No Generator

berreez wrote:
After a lot of research we thought we were going with a class A. Now we’ve changed our minds and going with a 5th wheel.
The one we like is the Forest River 377FLIK. The only issue is it does not come with a generator. Since we want a residential refrigerator I’m not sure how long the unit will run on the batteries. I also know there are portable generators you can get and I probably will too but was just wanting to see how others deal with this. Is a 2000 or 3000 watt the best way to go?

fyi,
Some of the new 5ers with the residential fridges from the factory have an inverter to run them off of 12 volt. To me that seemed kind of odd; as how long could you really expect them to run. But if you aren't boon docking and you just want to run the fridge when hooked up to the truck headed down the interstate you can pretty much run the fridge indefinitely if you pull power from the truck.

Our new montana is setup that way; perfect for keeping stuff cold while on the road.

We had a built-in genset in our last 5er; had 12 hours on it after 3 summers. In our new 5er we skipped that option but we have a pair of Honda 2000's; have yet to use them to power the 5er but they will work in a pinch.

taken wrote:


Hi Sam! I've been bragging about your install here without permission... ;)

you had permission, even if u didn't know it!
thanks for sharing.

sdetweil wrote:

Terryallan wrote:


I don't know where you intend to camp. But you should know before you get a Generator. IF you camp in a National Park. You will not be allowed to run it during quiet hours (night), and also may be restricted to just a couple hours during designated time during the day.

If however you plan on boon docking, staying at sporting events, or Wal Mart parking lots. A generator would be good to have.

I'm the Ford Truck guy from earlier in the topic. the Onan EC30W Energy Command Unit has programmable quiet time period where it won't run the genset.. it will also start checking the house battery 2 hours before quiet time and start the genset to charge the batteries prior to quiet time if needed. as well as hot/cold settings for temps..

no wires to run.. which is why I picked it for my install.

Hi Sam! I've been bragging about your install here without premission... ;)

I recently purchased 2 2000 watt generators for our trip to Alaska which we are presently on. Up here if you want to camp other than a RV park you need the gen's. We do have a normal propane/electric fridge and have had no problems. We have run the gen's when necessary to maintain the batteries and use the microwave and DW's hair stuff and other 120 appliances.
One 2000 watt would take care of your needs with a residential refrigerator and maintain your batteries under most conditions. I purchased two because they are a off brand and wanted to insure if I wanted to connect them they would be compatible, we have spent time in RV parks where storms or other problems have cut the power and having the ability to fully power our rig would be important.

If I were a fulltimer, or close to fulltime, but not moving very often, I might consider a residential fridge. As a longtime traveler moving very few days I'm thinking all of that jiggling & shaking is going to shorten the life of a residential fridge considerably & any savings gained by buying one will be quickly lost having to replace it way sooner than a made for travel RV fridge.

Then there is the power side of it. You either need to be tethered to shore power 100% of the time or either have a genny that costs $$ to buy & run or have a large battery bank plus pure sine wave inverter to run it when the genny is off. Solar power is an option too but that is not much use if you like camping in the trees. All that stuff costs plenty extra $$ also & all has to be figured into the mix.

Terryallan wrote:


I don't know where you intend to camp. But you should know before you get a Generator. IF you camp in a National Park. You will not be allowed to run it during quiet hours (night), and also may be restricted to just a couple hours during designated time during the day.

If however you plan on boon docking, staying at sporting events, or Wal Mart parking lots. A generator would be good to have.

I'm the Ford Truck guy from earlier in the topic. the Onan EC30W Energy Command Unit has programmable quiet time period where it won't run the genset.. it will also start checking the house battery 2 hours before quiet time and start the genset to charge the batteries prior to quiet time if needed. as well as hot/cold settings for temps..

no wires to run.. which is why I picked it for my install.

berreez wrote:
After a lot of research we thought we were going with a class A. Now we’ve changed our minds and going with a 5th wheel.
The one we like is the Forest River 377FLIK. The only issue is it does not come with a generator. Since we want a residential refrigerator I’m not sure how long the unit will run on the batteries. I also know there are portable generators you can get and I probably will too but was just wanting to see how others deal with this. Is a 2000 or 3000 watt the best way to go?

I don't know where you intend to camp. But you should know before you get a Generator. IF you camp in a National Park. You will not be allowed to run it during quiet hours (night), and also may be restricted to just a couple hours during designated time during the day.

If however you plan on boon docking, staying at sporting events, or Wal Mart parking lots. A generator would be good to have.

Poppy's 5th Wheel wrote:
As mentioned, I see a lot of residential refrigerators in new 5th wheels these days and mostly in the middle to higher profile campers. They all should come from the factory with an inverter (or at least the ones I've seen). Not my cup of tea to be honest.

As far as power, I ran with 2 Honda 2000 generators for years and they really worked very well for us. On our new trailer though I wanted to be more "self contained" and, even though the trailer could not be ordered with the gen prep option, I installed an Onan 3600 LP. I would have gone with the larger 5500 but it wouldn't fit in my front compartment. The 3600 will run most everything except 2 A/C's at one time.

Anyway, we love it and it makes it so easy just to push a button rather than getting the generators out and wired up and locked up, etc., especially when we are traveling and want to put our puppy in the trailer with the A/C on while we visit a tourist site or something.

I bought the generator and associated parts (automatic transfer switch, remote on/off switch, etc.) and had a mobile RV service guy who has done other projects for me do the install. it cost about $5,500 total whereas 3 dealers/service shops I got quotes from want upwards $9000!

Very nice install! Would love to have that.

azjeffh wrote:

spud1957 wrote:
An rv dealer brought up an interesting point based on some service issues.

LG has pushed back on warranty as these are residential fridges, NOT rv fridges. They are not made or intended to be put in a vehicle and hauled across the country on all kinds of roads.

Something to think about or at least be aware of.


S

Do you know if LG is doing the same with their televisions?

He just mentioned fridges. Good question though.

RustyJC wrote:

Technobody wrote:
I don't think a regular refrigerator would be wise in a fifth wheel.

I think you're swimming against the stream on this one unless you're a boondocker. The market seems to be moving to residential fridges, especially in the mid and upper line 5th wheels, because of customer demand. Personally, I've had enough of failed cooling units (Dometic AND Norcold), fridge fires (although we haven't lost an RV, 2 friends have), poor cooling, etc. We love the residential fridge in our new 5th wheel, and a lot of them are being sold that way. The residential fridge is standard equipment in many mid and upper range 5th wheels.

Aside from the coach batteries and inverter, bear in mind that the batteries are being augmented by the tow vehicle's batteries and alternator via the +12VDC feed to the trailer during travel. We've never had a battery or fridge problem with our residential fridge/PSW inverter setup. We do have 2 Yamaha EF2000is generators running in parallel available in the truck bed if supplemental charging or running 1 A/C for pre-cooling of the RV is desired.

Rusty

.

Excellent *informed*..:C.. response!

If I was purchasing a new 5th or MoHo - the AC compressor type residential fridge would be a "no substitute" *requirement*.

*Informed* Customer Demand!!..:W

OP - try a search on Residential Refrigerators in the Class A Motor home forum.
More common in the A's - as well as the number of owners changing out their Propane/AC refrigerators to residential.
An excellent modification!

Lastly - everything Generator can be found on/in The *Tech Issues* forum;