Generator failure: New Keystone Raptor

[pigpen1003]

Four months ago my wife and I purchased a new 40' Keystone Raptor. We planned to go to the California desert and dry camp and do the usual riding in the dunes with our rzr 4 seater. I started the generator many times b4 traveling down south from Oregon. When we arrived just b4 Thanksgiving I tried starting my gen and it failed to start. Thank god I also brought my Honda 2000 gen. It got us through the 9 days we were dry camping. Keeping my batt's charged and using the appliances. It pretty well ruined our stay. We took the trailer to Giant RV in Temecula Calif. They quickly said it was a bad carberator and replaced it. Told us onan Cummings would not cover it. We paid them 550 dollars to fix it and we went on our way. Next day miles from any repair shop the gen did not start. Went back to Giant RV they said we must have defective Gas. The trailer was only 4 months old, I also used the same gas for my Honda 2000 gen it worked fine. Also for my Polaris rzr 4 seater. Then they adjusted a rocker arm on the exhaust valve? It ran great in the repair shop once again we went out to the desert and It ran for 3 days then stopped again. We contacted Cummings Onan they said it should be covered on warrentee We are miles from any repair shop now. Brand new 90,000 dollar RV with no Generator. GIant RV says they may reimburse us if onan pays them for the repairs. But they still say they wont. ONAN gens have always had a great name I am really disappointed with the whole thing.

[laknox]

pigpen1003 wrote:
Newest update Giant RV in Ca. called to apologize and give us a refund, john the service director was very pleasant and thought full. thank everyone for the kind words and backing me up with hope thank u lyle for the advice steve

Steve, glad I could help. That Good Sam membership just paid for itself for a lot of years! 🙂 It still amazes me how businesses will nickle-and-dime customers only to take a huge hit on their customer service.

Lyle

[pigpen1003]

Newest update Giant RV in Ca. called to apologize and give us a refund, john the service director was very pleasant and thought full. thank everyone for the kind words and backing me up with hope thank u lyle for the advice steve

[laknox]

pigpen1003 wrote:
Attn: lyle good sams club member please inform me how to get in touch with trouble shooter? Im not to forum friendly. I could use all the help I can get!!

Actually, it's called "Action Line". Log in to your Good Sam account at goodsamclub.com and use the Contact Us link. On the Department pull-down menu, you'll see an Action Line selection; click that. You can leave your message there.

Lyle

[BigJon05]

We had the same issue on our new Raptor with the 5500 Onan and it was a bad fuel pump. They replaced it under warranty and no problems since.

[pigpen1003]

Attn: lyle good sams club member please inform me how to get in touch with trouble shooter? Im not to forum friendly. I could use all the help I can get!!

[laknox]

pigpen1003 wrote:
Just a update on my generator. We got back to Medford, or. took it to an onan repair shop. Where they found a missing gasket between the carb and the air filter, also a broken gasket on the head of the engine with silicone as a replacement but left the defective gasket on also. I don't recommend Giant RV in Murrieta, Ca. to anyone. My main complaint is if I had bad gas why didn't they drain the tank b4 replacing the carb?

I think I would document that, submit a letter to Good Sam's "troubleshooter" and see if you can get reimbursed by Giant RV. Were I Giant's owner, and gave 2 cents about my business, I think I'd pay the bill, then have a serious talk with my service people. For $500, he's getting some serious negative feedback.

Lyle

[pigpen1003]

Just a update on my generator. We got back to Medford, or. took it to an onan repair shop. Where they found a missing gasket between the carb and the air filter, also a broken gasket on the head of the engine with silicone as a replacement but left the defective gasket on also. I don't recommend Giant RV in Murrieta, Ca. to anyone. My main complaint is if I had bad gas why didn't they drain the tank b4 replacing the carb?

[jalichty]

I know the feeling of something that you counted on not working, but it appears you had a back-up generator and gas wasn't the problem so didn't you get to run the Rzar around the desert and spend time with your wife and enjoy life away from home? Didn't the Honda recharge the batteries so you have power when you needed it. However, spending $550 for no benefit I guess could cause the ruination of a vacation. We had a problem with a kicker motor on our boat the first day fishing, out of a whole week, and went back to our home port, kinda, and just bought a new motor rather than trying to fix the old one. It was kind of an inconvenience, but it certainly didn't ruin our vacation.

[pigpen1003]

I tried removing the gas cap and replacing it back on, that didn't work, I get a 36 code also. I have good gas for sure. The repair man at Giant RV saw it a second time and adjusted a rocker arm on the exhaust valve, and it started right up. Got out to the desert, ran for 3 hours and then wouldn't start again like the last time. I'm guessing the repair man was wrong with his decision about bad gas, replacing the carb for 500 dollars etc. If the rocker arm is defective, I want a new gen. I shouldn't have to start out with a defective gen when its brand new. I return home in 2 days when I unload I will return the TH to the RV people and demand satisfaction. It's just that my whole vacation was totally ruined. Getting the new TH just for the gen to be defective was devastating.

[Badhabt]

I have had a ongoing problem with my 2007 Raptor generator this past summer (5500 marquis gold) stumble rough idle then quit. Originally replaced the fuel filters and thought all was ok. Ran if a few times dry camping...only about an hour or two. I hardly ever use my generator, my genset had only about 30 hours on it total. Then over Thanksgiving I went to start it for my monthly start up and run time and had issues with it staying running again. Had 10 gallons of new premium gas in the tank and Stabil were added. The genset would only run when primed. Then would get a code 36. So I started searching and was figuring it was the fuel pump gone bad. Just yesterday i went out to troubleshoot. Before testing the genset, I took off my gas cap and ran the fuel station, pumped fuel from the tank back into the tank to keep the pumped lubed up. Then went and drained the carb fuel bowl to check for fuel...gas looked fine. So primed it up and hit the start button and the genset started and ran PERFECT. Ran it under load for 30 minutes. Not a hiccup. Thought WTF? So as i go around the fifth wheel i notice that i LEFT THE GAS CAP OFF. I was actually searching this forum to find out whether the gas cap for the Raptors was vented or non vented. I replaced my orig cap with a locking one 5 years ago. New cap time.

[2wheelglider]

My bet is the fuel pump is going bad. Had less than 70 hours on mine and had to replace pump. Some times it would run 30 minutes other times it would only run 15 seconds. Replaced with generic fuel pump from napa and been problem free again.

[avvidclif1]

WhitehouseLV wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
Hi New member,
It is not cummings, but rather Cummins.
IF the shop you went to is not an Onan authorized service facility it is highly likely that you will have to pay them and then submit the bills to Onan for reinbursment. Not uncommon.Do you have fuel? Most on board gasoline generators are designed such that when the supply fuel tank gets to between 1/4 and 1/2 it will no longer pick up fuel. What is the fuel level in the tank?

This is what I was thinking too. Have had it happen on my 2nd toyhauler. It's a new TH so doubt it has had enough gas w/ethonal in it to do any damage. As far as a bad carburetor, sounds like you might have got taken there. Hard to believe something so new could be bad. Maybe shops just replace complete assembly but some shops could have rebuilt it adjusted it etc for a lot less $$.

Next time you have nothing else to do try and find a rebuild kit for an Onan carb. Since about the 80's they don't exist. I had a late 80's Onan 4k that needed a carb rebuild. No kit available and new carb was abt $500. I converted it to propane for less than $300, end of problem.

[lillyputz]

discovery4us wrote:
I had a onan in my Raptor that gave me starting problems from day one. This is going to sound crazy but it turned out to be the gas cape not venting properly. The generator would run at home but after going through any elevation change it would just crank and crank and never start. Go out and take the gas cap off and put it back on and it would start.

Not crazy. if the cap vent is pluged, it will not let the fuel be drawn into the carborator, vapor lock.

Lillyputz

[discovery4us]

I had a onan in my Raptor that gave me starting problems from day one. This is going to sound crazy but it turned out to be the gas cape not venting properly. The generator would run at home but after going through any elevation change it would just crank and crank and never start. Go out and take the gas cap off and put it back on and it would start.