Steve, what model Honda did you install? How did you secure it in the genny compartment? Any pics? You could email them to me at jimandtere@copper.net.

I haven't given up on the Onan yet. We did find out that the Intelli Power 9100 converter was not working. The house battery was at 11.4 volts. Two of three fuses in the converter were blown. Replaced and it's now working. Will remove all wires from the one house battery and charge it to full charge, then hook everything up and see if the genny will start. In terms of cost, the Hondas might be the cheapest idea. The only Onan is a 4000KYFA and it's $3100 plus more for some accessories. Based on what I read, the Honda is a much better product.

Sorry, Steve. Just saw the link to your installation. Really nice. With my son-in-laws help and his ability to fabricate, long term it might be the best solution. First we'll see how much it will cost to get the Onan running. If it's the control board, I've been told they don't make them any more.

Jim

I would not buy a new Onan in any case.

My 2 bits worth. I have a water cooled 4kw Honda rv generator. Works fine. Little noiser than I like. If I were to replace it, it would be a Harbor Freight 3500Kw Predetor for about $800. One of the quitest gensets I have ever heard and will run one a/c. Actually if you have soft starts on the a/c it will run two.

That Penguin A/C was when I worked at the Dometic plant that made them in the late 80's, top of the line, used much better components than the Brisk Air unit. Although it was assembled by the same folks as the Brisk Air. Yes; even though they use a start capacitor the initial load is about a 30% increase.

This may or may not be part of the generator problem, but we discovered today that the Inteli-Power converter was toast. It was producing no charging to the house battery which was at 11.4 volts. After replacing 2 of the 3 fuses in the coverter, it seemed to be working until after about 30 minutes, I started smelling sulfur. Output-16.6 volts. Disconnected it, talked to Inteli-Tec. New one on the way. As well as a new brush block set since the supplier sent us the wrong one. Will relocate the converter under the sofa near the breaker panel and fuses. Unless someone tells me a better place to put it. Tere's finishing up the rewiring of the taillights. Fun stuff.
Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88:
That Penguin A/C was when I worked at the Dometic plant that made them in the late 80's, top of the line, used much better components than the Brisk Air unit. Although it was assembled by the same folks as the Brisk Air. Yes; even though they use a start capacitor the initial load is about a 30% increase.

So, would you think it might be as much as 20 amps?

Jim; Dometic suggests a 20 amp slow blow circuit breaker be installed, there is an internal breaker with automatic reset in case of high pressure restarts, but I do not remember that rating. Locked rotor amps can be as high as 50. These R-22 units operate at fairly high pressure. Dometic also says the minimum generator size is 3.5 KW but my Generac 3500 would not start my Coleman 15k btu unit.

Just for the record, that Generac 3500 is very loud, more so than the Onan 4.5KW in Nose.

We took all the sheet metal off the Onan and cleaned it thoroughly. Flight Systems said they thought it was the voltage regulator so we bought a new one.$$. Also new plugs and plug wires. It started right up and seemed to be running as it should. Did not test the volts. Turned it off, put all the sheet metal back on, started it up and it ran at much more than 1800 RPMs, loud as heck, then heard a sound of something clicking or something, turned it off and found a rather large piece of white plastic wedged under the motor and small pieces of plastic scattered around the floor of the garage. Started up again, running fast, couldn't make it slow down and no voltage being produced. I think when it was running too fast, something in the rotor/stator area broke and spit out pieces of plastic. I have no idea why it ran so fast after we put the sheet metal back on.
I think the whole damn thing is toast.