I was curious what a good / fair price was for a used Onan generator. The local phone company is selling their service trucks which come with a 4300 Onan generator. The trucks go up for auction the end of the month. I'm not sure what the age of the trucks nor the generators would be. I was told the phone company really don't put long hours on the generators. The truck I looked at today was a 1992 ford F-350 with a service body / covered, with the generator. The generator looked almost new - the gentelman told me a truck like his goes for around $ 1000.00 at the auction. I figured I could sell the truck and keep the Onan. What's your opinion?

Search Ebay for generators to get an idea about prices on used units.

As a former telephone cable splicer, the Onan on my company F-450 would run hours on end depending on what power was needed for and what was needed to do the job. Also our Onans had no low oil shutdown on them. Thus a re-ring and bearing job was necessary ( a common occurance) and I always said our mechanic could do these blind folded. Sort of buyer beware. Now if you could get to the operator of a particular vehicle, I'm sure he would shed some light on the condition. We would do that quite frequently. Also don't ever buy an air compressor that came out of a telephone exchange where it was used to pressurize cable! Just my two cents worth.

As bobsallyh said, beware. Think about it!! Those generators were not put in those trucks 'in case'.
Most of them I saw were working 8-12 hours a day on the splicer's and lineman's trucks in order to provide lights, ventilators etc in the field.

(Former telephone switchman)