When was the last time you changed this?

[docj]

No matter how diligent any of us are in maintaining the "amazing machines" that we live in, I'm sure all of us tend to occasionally cut corners on maintenance in one area or another.  You know, we drive these rigs so little compared to what they're designed for, why can't we stretch the maintenance interval a bit?

I'm posting this to confess that I've been "skating" a bit on my Onan generator because I had never taken the time to fully service it.   I'm sure that virtually all of us change the oil and filter annually or at least every other year.  But are you as religious about the air cleaner, the fuel filter and the difficult to access water pump belt?  Although I had had most of these items taken care of within a reasonable time frame (~5-7 years) I have to admit that I had been lax about the belt, probably because a Cummins Onan shop had told me several years ago that replacing it on my MH was going to take all day and cost ~$800-1000 because my generator isn't in an easy to access front slide. 

So until a few days ago I've been operating with a 19-year-old belt on a generator with ~900 hours.  If you don't have the Onan service manual nearby it is recommended that the belt be replaced every 1,000 hours but at least every 5 years.  A local mechanic replaced mine  (and it didn't take more than ~1-2 hours) and I can say that it was a credit to the manufacturer of the belt that it was still in one piece.  I realize that the generator would have shut itself down if it had overheated due to a belt failure, but, no doubt, that would have happened when it was most inconvenient.  The belt itself was <$15 but it wasn't the easiest part to locate.  I bought one on eBay because I couldn't find it locally or on Amazon. 

So now my generator has been fully serviced, oil, coolant, filters and belt!  I guess I'm good for another 19 years! 😁

[oldjohnt]

Congratulations Doc, heck yes you're good to go for another 19 years what could possibly go wrong ?????????????

Sure you're right, oil and filter are relatively easy and what first comes to mind. But on the many Gensets I've owned (Onan, Generac, Kohler, a few other brands I forget) the air and fuel filters aren't all that hard to change or expensive, so I've done that on occasion also. I think what many neglect is the gennys regular exercise under load which is as important or more then the other items. Similar, if you have an auto transfer switch it gets exercised. I learned long ago its also good to exercise my panels circuit breakers.  If my RV is going to set idle for very long I add Sta Bil to the tank and its in the gas the genny uses. I think oil and filters and regular routine maintenance is cheap compared to the alternative grrrrrrrrrrrrrr and I'm a believer in changing oil BEFORE things go into storage.

As always fun chattin with you Doc

Take care n God Bless

John T 

[fly2low]

there is a 1000 hour maintenance for the Onan, and it isn't cheap.

[rynosback]

Do you exercise your generator once a month? That is CRAZY that they wanted $800 - $1000 for replacing a belt.

Glad to hear that you found a local tech to replace your belt at a reasonable price.

[docj]

7 hours ago, rynosback said:

That is CRAZY that they wanted $800 - $1000 for replacing a belt.

They had claimed that the generator would have to be removed from the MH to access the belt.  Turned out that removing the facing panel was sufficient to gain access.  There was limited clearance but it didn't appear to be all that difficult.  It took a ~2-3 hours to do the full service including replacing the coolant and oil.

I do exercise the generator, but I don't think I do it frequently enough.  I went back to the manual and it calls for 2 hours every month.  Furthermore, it specifically states that one long exercise period is better than multiple shorter ones.  For a diesel generator the primary purpose of the exercise, in addition to lubricating the motor, appears to be to create enough heat to evaporate water that may have condensed on portions of the electrical system. 

When we first started it up after servicing, it was throwing error codes that indicated "low voltage".  We reduced the load and continued to run the generator.  After a while the codes stopped appearing.  I ran it again yesterday under very heavy load for another hour and it sounds as if it's working well now.  My assumption is that there might have been some condense water that was causing the voltage issue.  Because the 7.5HDKAJ is an inverter generator that doesn't run at constant speed you can listen to it changing speed as the load varies and you can tell a lot by noticing how well it handles those changes, particular;y when it has to speed up to accommodate an A/C that kicks on.  It seems to be running quite well now.

[Kirk W]

4 hours ago, docj said:

For a diesel generator the primary purpose of the exercise, in addition to lubricating the motor, appears to be to create enough heat to evaporate water that may have condensed on portions of the electrical system. 

In the gasoline-fueled Onan generators that are alternating current generators that is also true. An Onan tech told me that moisture in the generator windings is the chief cause of generator failure. I suspect that is probably also true for diesel-powered inverter generators. 

[kb0zke]

The generator on our 1993 Foretravel is mounted on the side, just below and behind the driver's seat. It does slide out, but the back side is still a pain to get to. We have it serviced annually in Nacogdoches, TX, at one of the several places that specialize in Foretravels (that's where they are made).

Ours gets plenty of exercise as we run the generator while traveling. At a minimum it is powering the refrigerator, and on warm or hot days it is running one or both air conditioners.

[Ray,IN]

DocJ I have the same Onan genset with over 1,8xx hrs on the meter, and original belt. I ran it home last Wed. for 2 hrs and loaded it to see when it would throw a code or a breaker would trip. It ran for 15 minutes while the remote monitor was showing a load of 51A; the next 15 minutes was at idle to allow it to cool enough to safe shut off. Sounds like I should be buying in installing a new belt before running it again.

One guy asked me if I had ever gotten everything fixed and repaired, it said I'm planning on accomplishing that the day after forever.

[docj]

48 minutes ago, Ray,IN said:

Sounds like I should be buying in installing a new belt before running it again.

If you're not aware, it's a "toothed" belt so it can continue to function even when it has loosened a bit.  When replaced my belt primarily consisted of a band of fibers with rubber teeth loosely attached to the them!  😂

[Ray,IN]

1 hour ago, docj said:

If you're not aware, it's a "toothed" belt so it can continue to function even when it has loosened a bit.  When replaced my belt primarily consisted of a band of fibers with rubber teeth loosely attached to the them!  😂

Thanks, I'll get one on order this weekend; project for 2 weeks from ordering hopefully. I found the Onan parts manual here.