How many hours Annually on Generator?

[rgolding]

So the question was asked - How many miles do you drive annually?

Great question, love the answers, thank you all.

Here's the thread - https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...age-56037.html

BUT - that brought up another question.

How many hours annually do you put on your generator?

Just looked at ours and it reads 811.0 hours. That's since October, 2015. We've got a good looking, mostly black Seneca with the swirls on the sides that remind me of an oil spill, so it can get warm. Driving across Indiana and Illinois Tuesday in 82 degree temps and had it on for about an hour. We do some boondocking and then many times rodeos with no shade in the heat of Summer.

I'm a firm believer in using the equipment you have and old fuel is really hard on equipment. Diesel can grow stuff and gas turns to varnish. You can put additives in, but if you don't run the unit long enough to get it back to the injectors or carb, your not completing the task.

[WinnieView]

Maybe 50 hours. We do run it regardless every month for 1 hour.

[cabinetmaker]

100 hrs or less per year on previous so probably same on this one...Genny is best thing about a Motorhome vs any other RV as you carry your power with you.

I wouldn't be afraid to run it more...once when we had a power outage I used it to power my home refrigerator for a day. I always keep my MH fuel tank full when stored just in case. Be sure to add Stabil to keep fuel fresh and carb clean!

[edatlanta]

465 hours here on my Onan 5500. This is since August 2010. My absolute minimum usage is one hour/month with a load. I also keep Sta-Bil Marine formula in the gas 100% of the time and always use non-ethanol fuel. I have had to use ethanol fuel a time or two, but made sure to run it empty before refilling with non-ethanol and Sta-Bil. This past week I volunteered at Talladega and put a bit over 20 hours on it. It has never missed a beat.

[memphis02]

We have done 10k mi each year and average 225 hrs on the gen between March and October. Essentially, if the main is running so is the gen. Having a Siberian Husky for a travel companion means we like it chilly and being in humid S. Illinois, we need every ounce of cooling abilities our Seneca can give us! Besides, the gen's fuel consumption is negligible and as I have learned, the Cummins motors are happiest when they're running.

[pconroy]

550 on ours. It's year two.

[GeorgiaRV]

140 on ours in two years. We have solar which helps to keep the hours down. However we are now on the road most of the time now, so I expect the hours to go way up this year.

[Midwest Jeffk]

Maybe 6 hours in 2 years. Almost never use it. E450 dash air can cool down greyhawk decently. Feel strange about running genny while driving. Don't boondock much either. I did however change the oil. Need to go out and run it a bit tomorrow.

[Griswald One]

I might average 12 hours a year. Over the winter months I run it for about an hour every 35 days as part of my general maintenance. During camping season I run it after picking it up from storage to keep it cool while we load up. When we are in motion the Cab A/C has never had any challenge cooling the MH.

For me the Genny is a nice backup so I maintain it just in case but really, short of a power outage have never had a need for it. We lived through the Eastern Seaboard Outage 6 years ago so I do store with full fuel tanks just in case!!!

[RVermont]

We are at 275 in a year. Comes in great during power outages and will be hooking up electric disconnect on household power supply so we can use it for supplying house hold essentials such as well and heating.

We use it when traveling in extreme cold or hot weather. In the winter we use electric heaters in the bays and bedrooms so we need the 110vac it provides.

[PlayersZ28]

Last winter... 0 hours. Days boondocking... 75. RV Park... 39.

[GM'sEnvoy]

65 hours, 15,500 miles since new in Feb of 2017

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by Midwest Jeffk

Maybe 6 hours in 2 years. Almost never use it. E450 dash air can cool down greyhawk decently. Feel strange about running genny while driving. Don't boondock much either. I did however change the oil. Need to go out and run it a bit tomorrow.

Jeff -=- as others have said, you need to run a generator under load from time to time to keep it healthy. Every month for an hour may not be necessary but that is kind of the gold standard rule. 6 hours over 2 years puts you well behind what your generator needs and will lead to a failure when you need it most. I would suggest you freshen up the gas and power up the generator and let it run the AC for 2 or 3 hours today and then do it 3 or 4 more times over the next few weeks. Make sure to run the AC to put a good load on it.

A mistake many expense and or environmentally conscience owners make is that they do not use the equipment in their RV's or homes. The end result is they may seriously degrade the performance of that equipment and even shorten its life. The common phrase "Use it or lose it" is appropriate here.

[CarlB]

Our usage has been horridly sporadic as we did a 10500 mile trip to Alaska. My 2015 just rolled over 40,000 miles this week as we did a shakedown trip to WI. As to my generator it has over 1400 hours on it. It has needed new brushes due to usage.

Jayco didn't give much thought to the Onan installation guide for ventilation back in 2015, so I have been battling random shutdowns for some time. I just had a custom hole and grill cut in the access door to provide better ventilation.

Our rig serves as a bus to get us to cool destinations and as we start in FL, it's hot and we need full AC...

[NC Roamer]

Owned the Greyhawk 3-1/2 years and put 19,600 miles on it. Generator total time is 340 hours, so about 100 hours annually.

The Onan fuel pump went bad last year. We were out of Jayco’s bumper-to-bumper warranty but still under the third year of coverage from Cummins which covered the Onan parts.