RV for commercial use

[InfoSeeker18]

Hey all!

My wife and I are considering purchasing an RV to run a small business out of.  To fully consider this option, I need to better understand my power options.  I have done a bit of research but I am struggling to find a single source (or combination of sources) that answer all of my questions so I am hoping some of you knowledgeable folks can help fill in the gaps! 

Backstory:  We plan to buy a used RV in the range of $20,000 - $25,000.  My research suggests this would leave me with a 2005 model at the newest.  The rig would travel locally around 40 miles per weekday.  It will spend most of the days parked with no access to outside electricity.  While parked, I will need to run approximately a half dozen fluorescent lights, heat in the winter, AC in the summer and 6-7 outlets.  The outlets will be powering laptops and coffee machines.  All of this will run pretty much constantly for 11 hours per day. 

I understand there are there are a multitude of power sources including batteries, shore power, generators (gas and propane?) and solar/wind options.  From what I can tell, I would likely be able run the lights and outlets off the batteries for a full day but the larger challenge is the AC and heat.  To minimize my carbon footprint, I would like to avoid running the engine or gas powered generator all day.  Considering my power needs, am I going to find an RV in my price range that will meet my needs?  If so, are there specific power sources that would be a must to accommodate my situation?  If not, are there cost effective modifications I can do to meet my needs?  Are there other potential challenges I am missing?

Admittedly, I am pretty ignorant in this space so I appreciate your patience and assistance.  I am happy to provide clarifications in the event I am omitting obvious information.

Thank you in advance!

[Jack Mayer]

Your major issue is power. Not an unusual situation. Your power demands will be relatively high if you need air conditioning and power for coffee machines. You said plural so I'm perhaps incorrectly assuming a coffee-based business. If so, the coffee machines will be a major power draw. If, however, these are occasional use machine(s) like in an office environment, this will reduce the electrical load.  

Air conditioning, from a practical perspective, will require an engine driven power source of some form. You will now hear from all those that believe air conditioning can be run from solar panels and batteries - and that is true under some limited set of circumstances and with significant compromises in space cooled, time run, and budget. On a reasonable budget like you describe, and assuming that you need AC for a significant part of the day, you need an engine-driven, or shore power source for your AC needs. While there may be compromises you can make, realistically if you need air conditioning all day, as well as significant power for coffee machines, you are going to HAVE to run a genset for long periods of time, EVEN WITH a significant investment in solar/inverter(s)/batteries. When I say significant, I mean in the 20K area and up.

[Kirk W]

6 hours ago, InfoSeeker18 said:

My wife and I are considering purchasing an RV to run a small business out of. 

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We will try to help you as much as possible. 

Am I correct to assume that when you say RV you actually mean a motorized RV and not a travel trailer or fifth wheel? For the budget that you have your age estimate is accurate for gasoline powered, class A motorhomes. If you were to switch to a towable RV it would expand your options a great deal.

Before I get too far, let me comment on the author of the first response. Jack is probably the most experienced with solar and alternative power sources of anyone who is currently active on these forums. He has a great deal of that sort of information on his website and he has been living in his RV while earning a living for a long time so pay close attention to what he has to say. 

Now I will add to what Jack has said. From your description, you are probably going to need to strip the interior of an RV that you would buy and convert it to the business vehicle that you need. That leaves me wondering if you would not be better off to shop for a delivery truck such as used by UPS and build from scratch? We could probably be of more help if we knew just a little bit more of what you plan to do with the chosen vehicle. 

[Dutch_12078]

Consider too, if you're running multiple laptops and coffee machines, along with the people needed to operate them,  the heat gain may be more than the standard one or two 13.5 or 15K BTU AC's on RV's can deal with. Adding additional AC capacity of course, means even higher power requirements. As Kirk said, if we knew more about your intended operation, we might be of more help.

[FL-JOE]

Once you start to figure out all your power needs and solutions it will no doubt point you in a certain direction on a more exact size and model of RV for your business.  The next major hurdle in my mind is once you go on the road in that company RV  aren't you a commercial vehicle instead of a recreational vehicle?  That will open up a whole list of different issues that you will have to address but should be considered in your budget.

[TXiceman]

I think once you start running a commercial business out of your RV, you will become a commercial vehicle and now looking at a commercial drivers license and insurance.

Ken

[InfoSeeker18]

Hey all-

Thank you so much for your time and information.  Off the top, what I am really talking about is a mobile barbershop with three chairs.  Clippers, blow dryers and the like would likely be running constantly and I will use a laptop on outlet power to run the point of sale system.  The coffee machine in question would likely be a Keurig.   I expect (hope) to have an average 8-10 bodies in the RV at once.  I am in Colorado so the climate can reach relative extremes on both ends of the spectrum.  I apologize for the vagueness on these details in the original post.    

As the comfort of our clients is paramount, I do not want to have to worry about power at all.  Based on Jack's response it sounds like I will need to run off of a generator of some sort.  That begs the question, considering my energy needs, which size/fuel source generator would be most effective?  I assume that would dictate the Model RV I select or is it cost effective to pull and replace a generator?  I would definitely consider solar and other electric options down the road but at this point cost is the primary consideration.

Kirk, I have considered the 5th wheel/travel trailer options and am still leaning towards the Class A motorhome.  A large consideration for this is I do not have a truck that would be adequate to pull a trailer.  Purchasing one would offset most or all of the savings of going that route.  You are correct that I plan to strip the RV interior pretty much entirely and rebuild which I feel comfortable doing.  I did consider the box truck but I do not feel comfortable building out the infrastructure for plumbing and electric....also I would probably lose a chair due to length restraints.  Which brings me to my final question.  I believe I can re-purpose an existing sink for my shampoo station but I am curious to understand the complexity and cost of moving the bathroom (sink and toilet) to a back corner of the RV.   It is not a deal breaker to leave it where it is  but if it is not too expensive complex, I would certainly entertain it.

I will likely need to jump through the CDL hoops but am still researching the applicable regulations in Colorado.  As you can imagine, there aren't many resources to provide insight for my exact situation.

Again, thank you all so much for your insight!  As this project develops I am sure I will have a number of questions and it is so reassuring knowing there are folks like yourselves out there that are eager to help a "noob" like me!

Thanks,

Tom

[noteven]

A sturdy gooseneck cargo trailer, well insulated, a sound enclosed low rpm diesel generator on auto start, many 300 watt solar panels including some that make a fold up patio awning, mini splits for climate control, heat recovery ventilation, windows where you need them. Low entry height for customers. 

Scrounge the generator etc from used parts sources.

Think outside the rv box. 

[sandsys]

This is a fascinating idea! If you don't mind me asking, why mobile?

Be aware that A/C units generally are roof mounted which decreases the space available for solar panels. Anything which creates heat, such as blow dryers, also increases the need for power. Also, motorhomes are not very wide so getting four chairs in with one sink is probably going to make for very narrow aisles. The generator fuel will likely depend on the rig's fuel; diesel powered rigs often have diesel powered generators. I'm sure there are more things I could add but this is off the top of my head.

I hope you come back and tell us more about your thinking.

Linda Sand

[Twotoes]

Take a look at purchasing a used Red Cross Blood Mobil. They most likely have the A/C and power requirements already modified in the RV since no one wants to donate blood in a very hot motorhome. Just a thought. 

[sandsys]

56 minutes ago, rm.w/aview said:

Some neat rigs in the search result for mobile barbershop 

Wow! Who knew?

Linda

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, rm.w/aview said:

Some neat rigs in the search result for mobile barbershop 

If you intended to leave a link, I didn't find it so I went out looking and did find these pictures. InfoSeeker18, you may want to look those over for ideas. 

[rynosback]

10 hours ago, Twotoes said:

Take a look at purchasing a used Red Cross Blood Mobil. They most likely have the A/C and power requirements already modified in the RV since no one wants to donate blood in a very hot motorhome. Just a thought. 

I think this is a great option.  They usually have 2-3 A/C units on the roof.

[MidMOTraveler]

We set a 20k diesel  gen set for a farm operation just before I retired. 

Unit and install ran just under $12k and they provided the fuel storage. That thing was way to big for an rv to haul. 

Good Luck sounds like a great idea but I think doing it around Snowbird parks down south would be great! 

[Carlos]

You might want to look at a box trailer that you get built out custom to your needs.

On the electricity question, you will definitely need to run a generator to support this.  You'd need a ridiculous amount of batteries and inverter power to do it otherwise.  Solar--forget it--no way.  Many RVs have built-in generators, or you can buy a very quiet inverter generator and mount it on a rear platform.  I have an iGen4500DF which can run the AC, microwave/convection oven, and several other appliances all at once.  Running it on propane means very little exhaust fumes and CO.  However keep in mind that the generator will lose about 10% of its power capacity when running on propane.

The coffee machines use around 1500-1800 watts while heating, and very little when just idling.  The blow dryers are in the exact same range when on high.  Clippers use very little power.  The AC units are typically 1300-1500 while running, BUT, they take much more to start up.  In your situation I very strongly recommend adding a soft start kit to each AC unit, which is around $300 each.  But they almost remove all of the startup load.  So basically you just need to add up your loads and then get a generator to match.  Also you can parallel many generators to double their power.