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Old 09-18-2010, 01:41 AM   #1
camper4
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Onan 5500 limitations

I know how to add up the watts but I never thought I would overload my Onan while not running the AC.
My wife and daughter were both working to make breakfast for the rest of us when the lights started to dim. When I looked around, we had overloaded the Onan. Hot water tank, toaster oven, microwave, electric griddle, refrigerator, and lots of lights on all at once.
They were quick to react so we didn't loose power. Ended up turning the hot water tank and fridge to gas and turned off lights in the bed/bath area.
Amazing how easy it is to take electric power for granted.
 
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Old 09-18-2010, 01:50 AM   #2
bncinwv
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Electric griddles, microwaves, coffee pots and hair dryers are the things to really watch. This comes from experience with having a trailer full of women oblivious to anything about electricity other than "DAD, the electric is not working!!!". I cannot count the number of times they have managed to kick the park breaker at the pedestal.......whilw we were on 50 amp power!!!!
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Old 09-18-2010, 03:47 AM   #3
8e3k0
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Items like toaters, coffee makers, microwaves, and hot water heaters are at least 800 to 1200 watts each (anything with a heating element). Four or five of these on with other misc. and bang the 5000 plus watts are eaten up and pulls your voltage down so naturally amps skyrocket proportionally. We always take caution and switch the hot water tank and fridge to propane when doing any major cooking etc. Must be a part of growing up on the farm and not drying clothes, running the range, and wwelding at the same time!
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Old 09-18-2010, 06:21 AM   #4
Art-n-Marge
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I think most of us forget that startup wattages may be most of the culprits. Many times we can tell which device caused it because the one we just turned on will trip the breaker all the others times we're using stuff THEN it goes. This just means the fridge must have just restarted or something else restarted to try and do its job after we added the load we are using.

It's easy to forget with our rigs and the conveniences provided that there's more to it than an outlet being available. Similar to the phrase "What do you mean I have no more money, I still have blank checks". Just like you still need the funds, you still must have the amperage to spare. We must remind ourselves that our rigs only provide 50 amps or 30 amps and not 200-300 amps like a stickhouse (am I saying that right?). And the more electronic niceties we have installed in a rig takes away from this 30 to 50 amps. And all those 12v items add up too.

Even a generator as capable as an Onan 5500 will have its limit for its running wattage and will equally be affected by spikes in usage. Thanks for posting this reminder camper4!
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Old 09-18-2010, 06:49 AM   #5
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Wattage adds up for sure, real quick. when ever we buy a new appliance for the Monty I always look at the Watts the appliance uses, Toasters are a big user, the water heater eliment, ect, ect, they add up very fast, I usually will put the water heater, and frig on propane in hot weather, and save the rest of the power needed to keep my Monty cool, in the winter its the oppisit.
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Old 09-23-2010, 09:55 AM   #6
RCN.Stoker
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Just for those who may read this post and not know, actually a 50 amp service provides 100 amps, 50 amps per side of a 2 phase service supply. A 30 amp is just that, 30 amps as it is only 1 side of a 2 phase service supply. The breakers in a 50 amp distribution system are tied ("ganged") together. A problem can arise when the installer who ran the wiring in a 50 amp rig got lazy and did not spread the potential circuit loads evenly across both hot sides of the panel. My panel is laid out with the 50 amp ganged breakers at the left and the circuits tied alternatively to each hot side to the right along the panel. The 20 amp circuits are evenly distributed in the panel across both hot legs. I have a friend with a tag-along (36 ft) with a 50 amp service that only had the rear A/C on the second side and everything else on the first. Since he rarely uses the rear A/C we move a couple of circuits over to better balance the load and reduce the potential for popping his service breakers.
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Old 10-07-2010, 02:16 PM   #7
KTManiac
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That's not the only limitation of the Onan 5.5

Don't forget that if you're out in the boondocks and running it a lot for AC, you will soon be out of propane and unable to run the fridge, hot water heater, or furnace. Those of you that camp in the desert know that it can be very hot during the day, and quite cold at night. You will find yourself loading your tanks into the truck and driving miles and miles looking for somewhere to fill them up to keep the DW happy.

60 lbs of propane is roughly 14.3 gallons. At full load, the generator uses 1.1 g/h, it will burn through both tanks in about 13 hours. At half load it burns .8 g/h which is 17.8 hours of run time.

Powering nothing at all it will burn .4 g/h, or around 36 hours of run time (not sure anyone would dumb enough to do that though).

The propane consumption rate of the Onan is one of the main reasons that I opted for dual, portable Honda eu2000i generators. It saves the propane for use by the appliances themselves.

One other reason is the weight issue. You're hauling the Onan around 100% of the time, whether you use it or not. I can leave the Hondas at home if I know that they won't be needed.

The one plus of the Onan is its pure convenience, but in my opinion, it comes at an unacceptable price. Lots of people are completely happy with their Onan genny and are content with its performance, it just doesn't fit my particular needs. (or is that peculiar needs)

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Old 10-07-2010, 03:07 PM   #8
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I have to admit that at one time I thought exactly a KTmaniac did and actually still own both a Kipor 3000 and a Honda 2000 generator. Our decision for the Onan was based on both convenience and physical labor. The Kipor weighs 150 some odd pounds and even the Honda weighs 45 pounds or so. The kicker was the Kipor was needed for the air conditioner requirements (hauling the pets in the rig) and to get the Kipor in the truck also required unpinning and moving the 200 pound or so hitch assembly. This got old quick over the last two years. I think we will benefit vastly from the built in approach, and especially when we get the automatic switch for it that only runs the generator when the air conditioner is needed to drop the temperature for the pets. The auto-switch will also turn the generator on when campground shore power is lost. Our focus was on keeping the pets comfortable and safe, so the added cost to us was well worth it. As with everything, there are personal issues to consider, so this post was made purely in the interest of providing what our thought process was.
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Old 10-29-2010, 02:31 PM   #9
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bncinwv

Our first Montana was a '03 2955. I had a 2" receiver fabricated and mounted on the back. I build a box on a cargo carrier that was sound insulated and carried a 4KW construction gen. To use it I had to take off one side of the box, hook up the power cable and pull like Hxxx on the starter cord.

This Montana has a 5.5KW Onan installed in the front compartment at the Onan Factory. I just plug in the fuel line, press the starter button and enjoy. An installed system has been well worth the price. Especially, since I don't have to go outside in the rain to start her up. BTW, ours uses an external gasoline tank and doesn't pull on the Monty's propane supply.

See ya at "Q"???
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