Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Sawyer Rob]

Because the 200 dollar generator doesn't hold 5 or more qts of oil...

BTW, I bet you a new pu would shut itself down if it ran out of oil!

SR

 

[LouNY]

If your truck gets that low because you didn't check it :thumbdown:
Also your truck will turn on a light to tell you, hey I'm out of oil,
that should tell to pull over and shut down SAFELY.
That's better then just shutting down as you pull out to pass in traffic.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

If your truck gets that low because you didn't check it :thumbdown:

Thumbs down to the dumb dumb that doesn't check the oil in his generator too!!

SR

 

[daugen]

Thumbs down to the dumb dumb that doesn't check the oil in his generator too!!

SR

I admit to being very negligent about checking the oil in my big generac. I've had that model a long time, and after checking the oil a dozen times and it uses absolutely no oil, and changing the oil every two years,
well....maybe check dipstick two or three times a year. Which considering it runs every week is probably not enough but again it never uses any oil. Never say never...……...

 

[dragoneggs]

Generator on for real since 11am today. High winds/rain and down trees. Weird weather lately... Double our normal rainfall for the month so far... and an EF-2 tornado nearby! Unheard of.

Imagine it will be tomorrow before power is restored. Had my wife go through the mechanical interlock and gen start exercise today with me... again. Glad I did, she didn't remember how to do it.

 

[3930dave]

Generator on for real since 11am today. High winds/rain and down trees. Weird weather lately... Double our normal rainfall for the month so far... and an EF-2 tornado nearby! Unheard of.

Imagine it will be tomorrow before power is restored. Had my wife go through the mechanical interlock and gen start exercise today with me... again. Glad I did, she didn't remember how to do it.

Happy Honda power at your end :thumbsup:

I hope that you don't have to deal with heavy wind damage nearby.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Because the 200 dollar generator doesn't hold 5 or more qts of oil...

BTW, I bet you a new pu would shut itself down if it ran out of oil!

SR

I wouldn't want to bet a pu (or any other) engine on that....... I know of a late model Ford gasser destroyed by running it out of oil.

I've always viewed OIL idiot lights as more like REPLACE ENGINE NOW idiot lights.

It's a pet peeve of mine...... with all the tech/bells/whistles designed into modern pickups, the only light vehicle production engines that I trust to reliably shut down safely with a low-oil condition is a HEUI diesel.

As all engine management today is computer controlled, and most vehicles come with some type of dashboard info screen, it would be trivial to program a Shutting down in 90 seconds Due To Low Oil warning...... with additional delay or bypassing easily accomplished.

It may be out there, but I don't know of any light-vehicle production engine the does that ^.

Do I manually check oil levels - Yes. Do many people not bother - also Yes.

Design-wise, I find it exceptionally lame that a $200 generator does a better job of protecting itself from low-oil conditions, than a $20k+++ vehicle does.

Some new vehicles have factory-deemed "acceptable" oil-consumption rates that are ridiculous, including some "premium" marques.

Excessive Oil Consumption Isn't Normal - Consumer Reports

"Certain Audi and BMW cars standards state that a quart burned every 600 to 700 miles is reasonable."

All engines should regularly be checked for oil-level. That said, I'd gladly trade most of the bling on new vehicles, for an engine that protects itself better....

I hold no illusions that my demographic shows up on the auto marketers radar....

Rgds, D.

 

[goeduck]

Generator on for real since 11am today. High winds/rain and down trees. Weird weather lately... Double our normal rainfall for the month so far... and an EF-2 tornado nearby! Unheard of.

Imagine it will be tomorrow before power is restored. Had my wife go through the mechanical interlock and gen start exercise today with me... again. Glad I did, she didn't remember how to do it.

Ours went out about the same time, cable went out about 3 hours later. Most of the county is out and this is the third outage for me in a week. Generator was full of ethanol free and I have 10 more ethanol free gallons. Hope it makes it.

 

[cqaigy2]

Generator on for real since 11am today. High winds/rain and down trees. Weird weather lately... Double our normal rainfall for the month so far... and an EF-2 tornado nearby! Unheard of.

Imagine it will be tomorrow before power is restored. Had my wife go through the mechanical interlock and gen start exercise today with me... again. Glad I did, she didn't remember how to do it.

Surprisingly, we didn't lose power. All around us, but not here. We lost power 3 times at work. I think last tornado was last year.

 

[3930dave]

Chatted with a buddy in the Fraser Valley late today...... pretty bad windstorms through there too.....

His service truck is stranded at a property he is working at........ tree came down and dropped a 14kv line across the driveway.

Fortunately nobody hurt, but truck is stuck there till the utility crews clear the line.

Here's hoping everybody gets through this mess safely :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Power back on this morning and a calm pleasant day. LOTS of new snow on the east side of the Olympics. The Brothers looked great today as some blue sky adorned the ridge. Should have snapped a pic but the outage put me behind on work and wanted not to be working Saturday!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

On gen now. Power out since 1 pm. Wires are on the ground along my creek, pole broke on neighbors.

 

[3930dave]

Rough weather, both coasts......

May your gens and fuel supply be adequate, and your outages be brief.....

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Sure is a good feeling when you flip your mechanical interlock, turn the key on the gen and it starts with no objection! I only wish I had a bigger gen that could power my well pump. Minor complaint. We had propane heat, lights, big flat screen, and hydration. Romantic in a way... at least I thought so.

 

[Industrial Toys]

One should never foresake good fortune. BUT, it does annoy me, that with all my back ups for my back ups for my backups, the power has only ever flickered here enough to make UPSes beep, in a year or so.

 

[TheMan419]

One should never foresake good fortune. BUT, it does annoy me, that with all my back ups for my back ups for my backups, the power has only ever flickered here enough to make UPSes beep, in a year or so.

Your neighbors thank you! Had dinner last night with a buddy. He just bought two plow trucks to make some extra cash over the winter. Of course so far we have had virtually no snow. I thanked him for keeping Mr. Murphy at bay.

 

[Industrial Toys]

They are still desperately trying to get the beans off here! There has been snow on the ground pretty much since Halloween. Makes for a VERY long winter!

 

[goeduck]

One should never foresake good fortune. BUT, it does annoy me, that with all my back ups for my back ups for my backups, the power has only ever flickered here enough to make UPSes beep, in a year or so.

You do not lose power BECAUSE you have backups, that is the way it works.

Except for me, I have 2 generators as backup and lost power 3 times in a week. About 48 hours total. I ran the 7.5kW Honda gas generator for all of it, had I known I was going to be out that long I would have fired up the 3kW Yanmar diesel generator at least for the 2 overnights to power the wood insert blower, refrigerators and freezers. The Yanmar is very efficient on fuel.

 

[3930dave]

You do not lose power BECAUSE you have backups, that is the way it works.

Except for me, I have 2 generators as backup and lost power 3 times in a week. About 48 hours total. I ran the 7.5kW Honda gas generator for all of it, had I known I was going to be out that long I would have fired up the 3kW Yanmar diesel generator at least for the 2 overnights to power the wood insert blower, refrigerators and freezers. The Yanmar is very efficient on fuel.

Lots of outages..... maybe you need a Backup to the Backup ?

JK, many people would be over the moon to have that Honda in any kind of outage.

I like both of those brands, but it's obviously high-praise when the Yanmar is doing that much better.

I hope (for the sake of my bank account) that I don't come across one of those 10kw (give/take) portable Honda diesel gens that are white-rhino rare in our markets...... I'd be sorely tempted to bring it home....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Sure is a good feeling when you flip your mechanical interlock, turn the key on the gen and it starts with no objection! I only wish I had a bigger gen that could power my well pump. Minor complaint. We had propane heat, lights, big flat screen, and hydration. Romantic in a way... at least I thought so.

With that fresh battery, your Honda setup is SWMBO friendly :thumbsup:.

I don't recall how deep your well is, but you may have a 120 vs 240 AC issue. Obviously a larger gen is the easiest fix; bringing along the corresponding fuel bump.

I don't know if it would be a fit for your site, but the approach 90cummins took with the integrated inverter/battery/generator approach is something I find really attractive. You retain the fuel efficiency of a relatively low kw generator, and use the battery/inverter et al to support short-term surge loads.

I like the efficiency of that ^ setup, but also appreciate the option of judiciously running an inverter+battery combo only, when just supporting modern light loads (the electronics we are addicted to....), or when you want the generator Off.....

I'd probably noodle out what it would take (cost-wise) to set up an inverter to support that well-pump, and compare from there..... not low-cost necessarily, but depending what you want in place down the road, might be worth reviewing....

Rgds, D.