MrWizard wrote:
the OP did say desert
he did NOT say he was by himself, with no other campers around
even by himself, he may not be happy with his genset auto starting at 4am or earlier, auto start won't wait until the battery is dead
our genset is under OUR bed, we don't know where his is located
this is a battery amp hours/capacity and recharge ISSUE
you have to have enough, and you have to recharge them to 'near full'
with a proper monitoring system
the built in 'indicator' lights are not enough
even the OEM mfg setup should last at least ONE night of furnace heat
the batteries are bad, or the OP likes it extremely warm
everybody has their OWN comfort zone
NEW batteries and more of them, is a start, but he going to need to do Proper Near full recharging 'everyday'
when i used to week end camp and vacation camp
most of the day was spent outside, then a few hours around the campfire, and maybe read some before bed
now i full time, and i'm here on this forum
plus movies etc..
i use tens times the power, i used to use, and none of it has anything to do with staying warm
unless i'm camping with electric hookup
Power Management is #1 on the do list
its a 24/7 situation
So, new batteries and...... Genset autostart? (and a proper charge controller if his is not multi-stage) They don't go off at 4am because you can program quiet times in. It will run before quiet time as well to top off the batteries. I really don't see a cheaper and better way around it. I don't know why you are so opposed to the autostart as that addresses the charging portion of the problem.
The OPs original post however about turning the engine over to charge the batteries makes me wonder about the state or existence of an onboard genset. If it's not, there is either a new onboard genset, solar panels or a standalone genset.
