Just curious to see what's the common or ave hours on any particular Gen weather its in your MH TT or portable one you use camping?We bought a used 2001 GS in Nov. of 2012 and the gen only had 37.4 hours on the hour meter but had 31K miles on the OD.. The 2013 Nexus we have been looking at has 89.9hrs on the hr meter and 10,800 miles on the OD..

1995 winnebago 196 on generator 31000 on od

Our 2001 Landau Class A has 35,500 miles on the OD and 157 hours on the gen clock. The 1995 Coachmen Class A we sold earlier this year had 97,000 miles on the OD and about 1200 hours on the gen clock.

My built in genny has about 110 hours, 45,000 miles on the odometer.

We tailgate a lot. Our genet has 2700 hours on it. They should be run a minimum of a hour a month under medium load to keep everything dry and lubed. Too few hours would worry more than high use as long as it was serviced. Mine has had its oil changed every 150 hours.

Bought our 2012 Nexus 15 months ago with 8.8 hours on the genny. After an additional 21,000 miles we are up to 52 hours. Mostly we camp without hook ups but even then we don't "need" to run it all that often. I try and put a solid hour under a significant load on it every month. Most of the time when I run it the benefit lies more with the generator vs the batteries. :C

How many hours on your Generator ? | Good Sam Community

41 Replies

Pirate1
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
Around 1500, 2006, 55000 odometer.
pnichols
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2014
Big Katuna wrote:
Inverters can be over 90% efficient.

They can also be only 80% efficient.

The above equates to:

Up to 20 amp-hours wasted (@ 90% efficiency) from a 200 amp-hour RV battery bank,

... or that equates to up to 40 amp-hours wasted (@ only 80% efficiency) from a 200 amp-hour RV battery bank.

As-much-as-possible 12 volt appliances and gizmos is way to go for the ultimate energy usage efficiency when dry camping.
tenbear
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
Big Katuna wrote:
Inverters can be over 90% efficient.

Yeah, well, lots of TVs in the 20 - 26" range run on battery power without an inverter but people still run their gennys. Lack of knowledge or just don't care.
Escargot
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
Shouldn't each generator have at least 12 hours per year on them given the necessity of exercising them?
Big_Katuna
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2014
Inverters can be over 90% efficient.
tenbear
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
When we go to music festivals there are often many campers that run their gennys all day long. I figure it is because some member of the family does not like the type of music and spends the day in the camper watching the TV.
pnichols
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2014
They're probably running their generators for long periods because they have so many regular 120V AC appliances in their RVs and aren't aware of or set up to instead run them off large RV battery banks with inverters between solar - or periodic generator powered - battery charge ups.

We try to use 12V DC appliances as much as possible in our RV to reduce dependence on inefficient inverters, use periodically the main engine alternator or a very small and quiet portable generator for battery charging, and use the larger built-in generator for short microwave bursts and extended mid-day air conditioning.
run100
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
When we sold our previous camper, the gen had about 110-hours, after 12-years of use. The gen in our current rig has around 10-15 hours after 2-years. Living in the desert, it gets fired up to run the a/c when it's hot outside (6-months of the year) and when we use the microwave. We love having the power source available with the click of a button.

Looking at how we use our generator, we're not shy about using it, but find we don't really "need" to use it too often. This gets me curious about what other rv'ers power with their gens. During several camping trips, we have run across folks that run their gens for hour and hours. In fact, on my most recent trip, a fellow rv'er had his running from the time I arrived (around 2pm), until quiet hours, from 10pm-6am, Then, it started running from 6am and was still going when I rolled out around noon. The weather was moderate - no a/c needed during the day and only heat at night.

Fortunately, we were all spread far apart, so the noise wasn't an issue, but I'm just curious what devices are being powered that require a gen to run so long. What are your experiences?
Padlin
Explorer
Dec 13, 2014
Portable Honda 2K, no meter but best guess would be around 25 hrs over the 8 years we've had it. About 25k miles traveling, just not much call for it, we don't use much juice. Either have hookups or move often enough to recharge. Not much boondocking in the east.
pnichols
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2014
Sandia Man wrote:
We average just over 100 hundred hours a year and after 7 camping seasons we have 755 hours on our Onan. We love to boondock and also camp in extreme temps while off the power grid. When we need to run AC or a couple of space heaters we just hit the genny switch and immediately have all the power we need to run our entire rig making every trip comfy and cozy no matter what's happening outdoors.

Well put!! IMHO, that's how a self-contained RV should be used when drycamping ... especially considering what one has to pay for them.

Not using RV furnaces to stay toasty warm and RV air conditioners with generators to stay sweat-free ... to permit drycamping in a wide variety of expected or unexpected weather conditions ... has never made sense to me.

We often find ourselves camping in high heat (desert rock hounding), so our built-in generator gets used for great comfort. We even sometimes use both the RV A/C plus it's generator AND cab air for a quick cool-down of the coach.