Onan install

[Shane Wood]

On a serious note propane is heavier than air so the chances of sucking it into the trailer are minimal at most. Exhaust as well

[Rosey]

Originally Posted by atom ant

Mark,

I had the same concern back when I put it in our 2007, but no vent is needed beyond the bottom. If you look in the manual, the generator has a large fan and shroud on the bottom that draws air up from the bottom and circulates it around the generator than pushes it back out the bottom. All you need is the bottom opening (which is already configured in the cabinet with the gen prep). Everything above the base is designed to stay enclosed for quietness.

Two mistakes I made that are good lessons learned:

My generator has some holes in the base for routing exhaust out the front, side, or back. Those need to be covered with aluminum tape (per Onan), or the fan will push heat into your cabinet and can melt the cabinet door like I did on my Montana. With those unused holes closed off, it will run nice and cool.

I was messing with mine and I left the cabinet door open and the front panel off and ran it for an hour in the heat - it actually shut down from overheat and I almost destroyed it. With the cover off and cabinet opened, it disrupts the cooling flow out the bottom and it will quickly overheat. Fortunately it survived as that was 11 years ago, and that same generator has been our friend for 12 years now.

Brad:
Thanks for the heads up on keeping the cabinet door closed & gen. panel on when operating the gen. Never knew this, & there were several times when I used to run my Generac gen. on my previous Cardinal 5er without adhering to this. Guess that I was lucky that I didn't damage it.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Rosey

Brad:
Thanks for the heads up on keeping the cabinet door closed & gen. panel on when operating the gen. Never knew this, & there were several times when I used to run my Generac gen. on my previous Cardinal 5er without adhering to this. Guess that I was lucky that I didn't damage it.

Rosey, its possible your Generac was not the same design. I don't have a lot of experience with those. The Onan Microlite and many of the MH Onan systems were designed for open air operation and the coach had its own insulated cabinets surrounding them. On those it is pretty typical to open the cabinet to improve the airflow around them. These Onans have their own insulated case and cooling system built in, so they can essentially be installed pretty much anywhere in a cabinet with an open bottom. By opening the cover, I actually disrupted that design.

[gford10480]

How much road clearance do you have with the exhaust pipe. Mine barely clears 12".

[r time soon]

My unit is parked level now, not hooked to the Truck. Frame is about 11 to 12 inches from ground ( in the front ). Exhaust is around 6 1/2 inches clearance to ground. Muffler is even lower. Never have we hit anything that we know of.

Chris

[atom ant]

They are low under that z frame. Just tuck it as tight as you can while leaving some room for the rubber hangers.