I run a commercial lobster fishing boat and with good engines and maintenance they can get up to 40000 hours before a rebuild. And they go through more abuse then a generator.
The one i have now had 28000 hours and don’t burn a drop of oil.
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These generators run @ 1,800rpm. I know 20.8k hours is up there and the math everyone did is how you determine the miles on a gene motor. I own 2 generators like this, one is a 200kw with a Cummings and the other is a 300kw with a Detroit 92 in it. I also maintain and fix them when they go down. This is the only reason I made the comment about the 20.8k hours being up there.
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it’s the equivalent pricing of a 300k mile 7.3 powerstroke relative to the new cost. I’m sure there’s plenty of life, but it won’t be without its’ headaches
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That’s got some use on it—it’s a good deal for a lightly used unit, but I would bet my success on a generator with 20,000hours use.
If it doesn’t need repairs now, it will at some point in the very, very near future. Unless you hope to use this for backup power it’s not a good bet for your main power source without some HEAVY preventative maintenance.
0.02$
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I would trust @BG305 when it comes to this stuff. This guy is always using these massive generators. He can save some people money.
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I’m not arguing if it’s a bad/good buy thats beyond my expertise. I’m questioning this math you all keep speaking of because no one knows the circumference but is confident there MPH answer is correct.
Ima digress cause the basis of my comment has been goldfished a few to many times now. My problems the made up equation yall. X + 1800 does not equal 1.2 million gotta solve for x yall 
Are your generators prime mover rated?
The prime mover is the engine and I said what motor each has.
It’s really not hard. These motors make peak power at 1800rpm. A semi truck is geared so when on the highway( where is spends its life) its running around 1800rpms. Speed limits are 60mph on average for big Riggs. You take the number posted above, 20.8k then you divide by 60 and that gives you your answer.
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This is accurate, I have driven trucks. Cruising at between 1800-2200rpm.
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I understand you listed the diesel brand and the gen size, I was curious to their rating. Generators typically have one of three ratings: stand by, prime, and continuous, I was curious what the rating was on your gen sets not what their prime mover was.
I take it all back, prime rating is good for 750hrs a year, this gen set is less than ten years old, @BG305 is right, she’s gonna be in need of a serious overhaul as it has obviously been overused wether it was properly maintained or not.
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It might run for 5k or 25k more hours, nobody knows. The engine rebuild is the least of your worries if something catastrophic happens, best to have 2 gen sets. This is how I am running this facility right now, with the 300kw as the main work horse and the 200kw as a backup.
If the 300kw goes down and can’t be fixed in a few hours it gets pulled out of place. The 200kw is rolled in and hooked up the the switchgear. I have not had this happen yet but I have had a few breakdowns that have been fixed quickly. If you know the units I would say buy spare parts that tend to go bad regularly as it’s on borrowed time.
Voltage regulator
Oil pressure switch
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In the refineries, and from what my buddy over at Sunbelt rentals tell me, they usually do a total rebuild on engines at 15k hrs. That’s around the time you usually start seeing the major malfunctions. That’s with very good maintenance as well.
My buddy swears by his Cat 3416 or whatever, being a glider from an engine that was rebuilt with 1.5M miles on it.
But my other friend in San Antonio, who owns a large trucking company and hauls dirt, said gliders are just gonna bust over a shorter time. He buys new after 400K miles (the warranty from Cummins).
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Ok no point in me continuing.
i came across a killer deal on a 200kw diesel gen with a cat 343 for 3k the other day but when i found out that the fuel consumption was 13.8 gallons an hour, i had to pump the brakes…
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The motor turns 1800rpm no matter what the “circumference” of what it is driving is.
This unit burns 17 -34gph from 50%-100% load. I am using roughly 1,750 gallons of off road diesel a week right now.
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Ok maybe im not explaining myself well, i understand the motor turns at 1800 rpm no matter what not what im asking.
I’m just going to leave this quoted exerpt from an engineer to determine MPH from RPMs.
"Now calculate the following:
(wheel rpm)(2)(rolling radius in feet) (pi)
This will give us feet/minute.
Take that answer and divide by 5,280 feet/mile and get miles/minute.
Finally, take that answer and multiply it by 60 minutes/hour and get miles/ hour for the selected rpm."
Generator duty for a diesel is much easier than road tractor duty. Like the difference between a Gynecologist and casting director for a porn production. Also average miles per engine hours is closer to 30 miles. When billy big rigger isn’t stomping on the throttle trying twist the transmission out from under the cab he’s sitting idle sucking the clock.
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Why are you trying so hard to figure this out? Miles are just not applicable to equipment that isn’t designed to travel. Its why they have hour meters and not odometers.
You do realize a generator motor is directly attached to a electrical generator. A truck is spinning a transmission which has gears. The time the engine is running at load is far more applicable than how far the engine may have traveled.
If you wanna open up even more possibilities you could argue this generator could have been ran idle or close to no load for 10,000 of those hours, or maybe it was ran at load the entire time.
as many have said before its all about preventive maintenance and the records.
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Power upgrade with the LADBS. I was trying to learn something and got fed something illogical, wanted to correct it and got heated at the responses that refuted the equation and just reposted random numbers… silly I know, I should’ve done what I said and digressed
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