Propane vs. Diesel Generator...is the diesel a benefit or not?

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by Mrprez

Thanks, we are very comfortable in there, though sometimes I wish we had the rear sleeper.

So, you use the twins or put something in the middle for a King?


When you said "noisy"....are you saying it's as noisy as an old air cooled VW Beetle?

What was the mileage when you purchased...55,000 miles... these people didn't really get their money's worth?

You didn't say anything about how much you paid??

YES...2.7 inline 5 cylinder... great MPG... better than my 3 litre V6.... good for you..

Those inter cooler hoses must have just gone from age.. definitely NOT mileage....

When I get home from the Grand Canyon next week.. I'll have about 43,000 miles on my 2012....

. And then . going back across the USA which will bring it close to the 50,000 miles....

Miles to me are LESS IMPORTANT than years....

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Mrprez

Thanks, we are very comfortable in there, though sometimes I wish we had the rear sleeper.

Yeah, the center bed is a bit of a hassle when you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But, you just can't beat the wide-open panorama that you get up front in exchange. We miss that part.

Plus, that little rear galley is SO cute.

[Mrprez]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

So, you use the twins or put something in the middle for a King?


When you said "noisy"....are you saying it's as noisy as an old air cooled VW Beetle?

What was the mileage when you purchased...55,000 miles... these people didn't really get their money's worth?

You didn't say anything about how much you paid??

YES...2.7 inline 5 cylinder... great MPG... better than my 3 litre V6.... good for you..

Those inter cooler hoses must have just gone from age.. definitely NOT mileage....

When I get home from the Grand Canyon next week.. I'll have about 43,000 miles on my 2012....

. And then . going back across the USA which will bring it close to the 50,000 miles....

Miles to me are LESS IMPORTANT than years....

We paid $46,500. I’ve seen the exact same thing sell recently at RVT for $53,000.

The lower hose was oil soaked and the upper soft from age.

I misspoke on the mileage, we have 76,000 miles. 11,500 to Alaska and back, about 1700 from Az. It must have had about 62,000. It was in like new condition. I think the original owners only used it for transportation and did not camp in it.

[Mrprez]

Originally Posted by avanti

Yeah, the center bed is a bit of a hassle when you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But, you just can't beat the wide-open panorama that you get up front in exchange. We miss that part.

Plus, that little rear galley is SO cute.

When we first saw it, we thought...no way will this ever work...but we adapted and have a routine that works pretty well. We love it.

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by Mrprez

We paid $46,500. I’ve seen the exact same thing sell recently at RVT for $53,000.

The lower hose was oil soaked and the upper soft from age.

I misspoke on the mileage, we have 76,000 miles. 11,500 to Alaska and back, about 1700 from Az. It must have had about 62,000. It was in like new condition. I think the original owners only used it for transportation and did not camp in it.

See these two links below,

2007 Airstream Interstate-22 Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

2007 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous (Sprinter) Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

Over time it doesn't pay to trade up especially if it's working for you...

The value deprecation in the first three years are extremely high...

I would argue that the amount of money you stand to lose in deprecation on a brand new or even late model within four years... would NOT equal the amount of money you'd have to pay for repairs.....the deprecation could be as high as $45,000 or more..

Because I purchased my coach in 2017 .... five years old ..my deprecation is likely to be higher than yours.

By the way....we had a opportunity to go to Alaska this past May 2018... after getting back home in mid December...we both decided to skip the Alaska trip... another 7,000 or so
miles approximately from Los Angeles.......

Does the noise levels of the 2007 bother you??? I remember having some pretty noisy cars a while ago and I found them to be quite fatiguing.... I wonder if the 2nd owners who kept the rig only a short time had issues with this...

---MARK

[Mrprez]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

See these two links below,

2007 Airstream Interstate-22 Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

2007 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous (Sprinter) Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

Over time it doesn't pay to trade up especially if it's working for you...

The value deprecation in the first three years are extremely high...

I would argue that the amount of money you stand to lose in deprecation on a brand new or even late model within four years... would NOT equal the amount of money you'd have to pay for repairs.....the deprecation could be as high as $45,000 or more..

Because I purchased my coach in 2017 .... five years old ..my deprecation is likely to be higher than yours.

By the way....we had a opportunity to go to Alaska this past May 2018... after getting back home in mid December...we both decided to skip the Alaska trip... another 7,000 or so
miles approximately from Los Angeles.......

Does the noise levels of the 2007 bother you??? I remember having some pretty noisy cars a while ago and I found them to be quite fatiguing.... I wonder if the 2nd owners who kept the rig only a short time had issues with this...

---MARK

It isn't that bad. I've had noisy vehicles in the past. The noise that bothers me most is wind noise and the Airstream doesn't have that. It's a big tin can going down the road. Gonna be loud.

No, I think she suffered from fibromyalgia and just couldn't get comfortable. They made one trip and that was that. When I won the auction, the seller was really upset that it went for his reserve price. He had it listed on RVTrader for $59k! He was really pissed.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

See these two links below,

2007 Airstream Interstate-22 Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

2007 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous (Sprinter) Prices and Used Values | NADAguides

Over time it doesn't pay to trade up especially if it's working for you...

The value deprecation in the first three years are extremely high...

I would argue that the amount of money you stand to lose in deprecation on a brand new or even late model within four years... would NOT equal the amount of money you'd have to pay for repairs.....the deprecation could be as high as $45,000 or more..

Because I purchased my coach in 2017 .... five years old ..my deprecation is likely to be higher than yours.

By the way....we had a opportunity to go to Alaska this past May 2018... after getting back home in mid December...we both decided to skip the Alaska trip... another 7,000 or so
miles approximately from Los Angeles.......

Does the noise levels of the 2007 bother you??? I remember having some pretty noisy cars a while ago and I found them to be quite fatiguing.... I wonder if the 2nd owners who kept the rig only a short time had issues with this...

---MARK

Mark,

You were asking before in this thread about an exhaust resonator for the Onan.

The PW that we have on order is supposed to come with one, and I did a little checking on Youtube about them.

There are several videos that show you the before / after comparison - this link should take you to one if interested in listening ......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zttg5sSs3G8

My impression is that the db level with or without may not be much different, however the nature of the exhaust noise is affected.

The more annoying higher frequency element seems reduced significantly and you just hear a lower frequency sound, albeit pretty much the same volume level.

To that extent I felt it was an improvement, and if the van did not come equipped with a resonator, I think I'd be looking to install one.

Not that expensive, under $100 I think.

The Onan seems quite a bit louder than the Honda EU2000i that we have been using with our trailer for years.

Hopefully we won't need to use the generator too often - when we do, it will likely be on cold nights at "Flying J" overnight stops en route, so noise shouldn't be a big concern compared to using it at a campground.

Most campgrounds we pick usually have at least electric if not full hookups.

Brian.

[Phoebe3]

We added a resonator to our Onan QG2800 gas generator. We had it welded in and I suspect that improves sound reduction. Cost of the resonator off of Amazon and the welding came to about $100. Sound reduction was about 9 dBa, making it only 3 dBa louder than the van engine at idle. We are considering adding another resonator to see if it reduces the sound further.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by Phoebe3

We added a resonator to our Onan QG2800 gas generator. We had it welded in and I suspect that improves sound reduction. Cost of the resonator off of Amazon and the welding came to about $100. Sound reduction was about 9 dBa, making it only 3 dBa louder than the van engine at idle. We are considering adding another resonator to see if it reduces the sound further.

Sounds very worthwhile.

I have read an increase of 3dB equates to doubling the sound pressure level - although it is said that it actually takes an increase of 10dB to create a "Perceived" doubling of the sound level.

Brian.

[Phoebe3]

To my ear, it dropped the volume by about a third, but also made the pitch more acceptable. Seemed to take out the really high frequency bits.

[BBQ]

.

I wonder if a muffler would work better than a resonator.

The resonator is a simple enlarged chamber along the exhaust pipe.

A muffler has multiple chambers to trap the sound.

Of course a muffler is more expensive.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by BBQ

.

I wonder if a muffler would work better than a resonator.

The resonator is a simple enlarged chamber along the exhaust pipe.

A muffler has multiple chambers to trap the sound.

Of course a muffler is more expensive.

You'd think that with all the complaints about noise from the Onan, that if a muffler would help they would install one at the factory! I'm guessing that being as it is an air cooled engine, a lot of the noise is radiated right from the cylinder fins rather than just the exhaust. Air cooled engines just naturally are noisy that liquid cooled as the liquid surrounding the cylinders damps the noise to a degree. Remember the original VW beetles were quite noisy with the four banger air cooled boxer engine.

Might be an interesting experiment though - but I wonder if the additional back pressure it would cause might have some negative implications.

Brian

[Storysrvwego]

Propane burns cleaner and will be much less likely to cause problems to the carburetion system versus the same generator with carb jetted to run on gasoline. My WB Travato has a gasoline generator and like all of my carburetor equipment, expect that it will never have a carb problem. Of course it might but my track record of no carb issues is because I start and run them roughly every three months if they are not being utilized. For example, I just started the walk behind snowblower the second time this year after the snow season just to keep gas running through it. keep gas tanks full or relatively full to minimize oxygen air space in the tank which minimizes condensed (moisture laden) air. To prove a point, I never use Sta-bil. I do not object to Sta-bil. It will not prevent gas issues based on utterly long term neglect of fuel usage. It does improve the chance that you will not have issues. But if your able to just start the equipment for a few minutes every few months and keep the tanks full or relatively full (minimize that oxygen air space!), You are likely to never have a problem. Oh, don't use gas from cans that have sat around forever too or your just feeding bad into your carbs right off the bat. We could imagine that an RV would have good gasoline cycled through it regularly. Unfortunately many RV's sit for long months at a time. The relatively tiny carburetor on a generator stands a good chance of being the first to clog up if neglected.

Propane generators are not louder than gasoline. They are not any quieter either. For second source of into, visit the fitrv.com site and find his video on this topic where James compares the decibel level of the gas, propane and diesel gen sets as they come in RV's without resonator additions.

As for diesel generators, these only come in motorized RV's that are using diesel for the vehicles engine. Makes sense of course to draw the fuel from the same tank. As for the limit of not being able to run the generator when the vehicles fuel tank gets down to 1/4 full, I don't think that is much of an issue for most RV's on the road. It it's complacent in an RV park for weeks or months on end, those are more likely to be running on shore power.

Generators in RV's for the most part, tend to sip the fuel at a reasonable rate but you still must think about it, especially if you are planning on using it over many days in a dry camp/no fuel station nearby situation.

A diesel generator is the most maintenance free with propane being a close second. As noted above, gas generators are a bit more fussy with fuel contamination/stale/bad gas. Diesel fuel actually can get nasty-bad but if your driving the RV at least a couple of times a year, your not likely to have properly stored diesel fuel issues ever. This is where propane shines the best. I suppose the only real down side to propane is the usage rate is higher and you have to have a propane tank on board. Unless you actually had a propane powered RV to share its tank with.

A few new Class B's have circumvented having a traditional generator on board at all. These RV's such as a ERWIN HYMER GROUP of NORTH AMERICA model Activ 1.0 or 2.0 and a few others in their line will have a 2nd alternator on the vehicles engine dedicated to charging uber expensive but wonderful lithium batteries. This system was designed and implemented by ROADTREK which is now an EHGNA company. Supplemented with a few hundred watts of roof mounted solar panels and some pretty trick electronics, it is possible to never have to plug into shore power on your trips. This system is called VoltStart. Look for a switch on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel. If that switch is not there, that EHGNA RV does not have VoltStart. This is not a dealer install able item after the RV was built at the factory.

The Voltstart system had growing pains but I believe ROADTREK/EHGNA has it nailed down now. The only issue I know of is that the alternator's size and where it has to be mounted may (not heard of any reports) get nailed by parking at a high curb in front of the RV. The other issue is this particular alternator is 12 volts and the high current demand can make it run fairly hot. The heat can cause the output current to limit but I haven't heard of any particular problems with this either.

WINNEBAGO is another major RV company that has a system available now as an option in some of their 2019 models. The significant difference between the EHGNA and WB systems is two is that the WB system which was designed by an outside firm utilizes a smaller diameter, higher voltage (48 volt) alternator. There are definite advantages to utilize an alternator higher higher voltage versus current draw. The downside is these alternators are spendier than the 12v ones used on select models of RoadTrek/EHGNA uses. There are other RV companies moving this way too. The best of these systems will automatically start the vehicles engine when parked, if the lithium batteries need recharging that the solar system could not sufficiently supply. The vehicles engine is far more quiet than an Onan and it is actually cleaner burning. Fuel usage during the battery recharge time is rather insignificant.

The common ONAN under chassis generator remains the standard but the new system just described is gaining ground as a standard or optional item. This design is currently more expensive than a typical generator. The weight after removing a generator and putting lithium battery(s) in it's place is about a wash. The vehicle engine being quiet and only running for very short periods of time in comparison to an Onan droning on potentially for hours on end is obviously a welcome point during the day or night with other campers nearby.

The new stuff is great but the old standby type generators are fine albeit a bit noisy. Just start them up once in awhile for several minutes and keep them maintained, especially the gasoline powered units. You will get many years out of them.

[Dan680fl]

Powertec Generators out of Leesburg Florida makes a 3kw diesel generator that bolts under the Sprinter models. I owned the 3kw and two of their 5kw generators. The later are frame mounted on Freightliner chassis. I’ve had excellent experience on all of them. The 3kw burned 1 gal about every 8.5 hours running a 13k btu roof air. Very easy to service even though it’s under the Sprinter.

[booster]

Why do I feel like I just read a Roadtrek propaganda bulletin?

[Dan680fl]

Sorry it came across like that. I own a Winnebago ERA with the propane generator but, I am looking at installing another Powertec to replace the propane unit. The Powertec 3kw I previously owned was on a Hino custom build.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Dan680fl

Sorry it came across like that. I own a Winnebago ERA with the propane generator but, I am looking at installing another Powertec to replace the propane unit. The Powertec 3kw I previously owned was on a Hino custom build.

Not your post, sorry for the confusion