If you’ve been following the blog over the last couple of months, you know we have been struggling to get our generator repaired since June 9. It is a new Cummings Onan with less than 250 hours on it. When we arrived in Sarah’s Creek off the York River, it began to intermittently die. Sometimes it would run all night and turn off, and at other times, it would run 5 seconds and turn off. Ben exhausted all known remedies, such as replaced the sensor and impeller. Finally, on July 9, since it was under warranty, we contacted Cummings in Chesapeake City outside of Norfolk. They indicated they could come out on the 11th and everything would be covered under the warranty.
As we were anchored off York River Yacht Haven Marina, we called and got a slip so that the repairman could easily access our boat. This was an unexpected expense but necessary. Since that time, here is what has transpired:
June 11 Repairman assessed problem and decided it was the motherboard. A motherboard was ordered and would arrive on Monday.
June 14 Technician installed new motherboard
June 23 Generator still would not run consistently
June 28 Different Technician came out, but didn’t have a pressure gauge to test the sensor; took sensor to office to test
June 29 Senor was fine, so began to blow out lines; determined jelly fish was in the through hull. Blew this out and generator seemed to work
July 12 Left dock after AC was repaired (another issue we addressed a YRYH) and went to East River; generator shut off at bedtime; Ben blew out lines and it ran all night
July 13 Ben shut generator off in the morning as we left for Zimmerman’s. He started the generator at dinnertime, and it shut off; he blew lines again, but it wouldn’t stay running. We slept with breezes and fans that night.
July 14 We returned to York River Yacht Haven and called Cummings
July 15 Initial repairman returned to check data from the unit, but he didn’t have the correct cable. They also decided to order another motherboard and a wiring harness
July 21 Repairman returned with proper cable to gather data; generator failed consistently while he was here. It was determined we needed a marine specialist
July 27 Technician returned with a marine specialist. The specialist diagnosed that the hoses were too small. So Ben contacted Land and Sea who installed the unit and they indicated they would make it right. Cummings left and it was now up to Ben to install the correct size hoses which he would do during the haul out on Aug. 11.
Of course, I know nothing about these things, but I am skeptical, nonetheless. If the hose size was the problem why did the generator work during the ice storm in Texas, why did it work at the Dry Tortugas in May, and why did it work all the way up the Florida coast? We had the same hoses and set up then. Why did it stop working when we anchored in Sarah’s Creek, VA?
Nevertheless, we will change out the hoses when we haul the boat next week and hope that fixes it. I am not taking any bets, but part of me wonders if shortly after reentering the water, we will be back up at York River Yacht Haven for another Cummings visit. I sure hope not as there is a lot of Bay to explore, and we haven’t seen but a small portion of it to date!
The answer to the question Generator to be or not to be….remains to be seen.
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