When looking at listings for Class As, we have seen lots of different hours for the generators. One listing in particular was for a 2005 DP that had 28K miles and had 700+ hours on the generator. To me that seems high for hours. Why would they have used it that much and not a whole lot of miles driven? What is the life expectancy of a diesel generator?John

I just serviced my gene today with 1871 hours. RV only has 31000 miles. We boon dock a few times throughout the year at 4 days at a time. We also run our gene while driving especially in the summer time with the heat. I've heard these gene's can do 10,000 hours easy if taken care of. I just replaced my belts and tensioner a few months ago as well. Things rocks and fires right up. We had a Cabover camper that we put 2800 hours on before we sold it & it was running great. 1000 hours is nothing in my mind.Almost forgot, my manual actually says to start the gene up once a week. Everything I've learned is these things like to run and have issues when left sitting no running.

gsf35099 wrote:I just serviced my gene today with 1871 hours. RV only has 31000 miles. We boon dock a few times throughout the year at 4 days at a time. We also run our gene while driving especially in the summer time with the heat. I've heard these gene's can do 10,000 hours easy if taken care of. I just replaced my belts and tensioner a few months ago as well. Things rocks and fires right up. We had a Cabover camper that we put 2800 hours on before we sold it & it was running great. 1000 hours is nothing in my mind.Thanks for the info. This is new to me so good to know it isn't a big deal then. Thanks again.John

In 7.5 yrs. we have less than 600 hours on our generator. I do start it up at least once a month and put it under load for exercise. I heard that these things can go 20,000 hrs. before a major service (rebuild). All I know is, we'll never put the hours on these things to wear them out.700 hrs. is not even broken in.MM.

Our son-in-law's truck shop has Onan gas generators in some of the mobile service trucks with around 15,000 hours on them with no major service or repairs. 700 hours on a diesel genny? As said, not even broken in yet...

gsf35099 wrote:Almost forgot, my manual actually says to start the gene up once a week. Everything I've learned is these things like to run and have issues when left sitting no running.Yes... these things are like garden implements If they sit too long without use they get gummed up inside the fuel system and run poorly or not at all.I would rather buy a rig with a generator that had 700 hours at 25000 miles and is over five years old than one that had a hundred hours in the same time-frame.Mine is ten years old this month and has 1100 hours on it. Runs quite well and powers everything like the day we bought it new.I did have to remove it and replace the starter motor this past summer, but aside from oil and air filter changes I have had to do nothing to it. Oh... I also had to replace a section of the wiring that runs from the remote switch to the controller but that had nothing to do with the genny.The reason I had to replace the starter motor was that the bearings inside went bad and caused too much friction and made a lot of noise. The bendix also wore out. The gears were worn and the spring no longer returned it after the engine started.While I had it out of the rig I also installed an in-line fuel filter as the OEM filter is in a difficult to reach location.

Generator Hours | Good Sam Community

Mr_Mark1
Explorer
Oct 20, 2014
In 7.5 yrs. we have less than 600 hours on our generator. I do start it up at least once a month and put it under load for exercise. I heard that these things can go 20,000 hrs. before a major service (rebuild). All I know is, we'll never put the hours on these things to wear them out.

700 hrs. is not even broken in.

MM.
JCGibson
Explorer
Oct 20, 2014
gsf35099 wrote:
I just serviced my gene today with 1871 hours. RV only has 31000 miles. We boon dock a few times throughout the year at 4 days at a time. We also run our gene while driving especially in the summer time with the heat. I've heard these gene's can do 10,000 hours easy if taken care of. I just replaced my belts and tensioner a few months ago as well. Things rocks and fires right up. We had a Cabover camper that we put 2800 hours on before we sold it & it was running great. 1000 hours is nothing in my mind.

Thanks for the info. This is new to me so good to know it isn't a big deal then. Thanks again.

John
gsf35099
Explorer
Oct 20, 2014
I just serviced my gene today with 1871 hours. RV only has 31000 miles. We boon dock a few times throughout the year at 4 days at a time. We also run our gene while driving especially in the summer time with the heat. I've heard these gene's can do 10,000 hours easy if taken care of. I just replaced my belts and tensioner a few months ago as well. Things rocks and fires right up. We had a Cabover camper that we put 2800 hours on before we sold it & it was running great. 1000 hours is nothing in my mind.

Almost forgot, my manual actually says to start the gene up once a week. Everything I've learned is these things like to run and have issues when left sitting no running.

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