Our wild camping spot between Sedona and Cottonwood, AZAside from quick overnights on our way to somewhere, Eric and I have only ever dry camped at Xscapees’ Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta convergence, surrounded by friends who have inexhaustible knowledge when it comes to going off the grid.
So when we had the opportunity to do some real wild camping, all by ourselves like big kids, we were really excited. Our excitement increased as we researched BLM land near Sedona, AZ. We spent an afternoon scouting locations, and loved the look of Campendium’s Loy Butte Road spot.
The day came. We packed up this past Saturday in central Sedona (Rancho Sedona RV Park), and made the short drive down 89A to 525 in Coconino National Forest. I went ahead in our Jeep, Smaug, to make sure our spot was available. Eric followed very slowly in Meriwether.
We reveled in everything about our wild camping spot. The sun set with elegance over the hills to the west, reflecting off the red rocks in the east. The stars were nearly singing, they were so magnificent. Our fire pit was cozy. It was quiet.
Sunset from our camping spot8 p.m. on Saturday night. Our batteries were low, so we went to turn on our generator to recharge before bed. It fired up and ran for about three minutes…before dying. We pressed the button again, and the generator motor turned over like a complaining car. It was pitch black outside and getting late, so we had no choice but to power everything down, go to bed and wait for sunlight.
First thing Sunday morning, our generator was still giving us nothing. Eric took a drive to the other side of Cottonwood, where our friends from RV Happy Hour were dry camping. Eddie is a solar whiz, but he told us he doesn’t mess with Onan diesel generators. He recommended we go to a certified tech, who would really know what to do.
Reviewing our options, we had no choice but to find power at a campground. We handed our spot over to John and Becky Brusen, our sweet friends who were really hoping to hang out with this week! Disappointment palpable, we packed everything up and took off for Flagstaff.
Sunset at Sedona’s Airport Mesa with John and Becky BrusenThe good news is that we found a beautiful military campground at Fort Tuthill Recreation Area. It opened for the season yesterday, just for us. We’re the only ones here, aside from the cat-sized ravens.
We don’t know what’s going on with our generator. It has never troubled us before, and we just had it serviced in November. Our friends at Iron Horse RV think we may have run the batteries too low (we went all the way down to red, and apparently we’re never supposed to go lower than yellow). But we won’t know until we take Meriwether into a shop.
We’re wanting solar more than ever, but we want to make sure we love dry camping before we make the investment. This failed RV wild camping attempt is another reminder that fulltime RV life requires flexibility and a sense of humor.
-B
That sounds frustrating! We’d had great luck dry camping… until we got a flat tire on our outer rear while in Quartzsite in January. Had to struggle a bit to maintain good humor! Last year we decided we were caught in a “we don’t need solar because we don’t boondock” vs. “we don’t boondock because we don’t have solar” infinite loop. We decided to just take the plunge and add solar and do more boondocking. So far we really like it, but don’t see ourselves doing it more than ~30-45 days per year. Eddie did our Magnum inverter install in our Allegro in January, and we watched him doing solar installs on other RV Happy Hour coaches… very impressed! Good luck with the generator repairs… hopefully it’s minor!
@disqus_sYn16Tsyng:disqus, we DREAD a flat tire on our coach. We actually got one on our Jeep on Saturday (I left that part out of the story), but fortunately we had a full-size, brand new spare we could use. Your “infinite loop” sounds familiar…
Ouch.. we had a similar thing happen twice …tried to start generator and the batteries went from 1/3 to empty to dead… we had to start up the RV then we were able to start the generator , then turn RV engine off and charge batteries with generator…some of the 12V is a big mystery for me. hope you have more luck the next time
Glad to know we’re not alone, @ralftollkuehn:disqus! Part of this experience is definitely just being educated about the mechanical side of things. Sometimes Eric and I create issues for ourselves through ignorance. 😉
Bummer….we dry camp as often as possible. I like not having my neighbors so close to me. I hope you are able to resolve the battery/generator problem soon and with little cash.
Thanks, @disqus_UWmc8Yb3IB:disqus! I don’t think the issue is serious. But it’s always a pain to coordinate repairs when this is our full-time home.
Most RVs have a switch that links the house batteries with the engine cranking batteries. Can’t you charge the house batteries with the engine running?
Hi, @GuidoLyons:disqus. Yes, our house batteries charge whenever the engine is running.
Sorry your boondocking experience didn’t go so well. A couple of generator tips:
While it’s possible that the batteries are the issue, it seems unlikely. Once your generator starts, the batteries should be getting power and charging. You can also charge them from the RV chassis motor. Start it, let it idle for 10-15 mintues ( enough to put a surface charge on the batteries ) and then try the generator again.
More concerning is the “it ran for several minutes and then quit” thing. The two obvious culprits with those symptoms are low fuel or oil.
When we bought our RV the generator was low on oil and would shut off a minute or so after starting. Simply topping it up with oil solved that problem. Most generators don’t hold a lot, so it doesn’t take much oil loss ( through either leaks or consumption when running ) to reduce the oil level to the point that a low oil sensor shuts the system down.
Generators on motorized RV’s typically share the fuel tank with the RV chassis, but their fuel taps on the tank are typically placed a third or a quarter of the way up the wall of the tank, so if they’re left running unattended they’re unable to fully drain the fuel tank and leave the RV stranded without any fuel.
If you were low on fuel, you might have simply run the generator on what was in the fuel line for a few minutes and then the generator would have stopped.
In a gas RV this isn’t much of an issue, once the fuel tank is filled, most generators allow you to press the generator start/stop button down in the “stop” position to run just the generator fuel pump to prime the system.
Diesel engines can be very different, but I think the Onan quiet diesels work similarly to the gas engines. So if you were trying to run it while the fuel tank was low, fill the tank and check your generator operators manual for the priming procedure. Hopefully it’s as simple as pressing “stop” for a few minutes.
FWIW, we’ve been boondocking in AZ and CA and are in an RV park for the first time in a couple of months. We’re in an Escapees park in NV right now. They’ve got a pit for RV maintenance, which is good because we’ve had some brake issues I’ve got to try to resolve.
Good luck getting your generator issue resolved so you can get back out there!
@eric_udell:disqus, as always, you’re a wealth of wonderful information. We had half a tank of diesel, 50 gallons, so I don’t think that was the issue. We did check the oil and it was about halfway between fill and full…BUT we did have a fault code, which I believe indicated “low oil pressure.” We tried to troubleshoot, but it doesn’t take much for us to be out of our depth, mechanically-speaking. Hopefully we will find a helpful individual to service the generator, and this will turn into a valuable lesson-learned.
Man, that’s really stinks. We have two RVs. The generator in the Jayco is regular gasoline, and has had many issues. For a long time we thought it was the battery, starter etc… ended up the fuel pump slowly dying. It would run for a few minutes then did. So all the money spent diagnosing the problem, it ended up being a cheap part and labor. It’s been running perfectly for a year now. Our other RV is a Winnebago View. The generator runs on propane. It’s easy to maintain and has yet to fail. Cheap clean running engine, quiet too. It’s ten years old, the engine block is spotless, looks literally brand new. Anyway, my point is, don’t overlook the fuel pump, if it’s five years or older, it will bound to fail at some point. Oh, both our generators are Onan. Good luck to you.
Thank you for the tip on the fuel pump, @tonyphongsenser:disqus!
We slapped ~400w of solar on the roof a few months ago, and it’s the best upgrade we’ve ever done, I’d totally recommend it — we’ve been able to go for weeks without getting the generator out or paying for hookups! Sorry it didn’t go so well this time around, better luck next time! 🙂
One of the things I love about solar, @disqus_P8DY5TnaWx:disqus, is that you can start with a couple of panels, and add on over time. We’ve ever talked to a couple of friends who have the “suitcase” panels, and they’ve been really happy with them.
It sure does! I was dry camping. My trailer came with solar from the previous owner, so I had no problem in that arena. BUT…my water pump went out. Luckily, I had a few jugs of “emergency water” and I have a repair shop working on fixing it. If all goes well, I’ll have a new pump tomorrow. And, I am hooked up to city water today. Good luck with your decision!
That Loy Butte Spot is the best! Sorry to her about the generator woes. I echo everyone else here that for us getting solar installed was our best decision ever! Not just for wild camping but for the gazillions of other campground spots it opens up to you.
Hey guys…sorry to hear about your generator problems…..how many hours do you have on your service? Could be bad oil filter, and even though it says oil pressure, it could be dirt and crap around your air filter. I have 4,200,000 miles of experience driving a semi-truck through north America and it’s one thing that I always have is extra filters….especially fuel. You never know when one will clog…could be a month after you get a service, but if the fuel is bad{ excess water or sediment}, it will clog before it’s due. I’m careful about where I fuel….and if you see a tanker truck dumping fuel into the tanks at the station you want to fuel at…..go to the next place, the volume of fuel going into the tanks stirs a lot of trash in the tanks, then that goes into your rig and generator. You made a wise choice in going with a diesel pusher….I’m going to go full time rv next year and finally get to see the places I’ve only been able to pass by….and I will go with a diesel. My current truck has a N14 Cummins with 1,175,089 miles on it and has never had engine work on it except the required maintenance and 1 set of injectors. So bottom line is always start with the cheapest thing first and then go from there! Hope to see ya’ll down the road!