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Generator Overheated!
We are currently storing the coach 12 miles from our house while we await a remodel project to create a parking pad for the coach. Friday we went to pick up the coach for a weekend trip and the following happened:
1. No shore power, so I first went to turn on the chassis batteries and then the house batteries (four Cole-Hersay switches). Normally a few seconds after I turn the four switches ON I hear the automatic transfer switches clicking and the coach powers up, but this time no clicks from the transfer switch and no power in the coach … Allen Bradley screens were blank, the charger/inverters were off, no power in the coach. So I went and started the generator manually. Immediately after I started the generator I could hear the transfer switch click and we had full house power. I started the Detroit without problems or incident. Any idea what happened?
2. We had to dump so we drove about two miles to the dump station, positioned the coach, hooked up the hoses, and Cathie said, “What’s that weird noise and why is there antifreeze on the blacktop?” I opened up electrical bay door where the generator radiator is and where the anti-freeze was coming from. The radiator was boiling over and barfing anti-freeze out the overflow tank. I shut the generator off immediately. After I turned the generator off I realized I should have quickly checked to see if the light on the dash for the “generator fan” was on or not.
Now what? I’m thinking I should refill the generator radiator and the cooling system with anti-freeze, see if I can fire up the generator, and if it starts check to see if the fan is running (via the light) and watch the generator temp light closely. I suspect I might have to burp the generator cooling system a few times before its full.
Am I missing anything? Anything else I should do or check? IIRC the generator fan is a squirrel cage fan powered by a 120volt AC wire directly from the generator (generator on, fan runs … is there a circuit breaker that could be tripped?). Is it easy to figure out if the belt from the fan motor to the fan is on and not broken?
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14 Replies
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On mine there’s a breaker on the generator for 20amp that goes to the blower motor. I also have a fan on the radiator itself.
My squirrel cage took way too much space so I just removed it all for a new inverter bay area. I also don’t plan on using my genny.
Without any fans my generator runs about 10-15minutes before I get an overheat alarm and it shuts down.
Seems your breakers tripped and the fan wasn’t running so it overheated
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Tripped breaker makes sense to me. Anyone have an idea where that breaker might be? I’ll look in the electrical bay and in the generator by.
Anyone have thought about proceeding with the generator? Fill it up with anti-freeze, run it, shut it down, burb it, run it, shut it down, burb it, run it, shut it down, burb it … once it doesn’t need any more antifreeze presume its good to go?
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If the radiator fan is working properly it should be sucking a lot of air thru the radiator and blowing a lot of air out of the exhaust dust underneath. Its a PITA to get to the fan belt behind the genny radiator on my Liberty. Gen battery has to come out, then theres a removeable panel on the wall that gives access to it.
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Why didn’t the Liberty WatchDog shut it down automaticly?
Here a link I did w/pics when I refinished my gen radiator bay:
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My generator (Kubota eps) has breakers right on the side of it. Yours should have them on the genny or right next to it
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If the breaker is tripped? you have to ask why. They’re on top of the round powerhead.
How many times have you replaced the belt in the 9+ yrs that you’ve owned it?
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The first time I drained, flushed, and refilled my genny coolant I got an airlock and the watchdog shut it down automatically when it was starting to get hot.
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I put a gallon of antifreeze into the top of radiator and that appeared to fill the system up. I put antifreeze in the plastic overflow jug to the cold mark.
Then I started the generator using the switch on the back of the generator and sat in the co-pilots seat to watch the generator temp … walking around to see what’s going on with the overflow jug once in a while.
We normally see a max generator temp of 180*F. I watched as the temp climbed to 190*F and shut the generator down using the switch on the back. Still no radiator fan working! The overflow jug did go from the cold line to the hot line.
I was preparing myself to dig into the electric wiring for the generator fan (a 120volt AC squirrel cage I was remember seeing reference to). I was going to ask here how to do it.
Then I saw a post on one of the Prevost Facebook pages that if you start the generator on a Liberty with the WatchDog using the switch from the back of the generator the squirrel cage fan DOES NOT run.
So I went back to the coach, turned all the electrical on, and started the generator from the Allen-Bradley screen. Again I sat in the co-pilot’s seat and watched the generator temp rise to 175*F (cool day, modest load) and stop. The temp sat at 175*F for over 30 minutes. Also the generator cooling fan light on the dash was illuminated.
So … I learned something about how Liberty has wired the cooling the fan. Always start the generator from the Allen-Bradley screen.
Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
still new to Prevost, lots to learn. Is removing the radiator the only way to access the fan motor, belt, and fan?
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Probably depends on the converter. On my Liberty, you can access from a removable panel in the inverter bay. As stated previously, need to remove the shelf and possibly the gen battery. I did not need to remove the battery, but I just looked to see what was behind it the panel. Replacing the belt might be a different story.
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Here’s a link with pics “last” time I changed the gen radiator fan belt:
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Here’s another link with pics of the “first” time I changed the gen radiator fan belt and refurbished the bay:
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I talked to Bill Doherty of Liberty Coach. He explained to me that there is a toggle switch with a red “safety cover” that’s in the electrical bay next to the partition that separates the electrical bay from the generator radiator. There are instructions on a placard for its use that I did NOT apparently did not read. While I haven’t tested it yet, Bill said this toggle switch needs to be in the “UP” position so that generator radiator blower runs when the generator is started from the back of the Kohler generator rather than off the Allen-Bradley touch screens.
So … the mystery is solved.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
My generator overheated awhile back and automatically shut down. Arrived at our destination and started to work finding the problem. Come to find out it was a uf-capacitor attached to the squirrel unit. Cost $26 for a new one and quite a bit of time to reinstall it all. Been working great for years.
Andy
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