Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

In any case, my personal preference is a diesel unit,
with effective block heaters you bet.
The ones on my 8V71TI's got the engines to about 110 degrees, and they
started like a dream. The sound of a cold diesel clanking away is only fun on Youtube, not my own tractor...

I use my JD diesel garden tractor year round. It has a very effective heater, though I always run all diesels through two consecutive
glow plug applications before starting.

for those of you in very cold climates, do you have to do something with your propane tanks?
like put external heat on them? Could be dangerous if something broke...reminds me of watching a guy driving a big propane tanker yesterday smoking away.
Diesel doesn't blow up, a wonderful attribute.

 

[RalphVa]

Our Isuzu diesel generator starts much like our VW TDI did. You'd never guess that either one was a diesel, even in cold weather. The 12.5 kw Isuzu does the whole house, one hot water heater, clothes drier, 2 heat pumps. Just doesn't do the carriage house, stove top electrics and 4 ton heat pump nor swimming pool pump.

Oh, no block heaters on the Isuzu nor the VW TDI.

It started Thursday while we were hiking down below and was still running when we came back. Something wrong. The battery had slid off its perch on one side, pulling away the ground wire to the inside panel. Slid battery back and secured it better and replaced the ground wire end. Fine again. I gotta remember to reset it for about 12:30 today.

Ralph

 

[LouNY]

for those of you in very cold climates, do you have to do something with your propane tanks?
like put external heat on them? Could be dangerous if something broke...reminds me of watching a guy driving a big propane tanker yesterday smoking away.
Diesel doesn't blow up, a wonderful attribute.

Most residential users of propane do not have a vaporization issue, larger industrial users do at times and they will have usually externally heated vaporizers on liquid draw tanks.
They may also have tank heaters to maintain enough vapor pressure to get the flow rates required. That heat can be electric, steam, hot water or flame.
When butane was almost a waste gas it was available for not much more then the trucking cost and all of the butane storage tanks that I saw had flame rings installed under the tanks to aid in heating them up for vaporization. The gas they used was self generated from that tank.

There are lots of horror stories about the hazards of propane, most of them are just stories. It is a safe fuel when used properly, actually I would consider it less dangerous then gasoline. Propane has a very narrow range of ignition to lean or too rich and it will not ignite. Just like a tanker driver smoking while hauling propane it would be almost impossible to get a flammable mixture while driving along the road. On top of that a cigarette does not normally burn at a high enough temperature to ignite propane. If you are ever around a smoker while lighting a propane burner or torch just try and get it light from a light cigarette it is extremely difficult to do so. Many years ago working in facilities with hazardous flammable atmospheres they would prohibit matches and lighters but in the control and break rooms they would have electric lighters much like your car lighters they didnt reach ignition temperatures of the gases but the flint and steel sparks from a lighter would, or the new lighters with the pizo electric sparkers to light the butane.

As a nother thought on propane and or natural gas and even gasoline fires about the worst thing to do is put the fire out, while the gases are on fire the hazard is visible and actually somewhat controlled once the flame is out the vapors are heavier then air and traveling around looking for a source of ignition and then you get the explosion and fire again. That is why pipe line fires are normally not extinguished but the line is shut down and the flame allowed to use up all the gas. As long as a leak is burning it is semi controllable, escaping vapors not so much.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I always run all diesels through two consecutive
glow plug applications before starting.

for those of you in very cold climates, do you have to do something with your propane tanks?

I start my diesel loader tractor when ever I need it, no matter the temp., even below zero.

As long as it has enough batt, to turn it over at a decent speed, I've NEVER used the glow plug even one time, let alone let it cycle two times!! It has a way to preheat it with 120V too, but I've never used that either!

My experience with my tractors is, a modern direct injection engine makes for a easier starting diesel and none of my tinker toy tractors are direct injected!

And, I've never had a propane problem in the cold, it always works as it should.

SR

 

[aczlan]

I start my diesel loader tractor when ever I need it, no matter the temp., even below zero.

As long as it has enough batt, to turn it over at a decent speed, I've NEVER used the glow plug even one time, let alone let it cycle two times!! It has a way to preheat it with 120V too, but I've never used that either!

My experience with my tractors is, a modern direct injection engine makes for a easier starting diesel and none of my tinker toy tractors are direct injected!

And, I've never had a propane problem in the cold, it always works as it should.

SR

Our Kubota B7500 WILL NOT start without at least a 10-20 second run of the glowplugs.
The BX2660 and L3830 start just fine without them when its warm and start easier with them when its cold out.

Aaron Z

 

[3930dave]

There are lots of horror stories about the hazards of propane, most of them are just stories. It is a safe fuel when used properly, actually I would consider it less dangerous then gasoline. /QUOTE]

I didn't say it first, but do fully understand "If gasoline had been invented in 1980, the lawyers wouldn't allow it to be manufactured". Still am a petrol-head though......

I remember the accounts from this crash.... rivers of fire running downslope on the highway late at night..... people had to stop their cars on this divided highway and run off into the fields....

Highway 4 reopens near Barrie after fiery crash that killed 3 | Globalnews.ca

The main thing to realize with propane is that it is heavier than air, and can pool.

https://www.socalgas.com/documents/news-room/fact-sheets/NaturalGasSafety.pdf

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My Steiner wiith the D722 will also not start without glow plugs. When warm already, yes, but generally not even in summer. Hard starting lately, and I wonder if one or more plugs burned out because they get used so much.

 

[daugen]

Fail Fail Fail
Sigh
Little Champion 3100 inverter would not start even with a shot of starting fluid, though next step is to take the end plate off and get right to carb inlet, not through air cleaner.
Not even a putt. Dead as a door nail.
Tomorrow will pull up to garden shed, turn on the propane heater in there, get the unit warm, and try it again. Unit has never had ethanol gas in it.

5 pulls. Sit. 5 pulls again. Starting fluid. 4 pulls Nothing.
This is why I need an electric start unit, I can't pull hard enough for long enough at times.

Lou, great info, thanks. I remember in fire training we were told to RUN if there was lower lying gasses, say from a train wreck.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If you have a helper, take off the air filter and have them direct an unlit propane torch into the throat. If you have spark, works every time for me.

 

[3930dave]

My Steiner wiith the D722 will also not start without glow plugs. When warm already, yes, but generally not even in summer. Hard starting lately, and I wonder if one or more plugs burned out because they get used so much.

Other than mice-modified wiring, open gplug or relay just getting tired...... I can see a GP relay contact getting pitted, long before giving out totally.

Rgds, D.