Soft Start Kit for RVP Suburban AC

[Goodyear Travels]

Greetings Forum members. I have an 07 2720sl with a Suburban 9202-876 roof AC. I know it’s an old unit but it still runs fine - except when I’m at high altitude and my Yamaha EF2400is generator bogs down and the breaker trips. Does anyone know what soft start capacitor is compatible with our AC and where it can be obtained. I’m about to adjust valve lash and rejet for +7k ft altitude but getting the AC started will still be a bit of a crap shoot. Thanks, Eric

 

[rna2017-1]

We had a 2008 3124KS that I ran into the same stalling/surge issue when running off a single 2200 Ryobi generator. I installed what is now called a SoftStartRV on the compressor wiring in unit on top following their instructions. Ran it through the stated training sequence and it worked great! Although I only used the generator a few trips, the AC unit also worked great at home when plugged into a 20 amp breaker. I did find that my generator on econo mode would stall when the ac compressor kicked in because it didn’t rev up fast enough manage the quick increase to 14 amps. When running on normal idle mode it worked perfectly. You will need to confirm that your generator will still supply sufficient wattage above 7k, I used the generator below 2k. You will need to monitor the amps or wattage because you will need to manage other loads like charging a lithium battery or running a microwave because you will be running near your generator’s running capacity with just the ac cooling.

 

[Goodyear Travels]

Thanks for the part suggestion. I’ll see if I can track it down. I just adjusted the generator valves which were very loose and I’ll install my high altitude jet in the next week or two. But the generator ran much more smoothly and hopefully that’ll help with startup loads. I have a bunch of other repairs to make before heading to the mountains but it’s almost too hot to work on the trailer here in Phoenix.

 

[Thebone]

With the high altitude jets and the soft start, you'll be fine. That's what I did to mine.

 

[Goodyear Travels]

We had a 2008 3124KS that I ran into the same stalling/surge issue when running off a single 2200 Ryobi generator. I installed what is now called a SoftStartRV on the compressor wiring in unit on top following their instructions. Ran it through the stated training sequence and it worked great! Although I only used the generator a few trips, the AC unit also worked great at home when plugged into a 20 amp breaker. I did find that my generator on econo mode would stall when the ac compressor kicked in because it didn’t rev up fast enough manage the quick increase to 14 amps. When running on normal idle mode it worked perfectly. You will need to confirm that your generator will still supply sufficient wattage above 7k, I used the generator below 2k. You will need to monitor the amps or wattage because you will need to manage other loads like charging a lithium battery or running a microwave because you will be running near your generator’s running capacity with just the ac cooling.

I haven't been able to find a soft start kit for our discontinued AC unit. This last trip to 7700 ft we even had issues with our 1200 watt microwave popping the generator's breaker. That was frustrating for my DW. The generator ran extremely well, otherwise, with the high altitude jetting and valve adjustments. It ran very economically using little gas. But apparently rejetting does not solve the power loss that occurs with higher altitudes. This is what I was told by APD Power, which sells more generators than any other supplier. One thing I'm going to try is to bump up the idle/econ speed so the generator will have more rpm's before encountering a load. I'm not sure if this will help.

 

[Bill]

The generator ran extremely well ... But apparently rejetting does not solve the power loss that occurs with higher altitudes.

Exactly. A gas motor runs on a proper mixture (ratio) of gas and air, and at high altitude, there is less "air" in the air. To maintain the proper ratio of gas and air, the amount of gas has to be cut back, which is what re-jetting does. This means that the motor, now running on less gas, can't produce as much power as it did at sea level. And you see the result.

Useless bit of trivia: Air pressure drops about 3% per 1000 feet of altitude, so at 7000 feet there is about 20% less "air" in your air. In WWII, high altitude aircraft used a supercharger to cram more of that thin air into the engine intake. A supercharger would work on a generator, too, but isn't really practical. Other than getting a bigger generator, I think you are stuck.