Do you put in black tank treatment pod prior to storage?

Yup, no different than ‘exercising’ your generator a minimum of 30 minutes a month or aliens will come down and shoot it with their death ray, or you’ll be horribly murdered the very first time you sleep in a rest area.

I can tell you from personal experience that I have become religious about exercising my Onan 4BGE. Maybe some generators no longer suffer from lack of use, but the Onan 4BGE sure will.

If you go over on the Smokestak forum you will find countless posts of people coming in and asking why their generator doesn't work. About 90% of the time it's a gummed-up carb caused by letting the generator sit too long without running. There's a lot of things that cause the "gum" - things growing in the carb, "varnish", corrosion from water condensation, but the end result is that the orifices in the jets get plugged partially or fully and the generator either doesn't run at all or runs poorly. Exercising the generator once a month flushes the fuel system out with fresh gas plus the heat and agitation help keep things cleaned out.

The other problem which the 4BGE suffers from (and maybe other generators also) is that when the generator sits, the slip rings oxidize, raising the resistance between the rings and the brushes. If this resistance gets too high, it can damage the voltage regulator. This seems to me to be something that could be engineered around, so maybe some manufacturers have solved this problem. But my 30-year-old 4BGE has had this problem. Monthly running will keep the slip rings polished.

Steve

No additives ever, just lots of water, no odors.

jjrbus wrote:
If having order problems, there is a leak in the system. It is a closed system and no odor should be coming in unit. Google plumbing smoke test to find issue.

Basically true, but not precisely. There is a vent in the roof, just like your sewer system in a home, and when conditions are right, a little gas can waft into an open door or window. I'm sure many of us have caught the occasional sniff of sewer gas around buildings. And definitely around a campground. Keeping the origin of the odor to a minimum is easy enough and cheaper than easy.

There is another side to this coin. There are those who are proud of NOT using any tank additive. And then there are those who think their tanks have to be clean enough to wash surgical instruments. I wonder how those camps (schools of thought) stack up? Me, I use an additive, and don't really care about having a sterile black tank rinse.

As a retired fulltime RV'er, could you explain this "storage" thing you speak of? Oh, yes, another sunny and warm day here in Quartzsite, Arizona.

If having order problems, there is a leak in the system. It is a closed system and no odor should be coming in unit. Google plumbing smoke test to find issue.

I used additives for several years and stopped about 10 yrs ago. Never had a odor problem at all.

I only use non alcohol fuel in all my small gas engines. When I travel I use whatever is available. When heading for home the last tank is always non ethanol and no carb issues.

Holding tank additives, got conned into wasting money on them when I was a newbie. Then I wised up!

JaxDad wrote:

pauldub wrote:
I put chemicals in my tank for about 20 years, then a couple of years ago I quit. Seems to be fine with just poo, pee, and water. I even quit using "RV toilet paper" and that's fine too.

Yup, no different than ‘exercising’ your generator a minimum of 30 minutes a month or aliens will come down and shoot it with their death ray, or you’ll be horribly murdered the very first time you sleep in a rest area.

It makes for good reading, but no, the sky is NOT falling........

Depends on the generator. The older generators with brushes could have real problems if they weren't exercised. The brushes would rust and freeze up, killing the generator. Any carbureted engine, the carburetor can gum up.

Anyone who says "generators don't need to be exercised" is just as wrong as someone who says "all generators need to be exercised." Some do and some don't.

Jax, I guess the gas in Toronto is better than the stuff they sell in California. I know from painful personal experience that if I don't exercise my generator and drain the carb, the carb will gum up and we're off to the repair shop again.

The holes in the Honda carb jets are about the size of a human hair. Which is one reason why I don't have any hair anymore. ;)

pauldub wrote:
I put chemicals in my tank for about 20 years, then a couple of years ago I quit. Seems to be fine with just poo, pee, and water. I even quit using "RV toilet paper" and that's fine too.

Yup, no different than ‘exercising’ your generator a minimum of 30 minutes a month or aliens will come down and shoot it with their death ray, or you’ll be horribly murdered the very first time you sleep in a rest area.

It makes for good reading, but no, the sky is NOT falling........