which portable generators do people have

[TMB1320]

Here’s my Stantor BC164C 7000 watt I traded a Yamaha 4 wlr for. Straight trade.

BC164C - YouTube

 

[orangeandgreen]

I have a few different sizes, all Briggs, and most pre China manufacture (4 bolts holding end cap on instead of 2). 7K (got us through the ice storm) , 5.5K (came with the shiny new wife), 900W camping generator, 3250w, 2200w inverter, last 2 being from China. All have lived their lives on non-ethanol gasoline and get the carb drained when not in use. So far, none of the group have ever let me down, even the China models.

 

[Soundguy]

for hurricane irma, I picked up a Steele 9000/7500w portable genny to go with my 12.5kw northstar pto generator.

Here is a link:

Steele, 9w Mobile Generator With Electric Start, SP-GG-9E : Rural King

I see they have went up about 25% from when I got mine.

I ran mine for about 20 hours during the storm week. Just exercised it this weekend to keep it fresh and running. Ran like a charm. I used both electric start and pull start just to make sure both worked.

 

[Garandman]

Back to generators, hopefully we'll see fuel injection on lots of small engines soon. I hate carbs, or at least the crappy gas that screws them up. It would be neat to see a study on how efficient and clean yesterday's carb engines are to FI units. How often do you hear someone pushing around a mower that's way out of tune.

We have a FI 250cc single motorcycle (Yamaha WR250R) that is quite amazing.

Ariens offers one of their snow thrower models with FI. It痴 $300 more than the carb version.

Tillotson has Mechanical FI for $40?

Tillotson TCT Mechanical Fuel Injection ( Carburetor Replacement)

 

[KubotainNH]

We have a FI 250cc single motorcycle (Yamaha WR250R) that is quite amazing.

Ariens offers one of their snow thrower models with FI. Itç—´ $300 more than the carb version.

Tillotson has Mechanical FI for $40?

Tillotson TCT Mechanical Fuel Injection ( Carburetor Replacement)

I would love one of those bikes or the KTM equivalent with FI. One of the reasons I got rid of my KDX was because of always messing with the carb. Too many projects and not enough time.

As for the Tillotson, I've seen that before but it mentions Honda replacement. Is there any that fit B&S or Tecumseh?

 

[Garandman]

This says it’s “Universal fit for 140-250cc engines.”

TCT Archives - Tillotson

 

[RalphVa]

We had a Suzuki 4000 watt for maybe 4 years before going with our in-place Isuzu diesel.

The Suzuki served us well.

Ralph

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have an electric start generator, but the battery is very small. Even the smallest float charger/maintainer I could find overcharges the battery, so I bought a lamp timer and plugged the float charger in. It turns the float charger on for 15 minutes a day, which is plenty to keep the battery charged without overcharging it. One more adjustment for buying a low dollar generator.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

My dual fuel generator starts and runs just fine on an upright grill bottle down to about 3 lbs left then it runs but won't carry a load.

A lot depends on the ambient temperature. I used to do a food booth at a craft fair. We found a wonderful 6' cast iron griddle, and found that a 20 lb. tank would not provide enough gas, so bought a 100 lb. tank. There was no room for a 100 lb. tank under the grill, so we dug a hole and set the tank in the hole. Of course, it iced up. When we dug the tank out it, the dirt around it was a solid block of ice. Keep a heater on that little 20 lb. tank and it will work fine. Otherwise, the propane cools by evaporative cooling until it won't evaporate any more. A larger tank has more surface area, so the propane stays warmer, but if you plan on running a propane generator in sub-zero weather, some means of heating the tank is a good ideal. A system that tests fine in the middle of the summer may starve and die at 10 below.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I know you get it. Spring/well water in the PNW is second to none. My dad loved the artisan water... admitting here, Olympia Beer was his source.

My parents farmed for 50 years at Hopewell, Oregon, about halfway between Salem and McMinnville. Hopewell has a community water system run from a spring in the hills. For decades it was a simple gravity flow system of wonderful spring water, that tasted really good. Then the state decided there were frogs in the cistern, and started making them chlorinate it. Never mind that amphibian coliform bacteria has no effect on mammals, they saw them in the microscope so had to kill them. They also killed the water.