That's why 3 or 4 thousand miles. That would tend to average out the differences in temp wind and etc.
I suspect the differences are pretty minor.
totally agree. when i was but a wee lad my grandpa told me never to buy a car with air conditioning as it was too expensive (this is back in the 60's) and too much of a drag on MPG. i listened. then my wife and i took a vacation in 1978 that saw us driving through Kansas...in august...with the old 4/60 air conditioning. you know, 4 windows down at 60mph. we were miserable, stopping, literally, every hour to find someplace cool with something cold to drink. it took FORever to get thru Kansas. that was the last vehicle (78 Olds Cutlass) that we bought without AC. it just ain't worth it.
73,
rich, n9dko www.bananaboatbytes.com
I know a guy who's addicted to brake fulid. He says he can stop anytime.
_________________________________
2000 Itasca Suncruiser 35U
'46 Willys CJ2A
'03 Jeep Wrangler TJ
'10 Jeep Liberty KK
I happen to know the answer. On a 30 or 33 foot gas engine Class A towing a 2000 pound car, to run your dash AC you will reduce your MPG by almost .75 to 1 MPG that depends on the terrain. It IS expensive to run the Dash AC, so someones Grandfather was correct when he said don't ever buy a car with AC as it is too expensive. It is actually cheaper to run your generator and run the house AC's or both of them if it really gets hot.
Last early Spring on a trip down to So. Cal. on Hyway 395 we hit a very violent wind storm and had to stop driving at Independence, CA and pulled into The Ft. Independece Travel Plaza to spend the night and dry camp until the wind passed in the morning. At 5:00pm I filled the diesel tank to its absolute fullest at the station and pulled into a flat spot with some 18 wheelers. The temperature dropped to 29 degrees that night and I ran two 1,500 watt electric heaters on full all night until 6:00am the following morning. We ran the water heater and the fridge on propane all night as they had been on propane when we were driving. The 7,500 watt QD diesel generator ran for 13 hours and in the morning I was curious as to how much diesel I had used. I pulled into the same island/pump I had used the day before and filled up the fuel tank to exactly the same level at 5:00pm the day before. I took exactly 8.5 gallons of diesel or .65 gallons per hour. My generator had approximately 400 hours on it.
Doesn't answer your air conditioning/gas generator question but I thought some may find this germain and interesting.
It takes about 35 horsepower to run the "dash air". It is not a significant extra load. The only true way to tell would be to do a 3 or 4 thousand mile trip with air on, and then do exactly the same trip with the air off.
35 hp to run the dash air seems a bit high to me. Are you sure you didn't misplace the decimal point? 35 hp is over 25kw and would be a significant load on my Cummins 5.9.
jauguston wrote: If you have to worry about the cost of using your AC it may be the RV lifestyle is not for you.
Jim
Without trying to hijack the intent of this thread, but what exactly is the rv lifestyle? I have seen so many posts insenuating that if you have to ask about cost, then you should rethink getting an rv. Not everyone who rv have unlimited funds to spend, but they can still travel and camp on a budget. That is the true meaning of the rv lifestyle. It is all about getting out and enjoying yourself. You don't have to travel far to enjoy having an rv. I have been rving for over 25 years and have enjoyed every minute of the lifestyle with limited funds. Some of us have to plan our trips with limited funds but we still enjoy the time we have when we can.
Nathan and Linda
KF4GYL
2000 Winnebago Chieftain 35U Ford Triton V10 F53 Banks Power Pack
It takes about 35 horsepower to run the "dash air". It is not a significant extra load. The only true way to tell would be to do a 3 or 4 thousand mile trip with air on, and then do exactly the same trip with the air off.
All the numbers I ever saw suggested around 5HP to run the air. I certainly question where you get 35 from.
Many years ago I ran some tests to compare fuel consumption of a mid-size car with the A/C on or the windows open.
At 60mph the increase in drag from the open windows more than outweighed running the A/C compressor. IOW, running the A/C got BETTER mileage than running in 4/60 mode!
So my answer to the OP is - USE it and be comfortable. It's not going to make a helluvalot of difference to your mpgs.
Keith J.
1999 Sunnybrook 27RKFS Fiver.
2005 GMC Sierra 2500HD CC/SB/DA 2WD, LBZ air cleaner, 52 gal Titan tank, Bilsteins, Line-X, Westin steps, Prodigy, Retrax cover, 16K Superglide, 5th-Airborne pin-box, Multi-vex mirrors, TST TPMS.
I'll have to pay attention to my scangauge once it is warm enough to need to use the air conditioning. I'm fairly certain it doesn't show a drop of 2 mpg, but I've not watched carefully.
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