Generator hours how much is too much
I'm looking at a 2000 model Fleetwood with a onan 7.5 diesel generator with 7500 hrs on it How many hrs are they good for?
Forum Discussion
wvabeer wrote:
JaxDad wrote:
Are you sure it's not 750 point 0 instead of 7,500?
To put it in perspective, you would have to run it 24 / 7 for 10.5 months to accumulate that many hours on it.
Opps it has 5200 I just looked at the ad, sorry.
5200 hours for a 16 year old unit wouldn't bother me a bit. If it only had 100 hours on it that would bother me.- All depends on how it was taken care of. Oil is KEY, but air filters and spark do matter. If oil was changed routinely, generators can go way more than 5200 hours. It's almost all in the maintenance.
Does it start right up, smoke, or any clicking? Check it out! If you inspect you can also get a compression tester on it (1 spark plug?) - Our truck shop had two road service trucks with Onan Marquis 7KW gas generators on board for tools and lighting towers. They had over 12,000 hours on them with no major overhauls, just normal servicing.
- 5200 hours in 16 years is 325hr/year -
Generator engines have a relatively good life for an engine so should be good for thousands of hours - generally breathing fairly clean air, run in a steady state mostly at part load, do not idle to "warm up" slobbering fuel into the lube oil, do not get left idling slobbering fuel into their lube oil...
Risks: poor or no owner maintenance. Unlikely in the type of RV that would be equipped with a diesel generator... - I would not be too concerned depending on the model, being a 2002 I suspect it is likely an Onan DKD or one of the other models with the Yanmar water cooled diesel engine, if so with proper maintenance (oil changes mostly) they can last 20,000 hours or more. Having said that would make sure the valve lash is set correctly and that regular maintenance has been done, the 5,000 hours should be a major service interval.
- Most diesel generators go 20,000+ hours with proper maintenance. I would not worry about the hours on the generator BUT I would be concerned about the amount of use the rig may have gotten.
JaxDad wrote:
Are you sure it's not 750 point 0 instead of 7,500?
To put it in perspective, you would have to run it 24 / 7 for 10.5 months to accumulate that many hours on it.
Opps it has 5200 I just looked at the ad, sorry.- Are you sure it's not 750 point 0 instead of 7,500?
To put it in perspective, you would have to run it 24 / 7 for 10.5 months to accumulate that many hours on it.
