Question When was the last time you exercised your GEN?

[Neal]

Okay, no cheating. How long ago did you last run your GEN or exercise your GEN?

Mine is running now as the pedestal breaker tripped. I reset the breaker but I want to make sure I get through this laundry and I need to exercise the gen. It's been 1-2 months since I last exercised it, I haven't been doing it every 30 days but it is in my crosscheck so I'm exercising it now.

Truth up....when is the last time you exercised your GEN???

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

I did mine about three weeks ago and it will be due again next week. My schedule is monthly, but occasionally I do slip a bit.

Interestingly, the new 22K whole-house generator we just had install at the sticks-and-bricks is programmed to exercise every two weeks (alternate Tuesdays at 10 am). It is due again tomorrow morning. Nice to have it programmable.

TJ

 

[Neal]

I think you can program it in the Magnum control panels but I don't.

 

[Akdare]

I ran mine around the first of March, when we were boondocking in a Walmart parking lot...time to run it again. I shoot for monthly.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Typically at least once a month. Having an AGS is of no value if the GEN won't start AGS tries three times then stops after third attempt.

 

[NWIP]

I was just saying this morning I should exercise mine, last was beginning of March. I shoot for once a month but sometimes it ends up being 6 weeks

 

[AbdRahim]

Usually once a month except when the temps get down in the teens and single digits. So sometimes I may skip a month in the dead of winter. I do have the generator serviced yearly, rather than the suggested schedule by hours.

 

[MapNerd]

A little over a week ago when we were at North Trail to have the drivers seat footrest replaced. Before that, when my 300amp fuse blew.

 

[ARD]

Ooops! Okay, so it's been since mid January. Guess, I'll get on it tomorrow.

 

[Jabber Jaw]

Try to run mine monthly. Last time was March 21st. I run it a minimum of 30-45 minutes. I start it, no load on it. Give it about 5-6 minutes to warm up, then gradually put it under load, until I have both heat pumps running, & if not winterized, turn on the water heater. Let it run under load for about 15-20 minutes, (if it's cold outside, let it run til the coach heats up); then will shut down heat pump, one at a time, and after that I let it run with no load for 3-5 minutes, then shut it down. When running it, there should be a load on it for a short period of time, to properly "exercise" it.
That's my generator exercise program!

 

[sheridany]

Last week. I make a point to start it fairly often even in storage (when I pull it out) so I know I can rely on it.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

So, apparently, I exercised my generator this afternoon. Just went out to check something on the coach and the generator was running. The auto exercise function was disabled (though I now know where it is and how to set it) and the shore power had not been interrupted. The batteries were both at 13.6V With float charge on. I have no idea how long it had been running, the the max run-time was set to 240 minutes.

Anybody ever have this happen? Any thoughts on what's going on? My whole-house generator exercised at 10 am today; was the coach generator feeling left out?

I'm puzzled. Comments appreciated.

TJ

 

[sheridany]

Following. I had no idea this was even possible.

 

[J&JD]

Had it happen once in my Alpine. We were cruising down the highway and the genset fired up all by itself. AGS was off, coach alternator was fine, batteries full, no a/c running. Only did it once and never again. Gremlins I guess. Weird stuff??.

 

[FL-JOE]

I get lazy while stationary in the winter. I try to run it about the middle of my stay. During the rest of the year I pretty much run it whenever we are on the road. If there is no real need for it on a travel day (no air needed or no heat needed) I'll at least crank it up on a lunch break for 30 minutes or so. I guess you could say it gets ran every week or two.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Following. I had no idea this was even possible.

Neither did I, Sheridan. Now, I have a case of the "jumpies" and every noise I hear makes me think it has auto-started again. I was just out in the coach and verified that the auto-start functions all show "Disabled" on the SilverLeaf panel.

TJ

 

[NWIP]

@TJ&LadyDi, did the generator running coincide with the whole-house generator running?

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

@TJ&LadyDi, did the generator running coincide with the whole-house generator running?

Possibly, Bill. The house generator ran a 5-minute exercise cycle at 10 am. I discovered the coach generator running at 1:30 pm. The coach generator max run time was set for 240 minutes. I hadn't been outside from 10 am to 1:30 pm, so don't know when the coach generator started, but if it fired up when the house generator did, it would have still been within the 240-minute mac ru-time window.

Do you think the two events could somehow be connected? When the house generator runs its exercise cycle, it doesn't activate the transfer switch, so no power interruption to the house (or coach plug-in).

TJ

 

[sheridany]

@TJ&LadyDi Is there a way to manually exercise the home genset again to see if it does it again? It seems like there is some linkage somehow.

 

[NWIP]

I was just taking a stab at maybe related. I’m not smart enough to be able to explain anything electrical. I know in aircraft strange things can happen due to relays (sensing type) with with extremely short millisecond settings, engineering later having to replace with even less reacting relays. Who knew that .0001 of a millisecond could make a difference.

When changing out ME-ARC on 2017 and resetting the programming I had AGS start generator even though it was disabled. Couldn’t ever figure out why it did start but settled down once I finished and never had it start unexpectedly again.