Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

The irony is that my standby is 22k and my PTO backup to that is 50k peak, 25k continuous. I added the sure start more out of curiosity than necessity. But it has to be better for the heat pump as well. Im impressed enough that I知 going to add one to my other heat pump.

Great value for the rest of your VAC connected products too :thumbsup:.

Rgds, D.

 

[hslogger]

I have diligently exericised our generator over the years. Most of the time I would plug in my Dewalt old time 12 inch RAS and a few lights to boot. Always been flawless.

Two days ago we had a power outage for about five'er six hours and had to plug the 240 cord into my house box. It was very hard to do until I took steel wool and some dielectric grease to the male fitting that went into the generator. But I tell you it was frustrating as could be. Note to self..... exercise the 240 outlet.

 

[Industrial Toys]

In my experience, quite the typical scenerio. Sometimes the failures are compounded, almost comical and impossible to believe,

 

[grsthegreat]

during our last power outage on monday, my neighbor called me around 5pm as he was finaly fed up and wanted to hook his portable generator up (to the manual transfer system i installed for him a few years ago). he had to drive nearly 25 miles to get propane for generator as all his tanks were out (planning?) and local stations had no power to pump propane. then his generator would only run a few minutes and quit. i figured he forgot to turn off 2 pole breakers so i ran over there. nope, all were off. so i unplugged generator and started it up. in 2 minutes it just changes running sounds and abruptly shut down. even though he said all maint was done, i checked oil level....half empty. added about 1/2 quart of oil, fired up and ran like a champ for about 5 hours. some people just cant maintain an engine. he didnt even have any oil on hand. i had to go grab a quart. mind you i have about 90 quarts in stock (for my generator business). but still...come on.

 

[3930dave]

I have diligently exericised our generator over the years. Most of the time I would plug in my Dewalt old time 12 inch RAS and a few lights to boot. Always been flawless.

Two days ago we had a power outage for about five'er six hours and had to plug the 240 cord into my house box. It was very hard to do until I took steel wool and some dielectric grease to the male fitting that went into the generator. But I tell you it was frustrating as could be. Note to self..... exercise the 240 outlet.

Devil in the Details.... for sure.

Jay Leno is one of the planet's most famous car collectors, but he's also a smart gearhead - knows that keeping mechanical things moving has benefits, esp. over time.

Mental benefits (other than sleeping better at night) for us too. Often you can take your time setting up a generator in an outage, sometimes not though. At certain times of the year here, the water table is high enough that I need a generator running RIGHT NOW...... not the time to be stumbling over something minor that you've overlooked - so I'd say there is value to mental/muscle memory on the operator's part too.

Fire suppression on a rural property is the other RIGHT NOW need I can think of....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

In my experience, quite the typical scenerio. Sometimes the failures are compounded, almost comical and impossible to believe,

Murph is a formidable foe !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

during our last power outage on monday, my neighbor called me around 5pm as he was finaly fed up and wanted to hook his portable generator up (to the manual transfer system i installed for him a few years ago). he had to drive nearly 25 miles to get propane for generator as all his tanks were out (planning?) and local stations had no power to pump propane. then his generator would only run a few minutes and quit. i figured he forgot to turn off 2 pole breakers so i ran over there. nope, all were off. so i unplugged generator and started it up. in 2 minutes it just changes running sounds and abruptly shut down. even though he said all maint was done, i checked oil level....half empty. added about 1/2 quart of oil, fired up and ran like a champ for about 5 hours. some people just cant maintain an engine. he didnt even have any oil on hand. i had to go grab a quart. mind you i have about 90 quarts in stock (for my generator business). but still...come on.

Wow. I can understand one tank, but what was the point of multiple tanks then......

Driver at work was stuck at one of our key suppliers, helping take skids apart to get something critical we needed......... they were out of propane too - and they had not one but TWO forklifts - both empty, and no spare tank - great way to run a business eh ?

Many of my Dad's generation knew their way around engines, and what it took to keep them running...... generally much less so today though.

Even people who should (and likely do) know better can seem pretty daft...... had a neighbour ask me for oil one weekend, as he'd run his push mower pretty much dry. He's a great guy, I didn't begrudge him that small amount of oil, but it didn't make sense that a hands-on guy like he was would run a household, 2 vehicles, lawn equipment and have zero oil on the shelf.

People seem to fall into 2 camps with oil - None, or a big stash..... I could go a long time w/o buying any common oil myself......

Rgds, D.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I am having a tough time connecting my engine to my generator, mostly because of how it is sitting, and in trying to get dual power sources for it.

Option A: If I go with mechanical belt linkage, the only way I can get it to work is to mate a 4 inch pulley on the engine, and a 16 inch pulley on the generator, and at 19 inches of shaft centers, get 2100 rpm out of the engine. With its narrow powerband, that only gives me 32 HP at that rpm, but enough to pull the full 20 KW out of the generator. Even then I would have to twist the belts to get the right rotation.

Option B: I could go with a hydraulic set up, and with that I would have no physical limitations, and got most of the parts, but it leaves me with buying a $900 hydraulic pump. Add in various fittings, and I am at the same cost as a buying a second generator head. I also have no idea if I would have to add a hydraulic cooler because that is a boatload of oil being pushed around at 2000 psi.

Option C: If I buy a new generator head, I can shaft-drive the generator, but I am tapped out at 1800 rpm. With my narrow powerband on my engine, that knocks me down to a 16 KW generator head. The cost would be $1500, probably comparable with option C, but does give me redundant back-up power of both engine and generator. I could also get both flopping, synchronize them, and put out 36 KW/183 amps if I needed more power then 16 or 20 KW.

But maybe there is some other options I have not thought of yet.

 

[LouNY]

Many generators don't care which way they are rotated to make power.

 

[3930dave]

Being a simple guy, I like belts.

If the head does care about rotation, if you have room, one option is to have the head facing the engine so to speak instead of crossing the belt. Not the best way to describe what I mean (diag. would be clearer), but I'm sure you get it.....

Rgds, D.