Your last generator Maintenance Run

[ultrarunner]

Adequate grounding..... that's a serious engineering thread right there ! Not that I mind it being knocked around as a subject here....

For temporary portable use, practically-speaking, I'd say a ground rod is close to the old sabre-toothed tiger joke...... you don't have to run faster than the tiger, just faster than the next guy......

Setting up a reference ground for an instrumentation lab..... that's a whole other (major) project......

Water table, soil type, salinity...... many factors go into determining a ground-rod array.

Rgds, D.

We had some type of sensitive instrumentation with issues... the problems all went away when the machine was plugged into an outlet with Isolated Ground... which the Hospital has in many areas... it was a big deal back in the early 90's but don't hear anything about they days...

In this case it was a simple as unplugging the cord from one outlet and plugging into the one 24 inches away.

 

[3930dave]

I guess I have been doing it wrong since I mounted the Honda in my Service Van... no ground wire and it sits on rubber feet.

I tried to run it yesterday and found I have carb issues... which keeps the small engine shops very busy the last few years!

Service vans were one of the first things I thought of, in this recent conversation about grounding..... haven't seen one grounded yet, though it may be done/required by certain fleets.

Surgery or carb replacement may be required, but for grins, how about trying some Startron in the tank of that Honda...... let it settle in for 12 hours+. Won't hurt, and might save you some tear-down time.....

Curious.... do you store that Honda wet, or dry ?

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

1. Given the above it would seem the generators metal frame should not be sitting on the ground to avoid a second path to ground and there should be no dedicated ground?

I was thinking of your comment, doing my run today.

There is some advantage in this respect with most factory wheel-kits. They usually have rubber-like vibration isolators at the non-wheeled end, and today's wheels are pretty universally all non-metallic.

Rgds, D.

 

[LouNY]

I recall a gas compression station in West Texas,
a 120' well, casing filled with carbon black after a 0000 copper
cable was dropped into it, instrumentation finally worked
consistently and stopped blowing out surge suppressors.
That was a serious ground rod.

 

[ultrarunner]

Service vans were one of the first things I thought of, in this recent conversation about grounding..... haven't seen one grounded yet, though it may be done/required by certain fleets.

Surgery or carb replacement may be required, but for grins, how about trying some Startron in the tank of that Honda...... let it settle in for 12 hours+. Won't hurt, and might save you some tear-down time.....

Curious.... do you store that Honda wet, or dry ?

Rgds, D.

Stored Fueled... ready to go...

I did add SeaFoam yesterday... have not been back to see if it helped.

I try to keep the vehicles in use to avoid fuel problems but with many 80 engines of various sizes fuel and batteries are always a problem... before it was only batteries.

 

[3930dave]

I recall a gas compression station in West Texas,
a 120' well, casing filled with carbon black after a 0000 copper
cable was dropped into it, instrumentation finally worked
consistently and stopped blowing out surge suppressors.
That was a serious ground rod.

Roger that ! Hard to beat a well casing as a ground.... I can see that being important, in that application.

Carbon black..... probably posted it before (meant to....) , still very useful..... picked up a tube of this, last time I was servicing batteries.

846 - Carbon Conductive Grease - Conductive Greases | MG Chemicals

Not pretty, and messy to use, but works well.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Stored Fueled... ready to go...

I did add SeaFoam yesterday... have not been back to see if it helped.

I try to keep the vehicles in use to avoid fuel problems but with many 80 engines of various sizes fuel and batteries are always a problem... before it was only batteries.

Small engines suffer the most...... and it seems that Cali gas is pretty weak-sauce indeed.....

Do you normally run a stabilizer in your small engine stuff ?

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

I do now but only the last couple of years...

Had a Model A I put away over a year... shut off the gas and disconnected the battery... turn in the gas and connected the battery and started right up...

The gas is probably 10 years old judging by the license tab...

Not have rubber fuel parts or pumps or parasitic loads makes a difference!

 

[3930dave]

Fine-bore jets in modern stuff seem to have it worse.

For Cali-scale problems, consider trying Startron. I think it attacks the problem from a different angle, and may be a good adjunct to a traditional stabilizer.

Star Tron Enzyme Fuel Treatment Gas Additive Small Engine

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Last summer in the course of trying to figure out my neighbors stray voltage issue, I did tests and saw how poor a ground rod conducts to earth. For lightning protection, sure, it's essential, but for any other purpose, I can't see it.

well I guess that explains why the grounding kit for my solar panel driven electric fence came with not one but three three foot ground rods.
I put in two, and it worked just fine.

I'm going to make a safe guess that 99 percent of small gen users don't ground their machines when needed,
and likely 98 percent don't know there's even an issue.
I sure didn't....