I wasn’t going to worry about the remote (kitchen) starter for the generator not working until I realised that the hour metre also wasn’t working. I went under the sink and discovered that a connection for the starter was loose and one for the metre was broken. L said he can fix the broken connection since he has his soldering equipment.
That left the starter. He went off to take a nap and I tightened the loose connection. I pulled out the multimetre and got 14.4V at the switch, which told me it was getting power and that the problem was at the generator.
I went outside, pulled the cover, traced all the wires, figured out which one went to the generator start button, disconnected it, cleaned off the corrosion, reassembled everything, and went inside.
Soon as I hit start, there was a rumble outside. Now, the genny won’t start since the choke needs to be manually activated, but this gives me hope that a bit of solder will get the hour metre working. No. Wait. I just started the genny from inside! OMG!
I feel pretty accomplished. 🙂
Another have you thought questions. Have you thought about a Gen-turi kit for the exhaust on your genny? On our rig the genny exhaust is by our front slide. The thought of exhaust gases entering thr rig worried me. I didnt a gen-turi kit but made one. I think it cost me less than $30.
Rob has a good point. Our genset exhaust is right under the bedroom window and has set off our CO alarm if the wind is wrong or if we are parked up against bushes or a building. I have often thought about extending the exhaust pipe up to the roofline .
Also, L would be much more informed on this than I am but I have always believed it is not a good thing to use a breaker as an on / off switch. I would think that continuous cycling of the breaker could weaken the components of the breaker and might cause it to not work to it’s optimum efficiency, perhaps causing it to trip at a lower amperage. I would be interested to hear what L, with his engineering background, thinks of this.
The generator guy who gave the course in Kelowna said that it is not a good idea to extend the exhaust pipe. I don’t remember the details of why. Anyway, mine is not an issue.
And I know about using the breaker as an on/off switch. This is not something I do regularly.
Now that I have the genny working, I am going to price a transfer switch and see if it’s something I can do myself.
+1 on the Gen-turi. I built my own, same as Rob. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, it’s not a problem. However, one time in a crowded campground in Yellowstone, I felt bad about gasbombing my camping neighbors, and had to limit genset run time to prevent killing them with carbon monoxide, though they did not complain.
Extending the exhaust pipe with the same -sized pipe is a big nono. Back pressure can damage the genset. The Gen-turi type of exhaust causes no back pressure, hence no damage.
Glad to hear things are pulling together so nicely for you.
longdog2, good things happen when I’m around L!