I owned cruising boats for about 25 years and am now transitioning to RVs, a 25' Class A motorhome specifically. Boats and RVs have similar systems, but the RV systems are often designed for glitz and lack the functionality of boat systems.
Some of the system differences:
Plumbing wise they are very similar. Boats allow grey water to be dumped but RV are not allowed to do so, so there is a separate grey water tank. Both are gravity dumped at a sewer dump station whereas a boat has to be pumped out or use an Electrosan or similar. RVs do not have macerator pumps which are used on boats when beyond the three mile limit (and sometimes used inside as well
).
RVs until recently have used propane absorption fridges but boats usually don't because they need to be level to work properly. But I have seen some absorption fridges on large trawlers that don't seem to have a problem with them.
Recently RVs have been moving to the same DC compressor fridges that we have used on boats for decades. There is a lot of angst among RV owners about how to deal with these new DC loads.
DC electrics for the two are very similar. For some reason RVs have used strange battery isolation devices called BIRDs or BIMs whereas we in the boating community use ACR or Combiners to isolate our starting battery from our house battery. ACR or combiners work much better IMO than the RV devices. RVs almost never have high output alternators like Balmars.
There is a recent trend towards touch screen displays which control everything: lights, A/C, furnace, awnings you name it. I find them infuriating as there is no simple on/off switch near the device. They are all switched from a common power module controlled by a touch screen display. To me it is all about glitz as opposed to functionality.
Solar which has become in vogue on RVs to deal with the DC fridge loads is exactly the same for both. But if you are a dry camper like me who camps in shady sites, solar doesn't do much good unlike a boat which is always open to the unobscured sky.
My MH has an absorption fridge and I have always dry camped. I use roughly 35 amp hours daily for lights, water pump, device charging, operating the fridge and water heater controls and any fans. If I had a compressor fridge this would go up to about 100 amp hours for a 6 cu ft fridge.
The alternating current (AC) systems are very similar. RVs often use automatic transfer switches and automatic generator start systems which are somewhat rare on boats. They also have load shedding devices which are only found on our big cruising boats.
I mistakenly thought that RV systems would be simpler to maintain. Heck you are on land where stuff is easy to get to. Not so. RV wiring is often buried where it is impossible to get to or at best by crawling underneath.
So this has been sort of a rant about RV systems as opposed to boats which are usually simpler and easier to maintain. Thanks for listening.
David
Some of the system differences:
Plumbing wise they are very similar. Boats allow grey water to be dumped but RV are not allowed to do so, so there is a separate grey water tank. Both are gravity dumped at a sewer dump station whereas a boat has to be pumped out or use an Electrosan or similar. RVs do not have macerator pumps which are used on boats when beyond the three mile limit (and sometimes used inside as well
).RVs until recently have used propane absorption fridges but boats usually don't because they need to be level to work properly. But I have seen some absorption fridges on large trawlers that don't seem to have a problem with them.
Recently RVs have been moving to the same DC compressor fridges that we have used on boats for decades. There is a lot of angst among RV owners about how to deal with these new DC loads.
DC electrics for the two are very similar. For some reason RVs have used strange battery isolation devices called BIRDs or BIMs whereas we in the boating community use ACR or Combiners to isolate our starting battery from our house battery. ACR or combiners work much better IMO than the RV devices. RVs almost never have high output alternators like Balmars.
There is a recent trend towards touch screen displays which control everything: lights, A/C, furnace, awnings you name it. I find them infuriating as there is no simple on/off switch near the device. They are all switched from a common power module controlled by a touch screen display. To me it is all about glitz as opposed to functionality.
Solar which has become in vogue on RVs to deal with the DC fridge loads is exactly the same for both. But if you are a dry camper like me who camps in shady sites, solar doesn't do much good unlike a boat which is always open to the unobscured sky.
My MH has an absorption fridge and I have always dry camped. I use roughly 35 amp hours daily for lights, water pump, device charging, operating the fridge and water heater controls and any fans. If I had a compressor fridge this would go up to about 100 amp hours for a 6 cu ft fridge.
The alternating current (AC) systems are very similar. RVs often use automatic transfer switches and automatic generator start systems which are somewhat rare on boats. They also have load shedding devices which are only found on our big cruising boats.
I mistakenly thought that RV systems would be simpler to maintain. Heck you are on land where stuff is easy to get to. Not so. RV wiring is often buried where it is impossible to get to or at best by crawling underneath.
So this has been sort of a rant about RV systems as opposed to boats which are usually simpler and easier to maintain. Thanks for listening.
David
