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1ciderdog · 03-08-2012, 06:00 PM

Yesterday I was running the Onan 7500 generator and it simply stopped running after an hour or so. I had it loaded up a bit with the basement heater running. Today it runs fine. Yesterday when it stopped I also lost all 12 volt power. I can't trouble shoot it when it's running right so the question is have any of you experienced this problem. I'm getting ready for a 5 thousand mile trip and don't want to have to play generator games while on the road.
Thanks
Bob

KIX · 03-08-2012, 06:14 PM

JUust some guessing here. In that you lost all 12 vdc power at the same time as the gen. I am thinking that the cause is not the gen but the loss of 12vdc. 'That's where I would look for a problem. Maybe corroded battery connections or grounds. The next place I would look is the generator control cable connections.......it's usually a flat plug within 2 -4 feet of the genset breakers. If it's the control cable connector you may not actually see the problem but take it apart and spray some electronic contact cleaner in it....apply some dielectric grease and plug it back up. It may take some time to see if this fixed it. Good luck and have a good trip

1ciderdog · 03-08-2012, 06:25 PM

Kix Thanks - The grounds are on the list of things I thought of so tomorrow morning I'll go out there and clean as many ground connections as I can find. I have almost six weeks to resolve the issue but it seems there are always more things to do than I have time for when getting ready for the road.
Bob

KIX · 03-08-2012, 06:29 PM

On second thought I would start with the gen control cable plug as described above. Since it's intermittent you may not even know if you actually fixed it until you've run the gen long enough to realize you no longer have the problem.

neilking · 03-09-2012, 04:45 PM

When that happened to me the transfer switch was burning out. But I didn't loose dc voltage.

ChuckNJ · 03-09-2012, 05:05 PM

I know on my 7500 that it does not have an onboard 12 battery charger so when it runs it will kill the coach battery unless i have the coaches converter charger on. So if yours is the same and your converter was not on meaning the converter was running on 120 from the generator which inturn would recharge the batteries you gens fuel pump would quit when the batery got low enough causing the gen to stall and your battery being dead.

Check the converter make sure its charging

Darrel · 03-11-2012, 03:22 PM

If your inverter has remote Generator start capability like mine maybe it was low 12volts. Two days ago I had a 12volt problem (Inverter circuit breaker tripped) and my generator would start and quit in a couple minutes. After fixing the 12volt problem the Generator runs fine.

Have a nice day - Darrel

1ciderdog · 03-22-2012, 04:47 PM

Just a follow up to this thread I started. I've cleaned all the connectors I could find and have not had a recurrence of the problem. It may have been a 12 volt problem as mentioned above. Messing with this I learned on my RV the dash battery disconnect switch does not turn off power to the inverter so If I left the inverter on then it would have used up most or all of the house battery power. At least it if it happens again I'll know it's not the connections. Guess I'll consider adding a battery disconnect for the inverter. Thanks for the input.

Safe Travels
Bob