Yahoo Message Number: 7754 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/7754)
Our 96 Beaver Patriot came with a 6.5K Onan propane genset which has given up good performance. We seldom ran the generator when we lived in Oregon, but have found that we use it much more now that we are in Arizona. On an 11 day trip in early September to the 'Four Corners' area we experienced a freon hose failure (new hose) on the dash air and had to run the generator for the remainder of the trip so we could run the roof air. During the entire 10 days that we ran the generator (travel time only which totaled about 1,200 miles) we burned about 20 gallons of propane. This included, of course, all of the propane appliances in the coach. I don't find this to be excessive. Propane is no louder or quieter than gasoline and probably quieter than a lot of the older diesels. Propane is also much cleaner burning. I bought an old VanGas pickup years ago that had about 150,000 on the clock, the engine was filthy on the outside, but the dipstick showed that the ORIGINAL oil was still clean.
I'm not trying to make a case for propane, just relaying my experiences. Would I by a coach with a quiet diesel genset? Sure! A noisy diesel genset? I don't know.
Glen R. Fotre - Tucson, AZ
1996 Beaver Patriot/Toyota 4x4 Xtra Cab/Toyota RAV-4 AWD/Miata/VW Sandrail FMCA #F36478 Good Sam #043833367 BAC glen@... (glen@...)
Yahoo Message Number: 7761 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/7761)
Glen,
A proplane gen is ok until you are somewhere like an FMCA rally and they will not bring in propane to fill your tank. At FMCA in Iowa several years back it was 100 degrees and we went thru 35 gallons of propane in 2 days with the generator, then it rained and no one could get out for propane. So for 3 days we had no propane but we had plenty of hot weather, enough that FMCA said we could use the generators 24 hours but all those with LP had no gas. fire code did not permit delivery to rally grounds. After that I said I would never have another propane generator.
Bill G. 2001 Magna #5998