Exercising the generator

ONAN? FOG? Boy have they ever got that right...

Onan is to generators what Lucas is to electrical.

Sell at manufacturer's cost to the military then screwum on maintenance and repair parts. Been inside everything from a 1,000 watt to a 10 Megawatt Onan and they are insanity incarnate. They spend endless time and money to design units that will not function with anything other than Onan parts.

Company in Vallejo CA. wanted to sell me an Onan generator so bad they cut the price in half. I didn't let the door hit me in the --- on the way out. They supplied my KATO generator. Then went out of business. They supplied Mare Island Naval Shipyard for decades.

Me and Oh-MAN (!) don't get along too good. I like stuff that lasts. With lowest upkeep.

I have a onan lp gen set I run it every two months with a electric heater on, for about half hoir its a 2007 not one problem.

I exercise mine at 1/2 load for ~one hour each month. Normally I'm snowbirding so I don't have to worry about really cold Canadian starts, but this year we didn't snowbird (went to New Zealand - it was GREAT). I waited for a relatively warmish day (near freezing) to do the exercise.

Of course Onan suggests you start it all the time and add useless hours to the running time, they sell parts and thermal cycles are what kill engines faster than anything else.

Ex Ship's engineer and OE engine development engineer.

Matt

I run our Onan about an hour each month with either a 1500 watt heater loading it (winter) or the A/C loading it (summer) for what is - to me - a much more important reason than the Onan manual saying to. I do it to make sure that it still works to allow for repair lead time so there are no surprises when attempting to use it first time while on a trip.

I check out - or should ckeck out if I remember - other RV items periodically to make sure they're working for future RV trips too, such as:

1. Run the furnace.
2. Run the water pump.
3. Keep the batteries on float.
4. Idle the main engine for awhile and check to make sure that full alternator voltage is getting applied to the coach batteries because switching solenoid contacts can corrode.
5. Run the roof vent fan.
6. Run the cooktop exhaust fan.
7. Run the bathroom vent fan.
8. If some of the above checks are OK, then I also know that the converter is still functioning ... mine failed once but I discovered it well before heading out on a trip.
9. Keep an eye on tire pressures to make sure no slow leaks have developed in between trips.

Matt_Colie wrote:
thermal cycles are what kill engines faster than anything else.

Well except:
Running with insufficient lubrication.
Running with insufficient cooling.
Overloading.
Lugging.
Running in extremely dirty conditions.
On and on.
;)