Run Time of Onan 4000 Generator?

[bansai]

I've rebuilt the carb on a half dozen motors that supposedly were not 'rebuildable'. There's always a way.

Here's a pile of different parts for that carb + brand new ones should you decide to swap it out yourself. Half the cost Onan Generator Carburetor Parts Online | PRVParts.com

The manufacturers ALWAYS blame the EPA for our clean air. They should wine less and suck it up like the rest of us. Given the choice, they'd have our towns as polluted as Beijing.

[Hailey]

I come from a long line of outboard motors..... As soon as they started putting ethanol in the fuel supply years ago we started having problem with the carbs gunking up. I have been able to save only a couple carbs out of maybe ten.
Our defense with outboards was to run them dry if it wasn't going to be used for a couple weeks. I haven't realized till I read this thread that Onan has the same problem. I might look to add a shutoff valve to the genset.
I do one other thing that might be saving my butt thus far (only had this unit for 8 months). When I know that I won't be using the RV for a month or so I add a fuel conditioner to the tank and also run the gen till I'm sure the additive is in the genset too.
To go political for a moment, tell your congressperson to get the corn out of your fuel system and this conversation will go away over night...

[RangerRob]

The irony here is that to prevent the non-rebuildable carb from gumming up you must run the generator. So the EPA believes that the emissions are the solution to not rebuilding? Hmm... Another vote for seafoam, I use 2 cans in my MH before every long trip (25 gallons coverage per can) and before i winterize. Ive used it in every vehicle since I had an ethanol problem in a Hemi (05 Chrysler 300C) and its been a life saver. Id take the carb off and soak it in sea foam over night and reinstall, see what happens, might save you a fortune.

[dgantz]

We also just returned from a 3 day dry camp weekend and we ran ours 12 to 18 hours a day. Used Electric heat at night because here in northern OH it's in the low 40's at night.

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[rgolding]

The best thing you can do for a generator is to run it. A year old generator with 12 hours on it, will have a lot more trouble than one with 500 hours on it.

[gs750t]

We have used ours once for five days and after Hurricane Sandy for 8 days. It is a good idea to stop them occasionally and check the oil level.

[JudyB]

And for a laugh...we picked up our 2017 Redhawk the first of Dec and were told to get the oil first changed at 70 hrs. It had 50 on it when we picked it up. Never thought twice about it! But over Dec, son had it outside his house and thought he needed to run gen for heat, and daughter took it for a weekend. On return, it had 100 hours! So we called dealer and scheduled for oil change...took it in, accomplished....and now see that the last digit is actually tenths!! YUp...first oil change occurred at a whopping 10 hours!! What a waste of $90. But did learn how to DIY.