johnhicks wrote:
If I was running the gen and the furnace in really cold weather I'd be looking at around 24 to 30 hours per 65-gal tank fill. Not real practical. They both seriously drink propane.
Several years ago I added an Extend-A-Stay hookup to run the furnace and lately a small gas generator to provide the power if I run into a Texas freeze situation. I've needed it and didn't have it; now I've assured I won't need it.
The only reason to buy a MH with a propane generator is if you really really like the MH and it's a bargain price.
Maybe someone can answer; why were propane generators a fad for a while rather than gas or diesel? Price?
LP powered Gensets on Class A DIESEL motorhomes were a fad from about 1998 to 2002/3. The reason was simple. The COST of Diesel motorhomes dropped after 1996 or so, due to Monaco and other starting to build motorhomes in the sub 200K range. The most popular were in the 100K to 150K range. RV Diesel Gensets were not that common. So the price was higher. Only on the higher line Diesel pushers. So, to get the price range in that 100K to 150K they installed converted Gas to LP gensets. a LOT cheaper to do that almost half the cost. So, once the market started building thousands of lower cost Diesel pushers the Genset makers(really Onan) upped production and with more volume the price came down. Also, OEM's started hearing from dealers and RV'ers about how upset they were on the time limitation of LP gensets. Back 23 years ago, we had brand new Monaco Diplomats have the LP gensets fail at delivery in hot weather. The Genset LP regulators gummed up and failed. After having about 4 of those happen one summer the Owner decided to NEVER order another Diesel Motorhome with an LP genset. We ordered and optioned the higher priced Diesel Genset. Doug
