New owner with questions

I just bought a 08 Heartland Cyclone 4012. When I fill the fresh water tank and the monitor says its full water comes out of 3 small hoes under neath. Is that normal? It quits after a minute or too. Then when I move the camper water comes out again. Should there be valves on them? How do you keep bugs out of the tank? And how long will my generator run on a tank of gas? Thanks Brad

Hi Kodiak05,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. I'm sure you'll find many friendly and helpful owners who are willing to contribute their knowledge and expertise.

Other Cyclone owners will undoubtedly jump in with answers to your questions in just a short while.

Maybe they are low point drains and the water tank drain, they should all have 1/4 turn shutoffs.

Sorry I can't help with the water issue but if they were the low point drains they would be running more than just a little bit and then stopping. Sounds like overflow, but I am not sure and a call to Heartland customer service might help with your question or just wait someone here will have an answer. A lot of knowledge here.

The generator depends upon the size of the unit and the load on it.

We have an Onan 5500 with two ACs. If its a really hot weekend and we run both ACs often, our 30 gallons of fuel will be about spent over a full weekend, Saturday morning to Sunday night. Once you start turning off the AC units, the fuel consumption goes down nicely.

We've had really nice weekends where we didn't run the AC units and it didn't burn but somewhere between 5-10 gallons for a good 36 hours.

To the OP

Does it "leak" only when full? You need to drop the under belly covering and look. Possibility the vent lines are loos. The Cyclone's have 3 1/2" vent hoses each tank has one on the ODS (off door side) and one tank (front I think) has one on the DS (door side).

Average Genny use is: 1/2 gallon per hour light to half load, 1 gallon per hour full load.

I have found my consumption to be just under that, since you never really run at half or full load for any "one hour time period"

kodiak05 said:

I just bought a 08 Heartland Cyclone 4012. When I fill the fresh water tank and the monitor says its full water comes out of 3 small hoes under neath. Is that normal? It quits after a minute or too. Then when I move the camper water comes out again. Should there be valves on them? How do you keep bugs out of the tank? And how long will my generator run on a tank of gas? Thanks Brad

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Mine does that when the fresh watertank gets full because of two over-flow outlets underneath. If that is the case there should be NO shutoff valve(s) for good reason. Don't worry about bugs unless they have heads 20 time bigger than their body. In that case simply run....

Yes it is three 1/2 inch lines. yeah it only leaks when full. I think its a very strange to have 3 vents. When I move the camper water come out of them. I pulled it down the road and back. And when I got back it was only 2/3 full. My generator is a onan 5.5kw. Should I be able to run both AC? Because if I try to run both it kills the generator. Thanks for the help Brad

Brad, you should drop the underbelly and take a look. You might be able to take down a few screws and pull it down enough to peak. But you may have to drop the gas line if it is in the way.

I can run everything in my trailer with the same Genny, including both AC units.

You have a new to you 4-5 year old trailer.. There is a very good chance you have a less then pristine fuel system.
Try running the Genny for a while with a light load (at least 30 minutes) and then gradually add loads till both AC's are on.

Run it for an hour or so. BTW, you should remove the loads and let the Genny run with no loads for a few minutes before shutting it down.

Well I found out whats wrong with the generator. I have low compression on one cyclinder. One has 175 psi and the other just 60. The gen only has 180 hrs on it. So I either have a stuck or broken ring. Its blowing the compression in the crankcase. Guess im going to take the gen out and take the motor apart. Does any body know where I can get a manual that breaks down the motor? Thanks Brad