Your last generator Maintenance Run

[LouNY]

Good clarification grs, I should have been more clear....... and I agree totally..... why don't cars and trucks (the second most expensive thing most people own) have them ?

Any thoughts on how typical that Kohler consumption above is ?

Rgds, D.

I would not want a shutdown on my tractors or vehicles.
I would like a good gauge and a loud obnoxious buzzer and light.
Many times a shutdown without warning could be dangerous.

 

[3930dave]

J.Wal has a very good write-up on the installation he did,

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/399895-portable-generator-powering-most-house.html

I noticed he was using PRI-G for gas, and did some research as I'd not come across it before. Looks like it came out of the Industrial world, and they don't advertise @ retail.

Retail Consumer – PRI Products

This site had an interesting write-up. Hadn't come across the ASTM D-525-98 gasoline stability test before.

PRI-D, PRI-G - How It Works @ Survival Unlimited.com

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I would not want a shutdown on my tractors or vehicles.
I would like a good gauge and a loud obnoxious buzzer and light.
Many times a shutdown without warning could be dangerous.

Virtually all modern vehicles and tractors are computer controlled, and have a driver information display.

There ^, my preference would be an Opt-Out Countdown Alarm. "Oil Pressure Low - Engine Shutting Down in ________ Minutes". Easy enough to allow a Delay, or Total Over-ride on that shutdown process on modern machinery. Plenty of guys on TBN have PTO gens..... that kind of auto-shutdown would be a great feature to have on a tractor that runs for hours with nobody on-station.

I'd have much more use for THAT ^ feature than 80% of the stuff that is on vehicles today. I'd actually pay extra for that feature..... but I also recognize some people don't want it / don't care.

I'd take that automatic shutdown any day, compared to what LD1 just went through.

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

So many friend have told me they watch their gauges. I think they are lying. I look at mine, so sporatically, as to be anything else than useless for protecting the engine. Often, I don't even have the mental real estate to deal with the many aspects of the task at hand never mind watching my gauges!

 

[3930dave]

Someone I know got in the car his wife and daughter usually drove, started driving and noticed the OIL light on. Turns out, it had been lit up for over a week.

Not picking on those ladies...... there is a small % of the driving population that figures "It's moving, nothing else to see here.....".

Tractors and generators are an even tougher environment; ambient noise-levels are often way higher than in most cars/trucks.

Rgds, D.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

boy o boy imo that Subaru one little tough son of a gun . Knowing what I know now and if I had to do it all over I"d buy it again ..........

IF you want another one, you will be able to buy one, as Subaru sold the rights to the single cyl's. to a company in china and they are going to keep making them in china, and calling them Robins, again. Personally, I didn't like all the shaking and rattling that engine makes in the 400, so I went with the 500 with the Kubota twin...

Most twin cyls. designs went to Yamaha, with Kubota buying one design for their new side by side.

SR

 

[farmer2009]

Weekly generator test today and I was there to check it at startup and during cool down cycle.
At startup. Automatic switch after up to full speed. 3-5 seconds.
Load. 180-190 amps.
Volts. 240
Hertz 58
Operating temperature. 130 climbing to 170. Year around block heater.
20 minutes of load.

15 minutes of cool down cycle.
Load. 0 amps.
Volt. 240
Hertz 61
Operating temperature 170

Ambient temperature was around 80* @10am.

Generator information.
1999 5.9L 140hp Cummins I6 turbo. Reversed fan. Tier 0.
Marathon 80kw generator head. 333 amp capacity.
I would say 200 amps is about all the load I can put on it. Rest would be starting capacity.
Rotella T-4 15w-40 oil. Pennzoil antifreeze 50/50. 267 hours on machine. It runs about 30-40 hours a year on normal. Antifreeze every 3 years. Oil annually. All filters (fuel, oil, air) annually. 300 gallon Diesel tank drained and refilled every 3 years. Diesel treated with power service white and diesel sta-bil.

Just wondering. Would there be any benefit to switching to a T6 5w-40 full synthetic? It’ll get serviced before next flock. As I refuse to service it with birds in barns. As soon as I dropped the oil the power would go out with my luck.

 

[3930dave]

Weekly generator test today and I was there to check it at startup and during cool down cycle.

Just wondering. Would there be any benefit to switching to a T6 5w-40 full synthetic? It値l get serviced before next flock. As I refuse to service it with birds in barns. As soon as I dropped the oil the power would go out with my luck.

Great maintenance '09, as always.

For low hour changeouts like you do annually, I'd probably just stay with the T4. Cost no object, the T6 will give you slightly better flowability at startup, but in your application I'd say the difference is minimal.

I am a fan of T6, but I deal with much lower temperatures than you, and I really like T6 for low temps. The other potential T6 gain is longer OCI, but I don't expect you want to go past 1 year in your application.

I'm partial to synthetics in turbo applications, but that's partly me/my age showing..... conventional oil today is many times better in this regard than when I was a pup.

You do a cool-down after running.... can't see a problem with T4, unless all those OTR truckers just got lucky with the billions of miles they went with Rot 15W40 .

'Ol Murphy does get around..... hear 'ya about the bird/timing thing......

(Edit - not sure what your Cummins hour limit is on oil, but T6 may give you a bit more peace of mind in an extended outage, as in multiple weeks of running nonstop. Depending on your grid, that may only happen once in 2 or 3 lifetimes.....).

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

1999 5.9L 140hp Cummins I6 turbo. Reversed fan. Tier 0.
Marathon 80kw generator head. 333 amp capacity.
I would say 200 amps is about all the load I can put on it. Rest would be starting capacity.
Rotella T-4 15w-40 oil. Pennzoil antifreeze 50/50. 267 hours on machine. It runs about 30-40 hours a year on normal.

it has the hours of a ten year old machine and a real age of 19. Was it a leftover?
That unstressed Cummins ought to last until the next ice age Farmer.
What a great gen motor.

 

[90cummins]

We had an outage a couple weeks ago that started a 4:30am and ended at 11am.
My battery backup took over so I was unaware until I got up.
Went out & started my 3.7kw Yanmar diesel and plugged it into my inverter to recharge the batteries.
After an hour or so one of the generator breakers started tripping out so I ordered 3 new 20 amp breakers.
I installed them today and ran a test for 45 minutes at 3700 Watts to confirm repair.
Voltage was 118 volts at 3.7kw and it ran flawlessly.
Tomorrow I’ll move it back over to the house ready for the next outage.
90cummins

 

[farmer2009]

1999 5.9L 140hp Cummins I6 turbo. Reversed fan. Tier 0.
Marathon 80kw generator head. 333 amp capacity.
I would say 200 amps is about all the load I can put on it. Rest would be starting capacity.
Rotella T-4 15w-40 oil. Pennzoil antifreeze 50/50. 267 hours on machine. It runs about 30-40 hours a year on normal.

it has the hours of a ten year old machine and a real age of 19. Was it a leftover?
That unstressed Cummins ought to last until the next ice age Farmer.
What a great gen motor.

Drew. I bought this place 9 years ago. Generator had less than 50 hours on it. It had not been maintained at all. Had 10 year old filters on it. They were painted to match the motor. It didn’t have 100 hours yet so why should we spend money to service it. Yeah alright.

They also did not let it exercise.

I would be willing to push the oil change interval to 400 hours with T-4. Which is a 16 day outage. Last time that happened was the ice storm of 2009. Before we bought the farm and while it was sitting empty.

 

[check]

Thanks for the input, Dave. Here is the oil I use in my Kohler:

 

[3930dave]

We had an outage a couple weeks ago that started a 4:30am and ended at 11am.
My battery backup took over so I was unaware until I got up.
Went out & started my 3.7kw Yanmar diesel and plugged it into my inverter to recharge the batteries.
After an hour or so one of the generator breakers started tripping out so I ordered 3 new 20 amp breakers.
I installed them today and ran a test for 45 minutes at 3700 Watts to confirm repair.
Voltage was 118 volts at 3.7kw and it ran flawlessly.
Tomorrow I値l move it back over to the house ready for the next outage.
90cummins

I view battery systems as cash-in-the-bank.... good to have when the regular stream is interrupted. That, and they obviously mix well with Alt NRG generators.... and today's low-cost high-performance inverters.

Yank the old breakers, replace all, and keep 2 old ones for backup..... no point messing about changing just one :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Drew. I bought this place 9 years ago. Generator had less than 50 hours on it. It had not been maintained at all. Had 10 year old filters on it. They were painted to match the motor. It didn稚 have 100 hours yet so why should we spend money to service it. Yeah alright.

They also did not let it exercise.

I would be willing to push the oil change interval to 400 hours with T-4. Which is a 16 day outage. Last time that happened was the ice storm of 2009. Before we bought the farm and while it was sitting empty.

^ some of grs's residential customers, writ large......

Some people think they are "saving" money by deferring maintenance. My kind of people think longer term than that....... although, just thinking period would be an improvement on that history.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Thanks for the input, Dave. Here is the oil I use in my Kohler:
View attachment 574138

Castrol has good oils..... though it would be hard to go wrong with any current major synthetic at the factory viscosity range...... generators often lag the auto market in oil specs, so they usually aren't difficult to keep happy at the recommended maintenance intervals.

The one mistake some people make is putting in synthetic, and thinking it will last forever..... I won't go past the manufacturer hour interval on an air-cooled engine, regardless of what I'm using for oil. The one exception I'd make is short-term critical use (flood management) during an emergency.... there, I might get some sleep, knowing I was running a top synth in the crankcase.....

Rgds, D.

 

[farmer2009]

^ some of grs's residential customers, writ large......

Some people think they are "saving" money by deferring maintenance. My kind of people think longer term than that....... although, just thinking period would be an improvement on that history.....

Rgds, D.

Yeah. Some people are penny-pinchers. But they pinch in the wrong areas is my experience.

The integrator I grow for had several of those farms. During that ice storm. Some of the harder hit areas were without power for 40+ days. Integrator was very good. They brought in generator mechanics to help keep things running. Because even well serviced machines started having problems running weeks straight. Winter time running is harder on these machines as they are sized for summer power demands. Winter demands are less than 100 amps.

One reason I was considering the T-6 was to simplify my oil needs. Kubota tractor is already on a T-6 diet and new truck will be after first oil change.

 

[LouNY]

I have switched over to T6 since that is one of the few approved oils for my truck, everything except my wifes car and the Harley has gone T6 and might even switch the Harley also, her Equinox requires an oil with the Dexos spec.
Oh and the old Dynahoe which gets straight 30 or 40 oil in the 4-53.

 

[daugen]

Lou, you own a Driptroit? marvelous engine, sounds like nothing else, often
a bit undermuffled and loud. I used 40wt Delo in mine years back.
Today's oil sure seems watery in comparison

 

[kevinwak]

Lou, you own a Driptroit? marvelous engine, sounds like nothing else, often
a bit undermuffled and loud. I used 40wt Delo in mine years back.
Today's oil sure seems watery in comparison

I was also going to comment on the Detroit. My dad ran lots on the sawmill and farm when I was growing up. The sawmill had a 6V-71 and a Silver 92. When I was a lumber piler and you heard them grunting you know that a mess of heavy planks were headed your way to pile.

 

[oosik]

Yesterday for 30 minutes.