Flex Fuel possibility for enviro-RV'ers.

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Hey, Pippi-heads,
Don’t know if any of you have ever run on E85 (ethanol), but a lot of newer motor homes (and towing 3/4 ton trucks and regular vehicles) have engines that are Flex Fuel rated. That means they can run on 85% ethanol (usually corn-based), which is called E85 and which is common in the midwest (natch).

From what I can find out, E85 is cheaper, but produces less MPG. Some folks are satisfied with the trade off (perhaps 25% cheaper, and perhaps 25% less MGP, for instance. But some RV’er’s hate E85). But, as the price of real gasoline goes up, E85 is going to look better and better, financially. Plus, the big thing is, it’s better for the environment and US economy, especially once all the production/emission factors are taken into account (IMHO, and I’m sure other opinions are out there!). So my hope was to have a motor home that I could power with E85.

So I wrote to a company called Electric Generators Direct (www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com) and one of their techs told me that if an Onan-Cummins QG4000 gasoline generator is the same size (dimensions) as an Onan-Cummins QG3600 LP generator (which it is), he didn’t think it would be a problem for a motor home manufacturer to swap out the gasoline generator, and hook up the LP generator instead (since all motor homes have LP for their refrigerators, heaters, etc.). In this way, you can burn E85 fuel (which, BTW, cost $1.89 a gallon in Colorado two weeks ago when I checked) in the main engine, and burn clean Propane in the LP generator when you need it.

Of course, the big thing is I now have to see if I can talk a Class C manufacturer (Winnie, Thor, Coachmen, whoever) into doing the swap when I order the RV next spring!

That’s my plan, anyway. I hope to do my little bit to help the environment (along with solar panels and 6V batteries for boondocking!)
If any of you have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them.
Best,
Frank

• This topic was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Pippi.

[Umbilical]

Hello Frank,

As you mention there are other opinions out there and many are that corn-based ethanol is not good for the environment nor for engines (it’s claimed they may not last as long) and I don’t have knowledge of the latter but the former seems iron clad. There are cleaner burning fuels out there. Compressed natural gas (CNG) would be best but is not commonly available so not much of an option now. However a fuel that RV’ers are used to is available at many gas stations and that is propane. It definitely burns cleaner and oil changes do not have to done as often and it is claimed that engines will last longer and it certainly makes sense that they would. A friend of mine had his landscaping truck converted over to propane and the truck had more power and he was saving money. The only drawback was that he had to fill up more often compared to gas. One motorhome I saw was on propane and had 2 100# tanks with one connected only to the engine and the other connected to the house appliances as well as to the engine. The tanks could be operated separately or in tandem with a valve between them. No need for the smaller portable tanks for house appliances with that setup. Apart from any immediate $ savings due to propane being cheaper than gas and the longer term savings due to less maintenance costs and longer lasting engines there is the environmental benefit as well as another benefit that you may or may not agree with. We have loads of natural gas in North America and most propane comes along with that production (some comes as a result of oil production as well but mostly natural gas). Oil can be transported in tankers and is currently in large volumes so can be exported if North America has enough to do so and it looks right now like that is the case. Natural gas on the other hand is not so readily transported over water. It has to be liquefied which is very energy intensive and so is in many respects kind of landlocked for now. So if you switch to propane you are using a cleaner burning fuel than gas and also supporting North American producers (which was an issue raised by Frank as regards to corn-based ethanol). This as opposed to many of the despotic regimes around the world who seem to have so much oil and to whom vast financial rewards have accrued. This is just my opinion here but the less money some of these regimes have the safer I feel the world will be. Give some of these regimes a million dollars and then spend millions to counteract what they do with it. Not wise in my less than humble opinion.

You can have a motor that is dual fuel but given propane’s benefits it might be best to go 100% propane. Conversions cost and for those who do not drive many miles it may not make financial sense but if you do travel a lot give it a look.

Cheers,
Mike

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