Your last generator Maintenance Run

[90cummins]

No I don't have a spare gen head yet but it is on the list. I've been looking at a 6800 watt brushless MeccAlte head but that's in the future. Undecided on a belt drive or direct connection.
If I belt drive it I can optimize the engine speed at 2500 to 3000 rpm which is the sweet spot for the Yanmar as far a fuel consumption, it also quiets it down & extends the life.
I've used 174.3 gallons from 7/17/12 to 5/27/14 (22.5 months) for an average of 7.75 gallons a month. It's used in my 1720 Ford for mowing & other maintenance and some chipping with my 1250 Vermeer.
I top it off every summer when prices come down so it doesn't hurt so bad & cash saves me some money.
As far as fuel treatment I'll add some power service to prevent gelling & some 2 stroke oil but nothing special. My tanks are inside so moisture isn't an issue.

Whew ! You've been busy 90 !

Do you have gen heads already on the shelf for the 2 Yanmars that you just overhauled, or do you plan to just use them as backup engines ? I'm curious about gen heads, as to what is common/popular these days, or good from another era.

Do you use a lot of diesel every month ? For storage, how do you treat that much fuel ?

Rgds, D.

 

[bullbreaker]

Just pulled out my 2 hr run time (so far) JD Subaru powered genny . Has E-start but choked it gave it one pull on recoil starter and it fired rite up .Ran it almost 20 minutes and shut it down. I have it for emergency back-up . Real happy with it so far. Only used very little w/some corded stuff.

 

[3930dave]

We are also part of the county emergency preparedness plan...

Should the county declare an emergency... the county will supply diesel from the city yard... or so the plan states.

Looks good on paper.....

I hope you never see it, but when the Big One hits, how easy will it be to get fuel from A to B ?

One of the big east coast storms had one NY hospital re-fueling by having people carry gerry cans up a crazy # of flights of stairs..... these type of bad planning errors could be reduced, by having the "experts" that made the decision, fix the actual problem !

In a perfect world..... :cloud9:

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

No I don't have a spare gen head yet but it is on the list. I've been looking at a 6800 watt brushless MeccAlte head but that's in the future. Undecided on a belt drive or direct connection.
If I belt drive it I can optimize the engine speed at 2500 to 3000 rpm which is the sweet spot for the Yanmar as far a fuel consumption, it also quiets it down & extends the life.
I've used 174.3 gallons from 7/17/12 to 5/27/14 (22.5 months) for an average of 7.75 gallons a month. It's used in my 1720 Ford for mowing & other maintenance and some chipping with my 1250 Vermeer.
I top it off every summer when prices come down so it doesn't hurt so bad & cash saves me some money.
As far as fuel treatment I'll add some power service to prevent gelling & some 2 stroke oil but nothing special. My tanks are inside so moisture isn't an issue.

Thanks for those details 90 !

Rgds, Dave.

 

[3930dave]

Just pulled out my 2 hr run time (so far) JD Subaru powered genny . Has E-start but choked it gave it one pull on recoil starter and it fired rite up .Ran it almost 20 minutes and shut it down. I have it for emergency back-up . Real happy with it so far. Only used very little w/some corded stuff.

I'm not sure my wife could pull-start either of my generators, so I'm glad of the elec start on the larger one. My larger one starts (for me) well, usually by the second pull, with full choke.

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Electric start is a must for me in a back up generator because I am not the big jerk I used to be.

There are just too many things that can happen health wise to depend on a manual start in an emergency.

We have a neighbor in that boat today but someone can come start it and it will run long enough to chill/freeze stuff until they can come back and refuel and repeat.

 

[ultrarunner]

Looks good on paper.....

I hope you never see it, but when the Big One hits, how easy will it be to get fuel from A to B ?

One of the big east coast storms had one NY hospital re-fueling by having people carry gerry cans up a crazy # of flights of stairs..... these type of bad planning errors could be reduced, by having the "experts" that made the decision, fix the actual problem !

In a perfect world..... :cloud9:

Rgds, D.

Seems environmental wields the most power with fire being next.

One would think testing an emergency Hospital genset weekly would be a good thing... as far as I know... limits are only imposed in California.

When I spec this unit... I told the board projected life should be at least 60 years... never guessed the the air agency would say otherwise.

We are tier 3 in the county disaster planning... so not much pull or any public funds for retrofit.

A regular scheduled run time my genset happy...

 

[3930dave]

Electric start is a must for me in a back up generator because I am not the big jerk I used to be.

There are just too many things that can happen health wise to depend on a manual start in an emergency.

We have a neighbor in that boat today but someone can come start it and it will run long enough to chill/freeze stuff until they can come back and refuel and repeat.

Somebody can have a bad back at any age, and an elderly person may no longer have the strength to snap over a big motor. Fortunately, Estart is getting pretty common on the smaller (relative to commercial/industrial sized ones) generators today.

I just don't want to see gens go the way motorcycles have.... Estart only. I can bump start my motorcycle if I had to..... but I don't want to get into that mode with a generator !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Seems environmental wields the most power with fire being next.

One would think testing an emergency Hospital genset weekly would be a good thing... as far as I know... limits are only imposed in California.

When I spec this unit... I told the board projected life should be at least 60 years... never guessed the the air agency would say otherwise.

We are tier 3 in the county disaster planning... so not much pull or any public funds for retrofit.

A regular scheduled run time my genset happy...

I don't know if it's CARB or EPA or both that is beating on you - since they are the ones wanting to shut down your generator, shouldn't they pay for the new one ?

Sounds fair to me.

W/O local funds, what are you supposed to do - de-commision the generator, and operate a hospital w/o Emergency power available ?

I'm sure that some poor soul arriving at a hospital needing medical treatment in a disaster would take comfort in knowing the reason (a minor alleged improvement in air quality) that the power is off....

Good luck, you and the patients could use some :thumbsup: .

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Bay Area Air Quality Management District or BAQMD has jurisdiction and also collects the yearly fee for burning through a 100 gallons of diesel annually.

One of the old engineers asked my why I let it bug me... he said all the new regs is what keeps us working...

Told him I just don't like to see waste... no matter who is footing the bill.