Generator Oil?

[adamdegraff]

Hey All,
finally had some internet time to catch up with all the goings on at POG. Exciting times. Spearfish looked awesome.... And that fancy Liberty for sale on Ebay... my mouth was watering. Glad we'll get to hear about it some more since it is now a POG bus. (Do we all get to drive it?)

Hey, quick question about generator oil changes....

We are heavy into our tour. All is going well, but we find that we use the generator quite a bit. Easily 100 hrs. a month. Maybe closer to 100 hrs. every other or every third week. I have Pensoil 10W-40 in it, as Powertech recommends. (Oh, my gen is a Powertech, Kubota motor, 20KW marathon end) I changed the oil a walmart the other day. (They took the old oil, and were happy to do so. Powertech recommends changing oil every 100hrs, filter every 200. The issue here is that I'm throwing out some pretty clean looking oil every 100 hrs. It is almost new looking. (OK, it is a LITTLE darkened, but mostly new looking.)

Any thoughts on this subject? Priority #1 is to care for the generator. And I'll happily change it every 100hrs. But it seems like a waste of perfectly good oil. I'm thinking that since I'm changing it frequently and that since my usage style is to run it for 4 -6 hrs. at a time (not lots of on and off), I'm going pretty easy on my oil.

Also, does anybody know the FRAM fuel filter # for a Powertech gen?

Thanks,

Adam

[garyde]

Hi Adam. 100 hours seems too little time. I would check with the manufacturer. I get all my filters from Napa. If you can get a number off of your filter, they can cross it over.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Adam,

If you really want to nail down the optimum number of hours for oil changes use oil analysis to determine when the oil needs to be changed.

These people have a very good reputation, but there are many others

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

They send you a kit and information on how to collect the oil and their reports help you spot trends. I do 100 hour oil changes because on my cars with trip computers I find that my average speeds always seem to be around 40 MPH unless I take an exceptionally long trip on highways. I change oil in the cars around 4000 miles so it works out to about 100 hours.

In the plane I change oil at 35 to 40 hours but that engine is working harder.

[Coloradobus]

Hey Adam,

We have a 20KW Kohler genset with a Yanmar turbo charged 4 cyl. and they recommend oil swap every 150 hours. I was told one hour on the genset is equivalent to 45 driving miles. In doing the Math, that's 6,750 driving miles.
As Jon says, if in doubt have an analysis done.

[Kevin Erion]

Oil is cheap, a new motor or break down is not! When in doubt, change it.

[adamdegraff]

Thanks everybody! I think I will play it safe. I'll keep changing at every 100 hrs. and also get the analysis.

Kevin, just cuz I noticed it.... what's your non-slide bunk coach like? This tour seems to be working out well and we were just asked if we would like to do another national tour if 2010-11... thing is, my kids will be older and will need their own sleeping space. (Right now we have a full sized bed in the carousel closet, and at 3 and 5 they love to sleep together.) I'll definitely be sticking with Prevost and I truly love my Marathon, but am thinking that a queen bed in back with 3 bunks in the hall might be nice as we are thinking of having a third child. (I think I want to avoid an entertainer coach as I've been spoiled by the high quality Marathon conversion.) Got any pictures of your rig? By our next tour I think I could justify a custom unit from Marathon. Heck, if I keep doing this, maybe I can get my kids to do the driving:-)

Thanks everybody!

Adam

[Joe Cannarozzi]

If I had an engine or piece of equipment that was requiring me to change oil every 3 weeks using normal oil I would be switching to synthetic. You can go 3 times as long on a change.

If you take Colorados advice and go 150hr or so that would get you to a month on regular oil so if you switched to synthetic you could reasonably get a couple of months between changes, maybe 3.

If you are noticing that the oil that you are currently using is comming out reasonably clean that is a pretty good indicator that you can go a little longer.

I am suprised that a musician as yourself would be risking hurting your hands or fingers doing stuff like this, be careful.

Switch to synthetic go 2 months send off a sample. Bet you find you can go even longer.

[Coloradobus]

Adam,

We also have noticed that the low sulfur diesel may have less grit/soot in it so the oil is staying cleaner. Just a thought.
When I back our's into the barn with Chris's watchful eye as to where I am pointing the coach rear (hopefully not into the wall), I am not gassing him out.

[Kevin Erion]

Adam,
We love our bunk Marathon, it is our 2nd Marathon and after we bought the first and loved the time we got to spend together I started looking for a bunk coach. I like the Marathon build quality and it took a year to find. We just got back from 6000 miles in 3 1/2 weeks, problem free!
I will try to send you some pictures next week when I am in the shop.

[dalej]

I would go with every 150-175 hrs. We are in a farming area that has lot of diesel engines. Every farmer that I know changes the oil every week when running 24/7 during the summer.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Just to add to this discussion ...years ago we were in an RV park next to owners of a fishing lodge in Ontario. It was remote and only accessible by seaplane.

They had a pair of Kubota generators like we use in our coaches. For the entire six month season the generators ran 24/7. Instead of a crankcase like we have they plumbed their oil to the generators from a 55 gallon drum. So for 180 days and about 4300 hours they never changed oil, just ran them using the 55 gallon drum of oil as a sump. At the end of the season it was replaced with a new drum of oil.

The engines had 28,000 hours on them and were still going strong. The only thing they did special was every week or so they would load the generators with about 14,000 watt loads (two huge electric heaters) just to make them work and burn off any carbon that accumulated from light loads. Their opinion was lightly loading the generators was detrimental.

[Denny]

My Power Tech generator has a sticker on it to change oil every 100 hours and the oil filter every 200 hours. I usually go about every 150 hours and change oil and oil filter and add a quart of Lucas additive. I could never understand adding new oil to a dirty oil filter. I always change both.

[jack14r]

The Kohler 20 KW generator has a Yanmar 2 Liter diesel and they spec 150 hour changes for the oil and 300 for the filter.

[JIM KELLER]

My Power Tech generator has a sticker on it to change oil every 100 hours and the oil filter every 200 hours. I usually go about every 150 hours and change oil and oil filter and add a quart of Lucas additive. I could never understand adding new oil to a dirty oil filter. I always change both.

Denny, You just stated what I have been thinking while reading this thread. Why would anyone change oil without changing the oil filter ! ! !

It doesn't even make sense for a company to suggest it because it is in their best interest to replace the filter at each oil change.

[jack14r]

I agree,I never change oil without changing the oil filter.Evidently both generator manufacturers think that it is OK.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

A dirty filter cleans more efficiently than a new one, but for the few dollars you save it just seems senseless to change oil and not the filter at the same time.