For you folks with Generators ...

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Found this on another RV type site thought y'all might appreciate the "Helpful Hint".

http://rvtravel.com/exercising-your-gen ... th-a-load/

hank

[billbob412]

2 Hour's to get it up to temperature, that's the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard . Besides if you do that you wont have to worry about your gas going bad.

[McDave]

Currently -17f in Tiny Town. 2 hrs sounds about right. This advice holds true for your vehicles as well. Short run times will cause moisture to accumulate in the oil and condensate on crankshaft and connecting rods and bearings in the crankcase. You need to get engine to full operating temp. for a while to boil off the moisture. Just sayin'...

McDave

[billbob412]

Currently -17f in Tiny Town. 2 hrs sounds about right. This advice holds true for your vehicles as well. Short run times will cause moisture to accumulate in the oil and condensate on crankshaft and connecting rods and bearings in the crankcase. You need to get engine to full operating temp. for a while to boil off the moisture. Just sayin'...

McDave

-17 , I have been complaining about not riding because of the salt on the roads . I guess at -17 you might not ever get it up. to running temp i mean of coarse . My point was if it isn't totally up to temp in 1/2hour it ain't gettin there.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

It takes about 18 miles to get a Harley engine completely warmed up. Even
the evo engines when they were the "New kid on the block". Don't forget you
still need to put it under a load which get the genny part workin' so it too can
expel the moisture. Dang things can be hot to the touch but deep down inside
it can still be tryin' to knock the chill off. We're talking the center of the crank,
and all the heavy solid bits-n-pieces ...

hank

[billbob412]

18 miles is not 2 hours unless you ride slower than i do When i was much younger i could go 18 miles in 15 minutes

[daveesl77]

Every month I try to run up my generator, actually just did it yesterday. I load it with an electric space heater (just like the article), but only run it for about an hour. I also keep a small amount of Stabil in the fuel mix. Yesterday's run up took 5 pulls on the cord to fire up.

Even with the old 800 watt 2 cycle, I would do this with 2 flood lights for the load. I told my neighbor when I sold it to him to do this and he'd never have problems. He didn't and yes when he wanted to use it two weeks ago it wouldn't start. Took him an hour or so to clean out the fuel system. When I had it running on no more than 3 pulls.

dave

[Bill n Robi]

I use synthetic oil and run on propane, wonder if that is still true.

Although I only start ours two or three times a year I do pull the cord every couple weeks to make sure the oil is splashed up on the internal parts.

[McDave]

-17 , I have been complaining about not riding because of the salt on the roads . I guess at -17 you might not ever get it up. to running temp i mean of coarse . My point was if it isn't totally up to temp in 1/2hour it ain't gettin there.

I thought you rode a Ural? -17f should be a nice warm day for those units, salt.. What is salt? I don't know billbob, sounds like you might have a trailer queen there.
Probably wouldn't want to get that dirty!

Maybe I am thinking of the wrong Ural? Is this what you are keeping in that trailer?

Well either way, get it out and have some fun!

McDave

[Socal Tom]

2 Hour's to get it up to temperature, that's the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard . Besides if you do that you wont have to worry about your gas going bad.

It’s not the engine he’s warming, it’s the oil, and he has a point. If you boil a pot of water, how long does it take too boil off all that water? So it’s going to take some time to get the oil up to temp, then even longer to cook off the water. 2 hours is probably conservative, but an hour probably isn’t enough.

[Socal Tom]

I use synthetic oil and run on propane, wonder if that is still true.

Although I only start ours two or three times a year I do pull the cord every couple weeks to make sure the oil is splashed up on the internal parts.

From what I’ve seen yes this would still be true. Synthetic oils are still petroleum compounds that will break down to acids when mixed with water

[billbob412]

I use synthetic oil and run on propane, wonder if that is still true.

Although I only start ours two or three times a year I do pull the cord every couple weeks to make sure the oil is splashed up on the internal parts.

From what I’ve seen yes this would still be true. Synthetic oils are still petroleum compounds that will break down to acids when mixed with water

Boy you guys are ganging up on me,i have worked around small and large engines for 45+ years so some of you might be more experienced than me.What causes the water everybody is worried about is the starting them up.I have 4 antique cars and 5 motorcycles and i do not start any of them up in the off season! I also have a Honda 1000 generator i can't imagine starting it up and running it for 2 hours for the hell of it. however if i do use it i run it for at least 1/2 hour,then turn the gas off and run it until it runs out .It's 15 years old and starts on the first or second pull. ps My ural is 3 years old and doesn't have any rust holes in it yet Thats my story and i'm stickin to it.

[Aguyfromohio]

The advice at the link may be applying practices from the world of large backup generators for office buildings and plants.
For those larger generators, typically 100kW to 2 MW, the best practice for maintenance includes a full load test every year or two. Reliability studies show that the leading cause of failure is a failure to start and some problem in the cooling systems. Most owners are happy to start the unit once a month or so to prove it can start, but most don't want to do a full load test. That requires a crew to bring in a load bank of resistors and run the machine at full load to get up to full temp and run that way for an hour or so to stress the cooling system. It's expensive to hire the crew and it burns a lot of diesel fuel.

For our little tiny portable generators it can't hurt but it may be making too much of it all.
If you want to do a full load test and need a load, look at heating appliances like hair driers or frying pans, they are usually 1,000 watts or more.

[Socal Tom]

I use synthetic oil and run on propane, wonder if that is still true.

Although I only start ours two or three times a year I do pull the cord every couple weeks to make sure the oil is splashed up on the internal parts.

From what I’ve seen yes this would still be true. Synthetic oils are still petroleum compounds that will break down to acids when mixed with water

Boy you guys are ganging up on me,i have worked around small and large engines for 45+ years so some of you might be more experienced than me.What causes the water everybody is worried about is the starting them up.I have 4 antique cars and 5 motorcycles and i do not start any of them up in the off season! I also have a Honda 1000 generator i can't imagine starting it up and running it for 2 hours for the hell of it. however if i do use it i run it for at least 1/2 hour,then turn the gas off and run it until it runs out .It's 15 years old and starts on the first or second pull. ps My ural is 3 years old and doesn't have any rust holes in it yet Thats my story and i'm stickin to it.

Didn’t mean to gang up on you. Personally, I start my eu1000i about 2 times a year, assuming I haven’t used it in the last 6 months. I probably will run it closer to two hours in the future. With all the additives in CA gas, the worst thing that happens is that the fuel drys out in the bowl, and the either it won’t start, or it idles crappy. Honda wants an oil change every 6 months, if you do that then not much benefit in starting it. If you store it, Honda just says change the oil before starting it. ( probably takes less than 2 hours)

[McDave]

Yeah, I'd do that oil change before storing it, and only if it had some hours on it. The water comes in through atmosphere and expansion/ contraction. It is a good practice to shut off fuel and run carb dry. Don't see any harm in pulling over without starting, but the synthetics have a lot of "cling" ability, so internal parts should keep a thin film for a long time.

McDave