Starting the Engine during the Winter
I spent about 1/2 an hour searching this question. I'm sure it has been talked about before but I couldn't find it. Anyway, the Thor owners manual for my rig says to run the engine for 30 minutes each...
Forum Discussion
Does the Ford (or Chevy or Mercedes or whatever) owner's manual for the chassis recommend periodic running of the engine during storage? I would put far more faith in the chassis manual for that sort of thing than in the motorhome builder's manual.
Idling a gas engine for a half hour, especially during cold weather, is much harder on it than not running at all. Nearly all of the wear in a modern vehicle engine occurs in the first several minutes of operation before it gets up to full operating temperature. Idling, especially in cold weather, probably doesn't bring it up to temperature in any reasonable length of time. I just let mine sit and it does fine.
The generator ought to get run for different reasons: mostly to keep the gas in the carburetor from all evaporating and leaving residue that clogs the carburetor, and to ensure the slip rings don't get too corroded and continue to make good contact with the brushes. It also helps drive out any moisture that may collect in the windings (which, with at all modern manufacturing techniques, should be very little if any moisture).
Idling a gas engine for a half hour, especially during cold weather, is much harder on it than not running at all. Nearly all of the wear in a modern vehicle engine occurs in the first several minutes of operation before it gets up to full operating temperature. Idling, especially in cold weather, probably doesn't bring it up to temperature in any reasonable length of time. I just let mine sit and it does fine.
The generator ought to get run for different reasons: mostly to keep the gas in the carburetor from all evaporating and leaving residue that clogs the carburetor, and to ensure the slip rings don't get too corroded and continue to make good contact with the brushes. It also helps drive out any moisture that may collect in the windings (which, with at all modern manufacturing techniques, should be very little if any moisture).
