High hours on generator

[jluke]

I am looking at a 2004 Mirada with only 17,500 miles, but nearly 650 hours on the generator. I have a 1997 rv with 37,000 miles on it with fewer hours than this. The rv does not look like it has been lived in, but I figured that if it were driven at an average of 40mph, there would have been 2 hours of generator use for every hour of driving. Does anyone have any speculation on this? Is it something I should be worried about or am I just being a little paranoid?

[Mike_Hohnstein]

I guess my 1983 Perkins/Kohler 12.5 hasn't had a lot of use with 2300 hrs. It does however require the use of maxi pads to keep it from marking it's space.

[MrWizard]

650 ..would not bother me, over 3000 on my Onan

[mc_cc]

Agree with everyone else. I have about 900 hours on mine. It's about 8 years old. It looks good and runs great. I usually take two long trips a year. I change the oil before each trip. Runs like a sewing machine.

[Ault]

That is low hours, I have a 12 model with over a 1,000 hours, built to run not sit.

[Two_Jayhawks]

Doesn't sound like a lot to me. Ours is a 2002 with 1700 and we have never tailgated with it. We do however run it almost every time we use the coach.

[John_S_]

4200 hours and going strong. Run them as it is better then sitting. Rather have hours then none.

[C20]

More you use it the better it runs. 2k hours on ours and other than routine mantence good to go.

[Mike_M2]

My 1999 had 23k on the motor and 2000 hours on the Onan. They used it to go racing and pulled a car trailer. It runs just fine and my bet is it will go another 2000....

[Preacher_Man]

Coach in my signature has 276K miles on it and 19615 hours on the Onan 7500. Cummings said 25K hours before I might need a rebuild....might. Generators need to be run. I'd be more concerned with the low hours and low miles on an 11 year old motorhome than anything else. Motorhomes are like airplanes, they need to be driven and generators need to be used.

[jwmII]

650 hours on a generator is nothing.

[AllegroD]

Does the owner have maintenance docs? High hours are OK if maintained.

[Empty_Nest__Soo]

I would worry more about a genset that was used too little, rather than one that had a lot of hours on it.

They are meant to be used. Sitting for extended periods can be hard on them. They should be run under load at least monthly, more for the generator end than for the engine end, but running will do it all good.

Wayne

[bluwtr49]

Again, not high hours at all. For folks in warm weather areas much gen time is accumulated running the AC units while underway.

[jluke]

Thanks for all of the input, casts a better light on the disparity. I was not so concerned about how many hours were on the gen as opposed to why there were so few miles vs the number of hours on the gen. All of the possible reasons given were valid and made sense. Nice to be able to just throw out a question and get so much input. Thanks again!