Genset fan

[gmcbuffalo]

Has anyone had to work on their fan for the remote radiator of your Genset? Is there any new technology beside the squirrel cage fan? My generator will not stay running and I think I am dealing with a overtemp shutdown. I noticed the fan will not turn some times. It turns freely by hand. PowerTech 15K genset.
GregM

[ajducote]

Greg,

I had a similar problem. See this post. If it is the same problem I had, it is an easy fix.

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/showthread.php?4774-Generator-cooling-fan-fix

[BenC]

If that doesn't take care of your issue, consider if the fan is before or after the radiator. If it is located afterwords, look at the continuous environmental temperature rating of the motor...you may have one that is not rated for a high enough ambient and shuts down (via thermal switch) on "overload" condition.

[Coloradobus]

Greg, we had a problem with our 15KW Power Tech. The radiator fan would quit and the blower fan, both squirrel cages would quit as well, and the genset would overheat and shut down. When all this would happen, there would be power spike in the 110 house lighting, then we knew the genset would overheat and shut down. We circumvented some of this by shutting the genset down manually, after the power spike. Upon restart, sometimes things ran fine all night. When the problem got too frequent we located our Power Tech dealer who diagnosed a bad voltage regulator on the back of the control panel. You can access this panel, by pulling you genset out, crawling underneath the coach to the access panel, remove. Climb in, remove panel cover exposing the regulator, Its 250 dollar part. Ouch. good luck if it something different from ours.

[gmcbuffalo]

JIm and Chris I replaced that 5 years ago. I remount the second one on the out side of the genset motor side.

I got the fan and radiator out and will call Powertech for more troubleshooting. My first call to Powertech suggested it was the fan.

Before I took it out I had it running and all was working then the big squirral cage fan stop.

GregM

[Jon Wehrenberg]

This is directed at Liberty owners..................

On our coaches there is a steel baffle beneath the floor under the generator radiator. The purpose of the baffle is to direct heated air away from the radiator fresh air intake. From witnessing another Liberty that was missing the baffle I can say the radiator fan will cycle on its thermal overload switch if that baffle is missing because the radiator fan is drawing heated air back through the radiator and over the fan motor.

Make certain the baffle is in place, and that it is not crushed impeding air flow.

[gmcbuffalo]

Since my fan stop after running awhile I concluded that maybe the thermal overload switch was functioning a should be. I removed the motor and there was some up and down play in the rotor, so I think the bearing were heating up, heating up the motor and tripping the thermal switch. I shall see in a day or two after flushing the little radiator, some new paint and coolant have been added. Being that squirrel cages are common in the A/C industry I was able to pick up a new motor for it locally.
GregM

[gmcbuffalo]

Job complete only lost one sheetmetal screw. If you Generator will start and not stay running after 5 or 10 minutes check for overheat problems, ie fan on radiator shutting down.
Greg

[dreamchasers]

Gregg,

Good job on only losing one sheet metal screw. I have been know to lose and gain screws doing jobs.

Hector