Returning Escapees

[maryfair]

My husband and I were full-timers from 2007 through 2010 and were members of Escapees.. We are now looking at a used 30 ft. Class A gas motor home which we would like to buy and travel in as much as possible. I have pulmonary hypertension and am on oxygen 24/7. I use an oxygen concentrator which must be plugged in to a 110 volt electrical source. Is it possible (reasonable?) to run an rv gas generator 24/7? 

Edited September 5, 2020 by maryfair

[Kirk W]

First let me welcome you back home! We are happy to hear that you are back.

As to the oxygen concentrator, there is no problem with operating the generator set to supply power to it but that may not be the only way to do so. As far as I can discover, the typical unit draws about 6A of current at 120V. You could easily operate that from RV park power when not actually on the road. The 6a would mean about 60a from the batteries if you were to use a 12V/120V inverter, which is a lot for the coach alternator to supply via the batteries. 

[maryfair]

Thank you, Kirk. I remembered that Pam used oxygen and I was hoping you would offer some advice on this. I should have said in the original post that we are hoping to do a good deal of boondocking (on BLM land) so we wouldn't be on RV park power. We thought we would only use the batteries in case of emergency. I was concerned that it might not be good for the generator to run it 24/7 for days at a time.

[Dutch_12078]

38 minutes ago, maryfair said:

Thank you, Kirk. I remembered that Pam used oxygen and I was hoping you would offer some advice on this. I should have said in the original post that we are hoping to do a good deal of boondocking (on BLM land) so we wouldn't be on RV park power. We thought we would only use the batteries in case of emergency. I was concerned that it might not be good for the generator to run it 24/7 for days at a time.

The generator doesn't care how long it runs as long as it's maintained on schedule, but any nearby neighbors may. You might check with your insurance company to see if they will approve a portable concentrator that runs on its own battery or direct 12-volt power without the inverter overhead. My wife is also on 24/7 oxygen and was just approved for a portable unit in addition to her full sized 110 volt concentrator. She'll also be able to keep one large tank for emergency use. She did have to be tested by the medical rental company to determine which portable machine was bested suited to her condition.

[Kirk W]

Pam was diagnosed with copd, but wasn't on oxygen although she used a lot of inhalers. As fate would have it, things changed dramatically about 7 years ago when she had an attack and we went to a small town emergency room. The doctors thought, as we did, that she was having a heart attack, but that proved to not be the case at all but rather respiratory convulsions. The cardiologist there pushed to get her tested furnther and it was determined that the problem was actually caused by acid reflux getting into the airways. Now they have gotten better control of the reflux and her respiratory issues are mostly over. 

Getting back to the generator, it probably wouldn't hurt to operate it continuously for extended periods, most gasoline generators do recommend servicing at periods between 50 and 100 hours of runtime. The longest continuous operation of ours that I ever did without stop was 4 days and I did an oil & filter change as soon as that was finished. I would be concerned about relying on it continuously for more than a week, nonstop. Pam's health was one of the reasons that we did very little dry camping and that was usually in a parking lot for a single night. She had problems with dust or heavy pollens and had to wear a charcoal filter mask most of the real boondocking locations. 

[sandsys]

Can you use solar panels on that rig to help charge the batteries? That would let you run longer without the generator--hopefully all night so you won't bother neighbors trying to sleep.

Linda

Sorry; forgot to say welcome back which is where I should have started.

Edited September 5, 2020 by sandsys

[Twotoes]

Before I had my Class A I had a toy hauler for 5 years. I once went on a 3 day weekend outing with friends and it was extremely hot so we ran the generator non stop for the 3 days in order to run the air conditioners.  I did have to go to town several times with multiple 5 gal gas cans to refuel the tank to keep the generator running. 

[maryfair]

Dutch,

Thanks for the suggestion regarding a portable concentrator. I am on 3 ml oxygen continuous flow and there are only a couple of portable concentrators that produce that. I believe you can get up to 6 ml using pulse delivery but that does not work for me. Since this lung disease is progressive, if I bought a portable concentrator I could end up with inadequate oxygen in a matter of months. We are considering buying one anyway since there don't appear to be a lot of options.

[maryfair]

Kirk,

I'm glad to hear that Pam's respiratory problems have improved.

I mislead everyone when I said the coach we are considering buying has a gas generator--it is a PROPANE generator.

[maryfair]

Linda,

We were originally planning to use solar panels as the coach is pre-wired for them but it appears to be a rather expensive undertaking and were hoping there was a cheaper alternative. We never planned to run our generator all night in a place where we had neighbors--we've been next to people who did that. We were planning to use park power in RV parks and were looking for a solution for boondocking on BLM land.

Thanks for the welcome.

[maryfair]

Twotoes,

I wrote the wrong thing--our generator is not gasoline, it is propane. I think of propane as a gas and I have a LOT of senior moments. Sorry.

[Chad Heiser]

Just be aware that a propane generator will use A Lot of propane if run 24/7.  Depending on how big your propane tank is, it may be your limiting factor on how long you can stay.

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, maryfair said:

I said the coach we are considering buying has a gas generator--it is a PROPANE generator.

I would strongly advise against a coach that has a propane generator for your uses. The generator will burn between 1/4 and 1/2 gallon of propane per hour of run time. To have a propane tank on a class A that has much more than 20 usable gallons of propane would be very unusual so you are looking at needing propane every 2 to 3 days, just to operate the generator. A gasoline generator would burn fuel from the main gasoline tank which will be 75 gallons on most Ford chassis or at least 5 days between trips for fuel and probably a little more. The time that we operated our generator for 4 days nonstop, it was to keep 2 air conditioners running which would each draw about 8 - 12a when operating. In the 4 days we burned less than 1/2 tank of fuel with a 75 gallon tank. 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Kirk W

[Barbaraok]

Kirk, we have a 40 gallon propane tank, which means 32 gallons when full.  That’s why we go 2+ yrs between  refills, usually 20 gallons or so when we find cheap propane on our travels.  
 

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

Kirk, we have a 40 gallon propane tank, which means 32 gallons when full.

But they are looking at a 30' RV which is highly unlikely to have that much propane, and even so it would still be limiting at 1/2 gallon per hour. 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Kirk W

[ms60ocb]

Welcome back  Very interesting discussion regarding the O2 generators

Clay     It helps me understand two of my friends difficulties also

[Barbaraok]

Kirk, yes, I know that they are looking at something smaller.  Just putting in a little side note that larger than 20 gallon tanks are not that unusual in motorhomes, especially larger gas and diesel Class As.     And do agree with having generator run on the fuel the vehicle engine uses.

[maryfair]

Thanks to all who contributed information to this thread. My husband went to look at the Class A we were interested in and it turns out it has a gasoline generator and the miscommunication was not due to my senior moment--the original ad said the coach had a propane generator but then the picture showed what I was pretty sure was a diesel or gasoline one.

We decided against purchasing the coach because we have not figured out how I can have oxygen 24/7 without running a generator. We will continue to investigate. 

[rpsinc]

Keep in mind that gas powered generators, even those installed into the MH, can be converted to run on propane.  I have a Yamaha 6600 that I converted and it works well but does use lots of LP.  A MH tank can only be filled by going to the fueling station but can also add accomodations for portables tanks.  As well, might a dedicated battery bank with solar and an inverter for just this purpose be an option?  Then the generator can be used as a backup for those times when sun isnt enough to charge the batteries sufficiently. 

[Kirk W]

A gas generator would run far longer between refueling because of the much larger fuel tank.