Generator on for Ac while traveling

You need to exercise your generator under load anyway. What better time than on a long hot drive?

I find that we often go from full hookup to full hookup; therefore, if we want to exercise our generator, we need to do it while hooked up (waste of fuel) or while driving. I'd rather run it while driving because it takes a load off of my alternator. In your case, your alternator is probably not powering the A/C, but at least you won't waste the fuel exercising the generator while you are hooked up.

Ideally, of course, you'd boondock at least once a month and exercise it there. That way you don't waste any fuel at all.

As everyone else has said. Run it if hot in the cab. Our dash air is ok to about 90 then we need the big air. Our genny has almost 2000 hours on it and other than oil and fuel filters all is good. We go to a lot of nascar races and it sometimes runs for 5 or 6 days. Again as stated they like to run! Enjoy

Effy wrote:
That's one of the reasons you have a generator. What else is it for?

We do a lot of camping in the NC mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where most of the parks have NO water or POWER, then the geny comes in really handy on hot summer days, and yes, it gets hot even on the Parkway. But super cool nites, great camping for those who like privacy.

Grandpere wrote:
That will not be a problem. Because we are stuck with a residential fridge in our 87 Southwind, we have to run the generator to keep it cold. Running the generator will take a toll on your fuel economy though. Ours went from an average of 5.2 to 4.5 MPG, so roughly .7 of a gallon per hour because we drove between 55 and 60 MPH. We encountered no problems with the Onan running while driving, just remember to shut it off when you are fueling.

No reason to run the genset for the fridge alone, when a small economical inverter will do the job, just fine. Pretty easy to install too. I wired one into our OEM model fridge, using it along with other electronics and don't bother with running the fridge on propane when going down the road. Even went a step further with building a simple plug and play circuit for switching it automatically to shore power, when available.

shelbylen wrote:
I am getting ready to take our first voyage in our new (new to us) Class A. I am wondering should i run the generator and the roof AC while traveling to cool the inside of the coach? What is the norm. Will it hurt anything to do this? I know the front AC by the driver is broken, so this would be the only source of AC for the unit. What is your advise?

The only way to go actually, with the genset and the house ac running and if it wasn't such a pain for getting rid of the dash unit and all it's parts, one would be wise to do that as well. I did have an old coach whereby the ac condenser was being used for a tranny cooler and one of the best things I can think of, for it's otherwise worthless being. The HP to run it's compressor, probably uses near as much as an onboard generator, as well.
Our present coach does use about 33% of it's condenser for an engine oil cooler, so at least that part of it is good for something.

We always run our generator. We have both the a/c and the television for the passengers to watch via satellite.

We have the 8.0 quiet diesel. The air intake is under the generator up at the front. Big rectangle hole with a grate over it. It was suggested to me by our Cummins dealer to think about not running ours when in heavy rain with lots of water on the road (while driving) It was more susceptible to getting water into the air intake.

shelbylen wrote:
Thanks for all the input. I didn't know if that was a norm or not. Our class A has about 32,000 miles but right at 100 hours on the genny. So when I was doing my math either the previous owner didn't run it much in the summer, didn't use the ac, or I am just wrong on the amount of hours I feel it should have. This is what got me thinking. Thankfully I asked because I would have been flipping out if the air shut off with a quarter tank left. LOL Thanks for all the advise

We sold our '08 Dynasty last November. It had almost 70,000 miles and we had 549 hrs. on the generator. They (the experts) say that diesel generators can go 20,000 hrs. before a rebuild. As long as they are maintained, they are pretty much bullet proof.

I'm surprised that we didn't have more hours on ours, I used it often and started at least once a month to exercise it under load.

MM.

We have three A/Cs and there are times the dash just wont keep up, so the genny runs a LOT. It is nice to have full power in the coach as well at times. For lunches, etc. It gets very cold in the back and then we turn off the genny and the dash air will keep it cool. The biggest culprit is that HUGE windshield. It can get really warm, fast! We also have a wonderful heat pump and it is not always the heat and A/C for us, but sometimes it can get cold! So we will also run the heat pump and save the propane for those really cold nights!

WW

Rick Jay wrote:
This too was a problem for us, and I concur that it is related to the low oil level switch. When we were having the problem I was using 5W30 oil in the generator as I could use it year round. However, I switched to straight 30 weight oil (per the manual) for the warmer months and this problem seems to have been eliminated....

Hmm, interesting, hadn't thought about the weight of the oil making this (shut-off during sudden moves) issue more or less likely to happen.

I actually run Onamax straight 30 weight oil year round in mine. It stays warm enough here to allow that. Still even with 30 weight in it year round, this issue still happens every once in a while.

Will