the generator about 5-10 minutes per hour.

I wish I had switched years ago.

[jcussen]

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Now that, is some serious fuel tank!

Where was it mounted?

Two tanks, one 245 gal mounted about 3/4 way back between front and rear axles for main engine, and one 80 gal tank behind front axle for generator and aqua-hot, but they had a crossover with a valve so you could join tanks. Separate fills for each tank, but if you left valve open they would equalize. Almost all Newell's are custom made, and have heard of some with even bigger tanks.

[Knightly]

I recently replaced a 2007 Norcold 4 door 1211 c/w ice maker with a GE French doors, bottom freezer, counter depth residential fridge. The following is our thoughts on the retrofit:

We do not boondock except maybe one overnight on occasion. I have a 2000W inverter, 2 - 6volt, 240 amp house batteries, 120 watt solar panel plus 5500 Onan generator.

A recall for our Norcold model happened while travelling around the USA many years ago. We managed to call ahead to Camping World and made an appointment to have it modified.

Prior to the change, we could not keep ice cream hard and there were times when the fridge struggled to stay cold when the outside temperature went above 90F. I changed the thermistor plus dual fan heat switch over the years. Last July, the cooling unit leaked ammonia gas plus yellow power confirming it was finished. I priced out cooling unit replacements. Doing it myself, it was still going to cost more than the cost of a residential fridge. I already had the inverter/charger, upgraded house batteries & solar panel so decided to go all electric.

We just came back from a two week trip which involved long periods waiting and travelling via ferry. I keep my inverter on stand by so it will automatically switch over to shore power or back to inverter. Our solar panel provided 6-7 amps per hour when sunny. Once the engine is started, the alternator charges the house batteries while driving. In addition, if necessary to o/n without power, I run my generator a couple of hours in the evening. We found that even with two 7 year old house batteries, there was sufficient power to run the fridge plus CPAP for the night.

So my redundancy is electric only, ie: batteries and generator, but it works for us. We went from a 12 cubic to 18 cubic foot capacity, the ice cream is always hard, we still have an ice maker plus cold water outlet. We snowbird so the larger fridge is appreciated.

[rkimall]

I'd rather have all electric. We have a fridge that switches from AC to propane if we lose shore power or generator. Which I suppose would be ok if we have propane in the tank. But our tank is so small, if we've been cooking or running gas heater or water heater, our tank empties pretty quickly. And that might still be ok if fridge automatically switched to DC, but it doesn't. It just stays looking for propane while the fridge starts losing its cool. Not good.

[dadej]

If I was getting a new rig it would be all electric. I filled my 40# propane tank yesterday. 9.8 gallons in five minutes for $34.00 which equals about $3.40 per gallon. Propane delivered to my house is around $1.40 per gallon. What a ripoff and only going to get worse so go electric.