Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

I agree with you Patty, switching to Onan may not be the panacea for generator problems. I've spent many an hour at rallies working with others on BF coaches that had problems with their Onans. My Generac is working just fine.

Bill

I'm hoping that shortly, Kim will be forthcoming with a fix. It appears from what I'm reading that the later model Generac generators are having a problem, the owners with older models are okay or never experienced the problem. In any event there has to be a cause and therefore a solution to the problem, however I would be more comfortable with the outcome if Kim was dealing directly with Generac versus the distributor, seems Generac needs to take active ownership of the problem and fix.

I sent an email to generac and I have received a call but need to call them back as I was not home when they called. I think we need to get this fixed. My response from Kim was get to a generac dealer to have it looked at when I said it was not even capable of running a one cup coffee maker.. I know we are not putting out the power needed for the coach. I will post the results of my call to generac.

I tried stress testing my Generac Guardian RV generator while in Michigan by seeing how much load I could put on it. The outside temperature was about 75 degrees. The generator, which had been repaired at the Generac factory in Wisconsin, started and ran very well. The voltage now only fluctuated plus or minus one-half volt versus plus or minus two volts before. The generator could handle close to 3500 watts of steady load but as the load was increased the line voltage dropped from 125 to 110 volts.

If I removed all the steady (heater) loads I could start the air conditioner. However, after the A/C compressor had run for a while and turned off, the generator could not get the compressor restarted. My theory is that the air conditioner builds up a lot of back pressure and this bogs down the compressor so that it overloads the generator. This restarting will also trip a 20 amp circuit breaker when I am hooked up to a household receptacle. Only when connected to 30 amp service at a campground can the compressor restart load be handled.

My conclusion is that the air conditioner and the generator are somewhat incompatible. If it is so hot that we need steady air conditioning, we will have to get 30 amp shore power at a campground.

Dean

Dean, your test results are very interesting. If the air conditioner compressor will only start/restart on a 30 amp shore power, the starting load has increased on the unit. The older units ran well on a 20 amp shore power. You may have a combination problem of a higher starting current air conditioner and lower output of the gen set from the older units that were originally installed in the Born Free.
Born Free should be able to contact the vendors and find out the specifications for the air conditioner and the gen set.
Sab

My 2004 BFT AC also runs just fine on 20A shore power. So maybe Sab is onto something - that is, the newer ACs have as much to do with the problem as do the newer Generacs. Interesting.

Bill

Sab and Bill,

What you two have said is what I have been thinking.

Dean

I'm wondering if there is a correlation between the new refrigrant that was made mandatory a few years ago for air conditioners, they went away from the old Feron to something else that was less efficient, then did Dometic up the compression on their compressors to get equal cooling to the point the 3600 Generac now can't handle the load?

Ok, here is my latest update on the Generac problem. I took to RV dealer who changed breaker in generator, this helped the problem but did not cure it. Kim has called me numerous times trying to get this worked out and the new plan is to take to an authorized generator repair shop next week. I feel more comfortable having a speciality shop try to figure out what is going on.

Mine is a 2009 and a/c works fine on 20 amp service, only issue is with generator running.

Will post results next Wednesday or Thursday.

Speaking with Kim this morning, he has been in contact with the Generac manufacturer and they are going to send a qualified representative to Humboldt. Fortunately, Kim was able to find a coach on their lot that has the problem(s) discussed on this forum so hopefully Generac can find a cure.

Mel, thanks so much for info.. Hopefully the fix will be minor rather than major.

I got a call yesterday from Generac as well too. They want me to take my coach to winchester electric. They said they have a tech than can probably figure it out. He did say that most of the RV places are not going to be able to figure it out. I will be interested in hearing what they find out.

Anybody have an update on this problem. At one time, the tinking was that Kim would have some input on the 11th?

Spoke again with Kim Olson at the Born Free factory about the Generac generator problem and he told me that two factory representatives were scheduled to be at the Humboldt, IA factory on Tuesday September 22nd to look into this problem. As Mel indicated above, the factory identified a new unit in inventory that exhibits this problem so Generac will have live example to work with.

I also spoke to Kim today, I am taking my coach into a Generac approved service center tomorrow. This company deals only with generators and is supposed to be the best. As I am sure the group already knows, Kim has been very helpful in getting this resolved and has agreed to work with my service center tomorrow to see if we can duplicate the problem and solve it.

Details to follow.