Can a generator be converted from propane to gas? PO mods...

[urbex]

Just picked up a 1990 Lance LC980 truck camper last night, and this is the first camper I've ever had with a built in generator, as well as the first experience I've had with RV specific generators (always used a portable I had mounted to the truck prior to this). I bought it without being able to verify systems functionality, which yes, I know, generally considered a bad idea. But this isn't my first camper, and I got it so cheap that it was worth the gamble to me. The lady I bought it from said that she got it as part of a trade, and basically knew nothing about it.

I started going through the systems when I got it home, particularly the generator set up. It's an Onan 3.0RV, and I noticed a Facet fuel pump mounted in the bay next to the generator, with a fuel line that exited through the bottom of the bay and was just hanging there. There was a 2 gallon fuel can with a rubber hose and barb glued into the pour spout inside the camper, so I'm assuming that the PO was running it on gasoline.

I always thought that any generator that came with a truck camper would be set up to run on propane, and at least according the 1993 Lance camper brochure (the oldest I could find on Lance's site), there's no mention of running the generator on gasoline.

So I guess first question would be is it even OK to run a LPG generator on gasoline? I haven't tried to fire this up yet, so I don't know if it even successfully ran like this. Second, how the heck do people work on these things? There's barely enough room to get my hands in there, and I can't imagine how things like tune-ups are done. Does it require the assistance of a flexible child to do this, or is it generally removed from the camper? Am I supposed to unbolt it, and bear-hug the thing out of there?

[maillemaker]

This is a great forum for Onan generators:

https://www.smokstak.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

Steve

[urbex]

Duh...manual...ok, I feel a little bit of a dolt now. I spent an hour tracking down the service manual for the fridge last night, yet it never once occurred to me to look for a manual for the genset, lol.

Thank you, pauldub. Looks like that silver block is actually a fuel pump.. Guessing it's similar to a mechanical fuel pump on an old car? I wonder if it failed, and that's why someone put the facet in...

Looks like I should be OK with doing an oil change on it, feeding it some fresh fuel, and see what happens..

[pauldub]

That mystery part is a fuel safety valve according to the onan manual. Here's a Link

[urbex]

I'd agree that it does look like a typical gas carb on it, but having never been around anything powered by LPG other than BBQ grills and heaters, I don't know that I would be able to spot LPG hardware from gasoline anyways. Plus that extra silver block that the fuel pump feeds into, center of the photo, is something I've never seen before. Every other gas engine has the fuel line going directly to the carb. That silver block looks like just the lower half a carb, with a spring loaded level coming out of the lower left that I haven't yet been able to discern the purpose of.

I did notice that the 1993 Lance brochure states that a 2.3 generator was optional in that year, whereas this one is a 3.0...so I'm thinking perhaps it's not original to the camper?

I'm just trying to understand all of what's here before attempting to start it, in case its some kind of PO hodgepodge that's like playing a game of Russian Roulette with things that can make my camper turn into one heck of a bon fire, lol

[MrWizard]

Afaik Onan lp models are the same engine with a l.p. Fuel input hardware aka regulatory/vaporizer instead of gasoline fuel input carburetor

And that looks like a carburetor in the upper left quadrant of the top picture

[urbex]

I didn't know the forum has that functionality! Thanks! :). Let's see if this works. Should be one picture of the whole generator, and one of the only number I could find stamped on it, though O don't know it will be useful at all.

[opnspaces]

Can you get around the work block using the RV.net upload? Upload

If it works, just drag a picture into the box and copy the address that it gives you and paste it into this topic.

[urbex]

EDIT: tried to upload a picture...work computers block all image hosting sites, and I can't figure out how to get the direct address on my phone at the moment. I'll upload from home this afternoon.