Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

The generator I recently bought is working exactly as planned. The power has since gone out two times now and both times it came back on before I got up at 7:AM. I'm a believer in "be prepared and you won't need it".

Murphy has many faces....

No generator, or leave stale gas in one for a couple of years..... probably looking at a 3+ day outage..... :confused3:

Rgds, D.

 

[TheMan419]

Murphy has many faces....

No generator, or leave stale gas in one for a couple of years..... probably looking at a 3+ day outage..... :confused3:

Rgds, D.

Amen there. I usually try to plan a project around the farm to use the generator once a quarter. That way I get my maintenance run it without it feeling like a waste of fuel.

 

[HarryVanderpool]

Amen there. I usually try to plan a project around the farm to use the generator once a quarter. That way I get my maintenance run it without it feeling like a waste of fuel.

That makes good sense.
I run our main generator once a year just long enough to warm it up and change the oil.
Same generator and procedure for 28 years.
When the power goes out in the evening, we almost never run the generator until morning and the power is almost always back on buy then.
Our attitude is that a generator is insurance. Use it as little as possible, but you got to have it.

 

[LouNY]

That makes good sense.
I run our main generator once a year just long enough to warm it up and change the oil.
Same generator and procedure for 28 years.
When the power goes out in the evening, we almost never run the generator until morning and the power is almost always back on buy then.
Our attitude is that a generator is insurance. Use it as little as possible, but you got to have it.

We use ours when I expect that the power will out for awhile, I like running water and hot water, heat in the winter AC in the summer.
I've got the generator might as well enjoy it, I wish I had put an hour meter on it when I got it, I believe that this one has well over 1000 hours on it in 20+ years.

 

[grsthegreat]

Mine runs when power is out, but i shut it off manually when i go to bed, and during the day if not needed. Have no issue running it.

 

[3930dave]

End Limit.......Planes..... get attention, for obvious reasons..... I've read a few articles concerning the amount of work going on with currently grounded planes.

Same reason I envy gear-heads living in AZ or OZ..... parking planes there is popular due to low humidity.

It "feels" better (and I'm more likely to run mine) when I have some outdoor task to do. I'll use other loads too, but even just charging a battery on something that sits idle a lot helps me get my ________ in gear, and get it done.....

Partly to fill out a minimum Amazon order, I picked up an inductive style hour meter (senses spark plug wire) for my smaller gen. Next service on that one, I'll get it installed. Not expensive, and has an easily changeable battery. The other style of inexpensive hour-meter senses 3600 rpm vibration, but many of those seem to have a non-changeable battery.

Rgds, D.

 

[nikdfish]

Ordered propane today. Both 500 gallon tanks are currently at about the 60% mark. The southern states guy quoted me $1.599/gal, which is good enough around here to go ahead rather than wait on the usual time around tobacco curing season. Never can tell what might happen during the summer storm season.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I have not run mine since I got it wired up to the house. I had to run a entrance cable (2-2-4) from a subpanel in the house to the generator, but now it will be running direct wired (100 amps) instead of through a 50 amp extension cord. That should be better.

I also got the generator wired into a panel now so i can see what I am kicking out for Hertz, Voltage and Amps. I should be able to dial the generator in for clean power.

(In the first photo we are running the new 2-2-4 [bare neutral] entrance cable, and the second is my new genset set-up.)

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have not run mine since I got it wired up to the house. I had to run a entrance cable (2-2-4) from a subpanel in the house to the generator, but now it will be running direct wired (100 amps) instead of through a 50 amp extension cord. That should be better.

I also got the generator wired into a panel now so i can see what I am kicking out for Hertz, Voltage and Amps. I should be able to dial the generator in for clean power.

(In the first photo we are running the new 2-2-4 [bare neutral] entrance cable, and the second is my new genset set-up.)

That is a nice set up with fuel and all.

 

[3930dave]

Ordered propane today........ Never can tell what might happen during the summer storm season.

$/unit bought bears some watching....... but Peace of Mind also has an offsetting value too....

Rgds, D.