Generator in Class C Rental

[jimlouisesophie]

I am renting a Class C Motor Home for 2 weeks, and the generator on board burns 4 litres (aprox. 1 gal.) per hour. I think this is very high, so thought about renting a Honda 2000W for $225 for two weeks.. I will be dry camping with no hook ups. Comments, please?

[Lwiddis]

$225 in gasoline savings by using a Honda just doesn't pencil out for a 14 day rental.

[jimlouisesophie]

One other thing, the RV company charges $100 for the use of the gen.

[jimlouisesophie]

Thx all for the replies...very helpful....I will go into further details..I am a Canadian, renting a 24 to 28 ft Class C and will be leaving from Whitehorse, Yukon to Dawson City, Yukon and will have the rental for 11 days, all but the last day will be dry camping, with no hookups and the campgrounds I will be staying in will be within 20 kms (12 miles ) between each other, and the rental will be from June 2 to June 13. The rental company tells me it is a 4000 W Cummins Onan, which is a very large unit, and burns 4 litres (aprox 1 gal. per hour) In Canada fuel is priced at $1.75 a litre Canadian, which converts to something like $7 Canadian per gallon, so one can see that it is very expensive to run..a rental Honda 2000 watt will cost me $300 Canadian for 2 weeks. The RV rental company recommends running the gen for 2 hours in am and 2 hours in pm..If u crunch the numbers, one can see that it will be very expensive to run the onboard gen..I am sure I will have comments on this info I have submitted...Thx, Jim

[klutchdust]

Bumpyroad wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Well, here's my opinion.

Assuming the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon (US), and the on-board generator uses 1 gallon an hour, for the $225, you can run the on-board generator for 90 hours. That means over a 14 day period, you can run the generator for 6.42 hours each day and will cost you $225.

If you rent, you have to pay the $225 for the generator and then still pay fuel. If the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon and the generator burns 1 gallon every 4 hours, to run the rental generator for the first 90 hours, it will cost you $56.25 for fuel and $225 for the rental for a total of $281.25

If it were me, I'd just use the on-board generator and have nothing else to worry about.

yep, and where and how are you going to transport this generator/and extra gasoline.


bumpy

Yes, and then chain it up or put it inside each time you leave the rig. I say go with the onboard unit and add it into the cost of having an enjoyable time. Fun costs money.

[ron_dittmer]

Hi Jim, Louise and Sophie,

As others have commented, 1 gallon of fuel per hour sounds quite high for a typical 4000 watt Onan which is the most common generator installed in class C motor homes. I estimate half that at 1/2 gallon of gas per hour.

If your rental class C has two air conditioners on the roof, then maybe you have the larger Onan 7000 watt generator that consumes double the amount of gas.

Regardless, a little 2000 watt Honda will have it's advantages if your plan is to run it 24/7. The noise from an Onan running for 2 weeks straight would make me nuts, but that would not be the case with a little Honda. The little Honda won't power up much though. You might be able to power a small microwave, or a small space heater but not at the same time. A little Honda is nice for battery maintenance, TV watching, computer and internet, low power activity like that.

If camping remotely with no plan to move for the duration of your stay, plan on carrying lots of extra gas in gas cans. It's hard to say, but maybe four 5 gallon cans to keep a little Honda running for a 2 week period. I really don't know.

The Onan running 2 weeks straight will require roughly 170 gallons of gas...Yikes!

Are you certain you will need to run a generator for the entire 2 week period? Most people boon docking run the generator as needed which for us is less than 2 hours a day, but we don't hang out at the camp site all day either. You will have to run an Onan constantly if requiring constant air conditioning in the summer or space heat in the winter.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Just use the built in generator.

[carringb]

1 GPH is likely the full-load rating. It'll be closer to 1/3rd of that at partial load, such as charging the battery bank.

Also, the V10 burns 0.6 GPH at idle, so that's an option for charging batteries too. And if it has a basic converter, the alternator will charge the battery bank faster anyways. And it makes far less noise.

[Bumpyroad]

DutchmenSport wrote:
Well, here's my opinion.

Assuming the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon (US), and the on-board generator uses 1 gallon an hour, for the $225, you can run the on-board generator for 90 hours. That means over a 14 day period, you can run the generator for 6.42 hours each day and will cost you $225.

If you rent, you have to pay the $225 for the generator and then still pay fuel. If the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon and the generator burns 1 gallon every 4 hours, to run the rental generator for the first 90 hours, it will cost you $56.25 for fuel and $225 for the rental for a total of $281.25

If it were me, I'd just use the on-board generator and have nothing else to worry about.

yep, and where and how are you going to transport this generator/and extra gasoline.
bumpy

[DutchmenSport]

Well, here's my opinion.

Assuming the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon (US), and the on-board generator uses 1 gallon an hour, for the $225, you can run the on-board generator for 90 hours. That means over a 14 day period, you can run the generator for 6.42 hours each day and will cost you $225.

If you rent, you have to pay the $225 for the generator and then still pay fuel. If the price of gasoline is $2.50 a gallon and the generator burns 1 gallon every 4 hours, to run the rental generator for the first 90 hours, it will cost you $56.25 for fuel and $225 for the rental for a total of $281.25

If it were me, I'd just use the on-board generator and have nothing else to worry about.

[way2roll]

How do you know the onboard generator burns 1/gal per hr? That seems really high even running the AC. Also, I am certain somewhere in your contract you are going to be charged for generator usage by the hour. So it's not just the cost of fuel,but the cost of the charge at the rental company for the hours used. It adds up. But read the fine print. There maybe a clause in your contract that you are not allowed to use another generator to power the unit. Either the onboard generator or an approved power supply, like at a campground. If something were to happen to the electrical system, and they knew it was from another generator, it could be on you to pay to fix it.

We used to own an RV rental business, I assure you there are charges for miles per day, generator usage, cleaning fees etc. The cost of the rental itself is only part of the cost and read your fine print. We used to mandate no boondocking, but we were pretty particular.

[MDKMDK]

How long are you planning on running the generator?
Will you be somewhere where the weather will be cold and rainy?
Will your generator hours be restricted by campground rules?

The Honda will burn less fuel, but the convenience of pushing a button on the inside of the motorhome, outweighs the cost of the extra fuel burned, in my opinion.

Also, you're already paying for the onboard generator, and the rental cost of the Honda will offset the difference in fuel usage.

1 gallon per hour does seem high. What size/make of generator is it? I might start by confirming the fuel consumption rate of the onboard generator.

Skip the rental, go with the included generator.

[opnspaces]

Are you dry camping in a campground or boondocking somewhere like out in the middle of the desert? The reason I ask is I the Honda is a high theft item. So if in a campground I would probably go with the onboard generator because it can't be picked up and carried away. Out boondocking I might go with the Honda as it is quieter and can be plugged in at the end of the shore power cable with the exhaust pointed away from camp (but not at your neighbors camp)