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Newmar Tom · 09-15-2019, 02:47 PM

We arrived home from a trip last weekend and I turned off the chassis batteries and put the house batteries on “store”. The generator was off.
Today I went to the storage lot and the generator was running!
Door still locked, chassis switch off and house batteries on store. I estimate that it burned 10 to 15 gallons of diesel so it must have run quite awhile.
Anyway, I shut it off, double checked that everything was off, turned off the Xantrex at the inverter. The inverter is a Xantrex RC7 and it does not have a generator start function. Any ideas? Thanks much in advance!

tom chelbana · 09-15-2019, 03:14 PM

Both our Essex and now our 18 London Aire have had the Gen start up and run without any input from us. On the Essex we disconnected the control for the AGS put with Silverleaf going to have to wait and see if it does it again. At this point in 20 months it has happened once. No idea what the cause is. All have been when plugged into shore power.
Newmar Man

Charlie and Martha · 09-15-2019, 04:40 PM

Our 05' Northern Star did this "magic gen start" twice. I posted for help a couple of years back and "007" suggested that water had gotten in the plug connecting the generator wiring harness to the house harness.

On inspection it was still damp with water from the rain the previous night, The first time it happened we also had rain.

Water ran down the front of the motor home through the cracks around the generator access and onto and into that harness plug.

I took the plug apart, dried it, put dielectric grease on all the male and female plug parts and put it back together/ I then and wrapped it with some sheet rubber and zip tied it so it was waterproof. It has never occurred again.

Dean n Mike · 09-15-2019, 05:21 PM

Had the same thing on my last coach, heard from the storage lot that it was running. Never could track down the cause, but taking the research here and elsewhere I disconnected the harness at the generator after shutting it down. The cover was on as the time, so the exhaust left deposits on the side of the coach. I guess I am lucky it didn’t set fire to the cover (I don’t know if they are flammable). Deposits took some effort to clean up.

I also cleaned the connectors and used dielectric grease on the contacts and never saw the problem again.

DS15 · 09-15-2019, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Newmar Tom

We arrived home from a trip last weekend and I turned off the chassis batteries and put the house batteries on “store”. The generator was off.
Today I went to the storage lot and the generator was running!
Door still locked, chassis switch off and house batteries on store. I estimate that it burned 10 to 15 gallons of diesel so it must have run quite awhile.
Anyway, I shut it off, double checked that everything was off, turned off the Xantrex at the inverter. The inverter is a Xantrex RC7 and it does not have a generator start function. Any ideas? Thanks much in advance!

Newmar Tom,

You probably won’t believe me, but this is true! When we had our 2005 Kountry Star DP, my Wife and I left the coach in the RV Park and took off for a weekend. We got a call from our next door RV friend telling us our gen was running. I asked if he could reach up underneath the front of the motorhome and shut the gen off and he did. When we got back I was scratching my head on how that could have happened. That coach did not have AGS. I looked and looked and could not figure it out. One week later I was walking around the park going past a Tiffin DP and as I was walking past the coach, the generator started, then I saw a cat jump down and run! I knew the owner was gone for two days so I shut the gen down - the rig was plugged in. I told the owner and he thanked me for watching. I purchased a thick door mat and put that on top of the gen, covering the start switch. Never had a problem ever again! Of course I removed the door mat before any trip! Not saying that was the cause of your start, but you never know!!!!

Bruce