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I Got a Round Tuit Today

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tbutler

Entry posted by tbutler ·

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This is a shout out to Brett Wolfe. We went in for maintenance at Cummins West in Avondale (Phoenix), AZ today. In a post several months ago, Brett had suggested replacing the belts on the engine and saving the usable used belts as back up in case a belt breaks. I asked the service representative to replace the used belts and save them for me.

We were having the generator serviced at the same time. In the discussion the service rep asked if I wanted the belt on the generator (7.5 KW Onan) replaced also. I thought, "If it's good for the engine, it has to be good for the generator." So I said to replace it also and save the old belt for me. Actually, I didn't even know the generator had a belt. Who knows what is in that big green box?

When the job was done, the service rep gave me the belts from the engine and then showed me the belt that came from the generator. It was missing an inch of the inner notched material of the belt. The only thing holding it together was the strong continuous strip on the outside of the belt. Some additional inner material was peeled off the outer belt but still hanging on. It was just a matter of time until the belt derailed and we had generator failure. With temperatures in the low 100's, we really needed the generator to keep the motor home livable while driving.

So thank you Brett. Your advice saved us a delay or more!

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Jackhal49

Just for curiosity how many hours did you have on your generator and how old is it? I didn't know my Onan generator had a belt either. I have an Onan 7.5 KW. Jack

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tbutler
Just for curiosity how many hours did you have on your generator and how old is it? I didn't know my Onan generator had a belt either. I have an Onan 7.5 KW. Jack

Jack, Our generator is a 7.5 KW and it had just over 1000 hours on it when we had it serviced this time. Obviously, I wouldn't recommend waiting that long! I would recommend the same thing Brett did with the engine, replace the belt early, keep the usable used belt for a spare.

We were told this was not an easy roadside repair but I figure it will get us back on the road quicker even if we need to have a mechanic do the install. Mostly they said it required removing the "box" over the generator and then working from under the motor home at the rear end of the generator. Sounds like the kind of place that wouldn't get checked in a routine servicing of the generator unless you pressed the issue. The belt came from NAPA and it didn't cost too much to install when we were having the rest of the work done.

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