Looking for Input on Solar Options

First I want to thank you for reading this post and I hope it will not be too much an inconvenience.  I know I need to learn a lot more and hopefully I will in this forum.

Has anyone here built their system on the battery side first before getting the solar panels?  In my thinking I wonder if I can build my power shed first, install a battery bank (sized after finding a good spreadsheet calculator) and using the used 4 KW Onan RV generator I picked up on Craigslist a couple of years back to keep the batteries charged up.  It seems I once read of some folks in the old days who never had solar panels but used a China diesel system to charge up once or twice a week.  Is there a way to tie the battery demand to auto-start the generator when needed?  I got the generator as a backup in case the weather was cloudy/snow etc on solar panels but would this have to be a manual start as needed?  

Also, strange as it may seem, I recently picked up an older ('93) RV for use on my land until I can build a cabin and other infrastructure but the generator had been removed before I got the RV.  Now it would be possible to rig up my generator into the RV, though it is smaller than the factory unit, but I have to consider whether I could just fill the generator bay with a battery bank and rig up some solar panels that I could carry along with the RV.  Maybe get one of those little, and very quiet, portable generators in the event of a situation where I could not get enough sunlight etc.  I don't expect I would be able to run the AC system, or at least not for long, but perhaps some of the other house current things, microwave etc.  Rather than adding a generator to the RV add a portable RV solar system.

After I get a cabin built I may use the RV on the road a little but in the beginning I just want it to allow me to sell my house and go up the country.  Solar ought to be portable too, right?  Helpful ideas are appreciated, thank you.

Good post.

Except for the A/C and microwave, all of those things are possible.