Generator Oil Change Frequency

[bsheet2]

The gen set in my Thor Challenger is an Onan QG 5500 Gas. The RV manual says change the oil every 150 hours. That seems pretty frequent. If boon docking when it is hot we could do that many hours in a couple of weeks.

Any idea if this is correct?? Every 150 hours of run time??

[pianotuna]

bsheet2,

Yamaha recommends first oil change at 20 hours.

[bounder39zman]

Onan dealer/cert. tech here 30 + yrs. As OP's have said, oil is cheap.
150 hours on your genny is equivalent of 6000 miles on your vehicle.
And remember, this is basically a lawn mower engine. So yes, Onan says 150 hr,or annually, but personally, I do 100 hrs or less on gasoline;
150 hrs on diesels. In my part of country (Southeast), 15W-40 works great year round for both air cooled gasoline units and diesels.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

You have to boil out condensed humidity from the lube oil of it will bite you in the ***.

Cold, damp storage after running fifteen minutes unloaded, is the worst thing a person can do to a generator. I've switched many a small generator to LPG if it met strict criteria.

I installed a three-quart bypass oil filter on my Kubota which uses a Luberfiner element with a very fine media of 2-microns. This removes a large majority of soot.

[bsheet2]

Ok. I get it. We just bought our first Class A. Have had it parked at the house cleaning and setting it up for first trial. So have been running the generator a lot for air-conditioning while we get in there to clean and I can get more familiar with all the buttons and switches. So we probably have put 50 or 60 hours on the gen set this week. No hookups here at the house.

Oil and filters are cheap compared to a new generator. I will probably change the oil after this first little trip so I can keep track of the hours accurately.

[map40]

Wild Bill 888 wrote:
For small generators with no oil filter I change frequently and dump the slightly used oil in the car or motorhome with high quality filters.

Why would you do that? To save 1.5 Qt of oil? That generator has a filter and the engine produces much more contaminants than your car. You will be clogging up your filter in your car to save $10?

[drsteve]

Follow the manufacturer's schedule for maintenance.

[maillemaker]

I just change mine every year. You should be running your generator 30 minutes every month. That is 6 hours minimum run time annually. 150 hours in a year works out to 12.5 hours of run time per month. I probably don't use mine that much so my oil changes are overkill.

I do write the date and engine hours on the oil filter face with a colored Sharpie pen every time I change the oil.

[road-runner]

K Charles wrote:
What if you put your daily driver to the redline and left it there for 150 hr. Would you think it time to change to oil in it?

At 2400 rpm I'd guess that engine isn't close to its redline.

[RJsfishin]

I still do what we did 65 years ago on the ranch,.....we called it common sense then and now.
Its really quite simple for common sense people.......heres how it works,... If the oil is dirty, we change it, if not we don't. And believe it or not, that has worked very good for all these years

[Y-Guy]

Moved from Dinghy Towing to Tech Issues.

[pianotuna]

The Yamaha folks recommend every 50 hours.

[rjstractor]

If you average 35 mph in your car, 150 hours of run time equals 5250 miles. For an air cooled engine that's a lot. I'd say annually or every 100 hours is reasonable.

[bukhrn]

Yup, mine says 150 hrs, we don't boondock, but do dry camp often, but whether we get 150 hrs or not I change it annually.

[SidecarFlip]

Wild Bill 888 wrote:
For small generators with no oil filter I change frequently and dump the slightly used oil in the car or motorhome with high quality filters.

All my waste oil including hydraulic goes in the 500 gallon tank for my waste oil furnace. I can burn close to 1000 gallons a tear heating my shop.