Generator Removel From Winnebago Journey

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Old Snipe

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Joined
Mar 21, 2009
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133
I had my generator removed from my Journey for the replacement of the water pump belt.  It is required to be replaced at 1000 hours and I had 1844 hours on the unit.  I didn't want to take any chances of having problems during my summer travels.  I have enough trouble with Murphy.  :eek:

I had the work done at Cummins Coach Care in Colombia, SC.  I thought maybe you folks would like to see all that is involved and look at a generator with the panels removed.  Here is the post from my blog:

http://rsanityrvtravels.blogspot.com/2013/04/onan-generator-service.html

Best Regards!
 
I have the Onan 8 KW QD.  Total cost for the generator service was $1009, not including tax.  The belt, thermostat, fuel filter, air filter, oil filter and oil were replaced and the cooling system was flushed and fresh coolant installed.  The tech that worked on it put in over 13 hours of labor on it, and two or three other techs pitched in to help at a couple of points.

We boondocked a lot over the six + years we've owned our Journey which accumulated so many hours. 

The generator loves to run and has never given us a lick of trouble.  I ensured its oil and filter gets changed every 150 hours and annually changed the fuel and air filter, all which can be done with the generator in place from underneath.

The belt was in good shape, no signs of cracking.  It did show wear some wear, but the biggest thing was it was starting to glaze on its sides.  I feel that it would have eventually started to slip, which could cause  over heating of the engine.  By the way, please forgive me for calling it a fan belt, it actually is the water pump belt. 

I think a glaze on the belt, leading to some slippage would eventually cause overheating and would have been a tough issue to diagnose with the generator in place in the motor home.

I do think the 1000 hour replacement requirement is low, after what I've seen with my own eyes, my background in diesel mechanics and the opinion of the Onan techs, I wouldn't worry about the belt until 2500 hours. 

Best Regards!
 
John Canfield said:
That's quite a few hours, I think we have 500-600 hours on ours...
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We bought our old Vectra with 2261 hours on it in 2009 and sold it in 2012 at 2475 hours.  We used 213 hours in 3 years and the previous owner used 2261 in 5 years.  He must have run it all the time that the engine was running. :)

The fan belt was never changed by me and I doubt if the previous owner changed it either.
 
As a follow up, today's post (4/5/2013) on my blog, I have pictures of the belt you can take a look at.

Best Regards!
 
Paul, did you have to have the injectors checked at the same time? My 04 7.5 quiet deisel has 1500 hours on it and I am thing about having it taken out next winter. Thanks for you write up and your great BLOG.
 
We now have a little over 1800 hours on our Onan QD7500 and the belt has never been changed. I had the top cover off at 1200 hours and could see enough to tell that the belt still looked like new, so decided to leave it in place. Clearly the Onan belt change recommendation is ultra-conservative, at least for RV usage.

Mine is a bit easier to change than on your Journey - the generator is on a slide that pulls out and you can climb underneath and access the rear panel from behind. Still a PITA to remove all the bolts and covers, but manageable.

I looked at your blog and don't understand why the techs wasted time buttoning up the fuel and power lines and moving the coach out of the bay. Once the genset is out, replacing the belt is at most a 30-40 minute job, so they could have gone ahead and done that instead. Would not have taken any longer and the job would have been done.
 
The techs buttoned up the fuel lines and electrical connections so they could move the motorhome out of the shop so we could stay in it overnight.  It was the end of the day and we're full timers.  They don't allow anyone to stay in their rig in the shop at night. 

Didn't want to take a chance of fuel leaking or a loose electrical cable arching when the motorhome was driven from the shop to the parking lot.

 
mike and pat said:
Paul, did you have to have the injectors checked at the same time? My 04 7.5 quiet deisel has 1500 hours on it and I am thing about having it taken out next winter. Thanks for you write up and your great BLOG.
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No, since the engine runs just fine and there is no maintenance requirement to have them serviced, they were left alone.

Thank you for your kind words on our blog, we hope that other RVers find it helpful from our experiences.  ;)

Best Regards!
 
I did this myself recently and posted several pics of the work on IRV2.  I used a motorcycle jack to remove the genset from the coach.  While I  had mine out, I replaced the belt, all the coolant hoses, the T-stat and the temp sensor.  I also took the radiator to a local radiator shop and had them clean and check it.  My hoses look OK but since I had it all apart, I decided to replace them.  Mine had 1,100 hours on it.  I figured I saved $700-$800 in labor. 

I needed to replace my leaking heater core so I went ahead and pulled the front clip off the motorhome which made removal of the genset easier.  Now that I've done all that work, we may trade the rig on something newer.
 
2dalake said:
Now that I've done all that work, we may trade the rig on something newer.
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The new owner will appreciate your work, Gary!

We've been through two inverters on our Onan QuietDiesel 7.5 - first one under warranty, second one on our dime (er, make that $1200 just for the part  :eek:) last summer.  Even though ours is on a slide, they still remove the front clip (or body panel) to work on it.
 
I know this is a zombie thread, just wanted to ask a couple of questions.  Has anyone removed the Onan QD7500 from a Journey without removing the front cap?  Is it only a matter of height/clearance on getting the genset out from under the coach?  If anyone has done it, how high did you have to go?

My generator only has about 500 hours, but it is 14 years old, and as far as I can tell, has never had the belts and hoses replaced.  Cummins Coach Care in Spokane wants $1700!!!.  Apart from taking the cap off, which Cummins doesn't do, I'm having a hard time seeing the labor hours in this job.
 
Thanks John.  I'm certain the generator has to be dropped.  When Old Snipe did his, he removed the front cap, since he had to do so in order to reach a leaking heater core as well.  I'm sure this reduced the height the front of the coach needed to be raised.  My heater core appears to be in good shape, so I'm wondering if anyone has removed the generator without removing the coach front panel on a Journey 36ft (or any of the Journeys with the gen under the front cab and no slide).  I will avoid removing the front cap if I can--the less I work with big, somewhat fragile, pieces of fiberglass the better!  Then generator itself does not appear to be rocket science.

 
Just now saw the pics - Thank you for posting even though it was a while ago.  We have the same gen, and after looking at the pics I'm not sure that the fact ours slides out will be much advantage.  I'd have to be a contortionist to get to the back of it.
 
Mile High said:
Just now saw the pics - Thank you for posting even though it was a while ago.  We have the same gen, and after looking at the pics I'm not sure that the fact ours slides out will be much advantage.  I'd have to be a contortionist to get to the back of it.
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With the generator slid forward there's lots of room behind it to access the back of things where the belts are.  It's very straightforward to take the green cover panels off for access to things.  Impossible without the slide, hence the need to drop the gen for service.
 
cbeierl said:
With the generator slid forward there's lots of room behind it to access the back of things where the belts are.  It's very straightforward to take the green cover panels off for access to things.  Impossible without the slide, hence the need to drop the gen for service.
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Thanks!
 
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