Propane Leak Detector and Fridge Failure

[dvmstacey]

Ok I just took my new Forest River Cruise Lite out for the first time, 5 nights out and had everything checked and running when I left.
I took a generator but didn't use it except for the first night to run the microwave. I am wondering if the 12V battery would have lasted longer had I kept using the generator. We were in a quiet campground and the generator was pretty noisy so I didn't use it every night.
By night 3, the fridge control light was coming on (it was running on propane up to this point), and the propane monitor was going off. Along with this the lights were dimming. Plugging into generator did not help at this point, the propane monitor kept squealing every time I tried to restart the fridge and the fridge control light came on.
So, we turned everything off (I have a battery control knob installed) and just cooked up everything in the fridge and continued to camp with no lights the next two nights.

Is the propane monitor screaming because my 12V battery died? From what I've read, that is likely the case, and also the battery dying is probably why the fridge quit.

Why wouldn't running the generator at this point keep things going? I chose not to but thought about it since our groceries were going to go bad. I was just nervous about that stupid propane monitor screaming so was afraid to run off generator.
And I guess by reading other threads, running the generator would not have restored or recharged the darn 12V battery, right?

Just trying to figure out what went wrong and when to panic about the propane monitor going off. Wish there was a switch for that stupid thing, we had to just turn off all power to keep it from screaming.

[dvmstacey]

P.s. I did check and the propane tanks were still fine/full.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by dvmstacey

...........
Is the propane monitor screaming because my 12V battery died? From what I've read, that is likely the case, and also the battery dying is probably why the fridge quit.

Why wouldn't running the generator at this point keep things going?
And I guess by reading other threads, running the generator would not have restored or recharged the darn 12V battery, right?

One thing you may have missed. When generator was running was it powering the battery charger? Now you have to figure if it was running or not and charging the batteries.
When was the batter water level and charged last?
Have you checked to see what the battery voltage is with a meter?

If the propane detector doesn't go to solid green light you will not get any propane to the refigerator or anything else.

If the battery charger isn't charging and your batteries are low or dead you won't have any DC voltage to run refrigerator controls, propane detector or anything else.

You need to check batteries and battery charger first.
Then tell us what you have found. Sounds like low or no 12 volt power to me.

[BarryD0706]

How long did you run the generator once things started going south? That should have brought the battery bus back up to an acceptable level within about 5 minutes I would think (from the charging action of the Converter in you RV). (I guess I've heard that if the battery gets too low the converter will not come on, but don't know that for a fact.)

I'd say that you should have run the generator for (guessing) 30 minutes every day and not wait for the battery to get so low. Hopefully someone else can give a more realistic time. It sounds like you need to have a battery monitor installed, or just measure it with a voltmeter occasionally to keep track of its charge state.