Your last generator Maintenance Run

[WinterDeere]

Jeeps haven't gotten to ur Ramcharger size (yet), but as a young guy I know said, after seeing a restored early-Jeep, "Wow, compared to that thing, my Dad's new Wrangler looks like a school bus".

You just reminded me of a funny story. The guy who owned the Ramcharger also bought a 53 Willies Jeep, and he and I were doing a full frame-up restoration. We needed a place to store the body out of the weather, so we stuck it in an old shed attached to one of my mother's carriage barns.

The trouble was, the shed only had a 30" or 36" wide door for a man, no vehicle-sized doors. The body on that Willies was small and light enough that we turned the whole thing on its side, slid it thru the man door, then laid it back out flat inside the shed. I think my buddy even stood four tires up around it, one on each corner.

At the time, we were all laughing that at some point, mom would come walking past the shed, glance through the window, see a Jeep parked inside, and wonder how the hell it got in there. Sure enough, about 3 weeks later, I get a call, "Do you know there's a Jeep parked in one of our sheds?!?"

IIRC that platform correctly, you must have spent plenty of time wrenching - they needed a lot of work, just driving On-road......

Yep. That Ramcharger was totally custom, basically only the body was original. Custom lift, steering, rebuilt 360, manual valve body trans, custom suspension, new front and rear axles, etc. Lots of hours wrenching on it.

Also did up my own 78 Bronco just before that, so we took all the mistakes I learned in the Bronco build, and applied them as lessons to the Ramcharger build. I don't have any photos of the Ramcharger, but I do have a few very old scanned images of the Bronco. The 78/79 Bronco was built using the full-size pickup body and frame, so it was a rather large vehicle, sitting up on 40" tires.

 

[3930dave]

You just reminded me of a funny story. The guy who owned the Ramcharger also bought a 53 Willies Jeep, and he and I were doing a full frame-up restoration. We needed a place to store the body out of the weather, so we stuck it in an old shed attached to one of my mother's carriage barns.

The trouble was, the shed only had a 30" or 36" wide door for a man, no vehicle-sized doors. The body on that Willies was small and light enough that we turned the whole thing on its side, slid it thru the man door, then laid it back out flat inside the shed. I think my buddy even stood four tires up around it, one on each corner.

At the time, we were all laughing that at some point, mom would come walking past the shed, glance through the window, see a Jeep parked inside, and wonder how the hell it got in there. Sure enough, about 3 weeks later, I get a call, "Do you know there's a Jeep parked in one of our sheds?!?"


Yep. That Ramcharger was totally custom, basically only the body was original. Custom lift, steering, rebuilt 360, manual valve body trans, custom suspension, new front and rear axles, etc. Lots of hours wrenching on it.

Also did up my own 78 Bronco just before that, so we took all the mistakes I learned in the Bronco build, and applied them as lessons to the Ramcharger build. I don't have any photos of the Ramcharger, but I do have a few very old scanned images of the Bronco. The 78/79 Bronco was built using the full-size pickup body and frame, so it was a rather large vehicle, sitting up on 40" tires.

View attachment 2115573 View attachment 2115574 View attachment 2115575

Cool build. Reminds me of Ted Nugent's trucks, on the cover of 4-Wheeler back then !

Rgds, D.

 

[WinterDeere]

Cool build. Reminds me of Ted Nugent's trucks, on the cover of 4-Wheeler back then !

All these years later, I can mostly remember two things about that 78 Bronco:

1. The steel in those 78 Ford bodies rusted so fast you could almost hear it.

2. The whole dashboard was made out relatively thick steel, with no plastic, rubber, or anything soft about it. You definitely wanted to wear seatbelts in that truck, since bouncing your face off the dash would've been almost like being thrown headfirst against the corner of a dumpster.

 

[Robin Veerman]

Ran my Honda eu3000is today. Bought it used a few months ago and it’s in nice shape. I do exercise it monthly but today it was cold and wanted to see what affect if any the cold temperatures might have on it. Dry garage was at +5C but outside temperature was -11C. She started and ran great (max at 2500 watts) for the 1 hour run…..as expected.

 

[3930dave]

View attachment 2150971Ran my Honda eu3000is today. Bought it used a few months ago and it’s in nice shape. I do exercise it monthly but today it was cold and wanted to see what affect if any the cold temperatures might have on it. Dry garage was at +5C but outside temperature was -11C. She started and ran great (max at 2500 watts) for the 1 hour run…..as expected.
View attachment 2150841

Those 3000s are a nice size.... and yours has the wheel kit, which was/used to be optional.

Of course it'll run well in Kanuck Kold.... Amsoil sticker !

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I thought long and hard before parting with my trusty old Baumalight 12K PTO generator. I replaced it with an 11K Kubota hard wired emergency backup model that has it's own diesel engine. The project cost just under $9K, including switches & wiring. I just finished my second monthly maintenance run since I installed the system and I can honestly say it was well worth every penny!

We get frequent outages here and some can last a week. I used to dread having to remove an implement from the tractor and hook up the PTO genny. As a temporary measure, I would first start up the 2K Honda gasser and hope the outage wouldn't last too long. It would power lights, furnace and fridge but no well water cooking or AC. Sometimes, I got lucky and the outage was short but all too often, I had to wrangle the PTO genny into place. It's probably just my imagination but it always seemed to be bitter cold with snow or blistering hot with rain.

I put on a lot of tractor hours using that PTO. Yeah, they are easy hours, but they sill bring on the scheduled maintenance that much sooner. The maintenance kit for the Kubota genny, including oil & filters, costs $120 every 400 hrs., compared to over $1K for the 400 hr. tractor maintenance. The new genny maintenance can also be done while sitting on a stool without having to crawl under a tractor. Sure, the genny won't plow snow or cut grass but it sure extends the tractor maintenance cycle.

I suppose when I was younger, I enjoyed the challenge of doing all the above but now at 77, I love the idea of just throwing a switch to get the power back on! I'm just now realizing how much it has improved my peace of mind. This is especially true since my wife can do it herself in case I'm not around or not able. Tough to put a $$ figure on that.

Initially, due to conditions, it was too expensive go with a fully automatic transfer switch. In the future, as finances and our situation changes, I may spend the money and install one.

 

[LouNY]

I thought long and hard before parting with my trusty old Baumalight 12K PTO generator. I replaced it with an 11K Kubota hard wired emergency backup model that has it's own diesel engine. The project cost just under $9K, including switches & wiring. I just finished my second monthly maintenance run since I installed the system and I can honestly say it was well worth every penny!

We get frequent outages here and some can last a week. I used to dread having to remove an implement from the tractor and hook up the PTO genny. As a temporary measure, I would first start up the 2K Honda gasser and hope the outage wouldn't last too long. It would power lights, furnace and fridge but no well water cooking or AC. Sometimes, I got lucky and the outage was short but all too often, I had to wrangle the PTO genny into place. It's probably just my imagination but it always seemed to be bitter cold with snow or blistering hot with rain.

I put on a lot of tractor hours using that PTO. Yeah, they are easy hours, but they sill bring on the scheduled maintenance that much sooner. The maintenance kit for the Kubota genny, including oil & filters, costs $120 every 400 hrs., compared to over $1K for the 400 hr. tractor maintenance. The new genny maintenance can also be done while sitting on a stool without having to crawl under a tractor. Sure, the genny won't plow snow or cut grass but it sure extends the tractor maintenance cycle.

I suppose when I was younger, I enjoyed the challenge of doing all the above but now at 77, I love the idea of just throwing a switch to get the power back on! I'm just now realizing how much it has improved my peace of mind. This is especially true since my wife can do it herself in case I'm not around or not able. Tough to put a $$ figure on that.

Initially, due to conditions, it was too expensive go with a fully automatic transfer switch. In the future, as finances and our situation changes, I may spend the money and install one.

So my solution was more tractors, the IH 574 just sits on the pto genny ready to go.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

over $1K for the 400 hr. tractor maintenance.

YIKES!! Personally, I wouldn't have bought a tractor that cost THAT much, just to use it!

Mine cost under $50 bucks every 200 hours, it very easy to change the oil and do a quick check over, the tractor!

SR

 

[Robin Veerman]

So, I guess you never change the driveline fluids?
Let me know when you’re selling it and I’ll steer clear….

 

[Sawyer Rob]

So, I guess you never change the driveline fluids?
Let me know when you’re selling it and I’ll steer clear….

As per my manual, every thousand hours, it takes 10 gallons of trans/hydraulic oil and a filter.

SO, less than another hundred bucks...

SR