onan problem

[larry r]

generator has 50 hrs on it ,when we got it it had about 20 hours in new rv but had been on the lot for a year,when it is first started it will surge for maybe 30 seconds then smooth out when you power up the a/c it will again surge for a short time before smoothing out, is this something I need to address or will it maybe clear up with useage thanks larry

[larry r]

generator has 50 hrs on it ,when we got it it had about 20 hours in new rv but had been on the lot for a year,when it is first started it will surge for maybe 30 seconds then smooth out when you power up the a/c it will again surge for a short time before smoothing out, is this something I need to address or will it maybe clear up with useage thanks larry

[Gus Weber]

We have an Emerald model with 660 hrs. on it. It always gives a very short surge when loaded with the air conditioner or a space heater, but it lasts less than a second. In your case I would use it a while and see if it improves. It does not appear it is hurting anything.

Good luck

Gus Weber

[RV Wizard]

Larry, chances are that the generator was not ran enough while sitting on the lot. Most have the problem of the gasoline sitting in the bowl of the carburator so long that it begins to gel and then even varnish up. If you will put in some carburator/ injector cleaner into the fuel and run the generator with a space heater rather than a motor, like air condonditioner (heater doesn't care but a more would not like the surging) it may clean up the carburator. If this does not correct the problem ask your dealer to service the unit. Good luck and let us know the outcome.

[troth]

larry r, what you describe sounds pretty normal to me. I had a '88 Superchief with a 4K (or 4.5K?) Onan, and it surged for a bit right after start up. I always let it "warm up" for a good minute or so before I put any loads on it. And when I did kick on the AC, yes, there was a surge again, I'd say a couple times over a 5 second period, then it steadied right out. RV Wizard's note about carb cleaning is good; just dump the cleaner into the coach tank (several bottles depending on your gallonage) and let it work thru the system for a couple days. Last thing, I'd advise you not to tamper with carb screws/settings, linkages, the governor, or trying to tweak the engine speed; those are best left to Onan techs using meters to get it tuned.

[J Stemler]

I had the same problem last year...discovered the problem the night before leaving on a dry camping trip...what I did was remove the air cleaner and spray 2 plus 2 carb cleaner into the intake while holding the trottle at a high idle...this cleaned it out it gen has run good since