APU advice??

[ATeam]

I have a 132 inch ARI sleeper and the onan is serviced about every two weeks or so. I do my own oil changes so they only cost about 35 bucks as compared to the truck stops and speedco's who average 70 or so. And the oill filter last about 6 months . My current onan has over 12,000 hours in it without a major repair..never got that kind of service from a rig or TK.

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I do my own oil and filter changes on our Onan Quiet Diesel 7500. Found significant cost savings by buying Fram oil filters at Walmart (TG3593A or _ _ 3593A) and NAPA Gold fuel filters (3063) at NAPA. Don't buy fuel filters in California. They rob you there.

Still have to go to Onan for the air filters since I have not found a substitute for that.

 

[zorry]

Thanks for the filter tip. The new service manager at ARI repeatedly warned me that if I was caught with non-Onan filters during warranty period they would use that as an excuse to void my warranty.
Phil, do you stick to the 150 hours and what interval do you change oil, fuel, and air filter ?

 

[ATeam]

Phil, do you stick to the 150 hours and what interval do you change oil, fuel, and air filter ?

Yes, I follow the manufacturer's recommended service intervals. I thought about stretching them out but it only takes three quarts of oil and the oil filter is cheap. Changing the oil is easy after you have done it a couple of times. The money you save by stretching out oil changes on an Onan is small compared to the price of the generator you are maintaining. We do extended oil changes on the truck but there you are talking eight gallons of oil vs. three quarts.

For generator oil changes, I keep the tools, filter and oil within easy reach so little time is spent digging them out when needed. I replaced the oil drain plug with a petcock to make draining the oil easier. An empty one-gallon oil or windshield washer fluid bottle is used to catch the waste oil. I generally do these oil changes in truck stop parking lots. Truck stop shops take the waste oil. Walmart does too if there is no truck stop shop handy.

I have seen other generator brands that make oil changing even easier because of how the oil filter and drain plug are placed. Onan generators do not have that luxury because it is build for motor homes, not trucks. Space is at a premium in that application and we truckers pay an inconvenience price as a result. Nevertheless, it is still easy to do an Onan oil change after you have done a couple of them.

 

[Giovanni Socci]

I had a Rigmaster installed on a FL classic,the price of it was good,it was installed in 8 hrs...but it was loud,unreliable,spent too much time in the shop,the last yr I owned the truck I didn t run the APU bc it was down,the ac unit is supposed to be 10 btu,that s not enough for Tx heat,mine was poorly installed in Ok Cy...the advice I tell all my friends: stay away from RM,it was one expensive mistake...to my enemies I would say,yeah,go ahead and buy one...buy at your own peril.