Can run down the roared with gen-set and house air on

[scubastu]

The dash AC went out yesterday ( very hot in unit) We are 4.5 hours from dealer. My question is can a person drive the unit with the gen-set running and coach AC unit on of the motorhomes? Not sure if it would damage any electronics?

[Bruce_Brown]

We do it all the time. No worries.

[mtrumpet]

Sure! We do it all the time. Much better to use the gen-set rather than let it sit unused.

[stardalo]

I am really surprised people ask this question so much. And yes, I have ran that genny non-stop during most of my summer travel days. Could not do it without it.

[AllegroD]

I'll pile on. Yup. Do it a lot.

[dalerussel]

We live in Arizona so in the summer, we need both the dash an coach ACs on while driving. If we don't, it takes a long time to cool the coach after we have stopped for the day. The Onan manual says it costs just under a gal per hour on our gas coach. This cost is well worth it for our comfort.

[et2]

Yes. If it draws fuel from your main gas tank it will probably only draw to about a 1/4 of a tank. This is so you don't run out and get stranded while camping.

[wa8yxm]

Most of us who travel in the south in teh summer do run both Dash air and House air,, You need all the air you can get.. No problem.. Generator is designed to run while driving.

[Effy]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

GlennLever wrote:
On hot days the dash A/C cannot keep up so I run the generator and house A/C all the time.

I guess there are more advantages to having a "small" RV than I thought. :B

The truck AC in my C (Ford E450) is adequate to cool the whole thing in any conditions I've experienced so far.

It takes a little while to get really comfortable but after that, fine.

My only concern running the engine AND the gen would be with trying to charge the batteries from TWO generator sources at the same time.
But it appears this is common practice and works fine.

Charging systems on newer rv's are smart enough to know what source to allow a charge to the batteries. The default is when it senses shore power, if no shore power then gen, if no gen then engine alt. But it won't attempt to charge from multiple sources.

[Vulcan_Rider]

GlennLever wrote:
On hot days the dash A/C cannot keep up so I run the generator and house A/C all the time.

I guess there are more advantages to having a "small" RV than I thought. :B

The truck AC in my C (Ford E450) is adequate to cool the whole thing in any conditions I've experienced so far.

It takes a little while to get really comfortable but after that, fine.

My only concern running the engine AND the gen would be with trying to charge the batteries from TWO generator sources at the same time.
But it appears this is common practice and works fine.

[GlennLever]

On hot days the dash A/C cannot keep up so I run the generator and house A/C all the time.

[tropical36]

scubastu wrote:
The dash AC went out yesterday ( very hot in unit) We are 4.5 hours from dealer. My question is can a person drive the unit with the gen-set running and coach AC unit on of the motorhomes? Not sure if it would damage any electronics?

I think most of us use the genset when in hot weather for the roof ac's and other things. Just never use ours, while sleeping. Many dash ac's don't even work and considered pretty much useless by many and lucky if they can cool a large car in real heat, like with the tropics in summer and the desert southwest.

[gemert]

I almost always do.

[Billinwoodland]

I like to run the gen at times while traveling to just exercise the generator. Seems to burn around 1/2gallon of fuel per hour.

[Effy]

Yes. That's what it's there for. We never use the dash AC. It's far less efficient at cooling the coach than the central air.