on board generators

[eaugustin]

I am new to RVing, purchased a 2013 Thor Class C. After my RV had set for approx. a month this past winter, I was preparing for a trip and when I tried to start the motor both batteries were dead and I had to have a battery service out to jump both batteries. I drove the RV to my service center to test the batteries, and was told that the generator must be started and run for 2 hours every 2 weeks. Can someone verify this?

[edatlanta]

I have to disagree with a previous post about 15 minute generator run time being adequate.


You are doing two things when you exercise your generator, warming the engine oil to remove any moisture/lubricate the engine parts and heat up the generator windings to remove moisture there also.


15 minutes just won't do that IMHO. I run mine for one hour under at least half load every 30 days. Stabilizer in the gas all the time as well.


It has never failed in the past 3 years.

[shoreco]

eaugustin wrote:
I am new to RVing, purchased a 2013 Thor Class C. After my RV had set for approx. a month this past winter, I was preparing for a trip and when I tried to start the motor both batteries were dead and I had to have a battery service out to jump both batteries. I drove the RV to my service center to test the batteries, and was told that the generator must be started and run for 2 hours every 2 weeks. Can someone verify this?

I have a battery disconnect....but after finding my batteries drawn down each time I returned I decided to remove the neg wire off the house batteries......viola....problem solved

You do not need to run you generator as said.....but when you do use the MH make it a point to run it under load for awhile....generators need to be exercised....

[eaugustin]

Thank you all for the great information and advice. I had searched many websites and manuals to no avail. Kudos to RV.NET.

[Adam-12]

Yup what the others have said. Disconnect the ground terminals from your batteries. For preserving the life of your generator however, run fuel stabilizer in the tank and drain the carb bowl of all fuel prior to storage. If you can't drain the carb easily, then run the generator once per month under a light load. 15 minutes is enough time. An hour is a waste of time.

[the_bear_II]

I run mine about every 6 months for a half hour under load (A/C on).

The battery disconnect plus a small solar charger will keep good performing batteries good for months.

[GENECOP]

That's ridiculous......your generator not running is not really the problem, your problem is battery draw down.....your solution is battery disconnect combined with solar charger......

[Trackrig]

I would say starting the generator every two weeks is excessive unless you want to get away and read a book for a while. Especially in the cold climates, generators sit for the entire winter without being started. Getting them started at well below zero (uless there's a definate need to use the generator) is harder on them than not using them.

Your starting batteries shouldn't have gone dead in one month. If you had the batteries disconnected using the disconnect switch and this still happened, then either the batteries are in poor condition or something is drawing too much load around the batteries somehow. The battery disconnect doesn't shut off everything 100%. If the battery disconnect was used and you don't know what's drawing the power anyway, then you need to disconnect the batteries when you store it for a month or longer.

Mine sat in storage from about Oct 10th of last year until May 17th of this year and the MH cranked up just fine. That was seven months. The batteries at 2 - 3 years old and left in the MH all winter, but they were fully charged and the cables are disconnected.

Bill

[Allworth]

If your unit is going to be in storage without a shore power connection, you should have a battery disconnect on the ground side of all batteries; generator or none.

[BillyGo]

I run mine once a month with the A.C. on. Should be run under load. My run time is about an hour.