which portable generators do people have

[Old Red]

This group of photo's are from 2 dc -ac inverters,

There is pure sine wave, and the more common modified sine wave. again, i have used a MSW inverter for a long time and all computers are still working fine, i just picked up a PSW last week, photo's for reference again. so how much damage is really being caused? alot of people make you think it will be destroyed in minutes, voltage and hertz stability is generally more important. at least in my experience.

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Neat stuff, but way over my head. I think the point with these diesel military gensets is their diesel power, electrical power output, etc. The ability to run my whole house. Think about it.....I bought a 4 cylinder diesel generator with 30 hours on it for right at the same price as a Honda Inverter Generator! In the commercial world this unit would cost 10 to 15 grand.....

The generator head itself inside these units are monstrous....they are brushless motors, quiet and are meant to be "prime source"....Which I think that means being used not as a backup but a primary source of electricity....again the troops and their equipment depend on it.

The military has now just moved forward with a new version of the 10 and 5KW units that are just incredible.....but I don't think anyone has seen them hit the market yet. My generator is running an Onan engine and I think the new ones run Kubota engines....how cool is that?

You can probably get all that data from the steelsoildiers forum. All I know is I can run my 5 ton heat pump, 2.5 ton heat pump, and hot water heater at the same time on this thing. It is a beast....and cheap...and diesel, and runs at 1,800 RPMs...and I have an aux fuel setup that will get me 9 days of run time which comes standard on each unit.

 

[goeduck]

That is over my head...but gaurantee you these guys do. On steelsoldiers.com There is also a member on here who goes by Daybreak1998. This guy has forgotten more about generators than I will ever know. He is in my opinion truly an expert on these military gensets.

Here is a youtube video comparing the military genset vs consumer. This guy on here has some sort of sine wave machine. Mep-82a vs consumer generator - YouTube

Let us know what you find and if you are impressed or not.....

Well I sure am impressed. So where would I get one? Curious what they weigh and measure also.

 

[Old Red]

Well I sure am impressed. So where would I get one? Curious what they weigh and measure also.

Before I jumped into one of these units I would spend some time at www.steelsoldiers.com I would learn from them. You are on your own with these. They are military surplus.

There are some on eBay and here. Your Source for Military Diesel Generators and Parts! ⋆ Green Mountain Generators

Just remember that we just went through some serious weather events that put a huge demand on these units...I am not sure what the market is like now. I purchased mine right before all this stuff hit. I know a ton of them went to Puerto Rico. Anyway, I would suggest spending some time learning over at the other forum.

 

[buickanddeere]

I prefer having a "small" portable gasser to run minimum loads overnight etc. Then have a tractor powered PTO generator to be able to run everything as if connected to the utility.

 

[Garandman]

Who does make the best Generators to the consumer market?

Really depends what size you need and how portable you want it to be.

We have three Hondas and a Briggs & Stratton, all inverters.

 

[ultrarunner]

I would imagine it is hard to go wrong with Honda.

Where I worked about 30 years ago they had a Honda Diesel that was super quiet... made for movie shoots.

I don't think Honda markets a Diesel here anymore.

It was about as quiet as my old refrigerator.

 

[Old Red]

I agree...the Honda EU series is darn hard to beat. I have the EU3000 and it is one sweet generator that I have a lot of confidence in for stuff I need to run in that capacity. I also have a pair of champion 2000 watt inverters....they have been good gensets as well. And of course the big daddy so the wifey can curl her hair and take a hot shower...and daddy can have ice cold air blowing in the summer.

 

[Garandman]

I would imagine it is hard to go wrong with Honda..

Yamaha fills in some gaps in output that Honda didn’t occupy until recently, and the B&S Q6500 we bought is substantially lighter and thus more portable. We’ve only run it for two hours past the five hour break in as yet, though.

The high output portables cost more than many of the dedicated whole-house units. A lot of people are getting away from gas powered backup generators because of the problems caused by Ethanol. They are going to propane or LNG because it is more stable in storage. Those aren’t really portable.

Running a PTO genset off a Kubota BX seems like a pretty smart setup.

 

[Soundguy]

This group of photo's are from 2 dc -ac inverters,

There is pure sine wave, and the more common modified sine wave. again, i have used a MSW inverter for a long time and all computers are still working fine, i just picked up a PSW last week, photo's for reference again. so how much damage is really being caused? alot of people make you think it will be destroyed in minutes, voltage and hertz stability is generally more important. at least in my experience.

View attachment 541503

unless you have something with 30+ year old ferro-ressonant power supplies, most newer computer power supplies are switchers, and freq and voltage fluctuations don't bother them much. 50-ish to 60-ish htz, and 90-260vac and they run fine.

As long as you keep a generator within it's load range, and it's rpm, thus frequency is correct, then the sine wave should be near perfect . they still do it the old fashoned way.. magnets/e-mags and balls of copper..

 

[bullbreaker]

Yeah old thread I know ! Sold my Yamaha EF2400iSHC some days ago dureing pre Dorian sw Fla panic .
Rite now down too my JD 404CC 14hp Subaru powered genny . From what I hear Subaru for rite now not makeing gennys .
That dang Subaru powered JD of mine been a beast of a genny . E start n recoil bk up . Never given me a lick of trouble . No oil filters on them . I change the oil before OM specs , no biggie . You dont see many of them around , some even came in yellow .
If your ever in need for one and run across one priced rite imo dont be afraid to buy it .