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MedCad's avatar
MedCad
Explorer
Jul 16, 2023

FIXED: It's a 111F, Onan over heating and shuts down

Have 98 Georgie Boy Cruise Master with 5500w Onan gas generator. As we know, the generator is air cooled and not very efficient when temps are in the 110F+ range with no wind or breeze. The gen will overheat and shut down.

To solve the problem this year I bought a small 12 volt auto radiator fan, around 14 x 14 inches. I prop the main hatch open and remove the gen cover and attach the radiator fan to the opening with wood clamps. The radiator fan moves 10x as much air as a house fan blowing air into the right side of the gen compartment and exiting from the left side.

Since using the radiator fan the gen has not overheated and shut off. Note: Temps are around 111F in the shade with no breeze.

Hope this helps anyone else in the desert...


  • Thank you. Glad to see that you figured your generator overheating problem out, then, . . . came back to post (with photos) what you did to solve the problem!

    Chum lee
  • I had a similar problem in the past and always thought it was due to lack of airflow for cooling and was thinking of some how providing an external fan to correct this problem. You have now shown that my suspicions were right. Thanks.

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