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Old 08-14-2017, 12:30 PM   #21
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: 8300 Feet - Rocky Mountains
Posts: 2,445
This is an interesting problem.

So, the engine may not run as well as it might at altitude, but carb jetting only accounts for the engine. Running rich...as it would with a sea-level jet at altitude...might make it a bit down on power, and it might foul the plug eventually. But that does not account for bad power.

Remember that your engine can deliver substantial power at "idle"...the conserve gas mode. And if you hit the generator with a large demand, it will throttle up to a higher speed. In other words, as long as the engine is NOT surging wildly up and down in RPM, it's likely that the engine is delivering enough power to power up your devices and appliances.

That brings us to the "generator/inverter" portion of the machine. If it's putting out crappy power, that's not the engine's fault. That's the generator/inverter's fault.

Another culprit might be your trailer's converter, but if everything works perfectly when connected to shore power, that seems unlikely.

If your engine seems to be running "well-enough", look elsewhere. Re-jetting for altitude may make sense, but I can't imagine that's the problem. Instead, the problem is electrical or electronic. Electrical would be a crappy generator, and electronic would be a crappy inverter.

It might be time to get tough with Champion and demand a replacement. As I mentioned in earlier posts, plenty of these things come through and simply don't work right out of the box. My Generac works great. My friend bought a Generac based on my suggestion, and it didn't work right. He returned it immediately.

As for the laptop charger "buffering out" all the line garbage, that's not true. It takes 120 volts AC and converts it to (probably) 12 volts DC...and that DC current can charge the battery as well as run the laptop. But that in-line charger is not a surge protector or a UPS. I run ALL my computer equipment on large Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) surge protectors. Between the surge protector protecting against spikes and the battery in the UPS buffering the incoming power, my computers are better protected against nasty garbage coming in on the utility lines (e.g. lighting strikes, transformer fires, etc. affecting the power grid). You might consider a small UPS to protect your laptop from not only the generator but also from RV park shore power issues.

But back on point, I think your generator has a significant manufacturing defect if it can't put out clean power.

I know this started with the possibility that the generator was performing well at low altitude and badly at higher altitudes, but something's not adding up to this being a jetting problem.
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Jim & Renee
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previously 2014 Forest River/Rockwood HW 277
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Every weekend boondocking in the National Forests or at Lake Vallecito.
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