Forum Discussion

deltabravo's avatar
Mar 28, 2020

Adding an hour meter to a portable generator

I added an hour meter to my portable generator so I can track hours for maintenance.

This video shows the process. It's easy to do and shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. There's a lot of variations of hour meters/tachometers available.

It was interesting to see the high RPMs that this generator ran at. (not shown in this video)
  • I added an hour meter to my new gen before I even fired it up. I think it cost me a whopping $10 with free delivery. It took me about 10 minutes to determine where to drill holes in the plastic to mount the meter.
  • I added an hour meter to both of my portable generators. The first was so easy, that I bought a 2nd. This is a very meaningful project for maintenance if you have a portable generator.
  • Have a couple of Sendec hour meters (induction from the spark plug wire) mounted on 2 ATV's. Lots of offroad desert riding (ROUGH). No issues with either machine. Excellent way to keep track of oil/air filter changes.
  • It's easier than I thought. Now I have another project.
    Thanks for posting.
  • I bought an hour only version from Amazon for about $8.50. There are many of them listed there but I think they are all the same. I just went to the cheapest one. It works perfectly.