Boondocking with a 4200/residential fridge

We have had our unit for 2 months and have been enjoying RV parks, but really want to step out and enjoy boondocking. We were told that we totally could Boondock with our unit with the residential fridge and all, and then we've have some people tell us we can't Boondock with a residential fridge. We have a massive onboard generator Onan5500, and the battery inverter for the fridge when we don't have electrical, what advice can you give us?
Will the generator continue to charge our fridge batteries??
Thank you for helping the full-time newbies out!!
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi Kristalandfam,

If you have sufficient fuel for the generator, and everything is working normally, you'll be fine. Running the generator during the day will recharge the batteries and power the refrigerator while doing so. The recharged batteries will keep the refrigerator running after the generator is shut off. The unknown is how many hours of run time you need on the generator to keep the refrigerator powered for the rest of the 24 hour clock. I'll hazard a guess that if you run the generator from 6-10pm to watch TV, you'll also charge the batteries enough to carry you through. But I'd keep an eye on battery charge. You don't want the battery charge to get too low.

If you have the auto-level up, you can cycle the control panel to read battery voltage. If you check 15 minutes or so after stopping the generator, you should see at around 12.6V DC. If less than 12.5V, you don't have a full charge. Check again in the morning. Try to not let the batteries get below 12.2V (about 50%).

Note that when on shore power, or while running the generator, you'll be reading the output of the Power Converter, not the actual battery charge. At those times, the voltage will be 13.2-13.6V DC.
 
Wow thank you! So you think if we run the generator every day, it'll power the fridge everyday? We don't use our TV's, but I'm thinking the AC... AC and frigerator are our main concern.

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travelin2

Pennsylvania Chapter Leaders-retired
If you’re planning to boondock on a regular basis I’d consider a solar panel (portable or otherwise) to maintain the battery for the fridge.
Additionally while running the genny I’d hook a battery charger directly to the batteries instead of depending totally on the converter to charge the batteries.


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danemayer

Well-known member
Your Onan 5500 will produce enough power to run 1 or 2 air conditioners along with the refrigerator, and also charge the batteries. You'll want to run the water heater on propane.

The fuel supply for the generator is your limiting factor. Assume you'll use roughly 1 gallon per hour of generator run time while running air conditioners.
 
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