Generator

tropical36 wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Had mine start up one afternoon...seemingly all by itself. Came on here to get some advice and there was plenty of helpful advice. But, I happened to notice the neighbors cat wandering around outside. Yep, paw prints on top of the genset.

Instead of a complicated solution to prevent it long term, I just jammed a toothpick under the switch.

Is your genset, gasoline or diesel? One thing about ours is that you must hold the button down for as long as 14secs as it preheats and before it will start.

Mine is diesel. The weather was warm. And the switch doesn't take much force to press. The light on it flashes for a few seconds, and then it kicks over and starts in an instant. The cat was older and probably wasn't rattled by much anyway so the genset had time to start before it ran off.

tropical36 wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Had mine start up one afternoon...seemingly all by itself. Came on here to get some advice and there was plenty of helpful advice. But, I happened to notice the neighbors cat wandering around outside. Yep, paw prints on top of the genset.

Instead of a complicated solution to prevent it long term, I just jammed a toothpick under the switch.

Is your genset, gasoline or diesel? One thing about ours is that you must hold the button down for as long as 14secs as it preheats and before it will start.

Mine is diesel and mine also requires holding the button down for a short time. So I just assume the cat stood on top of the button until it fired up and then I'm sure it scared the heck out of him. But mine had quite a bit of dust so I could see the prints and even the print on the button. That section sets at about a 45 degree angle so he was probably on the button to keep from sliding off. When I posted about it on here a couple of years ago several other people reported having the same thing happen. I keep my motorhome inside now so I don't have any problems. But if I ever move it back outside, I never use that button to start it anyway so it would be simple to stick something under it so a critter can't start it.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Had mine start up one afternoon...seemingly all by itself. Came on here to get some advice and there was plenty of helpful advice. But, I happened to notice the neighbors cat wandering around outside. Yep, paw prints on top of the genset.

Instead of a complicated solution to prevent it long term, I just jammed a toothpick under the switch.

Is your genset, gasoline or diesel? One thing about ours is that you must hold the button down for as long as 14secs as it preheats and before it will start.

Had mine start up one afternoon...seemingly all by itself. Came on here to get some advice and there was plenty of helpful advice. But, I happened to notice the neighbors cat wandering around outside. Yep, paw prints on top of the genset.

Instead of a complicated solution to prevent it long term, I just jammed a toothpick under the switch.

YUP! I've had that problem for years. Happens we stayed up one night and watched. It was deer pushing the buttons. You know, Home Home on the Range. BWAHAHA! Must be the lawn elves.

Three (or 4) ways the Genny can self start

1: As someone pointed out AGS (Auto Generator Start) Monitors battery voltage and cranks it up as needed. .May be set to NOT start during "Quiet Hours"

2: Water on contacts

3: Rodent or insect damage to wires and contects

and the optional 4: Gremlins (Often 2 legged gremlens who giggle )

I came home once to have my generator running and it does not have an auto-start feature. But the culprit left his finger prints, or should I say paw prints, as evidence. The neighbors cat got up in there and stepped on the start switch that is on top of the generator. Fired it right up.

Whitetail wrote:
Is it possible for a generator to self-start? Motorhome was in driveway, plugged in to 50 amp. service, nothing running but refrigerator. Awoke to discover generator running. Thoughts please?

Some like ours have auto and scheduled start capabilities, but even without, I've seen them start by themselves, if they have moisture inside on the control board, like if you recently gave it a good cleaning and used a water hose to clean of the gunk or other cleanser.

A short circuit in connector plug, or in the wiring, will cause that
I know of a DP, with the Onan in the rear,
Lost an exhaust tall section, (muffler still in place), of the diesel engine
That melted some wiring going to the Onan, and developed that problem
Generator would randomly start

Yes there are many instances over the years where a generator that does NOT have auto start, starts anyway. Happened to me in the middle of the night. The fix then was to unplug the connector that comes from the generator to the rest of the coach,(near the generstor) clean the many pins in the connector and seal with an electrical grease when you plug back in.