Propane Tank and Generator

[Troy and Tiffany Lano]

Hello!

My husband and I just joined and very excited to own our first RV, 2011 Solera 24S. We travel for work and are mostly gone over the summer on tour through some really hot areas of the states. I had a question on the generator and the propane tank. We have a 12.1 gallon propane tank and are planning to run the generator most of the time for our AC. (Our generator uses propane) I was wondering at an average if we ran our generator 8 hours a day how long that propane would last us. (We are prepared to it up a lot). Our driver (that drives through the night) will need to sleep during the day and need to have a cool area to sleep in (especially on those 100 degree days).
Any input would help

Thanks!
-Tiffany

[Cypressloser]

You probably have the Onan 5500 LPG, prepare to fill up every day.

[Troy and Tiffany Lano]

Thanks for the information!

[youroo]

X2 Youroo!!

[Cypressloser]

You're welcome, but this is probably not the news you wanted to hear. Those propane generators are bad suckers.
Also you should be aware that many jurisdictions prohibit to have the propane on during travel but I'm not sure if this applies to propane powered generators, someone else might have the answer to that.

[Ecopco]

We've had our 2015 Solera 24R for 1 month and have 26 hours on the propane generator. To date we have used about 20 gal. of Propane. I'm already looking into adding another or larger propane tank as we live in Louisiana and summers here are hot and humid. We wanted a diesel generator but they weren't avail when we ordered back in February. I understand through this forum that diesel generators are now available.

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by Ecopco

We've had our 2015 Solera 24R for 1 month and have 26 hours on the propane generator. To date we have used about 20 gal. of Propane. I'm already looking into adding another or larger propane tank as we live in Louisiana and summers here are hot and humid. We wanted a diesel generator but they weren't avail when we ordered back in February. I understand through this forum that diesel generators are now available.

Interesting, when we ordered in Dec. we were told that because of the extra weight the generator compartment would have to be reinforced plus the diesel generators are so much more expensive to begin with that we dropped the idea right away. I wonder what has changed. It was the convenience factor that made us choose the Onan 5500 propane generator. The gasoline version can not be installed anymore since 2011.

[Ecopco]

My understanding from reading this forum is that Onan had some QC problems with their diesel generators so FR stopped installing them. Apparently, these issues have been resolved so FR is now offering the diesel generators again.

[JLeising]

Believe Solera propane generator is Onan 3600. Also, I understand propane tanks are filled to 80% of "water" capacity - so 12+ gallon tank actually holds about 10 gallons.

[Cypressloser]

Ok, I understand.
But even for Class C isn't the Onan QC a little heavy?

[Living_The_Dream]

How much fuel does the Diesel generator use for an 8 hour period? I seem to remember around 2 hours to the gallon.

[bclemens]

Average Fuel Consumption from the Onan Web Site

Gas Half load
0.5 Gal/h (1.8 L/h)
LP Half load
0.6 Gal/h (2.4 lb/h)

Gas Full load
0.7 Gal/h (2.7 L/h)
LP Full load
0.7 Gal/h (3.1 lb/h)