I've had one in the last two 5ers (same one). A chunk of change up front, but it has served us well. We have the Onan 5500 which is super quiet.
For us, it was the convenience of pulling off the road for a quick lunch, precooling the RV down the road with the AC, and even just general maintenance or running the vacuum on the RV while in storage.
We don't do much boondocking anymore, and he LP was never really the most efficient for that. There are tons of folks that use the more miserly ECU units that idle down for low load.
Have the 5500 lp also... use it mainly to charge the batteries and run the sweeper.. nice to cool off the trailer before bed time.. it does burn a lot of fuel.. but it's only money.
We have one on our 04 Alpenlite Medinah. 4.5 propane powered Onan. Comes in handy. Labor day weekend we were at the four thousand foot elevation of Mt. Adams attending Huckleberry Camp and the weather turned wet a cold. No hookups and the furnace fan really eats up the batteries. We used the electric convection oven to cook some oven fried chicken that had to bake for fifty minutes and while the oven was cooking, the battaries were getting charged.
I have an Onan 5500 factory installed in mine. It is regular gas, and on the factory tank would run for about 6 hours with us running the AC, microwave, TV, and hot water heater. The gasoline model uses a marine fuel tank, which you can pick up a spare at WM for cheap, and will double your run time. We don't do much boon docking either, but when we do it comes in handy. We also use it for running the AC and what not for lunch when on the road, and the added bonus - I don't have to run a cord to it when we are loading, unloading and cleaning.
We had the Onan 5500 LP installed a few years ago preparing for a trip to Alaska. It has been one of the best investments we have made in the fiver. We use it both on the road and when loading at home. It is quiet and provides plenty of stable power. Other than replacing the brushes one time it has required minimal attention. Granted it uses more fuel than a gas or diesel, but there is no requirement for a supplemental tank. Overall I am quite happy with it.
Gallon to gallon - the Onan using LP has almost the same consumption as one using gasoline - neither are great. By calculation, ours will use the full 60lbs of LP (14 gal) in about 13 hrs under full load. The gasoline models are almost identical consumption per spec.
Serious boondockers would balk at that rate of consumption, and are more happy with the Honda ECU units that idle down for low load and throttle up as the demand goes up. Me - I just like hitting the remote control start and not worry too much about it
We have an Onan 6500LP and a Honda 2000. We only use the Onan when we need the high wattage (micro/convection and ACs) because it uses much more fuel than the Honda at low wattage. We dry camp almost half the year, so the Honda saves a lot on fuel costs. I'm glad to have both generators.
Marv
2001 Volvo VNL42T420, ISX450/1650, super 10sp w/GearMaster
2003 Newmar Mountain Aire 38RLRK (20K GVWR, tandem duals)
Piaggio MP3 400 scooter
RVing since 1979 - Fulltime since 2000 (mostly CO, MT, NC & Key West)
Retired USAF
Have a Onan 6500, only was to go. One less fuel to worry about (unless you have a gasser). Our old rig I use to lift the genny into the truck bed, which I don't know I could do anymore and it was twice as loud as the Onan in the basement. Nice to have the extra power during outages at home to.
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