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onan 5500 running AC

lightning_drive
Explorer
Explorer
Picking up my first Toy Hauler on Monday. KZ Montego Bay Sportster M-37CKS3.

For those of you used to dry camping in the southwest in the summer. I am curious if you run your Onan 5500 all night to run AC when heat is in the 100's?
Do you open the cabinet door? Anything special I need to do or Just head to the mountain's for cooler weather?
thanks
41 REPLIES 41

lightning_drive
Explorer
Explorer
STBRetired wrote:
The Onan generators will run just fine overnight. We do an NHRA Sportsman circuit each summer and the Onan gets fired up on Friday evening and does not get shut off until Sunday evening. We use a Genturi as we are in close quarters in the pits (and NHRA requires it). Pretty rare that it gets up to triple digits, but mid 90's and humid is pretty common. Just keep the oil full and change the filters (all 3) as Onan recommends and you'l be fine.


STB
Thanks for the input. Son and I do a bit of drag Racing and at NHRA tracks. Been looking for an excuse to buy Genturi and now I have it.

STBRetired
Explorer
Explorer
The Onan generators will run just fine overnight. We do an NHRA Sportsman circuit each summer and the Onan gets fired up on Friday evening and does not get shut off until Sunday evening. We use a Genturi as we are in close quarters in the pits (and NHRA requires it). Pretty rare that it gets up to triple digits, but mid 90's and humid is pretty common. Just keep the oil full and change the filters (all 3) as Onan recommends and you'l be fine.
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lightning_drive
Explorer
Explorer
Sandia Man wrote:
We do it all the time, that's what having an Onan is all about. They are heavy duty and designed to handle extreme running conditions. We have put over 1K hours on our unit over the last 9 years and it has never let us down no matter how cold or hot outside, from sea level to over 9K' elevation it just cranks right up with a press of the switch. Always run with exterior genny door closed as it is vented to Onan specs, plus it greatly cuts down on sound emitted from genny. That is what works for us, but I don't see anything wrong with leaving it open either if somebody believes it helps with cooling.

We use Stabil when adding fuel and a bottle of Seafoam maybe twice a year, have never experienced a carb or fuel delivery issue and all we use is the cheapest ethanol laced fuel we can find as we do with all of our motorized vehicles. We have a genturi, but it's rare we use it since all of our camping off the power grid is dispersed with no one around, plus we primarily boondock in the 4 corner states where there is always a decent breeze if not outright windy. Only time our CO detector ever went off is when we had the window directly over the generator open to disperse smoke from the galley where my DW got a pan too hot and oil started to smoke.

Nothing makes an Onan happier than to perform it's job as often as possible, letting it sit unused is detrimental to it's overall reliability, and in turn can lead to several issues that have been outlined on this forum countless times. We also do lots of cold camping and run a couple of space heaters as well for a few of hours before bedtime, really gets our rig nice and toasty before we go down for the night. Normally by 5am the rig is getting nippy inside and I just press the switch to get her purring and head back to bed for another couple of hours. We thought we might not utilize the genny much when we first purchased our TH, on the contrary it has allowed us to be 100% self sufficient making every adventure off the power grid virtually worry-free.


This is good news. I've only run it all night once with compartment door closed. It does gets run about 10 hrs every weekend always with the compartment closed. I put stabil in the first tank but I run through the fuel fairly fast so not adding it any longer.

Sandia_Man
Explorer II
Explorer II
We do it all the time, that's what having an Onan is all about. They are heavy duty and designed to handle extreme running conditions. We have put over 1K hours on our unit over the last 9 years and it has never let us down no matter how cold or hot outside, from sea level to over 9K' elevation it just cranks right up with a press of the switch. Always run with exterior genny door closed as it is vented to Onan specs, plus it greatly cuts down on sound emitted from genny. That is what works for us, but I don't see anything wrong with leaving it open either if somebody believes it helps with cooling.

We use Stabil when adding fuel and a bottle of Seafoam maybe twice a year, have never experienced a carb or fuel delivery issue and all we use is the cheapest ethanol laced fuel we can find as we do with all of our motorized vehicles. We have a genturi, but it's rare we use it since all of our camping off the power grid is dispersed with no one around, plus we primarily boondock in the 4 corner states where there is always a decent breeze if not outright windy. Only time our CO detector ever went off is when we had the window directly over the generator open to disperse smoke from the galley where my DW got a pan too hot and oil started to smoke.

Nothing makes an Onan happier than to perform it's job as often as possible, letting it sit unused is detrimental to it's overall reliability, and in turn can lead to several issues that have been outlined on this forum countless times. We also do lots of cold camping and run a couple of space heaters as well for a few of hours before bedtime, really gets our rig nice and toasty before we go down for the night. Normally by 5am the rig is getting nippy inside and I just press the switch to get her purring and head back to bed for another couple of hours. We thought we might not utilize the genny much when we first purchased our TH, on the contrary it has allowed us to be 100% self sufficient making every adventure off the power grid virtually worry-free.

harold1946
Explorer
Explorer
lightning driver wrote:
Picking up my first Toy Hauler on Monday. KZ Montego Bay Sportster M-37CKS3.

For those of you used to dry camping in the southwest in the summer. I am curious if you run your Onan 5500 all night to run AC when heat is in the 100's?
Yes we have run the genny all night when the temperature sometimes does not drop below 95F.
Do you open the cabinet door? Anything special I need to do or Just head to the mountain's for cooler weather?
I have never run it with the door open and never had an issues with it heating up the floor. Some coaches are better insulated than others.
I do not know of any reason why one could not do so as long as the cover is not removed from the genset.

thanks
Harold and Linda
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CabinetmakerII
Explorer
Explorer
Sam Spade wrote:
lightning driver wrote:
I had heard they were designed to run with the door closed but not from a reliable source.


My reliable source is a sticker that Onan puts right on the generator door.

As to the original question, you won't know for sure until you get there. Many times, in the desert SW the temp goes WAY down as the sun sets and you might be able to turn it off around midnight. I do that even in the SE where the humidity stays high at night.


My Onan has the same sticker. I did run it for a few minutes while troubleshooting a problem that turned out to be a broken ground wire at the genset.
Cabinetmaker

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lightning_drive
Explorer
Explorer
Just a quick update. Maiden voyage with the new toy hauler. Was mid 80's in AZ this Friday and Sat. Friday evening I fired up the Onan 5500. All doors closed and covers on. AC was on but not working very hard. Was watching a movie, DVD and I became that guy. Fell asleep with genset running. Woke up in the morning and had put 10 hrs on the Onan. Checked the fuel burn and was around 1/2 gallon per hour. Had it been over 100 degrees I would assume a higher burn rate.
Lesson learned run with cover on and compartment door closed.
Just thought I'd share.

mrkoje
Explorer
Explorer
edatlanta wrote:
Leave the cabinet door closed. It helps with sound reduction and yes to the Genturi. The Onan 5500 is designed for use in an enclosed cabinet and mine has never ever overheated even with both my a/c's running. The hot air exiting down from the Onan will turn green grass brown very quickly however.


I have the 5500 - unfortunately last summer I had both of my AC units going and the generator quit working and through a code. I could not get it started again that evening. I didn't even try the next day as we were packing up and heading home in the morning. I ended up having the dealer look at it and they got it working just fine again. They said it was most likely over heated but the built in failsafe turned it off before it could cause damage. I remember opening the compartment door and it was extremely HOT. I don't know if I'll ever run it again when its warm out without having the door open for extra cooling.
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Passin_Thru
Explorer
Explorer
I run mine all night door closed. It's designed to run in hot or cold. Let it!

lightning_drive
Explorer
Explorer
Strabo wrote:
Back to OP. Running your genny for that length of time is fine. Don't mess with the genny access door, make sure your oil is full and you have fuel, push the button inside to start it and run your A.C..

Enjoy....


Sounds like sound advice. 🙂 I believe I'll take it.

Strabo
Explorer
Explorer
Back to OP. Running your genny for that length of time is fine. Don't mess with the genny access door, make sure your oil is full and you have fuel, push the button inside to start it and run your A.C..

Enjoy....
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lightfoot
Explorer III
Explorer III
otrfun wrote:
There is more than the cost of gas to worry about if one intends to run their Onan 5500 24/7.

Here's some of the periodic maintenance Onan recommends for the Onan 5500:

Replace oil and oil filter every 150 hours (or every 6.25 days of 24/7 runtime).
Replace air filter every 150 hours (or every 6.25 days of 24/7 runtime).
Replace spark plugs and fuel filter every 450 hours (or every 18.75 days of 24/7 runtime)
Adjust valve lash every 450 hours (or every 18.75 days of 24/7 runtime).

Filter (oil, air, and fuel) and oil changes on the Onan 5500 aren't very difficult.

Anyone replace spark plugs on a 5500? Difficult?

What about adjusting the valves. Do you have to remove the generator to get access to the valves?


The numbers for when to change oil, etc are engine hours, not wall clock hours. That is why there is an hour meter on the generator.
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fly-boy
Explorer
Explorer
Always have the generator cover on when running- you can open the bay doors to the generator compartment if you want. If it is really hot then I often open those doors to where the generator sits just so the fiberglass doesn't get too hot.

In hot weather with a couple a/c's going I generally run through 3/4 to a gallon of fuel an hour.
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AMG1978
Explorer
Explorer
dedmiston wrote:
Bring lots of gas with you. I only ran mine 24/7 one time over Labor Day weekend at Fontana Speedway. I had the AC running the whole time and it was paradise inside. I went through a lot of gas though.


Run my 24/7 from around April-May track days at Chuckwalla and usually until 7-8p even up until October out there. It's the desert.

40 gallons of gas in my TH, It only went through a little over 1/2 a tank and I got there at 3pm, started it up immediately, and didnt turn it off till 3pm on Sunday when I bailed. Pretty good. I also ran my tire warmers Sat/Sun off it and blew the breaker like 3x, so I know I was really loading that generator down.
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