What’s beeping in front compartment?

[Mikendebbie]

What is beeping in the front compartment?

It’s just a little polar vortex cold snap…what could go wrong?
It’s 18* and sunny in Central TX. I was ready for the cold…got everything covered up. Got the greenhouse ready, watered the plants and had the ceramic heater running. The Montana had been drained down and sitting since July 4 as we have not traveled due to DWs health issues (which are improving now). I figured I would run the furnace with it set to 45* rather than full blown winterize. We only had to endure maybe 3 days of sub-32* weather. No problem. Just to be safe - I cranked all 3 of my generators and let them run under load for an hour Saturday morning…we will not need them but DW insisted. I have a Champion 3500 contractor genny, Champion 3500 inverter (one of the first inverters that can’t be hooked in series with other generators unfortunately), and a super badaxx Cummins Onan P4500i.

The cold arrived Sunday pm. Monday morning at 5:21 our power goes out…but it should come back quickly because there is no ice or snow this time…just cold. Our provider Oncor sends text after text…”we have identified additional repairs we estimate your power will return at 7:30”…then 9:30…then 11:00…then 4:00…you get the picture. No explanation of what went wrong. Right away DW requested I hook up the generator so we could watch TV…no problem. Got it all set up with extension cord…and the Cummins started and sputtered out never to fire again + battery went dead. The Champion inverter fired up and ran like a champ until it ran out of gas at midnight. I went to bed at 1:30. Power came back at 4:38 am…so we had no power for 24 hours.

I walked around early resetting all the clocks and some outside lights with sensors, plus something is beeping in the Montana. The furnace was still able to fire and run. I got too cold to poke around. I suppose without having power the batteries are stressed (2 group 27 lead acid 1 yr old from Sams). I need to dress warmer and go attend to the beep. Any ideas?

I am disgusted with the Cummins. Right now I wish I had that $1500 back! Now I have to spend time working on it. Any ideas where to start?

[Foldbak]

Glad the power came back on. So to be clear you have 2 issues, a beeping and no start Onan.

To my knowledge, the only thing that beeps is the CO or smoke detectors. Do you have an EMS that has a warning beep? I was looking at the Onan manual and it's pretty straight forward as to (no start conditions)

• Air
• Fuel
• Spark

There are YouTube vids that explain the troubleshooting.

[DutchmenSport]

I'm not sure what the beeping would be, unless is your inverter warning you the battery is low. (I don't know if they do that or not).....

Meanwhile, the Onan P4500i's are not noted for starting up and running when they get extremely cold.

I have a much older generator (over 25 years old now), that runs louder than a lawn mower. Over the years, I learned, if I wanted it to start (rope pull) at all, it had to be kept in a warm place. So, over the winter months I made sure it was stored in the heated garage attached to the hosue and not in the unheated one away from the house. This way, it would start, get warmed up, and run perfectly fine then in extreme cold.

So, my 2 Onan's have never been in temperatures below 32 (F). When traveling, they are actually inside the camper. At home, they are actually in the house. They run fine in extreme cold. But if they are that cold to start, they just don't run good.

Footnote: I've been scolded by forum posters for keeping my 2 Onan's inside the living quarters of the camper. In 5 years now, we've never, ever had any gasoline smells (and I keep them filled to the top), never had any gas leaks, and I keep them plugged in with the battery charger that came with them. We've never, ever had an issue with them.

You might consider moving that Onan to a warmer spot to store it. (Just a suggestion here.)

Note:???
Question???
You say the "battery went dead". Are you talking about the battery on the Onan or your camper battery? If the Onan battery went dead, they do come with an alternative pull rope. Did you try that?

[newowneroldmontana]

My CO detector went off out of the blue several years ago, for no reason, and drove me nuts until I finally figured it out. It was on a wall, near the floor, under a little fire extinguisher.

[fatcatzzz]

My level-up control pad beeps when batteries are low.

[Mikendebbie]

Originally Posted by fatcatzzz

My level-up control pad beeps when batteries are low.

That will be what it is! Thanks!
Can it be silenced? Maybe when my batteries get charged up again it will go off.

Edit: Open the Lippert Level Up panel and the display says "ERROR - Press ENTER to Acknowledge"...and the beeping stops.

[Mikendebbie]

Originally Posted by DutchmenSport

Meanwhile, the Onan P4500i's are not noted for starting up and running when they get extremely cold.

So, my 2 Onan's have never been in temperatures below 32 (F). When traveling, they are actually inside the camper. At home, they are actually in the house. They run fine in extreme cold. But if they are that cold to start, they just don't run good.

Footnote: I've been scolded by forum posters for keeping my 2 Onan's inside the living quarters of the camper. In 5 years now, we've never, ever had any gasoline smells (and I keep them filled to the top), never had any gas leaks, and I keep them plugged in with the battery charger that came with them. We've never, ever had an issue with them.

You might consider moving that Onan to a warmer spot to store it. (Just a suggestion here.)

Note:???
Question???
You say the "battery went dead". Are you talking about the battery on the Onan or your camper battery? If the Onan battery went dead, they do come with an alternative pull rope. Did you try that?

I tried the push button crank until the battery would no longer turn over the engine...then I pulled and pulled on the rope pull. At first it would fire up and run-run-run then die after about 15 seconds. Same with the rope pull - until it would no longer fire and run. Believe me - went out there and pulled on it several tiimes. Even plugged in the battery charger line to the running Champion genny.

This morning I moved the Cummins Onan into a bedroom, plugged in the battery charger, wiped it off, read it a story, let it play with Legos, take of its shoes and run around in sock feet, talked to it real sweet - basically letting it warm up - to see if your comment about how they do not like cold weather applies to my unit. I have never had a generator that I had to treat as good as I treat my dogs.

[77cruiser]

I think the inverter beeps when batt. gets down to about 11.8V.

[AZ Traveler]

Buy a Honda next time - they are the gold standard for gennys.