Helm gauges for the generators..Onan

[northshoreone]

My Onan generators have no gauges other than hour meters so I was interested if anyone out there has installed helm or remote gauges or alarms? If so, which ones did you use? I don't like the idea of not knowing if something is heading south either while running or at anchor without a visual/heat gun inspection. As always, any and all impute is welcome.
Thanks

 

[JLR]

Really good question. I too am interested in the answer.

 

[TROUBLE]

My last boat had a Kohler genny with a plug in remote gauge package

Art

 

[Milacron]

My Onan 20kw's have temperature, oil pressure and DC charge voltage gauges at the generator itself. I have yet to read the manual on the things...wonder if they shut down automatically if overheat or low oil pressure ? (1993 vintage)

Always seemed to me a little curious no gauge for AC voltage but that can be monitored at the boat circuit breaker panel.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

My Onan 20kw's have temperature, oil pressure and DC charge voltage gauges at the generator itself. I have yet to read the manual on the things...wonder if they shut down automatically if overheat or low oil pressure ? (1993 vintage)

Always seemed to me a little curious no gauge for AC voltage but that can be monitored at the boat circuit breaker panel.

Hatteras put a frequency meter on most boats. Frequency is more important than voltage, although there are voltage meters on the main panel as well. I have no idea what Gulfstar/Viking did. Our 1983 Gulfstar only had the gauges on the genset itself.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have never personally seen an old Onan installation with gauges, although of course it makes sense to have them. When I got my present set (a NL) I also bought the gauge panel- not the big one, but the medium size one that tells you oil pressure, water temp, 12vdc charging, and has the switches. All modern sets that I've seen have these modular panels that plug in.

Interestingly, I have a much bigger NL set as the standby for my house. It came with NO gauges at all. But it also came with a good manual showing all the wiring, so I bought gauges, a plastic terminal box from McMaster, and enough cable to hook it all together, and built my own gauge panel. All I had to do was go into the auto-start box and find the terminals which were called out on the wiring diagram, as I recall. and hook it all up.

Personally, I would want gauges to display those essential functions of the generator set. Maybe there is a way to retrofit them.

 

[GJH]

My Onan MDL4 20kw equipped boat came with a generator temp gauge on the lower helm. I added a mechanical oil pressure gauge right on the engine that I could check (along with the Racor gauge) quickly by opening the hatch in galley.

 

[captddis]

I put a temp gauge for the Onan on the bridge. The only hard part can be finding a place to screw in the sender. The old Onan I tapped into the hose coming out of the thermostat.
The new Onan already had senders installed.

 

[MikeP]

Our 16KW NL genny has the NL remote control box which shows DC (starting batt) voltage, water temp and oil pressure as well as a start/stop switch and a glow plug heater switch. It is located in the starboard eng room at eye level to the left as you open the forward eng room. At the lower helm there is a Gen start/stop switch and the glow plug switch in the master shore/genny electrical panels. But there are no other generator-monitoring gauges - other than the standard AC volt/amp power meters/frequency meter.

I have never missed having genny water temp/oil press gauges at the helm but I certainly would never argue against the idea.

 

[captddis]

The reason I have a temp gauge is that the Gen can be running 1 degree before the shutdown sensor s cut out and everything seem ok, when you are actually on the edge.

 

[Milacron]

Hatteras put a frequency meter on most boats. Frequency is more important than voltage, although there are voltage meters on the main panel as well. I have no idea what Gulfstar/Viking did. Our 1983 Gulfstar only had the gauges on the genset itself.

The Viking has digital display of frequency as well, plus amps being consumed.

 

[tonytrakovich]

My 1989 Onan MDL4 20 KW has temp gauges on the lower helm as well. If I remember right, there are safety limit switches that will shut down the gen set for oil pressure, voltage, water temp (195 deg?) and exhaust temp. There is a reset breaker on the front panel of the gen set if one trips.

 

[kwerges]

Our 58 YF came to us with oil pressure and water temp gauges for the generator mounted on the
main pilot house dash. The frequency/voltage gauge is still mounted in the generator room in the
bilge...

 

[northshoreone]

Thanks for the feedback.....I am working with the Mechanic that rebuilt the starboard main engine on this as well. I will report back what we come up with.

 

[gpellissier]

On my 44 MY I installed VDO temperature and oil pressure gauges on the lower helm for my Onan MDJF when I redid my upper lower helms. The gauges are the two behind the steering just below the dash panel in the picture.

 

[sunset grill]

I have a 1990 model 8kw Onan. I purchased senders, oil pressure gauge, and water temp. gauge from Onan. Steve