RV generator questions

[Crosley.In.AZ]

well,  I've been looking at new toy haulers again.

I see Cummins - Onan name on most of what I look at when a generator is onboard. Much smaller and compact units now. I guess Cummins bought Onan?

Looking for comments on durability of these gasoline powered generators

I attached a photo of the common gen unit I saw on toy haulers I was interested in... some had a 5500 series power unit

[wayne petty]

i don't have an answer for your exact question..
but i do know.. that this link will save some bodys day..

http://www.partsfortechs.com/asapcart/

they also have a newsletter someplace on their site...

i have not done much generator work since the Big Boat sunk back in 2002..

i wish i could find somebody with a copy of the text i posted here of that last trip..  from the first half of 2002.

[papastoyss]

Whatever you buy be certain the generator is well vented. Last summer 3 couples died in a RV from CO poisoning at a motorcycle event app 70 miles from here . They all had underage children.

[Fat Cat]

Onan was bought by Cummins in 1986, since about 2007 or 2008 they have been rebranding the Onan line as Cummins-Onan. They are the same basic units for the last few decades. In my experience, most of the Onan line is worth having. The 2800 and 4000 are a bit of a pain as far as rotor failures and cost of repair when failure occur. The 5000, 5500, 6500 and 7500 lines are all very reliable units and do not fail nearly as often ans the 4000's.

I am going to make an assumption here and guess that most of the units you have seen in trailers are LP powered. One thing I do not like about the LP units are the amount of time it takes to get them primed so they will start. You have to crank them excessively to get them running. Other than that issue I have no issue with the LP versions. For a while they had issues with bugs infesting the vent tubes for the LP "carb" but they have addressed that issue rather well.

I would avoid any of the more off brand units like Generac or Power Direct(or something like that). Onan generators are about as easy as they some for maintenance and I have seen several of them with 2000+ hours on them with no main unit component failures.

So to sum it up I would go with a Onan gen and would prefer 5500 watt or higher.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Thanks for the  information on the gen units.

The toy hauler we want  will need to be about 5 yrs old , before I can afford to buy it. The generator may need attention at that point.

[Canuck]

Wayne

Regarding the old posting you are looking for, have you tried:

http://archive.org     ?

I have found numerous postings that are no longer available normally through this site.  Might take a little bit of searching.

Canuck