A lot of us visit friends in winter where the temperature drops below freezing. Our shore power cord won't even come close to making the stretch between their house and our coach in the street/driveway. When we use a 100 foot extension cord, the voltage drop down, down, down, until we switch on the block heater and everything shuts down.
Solution: Unplug the block heater in the engine compartment (where it plugs in the 110V outlet) and plug it directly to the long extension cord and leave it plugged in all night. The next morning the main engine will start without a fuss and no one will call the EPA about the smoke and noise. Just use the house batteries for the inverter/furnace/etc. when necessary. For those thinking about it, running the generator all night may not be an option in a lot of residential locations.
Where you are stuck without a power source, $5 or $10 may get a gas station, motel or store to allow you to overnight in their lot with an extension cord to the block heater from their outlet.
Found a sympathetic motel clerk in Santa Fe, New Mexico who let us plug in without taking a dime (I only offered a dime). Just remember to take the cord back out of the engine compartment before cranking up.
Best for the holidays.
Pierce & Gaylie Stewart
93' U300/36
You are going to need a Extra-Heavy Duty 50-Amp 6/3 + 8/1 STW Cord or 2 to run that distance to keep the voltage up.
Extra-Heavy Duty 50-Amp 6/3 + 8/1 STW Cord, (http://tinyurl.com/2eua2ef)
Great suggestion running an extension cord directly to the block heater. Thanks a ton!
Just a comment, there is not place that I am that the genset is too loud to run. Sure places have rules but it is no louder then the residential heaters. In fact if you have a propane furnace that is louder then the generator. I just run the genset and have all the power I need in the winter. I have had three different FT and they are just not that loud.