Air conditioning

[Jesse1138]

Jayco precept 31UL

Can I run the inverter or generator for the air conditioner while driving to keep the family cool in the back?

[Florida Ranger]

Yes,,,Run the generator while traveling down the road I do.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Florida Ranger

Yes,,,Run the generator while traveling down the road I do.

As many people do....

[Jesse1138]

Perfect thanks. I had no idea you could. Thought it would overload the system. Does it double the gas bill?

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Jesse1138

Perfect thanks. I had no idea you could. Thought it would overload the system. Does it double the gas bill?

The average motorhome generator will use about a half-gallon per hour running at half of maximum load.

[TGoldsbury]

That's not bad, I wonder what the difference is in gas usage to run the generator for air versus running the Ford's air?

[Jopopsy]

If you have vent covers on your coach, try opening the far rear vent. Then have the Ford AC cool you down. The air will pull from the front through the back. I've driven my coach (pretty much the same length as yours) up and down the east coast during the summer; never needed to supplement the Ford A/C. Granted you might have higher ceilings than me, but worth a try to save some gas. I don't think the generator is going to be better on your wallet.

[Camper_bob]

In my experience, the Ford dash AC can maintain a coolish cabin temp in moderate weather. But we don't get much "moderate" weather around here. It's either boil your skin hot, or cold; only a few days a year anywhere in between.

So we'll often run with the generator on, running just the front AC unit since we have passengers riding in the rear. I don't tend to notice a big difference in fuel economy one way or the other. Like someone else said, the generator will burn .5-.7 gallons an hour or so? That's like 4-6 miles worth of fuel per hour? Not something I'm likely to notice. Same for the dash AC, maybe a slight drop in fuel economy, but not something I'm going to notice.

Wind direction and strength has a MUCH bigger effect on mileage. As does my foot on the long vertical pedal, and whether I have my Jeep in tow. And I've recently discovered that ethanol vs non-ethanol fuel makes a pretty significant difference as well. Those all account for pretty significant fuel mileage variances; the generator/AC, not so much...

[Revy]

Our old 97 24' Tioga would stay nice and cool without running the rooftop AC up to 90F. It had the Chevy cab, and the AC could have made ice cubes. Above that, we'd fire up the generator and run the AC to cool off the rest of the house.

I'll second the idea of opening a back vent. That worked well for us to pull the cool air from the cab to the back.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by TGoldsbury

That's not bad, I wonder what the difference is in gas usage to run the generator for air versus running the Ford's air?

In our 31FK, the dash air won't cool the coach. So running the house AC is a must.

On ours, we go from 8.2 MPG with no generator running, to 8.2 MPG with the generator running.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by pconroy

In our 31FK, the dash air won't cool the coach. So running the house AC is a must.

On ours, we go from 8.2 MPG with no generator running, to 8.2 MPG with the generator running.

+1

The dash AC definitely will not cool the coach down, but as I said, it CAN maintain a cooler temp in moderate weather. At least in a 30+ footer like mine. You gotta start with a cool house. If it's over about 75 outside, we're probably running the generator at least for long enough to cool it down, especially if it's a sunny day. Then we've been known to cut the AC/genny off and "maintain" with just the dash AC. Or after dark when the heat load decreases somewhat.

One pointer I always mention is that if you have passengers back there, especially pets or small children who are asleep or can't/won't complain, you should check the conditions often. My son sleeps a lot when we're in transit (or at least he used to, not so much any more). One not-particularly-warm day, he was asleep behind us, DW and I in the cab, after probably 2-2.5 hrs of driving, I went back to grab a drink and realized it was pretty warm back there. The boy was all sweaty. Turns out the dash AC wasn't keeping up with the "house", and it got a little "warm" back there. We were perfectly comfortable in the cab and didn't know it was getting so warm back there. Since he was asleep, he didn't complain. I reached over and cranked the generator and fired up the AC unit.