I am going to have to plead ignorance when I confess that I have not run the generator in our motor home for the last 9 months. I happened to be reading one of the blogs I follow and they mentioned exercising their generator. So I did a little investigating and found that I should have been exercising the generator at least once a month for two hours under a load.
So I attempted to start the generator and it was very hard starting and ran rough with a very noticeable surge, especially when I put it under a load. I reached out to my technical experts on RV.net and received back some very good suggestions including the use of SeaFoam and replacement of the fuel and air filters, along with the spark plug and engine oil.
Although I was successful with performing this maintenance, I have to say that replacing the fuel filter was a real chore due to the tight space, but I got it done!
Now that everything has been replaced, the generator starts on a dime and runs smoothly under a load until I turn on the AC and that's when the in-line voltage meter jumps all around. I am not sure if this is normal or if there is a further problem with my generator that needs to be addressed. I would appreciate feedback from anyone reading this post regarding this issue.
Thanks in advance for your feedback, I hope that you will have a great weekend and be safe out there!
Sounds pretty normal to me, don't know what size your unit is in watts , mine is 3500. But when an A/C first starts with the motor & and compressor it can pull as much as 25 amps or close to 2700 watts of power in addition to whatever else is running, ( converter, lights etc) it will fall to about 10-15 amps when it is running but that starting peak is tough, and will do it every time the compressor kicks in. so a fluctuation is normal especially if you are getting close to the rated output of your generator.I don't know if two hours is necessary to exercise it but I would run it at least 30-45 minutes until everything, (motor & generator are at operating temperature. I have been doing that since I bought mine and have had no trouble so far. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..
ReplyDeleteSorry no suggestions, maybe just needs to run for a while. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThere are Areosal sprays that are used for cleaning electrical contacts. You will have to first warm up the generator for about five minutes. Shut it down and open the panel door where the contact brushes and the Armourture of the generator are. Give it a light spray and close the panels. Restart the generator and after five minutes you should be able to load it up with the AC and you'll notice a big difference.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not sure of what you are doing there are shops who deal with Generator repair and maintenance.
It's about time.