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Onan 4000 gensets

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Last activity 2018-08-29 9:11 PM
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OhMax
Reg. Feb 2013
Posted 2018-08-26 8:28 AM
Subject: Onan 4000 gensets


Married to a Louie Lover


Posts: 3303
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Tips, tricks, things we should know?

Bought the trailer in June with 925 hours on the gen. Have 1200 on it now. We presume it was fully serviced as it came from a dealership, but I guess it’s hard to know how much they do on trades as long as there isn’t a major issue going on.

Somewhere just shy of 1100 hours we had trouble with it shutting off, found it to be low on oil and needing a new air filter. Has run fine since and fine the past 2 days until last night, low on oil again and I’m presuming also needing a new air filter as it now has oil, ran all night but quit again on me this morning. Going to check the spark plug as well. Thank God I slept in a little and didn’t NEED the morning coffee I was just starting to brew!

Anything else we should be checking and maintaining regularly? This is our first on board gen and while I do love the convienence I’d hate to have something catastrophic happen and lose the whole trailer while getting fixed. We have a backup gen but it’s a beast to haul around and hard for me to manage by myself.

A service guy at a rodeo who was working on a friends generator (same one) said he replaces a lot of brushes in this model. He also said when it dies to replace it with an Onan 5500 and we’ll never have to worry about it, that the 4000’s weren’t made to run as hard and long as we run them and he was shocked when they started putting them on trailers to begin with.
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Chandler's Mom
Reg. Jan 2015
Posted 2018-08-26 1:23 PM
Subject: RE: Onan 4000 gensets



My Heart Be Happy


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Debra
Reg. Feb 2006
Posted 2018-08-26 7:34 PM
Subject: RE: Onan 4000 gensets


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 I have one that was doing that and it turned out the ground wire was loose.  Tightened it up and it ran fine.
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OhMax
Reg. Feb 2013
Posted 2018-08-27 7:23 AM
Subject: RE: Onan 4000 gensets


Married to a Louie Lover


Posts: 3303
20001000100100100
Debra - 2018-08-26 7:34 PM

 I have one that was doing that and it turned out the ground wire was loose.  Tightened it up and it ran fine.

Hey Debra, thanks for that! Can you tell me where the ground wire is located so we can check it?

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BROKEN FEATHER
Reg. Sep 2010
Posted 2018-08-27 10:57 AM
Subject: RE: Onan 4000 gensets


Veteran


Posts: 146
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Mine was doing the same thing. I had to replace the fuel pump. While I was in there looking around I found another sponge type filter that I did not know existed. My generator has 1600 hours on it and I am pretty sure it had never been cleaned. It was filthy. I just washed it out and my generator has never run better. It is very important to start them up at least once a week and let them run for a while.
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jd&ez
Reg. Oct 2003
Posted 2018-08-29 9:11 PM
Subject: RE: Onan 4000 gensets


Expert


Posts: 1956
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Location: Ky
I had 3 of the 4000 and one genrac.

The Onan 4000's were great. The generac was a pice of junk best suited to anchor a boat.

But the question is about Onan. It is a pita to have it serviced and have to take the whole trailer but for a maojor problem they can take it out and you take your trailer home and use a portable generator in the meantime. The company I ised would loan a portable generator if they needed to take the Onan out.

I changed oil every month in all of the generators. Changed the plug every 250 hours and the air filter. More often on the air filter if it was dirty.

None of my Onan's had oil filters or I would have changed them too.

Onan's are great until you have a major problem. Then they are best replaced. The longest I kept one was 2000 hours. at 2000 hours it needed some carbeator work. That was about $300. The repair shop suggessted replacing it for $2400 but I thought it was just a sales pitch. Over the next year I spent another $1500 or so on it in repairs.

Should have replaced it when it was suggested.

We are out of the horse show business now but if I were to get back back in I would have an Onan generator in any LQ trailer I owned. If I found a trailer I liked that had a generac I would replace it immediately with an Onan.

They do need to be serviced though. We ask a lot of a generator on the horse show circuit. Hot dusty conditions and many times rough terrain getting there. But the Onan is up to the task.  
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