All electric coaches & dry camping

[EmpirE231]

I am considering an all electric coach (always had propane before) and wanted some real world feedback on how bad this sucks, or does not suck in the desert / dry camping?

The one I'm looking at currently has no solar... it has a residential fridge and electric stove.  This one does have 8 AGM batteries, which 4 of them are on a separate inverter, designated to just the fridge. It does have aquahot for the heat / water heater etc 

will I be running the heck out of the generator? or will it be more of a morning run for an hour or two, and again in the evening?

 

[1tonfun]

Friend has one and the generator kicks on every night around 2am. Sucks dry camping next to him in the forest when you want peace and quiet and have to listen to the generator run for an your when your trying to sleep.

 

[Jaybird95]

I have a buddy running the same setup and he said that he has to run the genny 2 hours a day without solar.

I believe he added a bunch of solar this off season.

 

[EmpirE231]

Friend has one and the generator kicks on every night around 2am. Sucks dry camping next to him in the forest when you want peace and quiet and have to listen to the generator run for an your when your trying to sleep.

we all know there is no peace and quiet in glamis lol...... this does have the quiet diesel onan 8K... which are pretty dang quiet at least. 

 

[1tonfun]

we all know there is no peace and quiet in glamis lol...... this does have the quiet diesel onan 8K... which are pretty dang quiet at least. 

There is no quiet in glamis. In the woods it's a different story LOL.

 

[Bansh88]

Most (if not all) my Glamis trips are peaceful and quiet.   Just have to plan and give some effort. 

As far as camping without electricity, Prayers Sent.....

 

[Dockmaster]

Friend has one and the generator kicks on every night around 2am. Sucks dry camping next to him in the forest when you want peace and quiet and have to listen to the generator run for an your when your trying to sleep.

Your friend can turn this off he wanted to. Every Auto Gen Start module has a function to set it so it doesn't turn on at a specified time. Usually set them from like 10 pm - 8 am 

 

[1tonfun]

Your friend can turn this off he wanted to. Every Auto Gen Start module has a function to set it so it doesn't turn on at a specified time. Usually set them from like 10 pm - 8 am 

did not know that, my coach doesn't have an auto start feature.

 

[Lord of the Dunes]

Friend has one and the generator kicks on every night around 2am. Sucks dry camping next to him in the forest when you want peace and quiet and have to listen to the generator run for an your when your trying to sleep.

He could be considerate and run his genny in the afternoon/evening and top off his batteries by 9 pm.

If he was considerate.

 

[tjZ06]

I am considering an all electric coach (always had propane before) and wanted some real world feedback on how bad this sucks, or does not suck in the desert / dry camping?

The one I'm looking at currently has no solar... it has a residential fridge and electric stove.  This one does have 8 AGM batteries, which 4 of them are on a separate inverter, designated to just the fridge. It does have aquahot for the heat / water heater etc 

will I be running the heck out of the generator? or will it be more of a morning run for an hour or two, and again in the evening?

My Dutch Star and now my Mountain Aire are both all-electric with an Oasis hydronic heater (different brand, but same deal as an Aquahot).  I love it, and wouldn't go any other way if it's an option.  It's soooooooooo nice never having to worry about propane.  The Oasis sips fuel for both heat and hot water, if you come in with a pretty full tank you could probably have hot water/heat fo-ev-ah.  The Oasis also is way more effective and even in heating the coach (it has heat exchangers throughout the coach) and heats hot water super fast (it's on-demand, so when hooked up you can take infinite showers).  My MA has a nice feature where there's a lever in the shower to have it recirculate water between the shower and the Oasis to get it all warmed up before you actually have it come out of the shower head to save water when dry camping too.

Neither my DS or the MA had/have solar.  Like what you're looking at, they have 8 big AGMs and have an inverter dedicated to the residential fridge.  If you're not running the generator for AC, then yeah you'll end up running it an hour or two daily.  I've gone 24+hrs with the fridge running, and other AC things (like the microwave) pulling power... but that's about it.  Any all-electric model will have genny auto-starts so you don't risk losing power and having the food in your fridge go bad (they do have programable quiet hours and stuff like that).  

In our case, our dogs are almost always with us, and they don't deal with heat well (Boston Terrier and a Boston/Frenchie), or at least my wife doesn't deal with the idea of them dealing with heat well.   As such, we end up running the genny a ton anyway so the all-electric aspect doesn't matter, and I've had no reason to do solar: I'm either on hookups or if I'm dry camping I run the genny for AC during the day.  

-TJ
 

 

[tjZ06]

Friend has one and the generator kicks on every night around 2am. Sucks dry camping next to him in the forest when you want peace and quiet and have to listen to the generator run for an your when your trying to sleep.

Next time you're out with your "friend" jump in his coach and set his generator auto-start quiet hours.  

-TJ

 

[EmpirE231]

My Dutch Star and now my Mountain Aire are both all-electric with an Oasis hydronic heater (different brand, but same deal as an Aquahot).  I love it, and wouldn't go any other way if it's an option.  It's soooooooooo nice never having to worry about propane.  The Oasis sips fuel for both heat and hot water, if you come in with a pretty full tank you could probably have hot water/heat fo-ev-ah.  The Oasis also is way more effective and even in heating the coach (it has heat exchangers throughout the coach) and heats hot water super fast (it's on-demand, so when hooked up you can take infinite showers).  My MA has a nice feature where there's a lever in the shower to have it recirculate water between the shower and the Oasis to get it all warmed up before you actually have it come out of the shower head to save water when dry camping too.

Neither my DS or the MA had/have solar.  Like what you're looking at, they have 8 big AGMs and have an inverter dedicated to the residential fridge.  If you're not running the generator for AC, then yeah you'll end up running it an hour or two daily.  I've gone 24+hrs with the fridge running, and other AC things (like the microwave) pulling power... but that's about it.  Any all-electric model will have genny auto-starts so you don't risk losing power and having the food in your fridge go bad (they do have programable quiet hours and stuff like that).  

In our case, our dogs are almost always with us, and they don't deal with heat well (Boston Terrier and a Boston/Frenchie), or at least my wife doesn't deal with the idea of them dealing with heat well.   As such, we end up running the genny a ton anyway so the all-electric aspect doesn't matter, and I've had no reason to do solar: I'm either on hookups or if I'm dry camping I run the genny for AC during the day.  

-TJ
 

Well that’s good to know! I thought maybe I’d be having to run the genny a lot... but and hour or so in the morning and evening is totally fine. I just didn’t know if I would NEED to add solar. I’d like to eventually just to offset it... but rather take my time if I can. 

 

[Lord of the Dunes]

Well that’s good to know! I thought maybe I’d be having to run the genny a lot... but and hour or so in the morning and evening is totally fine. I just didn’t know if I would NEED to add solar. I’d like to eventually just to offset it... but rather take my time if I can. 

It all depends on how much battery capacity you have, how powerful your battery charger is and how much power you've used. 

 

[In Excess]

Just ordered a 2023 renegade that is all or mostly electric, I’ll know in about 14 months how it works out. I ordered it with two inverters, solar, residential fridge, inductive stove, 2 agm 8d batteries. 

 

[b1stin]

My Dutch Star and now my Mountain Aire are both all-electric with an Oasis hydronic heater (different brand, but same deal as an Aquahot).  I love it, and wouldn't go any other way if it's an option.  It's soooooooooo nice never having to worry about propane.  The Oasis sips fuel for both heat and hot water, if you come in with a pretty full tank you could probably have hot water/heat fo-ev-ah.  The Oasis also is way more effective and even in heating the coach (it has heat exchangers throughout the coach) and heats hot water super fast (it's on-demand, so when hooked up you can take infinite showers).  My MA has a nice feature where there's a lever in the shower to have it recirculate water between the shower and the Oasis to get it all warmed up before you actually have it come out of the shower head to save water when dry camping too.

Neither my DS or the MA had/have solar.  Like what you're looking at, they have 8 big AGMs and have an inverter dedicated to the residential fridge.  If you're not running the generator for AC, then yeah you'll end up running it an hour or two daily.  I've gone 24+hrs with the fridge running, and other AC things (like the microwave) pulling power... but that's about it.  Any all-electric model will have genny auto-starts so you don't risk losing power and having the food in your fridge go bad (they do have programable quiet hours and stuff like that).  

In our case, our dogs are almost always with us, and they don't deal with heat well (Boston Terrier and a Boston/Frenchie), or at least my wife doesn't deal with the idea of them dealing with heat well.   As such, we end up running the genny a ton anyway so the all-electric aspect doesn't matter, and I've had no reason to do solar: I'm either on hookups or if I'm dry camping I run the genny for AC during the day.  

-TJ
 

Same with our Tuscany.  Wouldn't go back to propane

 

[GBR]

We have pretty much have the same set up as TJ in our Ventana we usually run the genny a couple times a day for an hour or two. The coach is all solar equipped just need to add the panels and controller that is on the list down the road. Absolutely  love the hydronics really like not having to worry about propane other than what I take for the camp stoves and out door heaters it’s a lot cooler here in Oregon on the coast so heaters are nice. I really think you would be happy with the all electric I know we are and I was skeptical when we bought it took me a bit to even try dry camping now don’t worry about it.

 

[tjZ06]

It all depends on how much battery capacity you have, how powerful your battery charger is and how much power you've used. 

Would you say you need to have enough power capacity for the things that need power, and enough of a method to recharge your batteries to restore that power capacity after the things that need power have used up said power? 

We have pretty much have the same set up as TJ in our Ventana we usually run the genny a couple times a day for an hour or two. The coach is all solar equipped just need to add the panels and controller that is on the list down the road. Absolutely  love the hydronics really like not having to worry about propane other than what I take for the camp stoves and out door heaters it’s a lot cooler here in Oregon on the coast so heaters are nice. I really think you would be happy with the all electric I know we are and I was skeptical when we bought it took me a bit to even try dry camping now don’t worry about it.

Mine is solar equipped (prep'ed) also, and I'll probably add it at some point.  Agree, when we first got the DS back in '16 I was skeptical but it was NEVER an issue, and not dealing with propane at all was 1000% worth it.

-TJ

 

[EmpirE231]

It all depends on how much battery capacity you have, how powerful your battery charger is and how much power you've used. 

This doesn’t have any crazy 8D batteries. But it has 4 AGM 6volts dedicated with its own inverter for the fridge.... and another 4 AGM 6v batteries with dedicated inverter for the rest of the coach. 
 

not sure how long it takes to charge up all 8 of them with an onan 8k genset. 

 

[wopachop]

not sure how long it takes to charge up all 8 of them with an onan 8k genset. 

Are you able to find out what brand and model of inverters and charger it has?