Where to start ?

[awolke]

I have a 2020 Cedar Creek Champagne that is supposedly set up for solar panels. I have two tampa bay batteries not sure what type and a thousand what Inverter or if the charger is included all original equipment also have a 5.5 cummins generator. Installed by Lazy days tampa.

My question is that I have a residential fridge and have boon docked over night and my batteries had drained to the point that I could not start the generator.

Has anyone had this problem and corrected it in the past ?

Please let me know.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Lots of people have had their batteries go dead when camping with a residential refrigerator. The simplest solution is to get a battery monitor and turn that generator on to operate the refrigerator and recharge the batteries when they start to go down or when the campground allows you to run the generator.
Probably running the generator when the campground allows it would help prevent the problem.

[awolke]

Originally Posted by awolke

I have a 2020 Cedar Creek Champagne that is supposedly set up for solar panels. I have two tampa bay batteries not sure what type and a thousand what Inverter or if the charger is included all original equipment also have a 5.5 cummins generator. Installed by Lazy days tampa.

My question is that I have a residential fridge and have boon docked over night and my batteries had drained to the point that I could not start the generator.

Has anyone had this problem and corrected it in the past ?

Please let me know.

I've charged the batteries in the evening and still batteries dead in the morning. Can't start the generator.

[mwdilday]

If you have a 2020 the batteries could have been manufactured in late 2019. If they are dealer batteries they may only have a 24-30 month life. I would first have the batteries tested or, if it were me, I would go ahead and replace them with 2 or 4 high quality, high capacity, AGM deep cycle.

Do you have any other loads on your 12 volt system overnight?

[CHICKDOE]

Yes we had the same problem. Had to jumpstart the generator, very easy to do. Get a shunt based monitor like victron smart shunt. It will give you insight as to what the batteries will support.

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by awolke

Has anyone had this problem and corrected it in the past ?

Please let me know.

As has been stated probably hundreds, if not thousands of people have discovered the same thing. You say your RV is supposedly set up for solar panels. Ok....great.....but are there solar panels installed? "Set up for" only means there is a wire running to an outlet somewhere to plug solar panels into.

You have 2 "Tampa Bay" batteries. Tampa Bay Batteries is merely a retail store that sells batteries. The Tampa Bay sticker on the battery only indicates that it was purchased from that store and says nothing about the battery itself.

First step is to install a battery monitor. I installed this one from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/AiLi-Voltmete...dp/B07FGFFHC6/

I just cut a hole in the top of my plastic battery box (2 1/8" hole saw) and mounted it right there. 10 minutes job (and you need a jumper to go from the shunt to the negative battery terminal).

Figure exactly how much 12-volt electrical load you really have.

[awolke]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

As has been stated probably hundreds, if not thousands of people have discovered the same thing. You say your RV is supposedly set up for solar panels. Ok....great.....but are there solar panels installed? "Set up for" only means there is a wire running to an outlet somewhere to plug solar panels into.



You have 2 "Tampa Bay" batteries. Tampa Bay Batteries is merely a retail store that sells batteries. The Tampa Bay sticker on the battery only indicates that it was purchased from that store and says nothing about the battery itself.



First step is to install a battery monitor. I installed this one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/AiLi-Voltmete...dp/B07FGFFHC6/



I just cut a hole in the top of my plastic battery box (2 1/8" hole saw) and mounted it right there. 10 minutes job (and you need a jumper to go from the shunt to the negative battery terminal).



Figure exactly how much 12-volt electrical load you really have.

I have two tampa bay batteries that came with the RV with no description as to how many ah or if they were lithium or AGM we have no solar panels installed at this point.

I have upgraded my batteries to 100ah AGM as advised by a source as to upgrade the batteries first and then work from there.

I have also ordered a Victron energy monitor.