Generator use while driving

Wow, I have 3400 hours on mine. Runs great and a lot of that time is summer running down the road.

BTW, I just had our genny serviced yesterday along with the coach (62,022 miles).... we have 488 hours on our genny after 6.5 yrs. (as of this morning). We are driving northward to Fargo, ND, on the 29 freeway then west on the 94. It has been very warm here so interior air conditioning is a must.

MM.

okgc wrote:
For us running the roof AC units on warm days going down the road is a great way to get some hours on the generator. Reading on these forums it appears the owners with the most generator problems are the owners who don't USE their generators.
A MH generator is too expensive & heavy to just carry around the USA and not use.

Also, The area around our sticks home has a reputation for extended power outages and I want out MH generator to be ready to go in those cases.

I have to agree with this post...and we are one of those guilty of not putting enough hours on the genny. We are full timers but dry camp a fair amount over the year. We run the genny a little during high current use or if we have extended overcast days and the solar output is low. But it's not enough to rack up the hours over a year. Running the genny on the road to keep the coach cool via the house AC's is a great idea. Now if I just practiced what I preach a bit. :).

For us running the roof AC units on warm days going down the road is a great way to get some hours on the generator. Reading on these forums it appears the owners with the most generator problems are the owners who don't USE their generators.
A MH generator is too expensive & heavy to just carry around the USA and not use.

Also, The area around our sticks home has a reputation for extended power outages and I want out MH generator to be ready to go in those cases.

As many others here, we leave our residential refrigerator on while going down the road without the genny running. The alternator charges the batteries (both sets) and we have a solar panel on the roof. The inverter powers the fridge which stays on 24/7 unless I have the coach in for service.

MM.

pugslyyy wrote:

et2 wrote:
I use our generator on our new MH while driving to run the overhead air. If the air isn't needed, do those who have a residential fridge still run their generator to keep your house batteries up? We have 6 golf cart batteries, any thoughts on how long it will power the fridge?

I just run my inverter when running down the road. It's pretty much free power...

Ditto.

Yes, every motorhome I have ever heard of charges both chassis and house battery banks from the alternator (assuming the systems is functioning as designed).

And, yes your alternator is large enough to handle the load of running your residential refrigerator from inverter power while driving. The only qualification I would put on it, were it my equipment, is that I would NOT do this if the battery banks were deeply discharged. Said another way, I would not load up an alternator charging a deeply discharged large battery bank AND powering the refrigerator through the inverter.

et2 wrote:

brandonrv wrote:
Why not run the fridge off of propane?

It isn't propane. Runs on electric only. So what is the consensus? The MH will charge all batteries, or just the starter set?

Two ways to know for sure: call Fleetwood with your vin number and they should be able tell you; get out a volt meter and see what happens to the voltage across the batteries when the running. Try this after a day's run. If the voltage shows around 13, the alternator is charging them. If they are under 12.6 v it isn't. This way you will KNOW.

ours charges house and engine/chassis

et2 wrote:
do those who have a residential fridge still run their generator to keep your house batteries up? We have 6 golf cart batteries, any thoughts on how long it will power the fridge?

it doesn't use propane