Voltage freezing up

[macman83]

I can possibly give you a little guidance. When I picked up my 3905 last march, our shakedown weekend was going to be very cold, and I knew we were going to need the heater. I had read about the ducting being crimped or torn so I opened the back wall of the pass through storage to take a look. Sure enough, one of the heater ducts was torn completely in half. Out came the 3M foil tape and 20 mins later we had warm air going where it was supposed to. The tear was 8 inches from the furnace, and easily visible. At the factory I can only assume that they completely ignored it, and just put up the wall. On mine, I beleive that there is a small hole in the metal duct that goes to the bathroom register, and it is supposed to heat the storage compartment. There are also about 4 ducts that go from the furnace down through the floor into the underbelly. Not sure if one of those is supposed to heat down there or not. Open that wall and take a look.

[Heywodja]

I already had dropped the coraplast belly liner this summer and installed r-19 in the belly all the way back to the garage, ours survived the great dallas freeze with no power for 8 days..generator would not start. Had to jump the house batteries off the jeep all night in order to maintain heat, the batteries easily lasted all day.

[Pwhitmans]

Originally Posted by macman83

I can possibly give you a little guidance. When I picked up my 3905 last march, our shakedown weekend was going to be very cold, and I knew we were going to need the heater. I had read about the ducting being crimped or torn so I opened the back wall of the pass through storage to take a look. Sure enough, one of the heater ducts was torn completely in half. Out came the 3M foil tape and 20 mins later we had warm air going where it was supposed to. The tear was 8 inches from the furnace, and easily visible. At the factory I can only assume that they completely ignored it, and just put up the wall. On mine, I beleive that there is a small hole in the metal duct that goes to the bathroom register, and it is supposed to heat the storage compartment. There are also about 4 ducts that go from the furnace down through the floor into the underbelly. Not sure if one of those is supposed to heat down there or not. Open that wall and take a look.

Thanks macman, I will take a look!

[Pwhitmans]

Originally Posted by Heywodja

I already had dropped the coraplast belly liner this summer and installed r-19 in the belly all the way back to the garage, ours survived the great dallas freeze with no power for 8 days..generator would not start. Had to jump the house batteries off the jeep all night in order to maintain heat, the batteries easily lasted all day.

How hard of a job was it to drop the coroplast and insulate it? Thats my plans when I get home.

[Heywodja]

Originally Posted by Pwhitmans

How hard of a job was it to drop the coroplast and insulate it? Thats my plans when I get home.

I had to drop the gas lines, then I purchased some new angle iron the old stuff is kinda weak. Some new self tapping screws, and a couple of rolls of insulation. I had about a half a roll left over. New hangers for the gas line. I might drop the line again this summer and add a quick disconnect. I used about three rolls of gorilla tape, and a lot of zip ties. Lots of trips to Lowes. Overall it was about 200.00 in materials. The angle iron was about 90.00.

It took me about 3 days mostly because I was just curious about all the stuff under there. It is definitely a full weekend for sure.

[nmroper]

Originally Posted by Heywodja

I already had dropped the coraplast belly liner this summer and installed r-19 in the belly all the way back to the garage, ours survived the great dallas freeze with no power for 8 days..generator would not start. Had to jump the house batteries off the jeep all night in order to maintain heat, the batteries easily lasted all day.

Heywadj, you determine why the genny wouldnt start?

[Heywodja]

Originally Posted by nmroper

Heywadj, you determine why the genny wouldnt start?

Sure did! The genset had less than an hour on it total. The carburetor was gummed up with varnish, from the cruddy fuel that was left in when we ran it on the pdi. I got about three cans of seafoam additive, and a can of seafoam foam cleaner. Poured two cans of additive into about ten gallons of fuel. I had to drain the carb and spray in a lot of foaming carb cleaner and let it soak for an hour. I repeated this several times.. It finally started. But it runs poorly. However it keeps improving.Bottom line I am going to get a new carb, replace the dirty one, then disassemble and clean it for a spare.


I am installing a fuel cutoff between the electric fuel pump and the carb. I will shut off the fuel supply with the valve while the generator is running and let it run the carb dry from now on.


My friend told me that you need to exercise your body mind and equipment on a regular basis. Lesson learned..


Generator 1 hour per month from now on.

[sundancer 87]

Spraying carb cleaner into the throat of the carb doesn't really do more than clean the throat, the air intake part of the carb, and is a waste of money.

The problem is located in the circuit passages and jets of the carb where the Seafoam fuel additive will be effective and therefore be worth the money.

I added gasoline to my tanks almost a year ago and I'm still using the same gasoline to exercise the Onan on my unit. The generator will run loaded for more than an hour without a hiccup so the PDI gasoline must have been really stale.

Too bad for this to happen but we are forced to put hours on a generator that causes more maintenance and attrition because of crappy gasoline.

A typical rock and hard place situation once again.

[Heywodja]

I opened the bowl drain and filled the bowl, also there are some small jets and orifices that the spray nozzle fits on to get into the circuits, there are several youtube videos that help illustrate this better. All I know for sure is they helped me get it running, and it won't happen again...

[Chalkie]

For what it is worth, I always add Sta-Bil to any gas that is going to be for something other than the car. It works quite well. Things like my snow blower fire right up after sitting for sitting for months, as does the lawn mower after wintering over. We also have a couple of backup generators at the house that will fire right up after months of sitting. The cost is well worth the benefit in my opinion.

[nmroper]

Originally Posted by Heywodja

Sure did! The genset had less than an hour on it total. The carburetor was gummed up with varnish, from the cruddy fuel that was left in when we ran it on the pdi. I got about three cans of seafoam additive, and a can of seafoam foam cleaner. Poured two cans of additive into about ten gallons of fuel. I had to drain the carb and spray in a lot of foaming carb cleaner and let it soak for an hour. I repeated this several times.. It finally started. But it runs poorly. However it keeps improving.Bottom line I am going to get a new carb, replace the dirty one, then disassemble and clean it for a spare.


I am installing a fuel cutoff between the electric fuel pump and the carb. I will shut off the fuel supply with the valve while the generator is running and let it run the carb dry from now on.


My friend told me that you need to exercise your body mind and equipment on a regular basis. Lesson learned..


Generator 1 hour per month from now on.

Sounds like the problem i had with the Genny in our first used toy hauler. Couple cans of SeaFoam later and all was well. I buy Seafoam by the gallon now and use it in all our motors to stabilize the fuel and keep things cleaned out. We also make sure it gets run every month…not much of a problem now that we are full timing.

[lakebuster]

Only use ethanol free gasoline for all of my small engine equipment, luckily I live close to the water that has a gas station catering to the powerboaters so I fill up my camper with this gas and have not had any problems; before I used ethanol free gas I had problems with all engines that where not used regularly. Lesson learned the hard way after a few carb problems.