How often should i exercize throughout the winter?

[reubenray]

I am thinking of just heading out to a local state park for a few days each month. It would only be about 2 hours away and it would be long enough to run everything and to have some fun also.

[ardbark]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

Here's what Cummins said when I sent them an email regarding this:From the perspective of the
Cummins engine it is good to do either one of two things:

1) Start the engine and drive it or 2) do not start the engine.

Our engines do not gain anything by idling. In fact a diesel engine
on low idle will not ever get up to operating temperatures which is
bad for the engine and can cause an increase in soot production.

The other side of the story is that starting the engine and letting it
idle is probably good for other things like air brakes, heating and
cooling, etc. So probably the best answer to try to get both worlds
to meet is to occasionally take the unit out for a drive during times
of prolonged storage."

So Cummins says don't start it unless you plan on driving it like you stole it. I wonder what Onan has to say about this. Conventional wisdom is run the genny, which is also diesel, under load at least monthly thru the cold months. But a genny idles for a living. They never really get much above idle. Hmmmmmm... diesel-diesel, idle/don't idle.. arggghhh

[Butte64]

Originally Posted by ardbark

So Cummins says don't start it unless you plan on driving it like you stole it. I wonder what Onan has to say about this. Conventional wisdom is run the genny, which is also diesel, under load at least monthly thru the cold months. But a genny idles for a living. They never really get much above idle. Hmmmmmm... diesel-diesel, idle/don't idle.. arggghhh

Actually Onan says to run the generator under load so that comes out to the same as driving the big engine. I also understand it is good to run AC units periodically. So last winter every month I would run the generator with both AC units on along with a small electric heater so I would get over 50% load on my 6 KW Onan.

[csrrsr]

We live in a snow belt and there's no way to take the coach out and drive it to warm it up. My Cat dealer said the same thing as the Cummins people said "don't just let it idle to warm up...it just won't hit the correct temperature to do any good." But do run the genny monthly under load like many of the comments are stating.