Winnebago Aspect/Cummins 4kw generator

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Oscar Mike

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I have a question about warranty. The generator in my new coach would not start despite my best efforts. I took it into the shop and the dealership's mechanic diagnosed a varnished carburetor as the cause of the problem. The generator has a mere .9 hours, and the coach has under 3k miles. I've only owned the unit for about 9-months.

History: I have been starting my generator and letting it run for a few minutes every week, not a lot of running, but enough to run some gas through the carburetor, or so I thought.

Winnebago is denying the warranty claim for unstated reasons. My question; do I have a leg to stand on when I call Customer Service later this morning?
 
John, I am in the 12-month warranty period from Winnebago, if I were outside of the 12-months I would agree that it would be a Cummins issue.
 
Just an FYI, usually to exercise a generator you should run it once a month under load for at least an hour. Under load would be like turning the AC on.
 
John Canfield said:
So was this a Winnebago dealer that denied a warranty claim or who?
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The dealership is saying that Winnebago denied the claim.
 
SargeW said:
Just an FYI, usually to exercise a generator you should run it once a month under load for at least an hour. Under load would be like turning the AC on.
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I am assuming a continuous hour, and not as I have been doing, only for a few minutes at a time.
 
Maybe the dealership is taking the easy way out. I would call Winnebago Customer Relations and complain. You could also take it to Onan-Cummins.
 
John Hilley said:
Maybe the dealership is taking the easy way out. I would call Winnebago Customer Relations and complain. You could also take it to Onan-Cummins.
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I've been on hold at Winnebago for about 14 minutes now... :)
 
Oscar Mike said:
I am assuming a continuous hour, and not as I have been doing, only for a few minutes at a time.
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At the very least, 30 continuous minutes under load, be sure and give the generator a few minutes to cool down after you remove the load.

If I had an engine or generator problem within the 12 month house warranty, I would still be taking it to the respective engine or generator dealer - let the dealership that has the expertise and experience work on it which in most cases will not be the selling RV dealer.
 
SargeW said:
Just an FYI, usually to exercise a generator you should run it once a month under load for at least an hour. Under load would be like turning the AC on.
Click to expand...
simply running it for a few minutes  as often as the op claims would be more than adequate to keep the carb in good shape
 
Oscar Mike said:
I am assuming a continuous hour, and not as I have been doing, only for a few minutes at a time.
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you certainly do not need to run for a hour under load.30 minutes is enough but as I said you running it as often as u claim there should no  such varnished carburater.The fuel supply would have to be plain awefull for this situation to be factual.it sounds like this dealership is treating you poorly  like its seems a lot of them do these days from all the forum storys I have read
 
John Canfield said:
At the very least, 30 continuous minutes under load, be sure and give the generator a few minutes to cool down after you remove the load.

If I had an engine or generator problem within the 12 month house warranty, I would still be taking it to the respective engine or generator dealer - let the dealership that has the expertise and experience work on it which in most cases will not be the selling RV dealer.
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You can do that? I don't mean to be naive, but a local Cummins generator shop can administer the warranty?
 
According to Winnebago the problem was caused by Owner error, i.e., ME, and therefore it will not be covered under warranty. The repair bill for a new carburetor is $786.63. Another expensive lesson... :mad: There is no appeal. 
 
Oscar Mike said:
You can do that? I don't mean to be naive, but a local Cummins generator shop can administer the warranty?
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Yup.  Take the rig to a Cummins/Onan dealer, you might get a different answer.  Worse come to worse, carburetors can be rebuilt or if there is no carb kit available, try to buy the carb off eBay and have a mechanic replace it - it's not rocket science.
 
Oscar Mike said:
According to Winnebago the problem was caused by Owner error, i.e., ME, and therefore it will not be covered under warranty. The repair bill for a new carburetor is $786.63. Another expensive lesson... :mad: There is no appeal.
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You claim you have started the gen set several times over nine months and it started and ran fine? Correct? then all of a sudden one day it failed to start. You go to dealer and they tell u the carb is so badley damaged by bad gas it has to be replaced?Correct? I simply do not believe that's what was needed nor the problem. A good example is a friend of mine had not started his gen set( same model as your,s )for like 2 years.The fuel in the MH was putred.I drained out most and put in fresh fuel.The gen carb was awefull, also.the oil switch was almost rusted solid.I poped the bowel off cleaned it out and freed up the switch.Installed new fuel pump,started her up and ran like a swiss watch


Edit by staff: removed inappropriate statement
 
buchanan said:
You claim you have started the gen set several times over nine months and it started and ran fine? Correct? then all of a sudden one day it failed to start. You go to dealer and they tell u the carb is so badley damaged by bad gas it has to be replaced?Correct? I simply do not believe that's what was needed nor the problem. A good example is a friend of mine had not started his gen set( same model as your,s )for like 2 years.The fuel in the MH was putred.I drained out most and put in fresh fuel.The gen carb was awefull, also.the oil switch was almost rusted solid.I poped the bowel off cleaned it out and freed up the switch.Installed new fuel pump,started her up and ran like a swiss watch
Click to expand...

You mean a RV Dealer's Service Department would take advantage of a customer...at $140.00 labor rate...say it ain't so.

Fact is the carburetor was varnished, and even after talking to my local Cummins Generator dealer (Rocky Mountain Cummins) they stated that if the carburetor is varnished from non-use it is not covered under warranty. I feel like I've been screwed, the problem is I don't have any ammunition to fight it.


Edit by staff: removed inappropriate statement from quote block
 
Well then, sounds like you're stuck with a repair bill.  Consider it an expensive lesson to regularly exercise the generator, this is especially critical for a gasoline gen set.  I've had to replace two carbs on two different Honda generators because I forgot to run them out of fuel  :-\  :-[.
 
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