Jon Bus Failure - A Team Summoned

[MangoMike]

Major Generator Failure Forces A-1 to Call In the A-Team for Repair.

Dateline
Oshkosh, WI

Jon Wehrenberg. unable to handle the catastrophic generator failure on his pristine Liberty, was for forced to call in the A-Team to handle the highly technical repairs necessary to get him back on line using almost 20kw of energy.

Stationed nearby, the A-Team composed of JDUB, Granvil and Mango Mike were able to quickly accomplish the necessary repairs to the struggling Liberty.

According to Wehrenberg "I have no idea what I would have done without the immediate assistance of this highly trained technical crew. Without their superior capabilities I would have to rely on battery power alone, in another words I would have been screwed".

According the A-Team leader Jerry Winchester "Even a Prevost neophite, like Loc McNew, carries a spare generator belt in case of such an event as this. Since all the Cruiseairs were running in "Suspended Animation Mode" since his arrival, generator usage was imperitave."

"We were at a total loss why Wehrenberg wasn't fully prepared" states TBC bus owner Mike Anderson.

Granvil Tracy only had one comment "So this is the casino chic Liberty I have heard so much about?"

As of press time while technical repairs have been completed, the A-Team was denied access to the interior of the bus to verify generator voltage readings and restart AC units.

Wehrenberg was unavailable for comment at this time.



5121
The disabled Liberty.

5122
Repairs underway.

5123
The A Team.
Mission Accomplished.

[dalej]

Great work guys! You have saved Jon from a completely disastrous weekend.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Mike you have made many laugh this morning. Very very funny. You guys always manage to pull something out of the hat. I was wondering how you would vent without Tom to kick around.The others can rest easier now......maybe:rolleyes:

No spare Generator belt............CHECK

Jon I too have blown the generator belt without a spare:o (I have one now)

[rfoster]

Sounds like the Liberal news Media is at in again.

I can't believe A1 is out of town without a spare belt for the Generator.

Tell me it ain't so.

I will wait and verify that when Fox news gets their team on the scene.

[jonnie]

As opposed to the phantom intersection blocking incident, there are pictures and witnessess. Is the gererator now running backwards perhaps or making sheep noises?

[tdelorme]

The "A-Team" ?? Oh, I see now, that's "MR. T" in the orange shirt, right??

[gmcbuffalo]

Jon I see that your generator is placed perpendicular to the bus, is the radiator for it in a split bay? If so how (pictures would be great) are the coolant hoses attached and pasted thru the walls so you can pull the generator out without kinking hoses?
GregM

[truk4u]

Good grief, the Ayatollah of Pogolla left the safety of home base without a spare gen belt!:eek: And whats up with needing the trusty POG buddies to do the dirty work? Where was the famous one while all this hard work was being done?

[phorner]

You guys are...... well...... brutal!:D

I'm sure that there is somewhere, a pristine spare generator belt, in the original factory fresh sleeve, just waiting for an event just such as this, stashed away in Jon's spare parts inventory.

It's just gotta be!

[lloyd&pamela]

Jon sorry to hear about all the troubles. I had a spare in Grasslands National Park when our gen belt broke. Only problem was the company sent the wrong size and we did not have an A-Team parked near by.

Always good to have friends nearby.

[garyde]

So I can undertand this new flash better, where was Jon when his fan belt 'broke'. Or maybe another way of asking, where was the A team.

[rickdesilva]

Does Granvil REALLY want to be associated with the "A Team" ? Isn't there a joke like..... "How many POG's does it take to replace 1 generator belt? Does anyone know the punchline?

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Sorry bout that Jon, guess Denny would say you had a stiff belt. :rolleyes::D

Murphy says he always wins, unless you have friends to back you up.:)


Hey you guys. how is the pilot sign up going:confused:

Will Deb be eating an oyster??????????/

JIM

[truk4u]

Rick,

Three... One to hold the wrench, one to hold the belt and one to keep an eye on Jdub while in the gen compartment. Little sheep have been known to surface weeks after a job.

[Jerry Winchester]

That's harsh Krakman. However, I did have a flashback to the last generator I worked on in a Liberty...........

Nope, A-1 found that belt all on his own while we were sitting out between the busses. He had to do the "Walk of Shame" over to us with the broken belt in hand. Seems the Watchdog had shut the generator down and thus the chain reaction of the Suspended Animation Unit ceasing to run and well you know the rest of the story.

But Granvil supplied the tools, Mike recorded the effort and expertly cleaned the inside of the soiled belt guard and I turned the wrenchs.

However, I think there was a sheep attack last night at some point as there were a pretty good gaggle of them loose this morning.

[grantracy]

Does Granvil REALLY want to be associated with the "A Team" ? Isn't there a joke like..... "How many POG's does it take to replace 1 generator belt? Does anyone know the punchline?

Rick: I had no idea what was going on...those two nice gentlemen in the photograph told me we were posing for the "Buff Men of POG Calendar"

[MangoMike]

Rick,

Don't buy that line. Granvil was definitely part of the A-Team. (Face).

However, here is the shot for the buff calendar.

5133

[truk4u]

Fishtales on a Knuckle, now that's class! Dale and Jim K did you check that out?:cool:

[rickdesilva]

Does he drive his motorcycle with or without his shoes?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Now for the rest of the story.

This was merely a test. I wanted to see how many POGgers it takes to change a belt and I was supplied the answer. The answer is three times as many as required.

Except for "quiet time" when our campground host made folks shut off the generators mine was running 16 hours per day. I was busy working while the three blind mice were amusing themselves. So while I was working I carefully staged a belt failure to see if they could handle it. It is my considered opinion they could not, and the forth guy (the one who took the picture of the three stooges) was actually the one who did it. Look at their hands. They are clean.

Unless someone can produce photos, there was no blocked highway in Wildwood FL.

[MangoMike]

"Three blind mice"


Boy you bail a guy out and this is the thanks you get. No wonder only dogs will fly with him.

By the way pix by Jeff Raymond.

[Loc]

This sounds a little suspect for A1. This is the guy that has a list longer than a Prevost of spare parts that one should carry. Hard to believe he would have spare throttle position sensor and forget a fan belt. The Boy Scout of POG being rescued by revisionist history sheep herders??? Something smells a little jerk carribean fishy to me. "I pity the fool" that has to rely on the A-Team. And to top it off, one of these questionable samaritans takes a cheap shot at a member in good standing who was thousands of miles away in Florida - that is way harsh Taco Boy.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

OK......To all POGgers. I really appreciated the help I got from Mike, Jerry and Gran. The belt exploded (you had to see it) about 15 seconds before I was shutting the generator down for the night. Under any other circumstances it would have been no big deal, but getting anywhere around OSH to chase down a belt would have been a challenge with traffic being what it was, and even if that was not an issue I was in the booth alone so I had no backup to allow me to get the belt and get it installed.

The three guys were all over the problem. I did leave the coach locked, and all the bays except the ones they needed to access locked because I wanted to limit the pain I knew was about to experience, but the repaired generator was running and it performed perfectly from then on. I will carry a spare. Out of sight out of mind. Not any more.

Thanks to JDUB, Mango and Gran.

Item of information for those that are curious. I ran the generator from July 25 when I got there with a full tank until Aug 2 when I left and refueled. It ran from 6:00 AM until about 10:00 PM (16 hrs) with loads ranging from 40 amps to just under 80 amps. I ran two or three Cruiseairs, the hot water heater, and had the inverters function as chargers every morning as well aas running the refrig and other circuits like the TV, coffee maker and the dryer to dry the bath towels.

Total fuel consumed was 71 gallons. When I refueled I used the same truckstop and fuel pump as I did when filling and it was only 3 miles from the camping site so deduct about a gallon for driving. Fuel consumption worked out to about .55 GPH. When I get a chance I will get accurate hours from the meter, but these numbers are not that far off.

Since 750 watts equals a horsepower I think it would be easy to calculate the generator fuel burn based on loads, but my point here is to encourage guys to load up the generators to not only keep them running better, but to not be afraid to run them while driving to keep the coach comfortable because the fuel penalty is minimal.

[Jerry Winchester]

Mel Torme - Big East Texas "Bite Me" for you.

Beagle Boy - Do you not have a spare generator belt? I rest my case.

A1 - Good call on the generator usage. We used ours like we were running from the police in pretty much the same fashion. Ran it most of the day and then ran the AC from the inverters all night. It auto-started one time while we were there about 6am, but I started it all the other times.

I now have a spare generator belt as well. I had every engine / ac belt known to man but not this one. One other note was that all the hardware on both Jon's and our generator is metric.

Which should be no problem for Loc as the only tools he carries are an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver, which coencidentially would work if you were in a bind and knew how to use them.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

After I had posted a glowing report of the fine work of the POG Power Pack (JDUB, Mango, and Gran) a little voice in my head (I have little voices) said it might be wise to check the generator because of who worked on it.

They were proud of their work and even signed it.

But look how tight the belt was. When I checked further I found the bottom bolt of the alternator had not been tightened.


I corrected the problems and added my signature to the generator.

[truk4u]

Jon,

Granville wouldn't have made that belt loose error, he was probably pre-occupied looking over his shoulder while the Taco Twins where trying to put lambs wool in your air cleaner!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I'm taking Gran out of the picture. I know for a fact he has a high standard and when I dusted for fingerprints his were no where to be found.

The other two are being a little "sheepish" so I think we all know where to focus the attention.

[Orren Zook]

Jon,

Just out of curiosity could you post the part number for this belt? Do you have a 20kw Kohler (Yanmar)?

[MangoMike]

I think this was caused by one of Obama's ill conceived energy policies.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

The number on the belt is a NAPA 4380.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Orren, 20kw.

Kohler, alternator belt: Gates 2380 or 6838 these are regular service belts.

NAPA 4L380W this is a premium heavy duty wrapped belt, commonly used by lawn service people, and manufactured by Gates for NAPA. Retail $14.99

JIM

[jack14r]

I replaced mine last week and it was a napa A38,the gen is a 20KW Kohler.I bet that Jons part number really means that the belt is a 4L38.A belts and 4L belts are almost the same dimensions.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Orren, 20kw.

Kohler, alternator belt: Gates 2380 or 6838 these are regular service belts.

NAPA 4L380W this is a premium heavy duty wrapped belt, commonly used by lawn service people, and manufactured by Gates for NAPA. Retail $14.99

JIM

Corrected post #31 above with confirmed data.

JIM

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

I have found what I believe to be the best Kohler Generator belt.

It is, Dayco Top Cog Gold Label 17380. $9.49

The link is for the Dayco store locator.

http://dayco.know-where.com/dayco/

JIM

[Jeff Bayley]

I do keep at least two extra gen belts, a thermostat, a spare volatage regulator, as well as all the other engine belts...... but I can't resist to put a plug for my spare 3,500 watt pony generator in case of a generator failure. Of course most of know that I use mine to run one bedroom air at night when boon docking and not just gen failure.

Great date on the fuel consumption from Jon which I know a lot of us have been wanting to quantify once and for all including the efficiency for running it while moving down the road.

JDUB- Did I understand correct that you can run at least one A/C most of the night on batteries ? Do cruise airs draw less power than roof airs ? I talked to a Vantare owner (a late model one) that said his air would run for an hour or hour and half on batteries. I think Jello said his ran all night on batteries also. How many of you have luck with this ?

[Jerry Winchester]

Jeff,

I actually ran two Cruisairs all night, but the outside temp was falling thru the night and the compressors only ran intermittently.

I have to think Cruisair and roof air draw around the same amps but I don't know for sure. Our fans run all the time, so that might be different from a roof air, but I have never had a coach with them, so I can't say for sure.

[Kenneth Brewer]

Jeff,

I actually ran two Cruisairs all night, but the outside temp was falling thru the night and the compressors only ran intermittently.

I have to think Cruisair and roof air draw around the same amps but I don't know for sure. Our fans run all the time, so that might be different from a roof air, but I have never had a coach with them, so I can't say for sure.

Fans running constantly (when the units are turned on), or intermittently according to the thermostat, is selectable. I think the default was on, as my were, but it is easy to change this. Consult the manual for the procedure.

Take care.

[GDeen]

Item of information for those that are curious. I ran the generator from July 25 when I got there with a full tank until Aug 2 when I left and refueled. It ran from 6:00 AM until about 10:00 PM (16 hrs) with loads ranging from 40 amps to just under 80 amps. I ran two or three Cruiseairs, the hot water heater, and had the inverters function as chargers every morning as well aas running the refrig and other circuits like the TV, coffee maker and the dryer to dry the bath towels.

Total fuel consumed was 71 gallons. When I refueled I used the same truckstop and fuel pump as I did when filling and it was only 3 miles from the camping site so deduct about a gallon for driving. Fuel consumption worked out to about .55 GPH. When I get a chance I will get accurate hours from the meter, but these numbers are not that far off.

Since 750 watts equals a horsepower I think it would be easy to calculate the generator fuel burn based on loads, but my point here is to encourage guys to load up the generators to not only keep them running better, but to not be afraid to run them while driving to keep the coach comfortable because the fuel penalty is minimal.

Ran my generator for 47 hours while dry camped in a hotel parking lot in OK a couple of weeks ago. Outside temperature was over 100 degrees both days and we had all 3 cruiseairs running along with other normal stuff. Generator consumed right at 0.7 gph over the 47 hour period.

Computed as the difference between what my Pro Driver showed as fuel consumed and the fuel required to fill the tank. I reset my "leg" setting at every fillup and it has been very accurate at predicting fuel consumed when the generator hasn't been used.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That's very consistent with my numbers because the outside air temps in OSH were in the 80s and I only had two ACs operating.