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Generator questions - several....
I have a 50' houseboat which came with a little 7kw Onan RV generator (a
Marquis 7000). It has worked really well (since 1999), running the two rooftop A/C's and pretty much anything else we needed. Has about 500 hours on it. Changed the oil regularly - and it's never run low on oil - but the day after the last oil change it started "ticking". Sounds like something in the valve train. Cut open the oil filter & did find a few small "shavings" of metal. (DANGIT!!). So I'm planning for a replacement. A new "same unit" is about $4,000. A new "Marine" unit of similar size (Westerbeke, Kohler, etc) looks like it would be around $6,000 to $7,000 (or more). I really want to stay with a gasoline unit as I have only one small (40 gallon) tank that runs the Honda O/B motor & the generator. It's enough for a full weekend but that's about it. Here are my questions/concerns: 1) What's the diff between an RV unit & a MARINE unit? 2) What about brands? Onan vs Westerbeke vs Kohler vs Guardian/Generac vs anything else? I found a Guardian 7.2k RV unit for around $3,500 but I know nothing about them. 3) Is water cooled better than air cooled? 4) What about the RPM issue? I think the Onan was 3600 rpm's, and the Guardian is something like 2500. Seems logical that a unit that can do it's thing at lower rpm's might be quieter - is that true? 5) What else do I need to know or consider? Thansk in advance.... Bugman |
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