Help - generator issues!!

[Geegs23]

HELP!!!

My husband and I bought a brand new 2017 Interstate GT back in July. We've had nothing but issues with it and were able to get it into the shop this past week. For almost every issue they had to order new parts so we're hanging out waiting for those to come in. Anyway one of the main issues we're having is our generator won't start.

Here is some info:

We've been on shore power for two days and tested the generator before we left and it started right up.

We drove about two hours to our boondocking spot and tested it when we got there and it started right up

The generator started later in the day and let us charge our batteries to almost 100%

Went to bed and only thing running on electric is our fridge - wake up to batteries at 45%

Try generator and it starts right up.. we let it run for two hours and then it off.. batteries say 80%.

We immediately try starting the generator to finish charging and it won't start! The only way we can get it to turn on is by either connecting to shore power (boondocking so not an option) or run the van for awhile to juice up batteries.

Dealer said they tested batteries and they were still in good order and said we were only doing surface charges and suggested we run the generator longer..

Running the generator longer doesn't seem to do anything as it still won't start once it's been turned off.

Please help us figure out what if anything we're doing wrong!!

Super frustrated on our end!

(Also posted on Airstream Addicts)

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The meter you are looking at only gives you a rough guess what's going on with the batteries. It's looking at voltage and that's not an ideal way to do it. There are fancier meter approaches. One way to improve it's guess is to let the batteries "settle" for a half hour after you charge them before you use the meter.

It sounds like you have something more pulling power off the batteries than just the fridge. There are a lot of other things it could be. Guessing that it's this or that isn't very useful.

Generator will not start can cover a lot of issues. When you try to start it, what happens? Absolutely nothing at all is a loose wire. Click and then nothing is something else.....

I know .. not much help. Simple recommendation: once you get it going, run the generator for at least 4 hours *after* it gets to the 80% reading.

Bob