Needing help, evacuated, battery dead

[Woodsie8_]

Sorry, longer post;
I am in Oregon with fires. No electricity for 5 days now. Used generator on RV chassis to run freezers in my home for 3 days (about 4 hrs a day) via extension cords. RV house battery went dead and now can’t fire up generator. Water pump, lights, etc, won’t come on.
Now investigating the following option without going overboard.

1) Another free standing generator for home freezers when there is a power outage. Seems over kill if I can plug into RV and use RV generator but obviously that only worked for 3 days, because nothing to keep RV house battery charged.
2) Solar panel on RV, to keep RV battery charged (to fire up generator) but will it be enough charge to run things in RV and start generator, to either boon-dock or plug in home freezer in outage?
3) Some kind of fully charged portable 12V battery charger that I can attach to house deep cell battery to replenish it and then recharge it with cigarette lighter d/c connection (chassis battery) with rig running
4) I am older, not sure if I can pull start a generator and if I get an electric start, I will still need electricity to keep it’s internal battery charged.
5) The only things I need to keep going in the house is the frig and deep freeze. I can go without the water heater. If in the winter, it would be nice to have heat but I could go into RV with propane heater but not sure if it needs battery.


It seems crazy to buy another generator when I have one in the RV, but if I need to use battery for more than 3 days, that did not work.

What would be the wisest choice? I have a 20’ RV, not a lot of room to haul another generator. May take a long time to charge one of those battery chargers with a cigarette lighter d/c connection.

FRUSTRATED BECAUSE I managed to keep food frozen and stay in the RV for 3 days without a problem. Now probably will have to toss food, dumping water in toilet to flush, and using my little solar lights to get around at night with.

Furthermore, let’s say this doesn’t have anything to do with freezers and I want to boon-dock longer than 3 days. Is there a reasonable solution that I can both keep freezers going in a power outage and boon-dock for an extended period Of time?
Thanks for your thoughts!

[time2roll]

If the RV generator is running there is no reason for the RV batteries to go dead. Need to look at the on-board charging system and give it a check with that voltmeter.

[Woodsie8_]

time2roll wrote:
If your were evacuated I am not sure why you are at home trying to run a bunch of freezers.
I would be tempted to just leave.

We went between be ready, get ready and leave. While I was in the RV waiting to be evacuated, I plugged them into RV, then killed battery. Once evacuated, they were not hooked to RV but still frozen but after that, no power @ home, no battery on RV. Was just trying to figure out for future what I can do for extended periods of outages. Hook to RV with RV generator going, , buy another house generator, solar, etc.

[Woodsie8_]

jdc1 wrote:
I have to ask: How long are you running the genset? To keep tat food cold, you should only have to run it 3-4 times a day, an hour at a time....not continuously. That would also be sufficient to charge your battery. A 100w solar panel would be a great idea too, to keep your RV topped off, smoke or no smoke. Having a spare 12V battery sitting around might be a good idea too, since you don't seem to have a secondary battery in your B.

No secondary battery. I was running it about 4 hours but all at once. I really think I must have used way more than my generator was charging. I ended up ordering a small generator for the house last night. It is small enough I can bring with if I ever need to. Portable, less than 50lbs. I will continue to look at solar for RV. I love the Jackery idea, but they look like they only last about 4-6 yrs, before the internal lithium battery is toast. You can’t replace the battery. I may just get their panels, if I can hook up to the house battery, instead of buying their portable power box.

https://www.jackery.com/products/explorer-1000-portable-power-station?variant=31523358769239&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTv4OPJecRXKzC2A80dXDUHcyX9yLxG9FtWQZwp7MePFkEdhZexAXCRoCB8UQAvD_BwE

https://www.jackery.com/products/solarsaga-100w-solar-panel?variant=19479350837335

[Woodsie8_]

time2roll wrote:
Need a roof? Tesla solar roof plus a few power wall batteries. Works for you even when the power is on. big $$$ up front.

Otherwise maybe a home generator and 500 gallon propane tank.

Or get the RV systems working. Consider adding a home transfer switch and power inlet to make living without power plug and play.

I have a house propane tank. I think that might be the way to go. Don’t have to haul gas. Don’t have to use RV generator and drain battery.
I never had issues with RV system before so I must have just asked it to do more than I was suppose to. I will be working on that too. Might just be me, not understanding the limitations.

[time2roll]

Need a roof? Tesla solar roof plus a few power wall batteries. Works for you even when the power is on. big $$$ up front.

Otherwise maybe a home generator and 500 gallon propane tank.

Or get the RV systems working. Consider adding a home transfer switch and power inlet to make living without power plug and play.

[Woodsie8_]

time2roll wrote:
How about put them on a small utility trailer(uhaul?), connect to the van, and just go. Plug them all in at a comfortable RV park until you get word the power is back on.

I am not that vested in saving the food 🙂
I think I am more trying to figure out for extended outages in the future. Hoping not to get evacuated again!

[time2roll]

How about put them on a small utility trailer(uhaul?), connect to the van, and just go. Plug them all in at a comfortable RV park until you get word the power is back on.

[Woodsie8_]

time2roll wrote:
If your were evacuated I am not sure why you are at home trying to run a bunch of freezers.
I would be tempted to just leave.

We went between be ready, get ready and leave. While I was in the RV waiting to be evacuated, I plugged them into RV, then killed battery. Once evacuated, they were not hooked to RV but still frozen but after that, no power @ home, no battery on RV. Was just trying to figure out for future what I can do for extended periods of outages. Hook to RV with RV generator going, , buy another house generator, solar, etc.

[Woodsie8_]

opnspaces wrote:
You do not need a second generator.

Where or how would you hook this second generator up? However you are envisioning hooking up the second generator will be the same for the existing generator.


Number one, turn off the generator, find the circuit breakers in the house and find the one that is tripped and not charging the battery. If you can't find the specific charger circuit breaker then turn them all off.

Now push extra hard on any breakers that seem to be springy or have any sponginess until it snaps all the way off. Now turn all the breakers back on.

Once the breakers are all back on, turn on a light or two and maybe turn on a ventilation fan as well. Now start the generator and see if the fan speeds up and the lights get brighter. If the fan speeds up and the lights get brighter you have probably fixed the house battery charging.

If you still can't get the house battery charging, then buy one of these Link, and plug it into the trailer or directly into your generator. Then plug the trailer shore power cord into the end. This will charge your house battery until you can get a multimeter.

Second generator was going to be for home, to handle freezer/frig in outage in future instead of using RV generator to keep them running.
Thanks for the steps! I will try that.

[time2roll]

If your were evacuated I am not sure why you are at home trying to run a bunch of freezers.
I would be tempted to just leave.

[opnspaces]

You do not need a second generator.

Where or how would you hook this second generator up? However you are envisioning hooking up the second generator will be the same for the existing generator.


Number one, turn off the generator, find the circuit breakers in the house and find the one that is tripped and not charging the battery. If you can't find the specific charger circuit breaker then turn them all off.

Now push extra hard on any breakers that seem to be springy or have any sponginess until it snaps all the way off. Now turn all the breakers back on.

Once the breakers are all back on, turn on a light or two and maybe turn on a ventilation fan as well. Now start the generator and see if the fan speeds up and the lights get brighter. If the fan speeds up and the lights get brighter you have probably fixed the house battery charging.

If you still can't get the house battery charging, then buy one of these Link, and plug it into the trailer or directly into your generator. Then plug the trailer shore power cord into the end. This will charge your house battery until you can get a multimeter.

[Woodsie8_]

Thx everyone! As soon as I can my hands on a volt meter, I will problem solve more. I am rethinking a lot, for future events. Maybe get a second battery, or add at least one solar panel, not ask as much from the house battery, get a portable battery booster/charger. Maybe get a second generator for the house but that seems unneeded.

[time2roll]

Also get a voltmeter so you can monitor the situation better.
We can help more if we had some battery voltage data.

[pianotuna]

For now.

1. start the engine on the class B
2. wait 1/2 hour
3. attempt to start the generator
4. if it starts, add a battery charger to recharge the house battery bank when ever running the generator.

For the future

make sure the converter is working correctly.