ThumperPaul wrote on 10/17/24 at 16:28:04:


At 880 pounds with fuel and oil - it does seem to be a bit excessive for just 5,000 watts!  I guess that when you go into battle you want something that is rock solid and going to get the job done.

I'm still confused as to the Why all the complexity of the fuel system. It's got some really trick pump/self bleeding so if it runs outta fuel, ya don't have to crack injector lines and crank it until ya get the diesel to squirt out, but it also has a low fuel sensor to keep it from running out. I'm not against either one, I'm just wondering why they built it that way. I wonder how long it takes for the self purge/prime the pump and injectors if the low fuel sensor fails and ya Do run it out..
I've never heard of a system that would do that.

What is the big solenoid with the bellows and the arm going to the left? Looks a lot like a kill.

If you're running it but the load is insufficient to make it Tach up to avoid the Wet Stack problem, what do you have to do?
Is that problem a big enough deal to make a guy think about changing the exhaust stack design? If it didn't go Up, YaKnow?

Thumperpaul:

I am not exactly sure how much power I need.  These military generators come in a 3kw single cylinder version with a Yanmar air cooled engine, a 5kw twin with a Lister-Petter designed water cooled engine built by Onan, and a 10kw version with a 4 cylinder version of the Lister-Petter engine.  I believe the 10kw is just too big for our needs and would be wasteful of both storage space and fuel.  I was not sure the 3kw would be large enough to run our furnace if we needed heat.  I will give this 5kw a try and see how it does.  

Most of our power outages are short term and only last a few hours.  We have only experienced one long power outage and it lasted a bit less than a week.  We had a hurricane come through many years ago and it knocked down a large Maple tree in a neighbors yard that took out the power lines, and the power company could not restore the lines until the neighbor got the tree out of the ROW.  During that outage we had a gas 7,500 watt generator and it could easily power everything we needed (we did not run our 3,850 watt electric water heater and would go to my office to take showers).  To run just the fridge and freezers to keep our food fresh only requires the generator to run 30-40% of the day, and we could get by with a much smaller generator for that time as those appliances use 300-600 watts each.  There are small 2kw diesel military generators that look just like the normal contractor style generators that could do the job and only use about 1/3rd gallon per hour.....I may watch and see if I can find one of those at a good price.




JOG:

The solution for the wet stacking problem - is to make the generator work a bit.  When folks start the generator to keep it in operating condition and ready for an "emergency" - some of them don't hook up any load and then engine just doesn't work hard enough to get up to operating temperature.  The condition not only affects the exhaust - the piston and cylinder are also affected.  The solution is to hook up a load and make the engine work a bit - they recommend a 50% load or more and let it run for an hour minimum.  For this generator that would be 2,500 watts or more.....just a couple of small space heaters.  I don't know how often it needs to be run - once every couple of months might be fine as long as the batteries are put on a tender regularly.

The original generator has large terminals for hooking up the electric to provide power to something - the only outlet built into the machine is a double 110V outlet with a 10 amp limit.  The previous owner installed a 50 amp outlet on the side of the machine - it is gray and doesn't really match the military theme.

Your attention to detail amazes me, Dave!

The 5kw seems like a good size.  Good balance between ample supply and fuel consumption.

I need to go look at your other post and see how you’re doing with the pesky oil leak.

Dave wrote on 10/19/24 at 05:34:59:


That’s what I wondering…if you got a new cover installed.  Winter project.

Awwrite,, got it.