Running generator while driving in the rain

I think it is the water sucked into the rotor and armature where the damage is done!

Well ,there may be something to this..my ONAN is directly behind my rear dual. Cant be a good place....glad for the heads up...
And if anyone should know its that tech.......

splashed .. YES

but sucked ... No

splashed isn't going to hurt a NON-running engine

water splashed on and then sucked into the air intake..and into the engine is NOT good

okhmbldr wrote:
My question on this subject is; wouldn't the generator have the same amount of water splashed on it while driving in rain or deep water, whether it's running or not? Just a thought.

No, how do you figure?

Diplomat Don wrote:
For those who have serviced a DIESEL generator on a DP, most of them are located in the nose of the coach for balance purposes. My Onan 8000 picks up its air from about a foot off of the ground for both cooling and air cleaner. I think it would be prudent, WHILE DRIVING, to not run the generator if it's raining HARD or your, driving thru deep puddles.

Obviously while parked, it's not an issue.

Yes, mine is a diesel qs8000. You are correct, as the tech stated many of these are low to the ground. He repairs them as we'll as services them. He said , you can do what you want, I'm just giving you advice from what I see coming in here. Pay me now or pay me later. He didn't make a dime off me other than the oil change. The advise he gave was included in the price, LOL.

I certainly valued his "opinion" and will take it into consideration .

It is called Hydrolock, and is quite common with in engines with poorly designed, or extremely low to the ground, air intake systems. Any of you guys with Ford V10s in you F53 Ford chassis should be familiar with the problem, and Ford's fix. It can happen to any engine that gets to much water, all at once into it's air intake system.

Just show extra caution while driving in Hurricanes...

okhmbldr wrote:
My question on this subject is; wouldn't the generator have the same amount of water splashed on it while driving in rain or deep water, whether it's running or not? Just a thought.

If it's running it is "sucking" air. If you splash water on the place doing the sucking it will suck that water into the engine. If it isn't running then it isn't sucking and there's no danger of water getting into the engine just from water being splashed on it.

MrWizard wrote:
every Onan, only a dozen or so
i ever looked at the fan 'EXHAUST' was on the bottom
the air intake is on the end of the generator head and on top of the cylinders

air is pulled thru the genset head and over the cly and pushed down and out

now the water cooled diesel models with a radiator have a different design and are even more enclosed, mainly for sound control/deading

Mine is the water cooled diesel model and per the manual the air intake is on the bottom. I have not gone out and looked to confirm that, but the rest of the generator is a sealed metal box and I don't recall seeing air intake anyplace else. Go read the OP's first post and you'll see that what is being talked about here is the diesel models that are mounted in the front of the motorhome. Mine is pretty much exposed to the elements from the road and anything that may splash from the front tires. Most other types of motorhomes have the generator in compartments or at other locations where water isn't likely to splash up onto them from the road.

lfeather wrote:
I had to install mudflaps on my front tires to stop the rain water from tire being ingested into the air-intake on our Onan 8k generator which caused the gen to shut down. It works good now going down the road in heavy rain.

Power Tech genset here.....mounted right behind the drivers seat and about 1/2 of the compartment space is bottomless to allow fresh air to get into the compartment. Never had any sort of problem with running while driving in the rain