| Author | Message | ||
| Mike (Busone)
Rating: |
A guy I know is wants to build his own genny out of an old reefer unit. I seem to remember a thread on here mentioning somebody did just that. I just cannot find it. Anybody know the guy that built one? | ||
| Larry Baird (Airhog)
Rating: N/A |
I would like to know also. I have a unit that i will be installing soon. | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
I just built a 12kw genset using a reefer Kubota diesel (Carrier Transicold branded). Works like a charm. Lots to know, i'd be happy to answer all the questions, and post photos etc if you want. I did mine belt driven, because the engine peaks at 1900 rpm and the gen head wants to see 1800, so pullys made it easy to do the reduction. It also made it not so long so it fit better where I wanted to put it in my trailer. Besides that I have all the sources for cheap regulators, digital speed controllers, etc It was a fun project and it works very well. Had I to do it over I'd have gotten a larger engine... this one is around 25hp and the system max's out at about 12KW, but my genhead is capable of 30kw so I could have used a 50hp motor and gotten more power. But the diesel I used was free and for most of my needs 12k is enough.... The most interesting thing about the project is that this tiny little engine has an oilpan that holds the SAME amount of oil as my Crown engine... almost 7 gallons!! Reliability I guess.... | ||
| Chuck Newman (Chuck_newman)
Rating: N/A |
Hi Gary, I would be interested in the sources for cheap regulators, digital speed controllers, etc. Thanks, Chuck Newman Oroville, CA | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Hi all, It took months to find this regulator... I searched ebay and everywhere else I could find.. I finally bought a Basler for a few hundred bucks (a good deal but only IF it worked) but I could never get it to stabilize. So I gave up on it. Then in talking to someone at a generator repair place, I found out about this nifty regulator.. it's $85, it's tiny, it's amazing, and it works perfectly! http://www.solesco.com/AVRmenu.html You'll notice that it operates on 208-240... if you need to run it on 120 get a 500w step up transformer and that's it. It's fairly universal so should work on just about any gen head. For the digital frequency regulator I ended up buying a new unit from Woodward, who used to be Barber Coleman. They have a lot of models but the cheap one, Apex 2000, works perfectly and is super easy to set up. I had a long conversation with the Woodward tech about what to purchase, but eventually ended up buying it from Dave at Governor Service in Los Angeles... he seems to have a lot more "hands on" experience and is a really nice guy. Where the Woodward guy had me talked into a totally digital (and fairly expensive) system, Dave ended up selling me a simple unit that was a lot more "analog" in that you tweek trimpots to set it up instead of loading stuff in with your PC... it works excellent for me. Dave's phone is 310 830 4592. I did not ask him if it was ok to post the phone number so please don't bug him unless you're serious about purchasing something from him. It'll cost you about $400 for the controller, sensor, and actuator. I'd recommend getting the linkage from Mc Master and just putting it together yourself, it'll cost you $15 instead of $80.... It uses a gear tooth pickup that drills in and lives next to the flywheel starter gear. The actuator takes control of the throttle lever. It never even burps when going from no load to full load instantly- stays rock solid on 60hz. Great unit! | ||
| John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A |
I used a ThermoKing reefer engine for my 9KW genset. It is an Isuzu C201, 2 litre, 27 HP @ 2300RPM. Using a French made LeRoi-Sommer 3600 RPM alternator and a Type "B" drive belt, I adjusted the pulley sizes so that the motor is turning 1340 RPM and the alternator at 3655 to produce a nice clean 60 Hertz (cycles). It has a mechanical governor, and enough excess torque that it never even burps going from no load to 65 amps in one flick of the switch during initial testing. It has never varied more than 1.5 Hertz under any load, and is clean enough to power my fridge, MW, and new 3.4 gig HP computer with no problem. I used Schedule 80 iron pipe for the first 6 feet of exhaust to help quieten the gas pulses, then used galvanized conduit for the balance of the exhaust. It ends near the rear wheels with a pipe union, so I can quickly attach a riser when in a park or at a rally. The radiator is a three core unit from a '91 VW Jetta. Very compact, closely shrouded, with a two speed motor and a N.O. temp. switch that closes at 205 F. which works out to be ideal as an overtemp. shutdown switch for the genset. Glad to answer any questions off the 'Board. BTW, it's going on it's third year and still fine. After Hurricanes Charlie and Francis in Ft. Myers Florida last year, it ran non-stop for 9 days, providing baby bottle warming, cell phone charging, and hot water showers for the folks in my park and the one adjacent to it across the street. Cheers...JJ | ||
| John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A |
Addendun to last post: DO NOT use the Chevy Luv diesel, which is basically the Isuzu C201 block. It is not a good stationary engine. The cam is wrong, and there is no provision for a good governor. Others who have tried it have had poor results. ...JJ | ||
| Larry Baird (Airhog)
Rating: N/A |
The unit I have is a 4 cyl. water cooled self contained unit with 3 legs of 110 volts 30 amps. I made a frame to fit in the bay and had planned on using each leg for power or 2 for 220 volt. Will this not work or am I going to blow the bay doors off (with me sleeping) again like when I put the 30 gal propane (leaked) in with the water heater. Scary Larry | ||
| Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
Rating: N/A |
Larry, are you sure you have legs of power or is it a 3-phase head? Three legs would be very unusual. And a 3-phase head is a whole 'nother monkey to convert to single-phase service. Whether or not you can run legs out of phase to get 220 is dependent on how your gen head is wired and regulated, AND whether you need 220 in your conversion. Many of us that have two legs of 120 will run them in phase on separate legs of a panel and have 120-only service when on gen-power and 120/220 50A service on shore-power. bb | ||
| Larry Baird (Airhog)
Rating: N/A |
The unit is 3-phase 220. I pulled it down to 30 amps on one leg and it sounded OK but I don't know if this is a good thing to do. Larry | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Sounds like its a 3 phase Wye connected head. Cool. You can have three 120 circuits or three 220 circuits or three phase or all of the above all at once if that's your desire! No problem loading one phase down although it's nicer to get head if you balance your loads across all three phases. So Larry, you really blew the doors off your bay with a propane leak? I'd LOVE to hear more about that, and it would be good for all of us to hear about it too.. So many people ask about venting tank areas and where or where not to put them... this would be a great lesson for people who havn't seen propane make something go boom....  | ||
| Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
Rating: N/A |
Larry, on a three phase unit it is recommended that the loads on the three phases be kept balanced within 20%. Especially if you are running fully loaded. You did not indicate what the actual alternator rating is. 220 volt three phase is not a common voltage. Typically it would be 240 volt three phase, delta connected, or 208 volt three phase, Wye connected. Is this one of the reefer van units? I worked on a couple of these units a few years ago and as I recall the alternators were 12 lead, which means that they can be re-connected for any desired voltage. If it is actually 3hree phase delta, then one of the three legs would have to be connected to ground and then you could get 110 volts from two of the phases. The third phase would be a wild connection and the voltage to ground would be something strange and you do not want to connect any load to this phase and ground. If it is actually a 12 lead generator, Then I would suggest that you reconnect it to 208/120 volt Wye, or you could reconnect it for 240/120 single phase. You would however loose about 30% of the capacity. Richard | ||
| Larry Baird (Airhog)
Rating: N/A |
Thanks Richard, I'm not sure I understand all that but I'll get more info off the unit and post it later. We have three of these and this one was the only one that was not 440 volt. More after I check the unit tonight. Units are from sea containers. | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Hey Richard... an oops... on a delta system one of the three legs is not connected to ground (unless you're talking 440) but there is a neutral, it is one of the delta coils center-tapped. That gives you 4 wires... 3 phases and a neutral... Heres a drawing so ya'all can see what we're talkin about...  | ||
| Larry Baird (Airhog)
Rating: N/A |
I thank you all for the info but I don't think it will help me. Someone liked my gen. better then I did and took it over the weekend. I don,t how they picked it up but it's gone. Larry | ||
| Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
Rating: N/A |
Larry, sorry to hear your genset got legs. I am really surprised since it probably weighed a couple of hundred pounds or more. Gary, wish I was smart enough to know how to post a diagram, but since I am not, I will try and explain my belief. Looking at your first diagram and labeling the phases in a clockwise direction starting at the top, they would be typically A, B and C. There is an error in the phase winding between B and C. The tap in the center is the neutral tap, not a 240 volt tap. Therefore you could get 120 volts between B and neutral and C and neutral. You would of course get 240 volts between A&B, B&C or C&A. The second drawing you show is a completely different animal since all the windings are 120 volts instead of the 240 volts shown in drawing number 1. It is commonly called a 208/120 volt three phase Wye connection. If you reconnected this drawing to a delta configuration it would then be a 120 volt, three phase, delta connection. Not of any use for anything that I am familiar with. The top drawing, if reconnected to a Wye configuration, would be a 480/277 volt, three phase wye. Hope this is clear. Picture would be worth a thousand words. Richard | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Dang Richard, I knew I didn't put enough info in that drawing, but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to edit it after it's been posted. I agree, where I left it was a bit confusing. And BNO has a very small size limit so I fought how much I could put on the drawing and still get it on the board. Here is what I intended...perhaps this clarifies it... shoulda done it this way in the first place  Go here on BNO and scroll almost to the bottom, and it will tell you how to post photos etc. Hit the "formatting" button... It's a little bit weird but it works fine... http://www.busnut.com/cgi-bin/bbs/discus.cgi |
