Gen sets and not ignoring them.

[Dogman]

Been on gen power for the last 6 hours, think someone center punched a power pole somewhere, I sorta heard the thump at the same time the power dropped...

With the temp hitting 104°F even after a so called cold front moved through and at 11:00 Pm it was still in the 90's at 80% humidity A/C is a must !

Dam I did not realize my gen set needed a good workout, burning the moisture out of the fuel tank, it sputtered for a few hours now and then, but finally smoothed out.

When I was in the air force one of my jobs was load banking big mobile gen sets to blow the soot out of them and making sure they ran at spec.

This is the first long run on my gen set at a good load, not maxed , tho maybe soon I may try and figure how to load it to its max and really work it.. Always good to do so once and awhile.......!

Home gen sets are mostly ignored by most until you need to call on them.

Always good to run them to the max output , just to be sure they will be there for you when you really need them.

And not be allowed to sit out of sight and out of mind until you need it. Because if you do it may not be all it can be for you when you really need to call on it to do its job!

Just saying..

[Glass]

you can throw in a small amount of Stabil or something in the fuel. POR15?

Helps keep the moisture down and preserves the volatiles for upto 12 months. POR 15 is good for upto 2 years according to them. Can't see on the label if its suitable for diesel as well as gasoline. someone will know I'm sure.

Hitch will be someone to ask. I'm sure he would have used something for the vessels he's been on.

[Dogman]

you can throw in a small amount of Stabil or something in the fuel. POR15?

Helps keep the moisture down and preserves the volatiles for upto 12 months. POR 15 is good for upto 2 years according to them. Can't see on the label if its suitable for diesel as well as gasoline. someone will know I'm sure.

Hitch will be someone to ask. I'm sure he would have used something for the vessels he's been on.

Not the same as running a gen set at full load!

Most times they are run at partial load and mostly that is good. But to be sure the only way to be sure is to now and then run them up to full rated load and hold then there for a while..

Yes , I use fuel stabilizers and mostly they work, but never put full trust in them.

No matter what you do with the fuel, it is BEST to crank them up and load the dog crap out of them and let them run at full rated load once in a while to blow the soot out of them at full run temperature, because there is also the oil in the crankcase that needs to be heated up so the moisture that WILL be there gets cooked off.

What is a gallon of fuel now and then spent insuring your gen set is up to snuff and will be there for you when you need to call on it at full spec and load !

Just saying !

Woof !

:)

[Dogman]

Store bought power, Yea! Back on shore power !

7 or so hour run, Five gallon tank and took a tad more than two gallons to refill from a full tank at start. But I was not running at full load. My posts about full loads are just words of experience that I plan to put to practice and blow the soot out of it once I get some sleep and a wake up and try to figure how to make up a 8kw load (70 amp) tho I think it will not be easy to do.

Happy , Happy , Happy !

;)

[Glass]

Absolutely. You were prepared, is the lesson here. however we learned that testing those preps is important AND do some kind of stress test on your gear. Once the systems down you're on your own. Too late to learn things are not up to the task. Maintenance of preps is part of prepping.

[Dogman]

Absolutely. You were prepared, is the lesson here. however we learned that testing those preps is important AND do some kind of stress test on your gear. Once the systems down you're on your own. Too late to learn things are not up to the task. Maintenance of preps is part of prepping. Yep !

Tho it did feel funny because during the night I took a walk trying to find where the power co was working to fix the problem and it seems that I was the only one that was running a gen set. All of the houses in the effected area (several square blocks) were dark and silent. It was a very hot and muggy night and it seems I was the only one that had lights and a working air conditioner running.

My house stood out like a hammer smashed thumb..That I did not care for at all, but by god I had a cool smashed thumb and everything in my house worked. Need to see if I can make up a better muffler system so the gen set is not so loud.

;)

[Hitch]

Hitch will be someone to ask. I'm sure he would have used something for the vessels he's been on.

Actually, we don't. The amount of fuel that we burn in our vessels is extremely high, so fuel gets burned before it goes bad. That would be diesel fuel. It's not uncommon to burn 1000 gallons of fuel in a day, on a working boat.

On my sailboat, which has a small diesel engine, I add some anti biological stuff when I top off the tank. That fuel sits for some time, but it's an old engine, that's very simple and basic, so it'll run on just about anything. I also keep the tank full, for two reasons, being prepared and a full tank does not let condensation in.

With generators, run them up once a month. Put a load on them. Engines need to run, it's when they sit for awhile that things tend to break on them. I run all my engines at least once a month for this reason.

[monty]

Yep !

Tho it did feel funny because during the night I took a walk trying to find where the power co was working to fix the problem and it seems that I was the only one that was running a gen set. All of the houses in the effected area (several square blocks) were dark and silent. It was a very hot and muggy night and it seems I was the only one that had lights and a working air conditioner running.

My house stood out like a hammer smashed thumb..That I did not care for at all, but by god I had a cool smashed thumb and everything in my house worked. Need to see if I can make up a better muffler system so the gen set is not so loud.

;)

One way they silenced the old one cylinder Witte Diesel generators was to bury a barrel or small tank in the ground and route the exhaust through the tank.