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Re: [Shop-talk] Generator thread

To: "'David C.'" <cavanadd@verizon.net>, <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Generator thread
From: "Jack Brooks" <jibjib@att.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:54:15 -0700
David,

I have to laugh.  We lost power here in Covington, WA this AM for about 4
hours and usually do for a few day stretch during the winter too.  This one
was not enough to drag out the 7.8 Kw generator, but I guess it's time to
fill up the two five gallon gas jugs.  My Triumph TR3 and TR8 are the
additional 25+ gallon reservoir in case of a major earthquake event.

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: shop-talk-bounces+jibjib=att.net@autox.team.net
[mailto:shop-talk-bounces+jibjib=att.net@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of David
C.
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 1:53 PM
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: [Shop-talk] Generator thread

Is it time for the generator thread again?  Maybe past time for the Gulf
Coast/hurricane-prone folks....

Anyway, I am going through my annual quandary whether or not to replace my
old Hobart 8KW welder/generator.  I live in the rural PNW and just about
every year we get at least one snowstorm that takes the power lines down 
for a while.  Last year it happened three or four times.   I have two 
manual transfer switches, one for the pump house and one for the house, and
I run the well pump, propane furnace, fridge, freezer, microwave and some
lights.  We also have a big woodstove, and so things go along fairly
normally once I get the generator fired up.  The generator has a big Onan 2
cylinder air cooled engine, and it had just been rebuilt from the block up
when I bought it about 10 or 12 years ago.  It has never failed me (yet) but
it's starting to get old, and it uses a LOT of gasoline, which is the main
problem.

The generator uses more than a gallon an hour, and it has a seven or eight
gallon tank, and uses a crankcase pressure/vacuum operated fuel pump
(potential failure point).  I also keep three or four five gallon gas cans
filled up during the winter (w/Stabil), and so far I haven't had any trouble
refililng them on my way to work.  However, a widespread power outage could
also take the local gas stations out, and once I went through my fuel stash,
and the fuel in the motorcycles, I would be stuck.

We had considered a diesel, as I also have a couple of diesel tractors, and
diesel is a lot easier to store (and probably...er..."find"... in a SHTF
situation), but low speed (1800 rpm) diesel generators in the 10Kw size are
hard to find and very expensive, $10K on up.

Yesterday I saw this in the Northern Tools
catalog: 
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_398826_39
8826

Honda engine, gas or propane fueled, way more compact than the Hobart, and
probably has better fuel consumption, too.  I could run it off my shop
heater propane tank for quite a while, and still have gasoline for a backup.

Any thoughts or feedback?

Thanks
Dave C
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