All Electric Motorhomes

More RVers are concerned with the propane refrigerators and the fires they have caused. They were putting in the residential refrigerators themselves but when they do this they don't remove all the propane. Many will continue using propane stoves and furnaces.It's just the refrigerators they're concerned about. Nowadays RV manufacturers got the wakeup call and began building all electric because they saw that owners were doing the conversion themselves.

We have a Newmar Ventana LE, which is not all electric. When we were at the Newmar factory I asked our tour guide why they were putting so many residential refrigerators and flush no-frame windows on their motorhomes. The answer was: As you know we only build motorhomes to order. When a new item comes out, like residential refrigerators, we offer it as an option. When 75% of the orders request the "option", the next year we make it standard.

My point of this is, with Newmar, at least, the choices we are talking about here are clearly "market driven". I suspect this is the case with other manufacturers also.

Ed Headington

Propane is SAFE.

That was not the reason for 'all electric'

Consumers wanting S&B bells and whistles in MH has driven the market towards all electric.

Fires happen.....engine fires in MHs lead, then fridge compartment fires.....a lot of which are electrical in nature.
And one has to wonder of those fires in fridge compartment how many were caused by RV mfg. NOT properly installing fridge as recommended by fridge mfg. :H

they usually have two inverters, one runs the frig and they have big gen sets that run off the main fuel supply, so going down the road you can run the frig, tv, air conditioning, and with big battery banks it is able to do all the things a stick and brick house can do.

At some point, it's probably as much a money saving measure as anything--plus all electric sounds high-tech to some. I think it's also a bit misleading, as diesel fuel is not electricity, and is very necessary to the operation of the coach.

Certainly, once you decide on a residential fridge (which is presumably a rather popular option) and add in an AquaHot or similar for heat and hot water (also presumably a rather popular option), it starts to make little sense to build and carry a propane setup solely for the stove. Simplifying the construction and marketing it as more upscale is good business sense.

I suspect a lot of it is market differentiation. From a sheer practical sense the difference between an all electric and one that only has a gas cook-top and, perhaps, a gas/electric fridge is minimal.

Marketing is what drives much of coach design and when something "innovative" resonates with the consumers for whatever reason that drives more of the same. MH design is not immune to current fads and the associated bragging rights.

Have you ever seen the Marathon (I believe) that tried the slide out patio...that one didn't take off but if it had you would see others jump on the bandwagon practical or not.

ditto the above, plus lets face it some of the propane appliances leave a lot to be desired. Fridges at the top of that list from where I sit.

All Electric Motorhomes are usually $250k plus. They did NOT do it for safety reasons. They did it because of the demand for all Electric. Once you go above 250K, the added on features that make up a all Electric (Range/Aqua Hot Hydronic/home refer) make the costs of those items negliable to the total cost of the RV. Also, with the heavier Diesel chassis, you can indeed add the larger battery bank. Usually 6 or 8--6 volt batteries. Larger Inverter/Chargers. Larger Genset, usually a 10k 0r nore. Doug

Probably a deliberate move by the manufacturers to make the "motor home" a truly separate and "luxury" RV, a "class" all by itself. I would guess, by removing everything "propane" it makes them a higher-end RV, designed for resorts and such, not for boomdocking in some remote place no one ever heard of.

Probably because most class "A" park at electric sites. The ones that boondock have lots of batteries/inverter/solar. Maybe big generator too. This is the direction of the market.