Generator issues/help

[BravoXray]

Nice job! Thanks for sharing it.
What are in the blue tanks on your workbench? Seems like an intriguing set up.
All the best,
Peter

The ones at the back of the bench are old ignition parts cabinets I painted blue. I keep all kinds of stuff in them.
Since this picture was taken I have cleaned things up a bit. Too many projects going at one time.

 

[ponytug]

���� that looks like a very productive area.

All the best,

Peter

 

[masscity]

I have a Champion 3500/4000 generator. About 10 year ago it started galloping and would only run with the choke half on. I talked to my mechanic and I told him that I thing the governor was acting up.

He said it was probably alcohol in the gas and said to use some Sea Foam. I used SF heavy for many hours and it finally cleared it up and runs normal.

We can buy alcohol free premium gas here and that's all I buy for everything except my truck.

 

[TheMan419]

About two years ago I was given a free 7,000 watt BlackMax generator that had been submerged in a flooded RV park. The owner figured it was junk as the Honda GX390 engine block was cracked in two places from water freezing in it after the flooding subsided.
Took it home and tore it apart, yep the crankcase was split in two places. Went to the Honda parts web site and looked up all the parts I needed to repair it, crankcase, gaskets, bearings, piston rings, etc. Total was only ~$150, and I also needed the battery charger board and rubber receptacle covers, so total parts were about $200.
I cleaned everything up and put it back together, it started right up and ran like a champ. I load tested it, and it was putting out full rated power.

Saturday morning at 1:30AM the power went out because of an ice storm in out area. Figured it would be back on soon, but after looking at the NIPSCO outage map, I knew it would be a day or so until we got power again. Picked the generator up with the Kubota and brought it up to the house, fired it up and plugged it in, and had power for everything in the house. Shut it down, checked the oil and topped off the fuel a couple of times and it ran until 4:00PM Sunday afternoon.

Worth every penny I have in it.

You and I were in the same power outage. We have AEP for our power. Lots of power went out late Friday/Early Saturday. Most folks not back up until Sunday/Monday. We were out from 6:45 p.m. Friday to about 5:54 p.m. Saturday so like 23 hours. I would have had enough fuel to get through that without issue. Did get caught a bit with my pants down on that.

Looking at a Natural Gas fired standby generator. Generac's website thinks I need a 16KW unit. Not sure if I want to invest the $$$ into that though. May just get the horse barn wired for generator as well and get another portable. That way I have a back up to the back up and can be comfortable if both of them are running and mostly comfortable if only one can answer the bell.

 

[BravoXray]

You and I were in the same power outage. We have AEP for our power. Lots of power went out late Friday/Early Saturday. Most folks not back up until Sunday/Monday. We were out from 6:45 p.m. Friday to about 5:54 p.m. Saturday so like 23 hours. I would have had enough fuel to get through that without issue. Did get caught a bit with my pants down on that.

Looking at a Natural Gas fired standby generator. Generac's website thinks I need a 16KW unit. Not sure if I want to invest the $$$ into that though. May just get the horse barn wired for generator as well and get another portable. That way I have a back up to the back up and can be comfortable if both of them are running and mostly comfortable if only one can answer the bell.

On my road, just a half mile up north, the power changes from AEP to NIPSCO. The AEP customers up there were never out of power.
This was the first time in almost 2 years we lost power, and that was due to a tornado/windshear that took down a dozen power poles south of me that feed power to my area.
Seems like some areas around South Bend loose power every time the wind blows more than 20 mph.

 

[TheMan419]

On my road, just a half mile up north, the power changes from AEP to NIPSCO. The AEP customers up there were never out of power.
This was the first time in almost 2 years we lost power, and that was due to a tornado/windshear that took down a dozen power poles south of me that feed power to my area.
Seems like some areas around South Bend loose power every time the wind blows more than 20 mph.

Hence the need for the generator! Knock on wood we have been in ths house for 5 years and this was "only" the third time we were without power long enough to warrant the generator being fired up. You are right that we do seem to have more power outages over here than you guys do over there. SWMBO wants to investigae a whole house automatic generator. I think I have her more convinced to get a second generator and just wire up her horse barn for generator so she can still have lights to give her lessons/do her training and have water in the barn when the power is out.

Then I can buy a new generator for the house and "donate" the old one to the use of the barn.

 

[grsthegreat]

here, if we lose power in winter, the horse waterers freeze up. i have them tied into the whole house generator.

 

[aczlan]

here, if we lose power in winter, the horse waterers freeze up. i have them tied into the whole house generator.

We put in a "frost free" waterer when we redid the barn (has a piece of 12-in pipe that goes down below the frost line and brings heat up), that will hold the water for the cows without freezing until we get down in the single digits for several days.
Only downside is it's a small tank so you have to have water pressure, if need be we could switch that over to use Town water instead of well water and not need any power on our end to keep the cows watered.
We have a couple options for generators ranging from a small (2000W peak) inverter generator to a 3 KW prime rated diesel generator to a 7 KW "Apache" brand diesel generator.
Right now everything's set up for just using extension cords, but I plan to eventually put in hardwired inputs for everything.


Aaron Z

 

[TheMan419]

here, if we lose power in winter, the horse waterers freeze up. i have them tied into the whole house generator.

Last couple of winters here we would have ice on the top in the morning but not a 5 gallon ice cube. However we should have a good couple months each winter where we would have 5 gallon ice cubes in the morning if there was no power. Our thought is to wire the barn up for its own portable generator. Then we have to portables so a back up to the back up in the worst case scenario. In the best case power to the house and the barn independent of each other.

Still looking at pricing on a whole house to tie the barn in as well for the heated buckets and the well out in the barn. The lights out there are all LED so no reall power draw even if we turn them all on at once.

 

[Diggin It]

^^^ From what I've been seeing while pricing my standby, you'd be looking at a serious chunk of change. I'm around $4,500 already and not even powered up yet. And I'm only doing a 16Kw unit for a one BR house with no barn or animals, outdoor heaters, etc.

I've been seeing 10Kw units that will run on propane and/or gasoline for under $1,000 that should more than handle your short term barn needs.