Think it costs a lot to have back up power? it can, and who doesnt like pulling the cord on a honda eu2000....but at north of 1300.00 or so dollars not everyone can or wants to spend that coin...and even a great product like the honda 2000 , is not trouble free, somewhere around the 2000hr mark you may need valve adjustment/replacement, requiring shop repair that will be 250 plus, the cord breaks and not everyone has the tools to take it apart (deeep socket needed) to string on another, also the inverter alternator has problems with some loads but I wont go there right now...So how about 200.00 dollars(when on sale CT) for a nearly as powerfull unit, almost as good on fuel, that while in no way is equal quallity wise, you should be able to hammer 1000 hours out of and keep it running, and when it goes sideways at 1000 plus hours you just toss it.
1000 hrs is 12 hrs a day running, everyday for almost 3 months. You could keep a fridge/ freezer, some lights and even a furnace motor running in a shtf situation for months, and all for a couple hundered dollars.....now what if I said with just a little effort, maybe a hour or 2 or 3 of your time and 20/30 dollars in parts you could turn that same generator into a unit with auto shutdown...thats right set it for a hour, 3 or 8 and it will shut itself off, most high end generators dont have that feature.
I have one just for running my electric chainsaw when I go down cut lines looking for firewood, I jummped out the CB, bumped up the rpms till I was hitting 135 140 volts and hammerd it hard, no problems. Needed to cut some heavy wall pipe with a 1700 watt chop saw, bumped the rpms way up, voltage nearly 155 160 and cut 3/8 th wall 2.5 inch dia.pipe all afternoon with it.
One thing we have found is as they come set up with the voltage is a little low, maybe 110 115 volts. I suspect they may be set up for sea level, and we are at roughly 2500 feet above sea level so you just take a screw driver and turn the adjusting screw clockwise a touch until you hit 120 or more if you wish. Dont trust the voltmeter on the front, its crap use a killowatt meter to check your voltage....you all have a killowatt meter right??? Dont have one, dont talk electrical to me, maybe 30- 40 dollars...no excuse not to have one...
Anyway as soon as I figure out picture posting here I will return to post pics of just such a set up...and how to mod it.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
What's the brand name of the recommended genny?
PortAlberniPrepper
I bought a hyundai 3500 watt generator several years ago from wallmart for camping and what have you.
Last year i set up my bol and i was living on it with solar panels ,inverter and batteries.
I ran that generator 6hrs a day on average for the whole year and that genny continues to work today.
Did i have problems well yes,broken pull cords,leaking low oil shut down sensor and governor spring and a fuel line that split.
Same generator is still available for under 500 bucks at wallmart.
Note: was in the interior and winter temps reached 45 below some days never failed to start,not easy but still started.
I also have a 20kw generac dual fuel and boy does that gulp propane.
What's the brand name of the recommended genny?
PortAlberniPrepper
Sorry for the delay, I just cant figure out this picture thing, I have pics of it knocked apart, and can show you why I recommend this unit at the price point you can get it for..... but without pics I will try to say.
First the regular price is 349.00 though I have seen some ct stores where it was 399.00. I drove up to Leduc today and its at a sale price of 249.00 until Thursday. On boxing day the last 2 years they have been 199.00. it Is the Champion Brand (yellow) its their small 1500 watt surge, 1200 continuos unit with I think a 5 liter tank. MODEL 42451
At the 199.00 249.00 price range this is a buy..Light enough anyone can lift it, small enough a apartment dweller could put it under thier barbeque on the deck and it wouldnt be in the way...65DBA so not as quiet as a honda, but it wont drive you mental, or have anyone complain.
Somewhat mission critical in the sense that it does not have those useless ground fault breakers on it, and for those still drinking the emp, cme coolaid...well there isnt a voltage regulator to be taken out, infact there is only one diode (semiconductor) mounted inside the rotor (I have a pic), surounded by the steel rotor shaft, then the rotor windings (unconnected to the stator) then the stator windings and steel laminations, and finally the alluminum housing surounding the entire alternator, then even the steel gas tank covers the entire top of the unit.
short the breaker, set the rpms so you get 125 volts at 62.5 hz and you have a unit that will run some lights, a lap top, a fridge , freezer and furnace motor (1/4hp) no problem at all.
Why am I suggesting such a small unit.....well if you have ever had to depend on one for any length of time...days maybe going into weeks, your concern wont be how much power it can make, it will be how do I keep feeding this thing. This will run for over 10 hours on a little more than a gallon of fuel. its only roughly a 1.7hp 4 stroke motor but thats all you need.(just adding more like 2.5 hp and with propane fumagation I can hit 3hp, and force it to carry 2kws continous on the alternator end by adding a cooling fan)
PS, just for fun last year I droped the rpms down to roughly under 2000, directly rectified the ac it put out, then fed the dc output through a adjustable resistor so I had 10 11, sometimes 12 amps charging some batts in a motor home. I let it go like that for 3 or so hours until you could not put your hand on the case as you would burn yourself, if you put your nose close to the alternator I could smell the windings. That was way harder on it than anything you can do to it.
I just came back to add this as I do this stuff without thinking sometimes...on this unit use a philips and undue the screen on the exhaust. do this on any gen you have, but on this unit for sure or you will never get full power out. Two screws hold it in place. its a wire basket, like a steel tube sock about the size of your little finger, throw it away, this isnt California where that requirment is needed, and when you put in oil use one grade lighter than they say. this is canada and our average year round temps are lower than many places this unit is sold to.
Also as I have said this unit will power all I have said at the same time....if its not doing that for you and you have made the mods I have suggested you then need to look at how you are delivering power from the generator to your loads, things to check are, What gauge of cord are you using? how long is the run? Did you know that cord ends are not of equal quality? if you can stop by a electrical supply place and ask for hospital grade plugs and connector bodies you will get way better plugs and that translates into less voltage drop when high load devices come on line.
Also, I can picture one of you right now standing in the isle, and looking at the next model up and thinking I can get so much more power, only a little more money.......Dont do it...it looks the same just bigger but its not, it will burn through twice the fuel, and the output is AVR controled...yea I got one of them too.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I bought a hyundai 3500 watt generator several years ago from wallmart for camping and what have you.
Last year i set up my bol and i was living on it with solar panels ,inverter and batteries.
I ran that generator 6hrs a day on average for the whole year and that genny continues to work today.
Did i have problems well yes,broken pull cords,leaking low oil shut down sensor and governor spring and a fuel line that split.
Same generator is still available for under 500 bucks at wallmart.
Note: was in the interior and winter temps reached 45 below some days never failed to start,not easy but still started.
I also have a 20kw generac dual fuel and boy does that gulp propane.
Its value for the dollar, sure I have other great units, nice low rpm ones....but for the price you get simple and something you can keep running as you found out, and the great thing is no one steels these,.. turn your back on a honda and its gone.
You pounded a couple thousand hours out of a cheap one...thats pretty good for the price. Since I have a few of these I am thinking about a experiment to parallel two together and see if I can join the output. I read about how to do this but have never tried it myself, I have heard it can be interesting if you dont get it right....I like interesting...I may give it a try
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I did some training back in the 80s with diesel generators,with load sharing pairing rpms cycles and speed droop, but todays electronically governd engines, iam not sure. good luck
Peppercorn,
Do you want to keep this as the sole update thread for the Champion Gen? Seems like we are starting to spread you out over several at this point.
Found this site on Creekmore's blog. Ethanol free gas for your gen.
Scrounger...good info... I haven't been on the ball and just thought most everywhere it was e10 now, or even in places e15. I will stop in at shell and confirm this, if so they will have my business.
Its not just that you get a little less energy, its that its so hydroscopic...its particularly bad in many older small engines (lawn mowers, garden tractors) do to vented fuel caps, metals not compatable with alcohol, and rubbers like in the fuel lines and o rings on the carbs that swell up and even dissolve in the stuff.....I even have a car (from 94) I parked up because it cant use any fuel with alcohol in it.
I think I will just PM you my suggestions for, and the things I do to that gennie, I will have to take a bunch of pic's first. You will see why I prefer to do it this way. You will just have to wait a bit, life is kicking me in the junk right now.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
No worries. Whenever you are ready.
One of the things I got from the ethanol article was the possibility that you could get more then the specified amount of ethanol do to blending errors. Not sure how likely or commonplace this is however.
enjoy while your waiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1tV-ovGPyc
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
He had one more vid on a bike camper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJxTfSqiZ4
At the beginning he shows a truck camper he traveled the country In, he says 2002...
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
