| Author |
Message |
captain ron (Captain_ron)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 10:16 pm: | |
I was looking at the whole house generaters at HD by Gaurdian that run on propane or natural gas. they have quiet boxes ans are 15,000 watts, come with ayto switches and generac motors. can these be easily converted to gasoline? they are very inexpensive. Would they burn too much propane to use on the bus? |
David (Davidinwilmnc)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 9:05 am: | |
I'm sure they can be converted. I can tell you from personal experience that they are NOT quiet. They are as noisy as my 20 hp lawn tractor. I wouldn't call it a 'quiet box', but more of a weather resistant enclosure. |
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 10:49 am: | |
When you say generac motors, I am assuming you are referring to the engine genset. If so, Generac is generally considered the worst of the worst in the line of gensets by many posts on this and other boards.
Richard |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 11:16 am: | |
Ron,
Propane generators can easily be converted to gasoline by changing the carb. That's about all although that may be a messy proposition if you can't find an apropriate gasoline carb.
The HD generators likely run at 3600 rpm and are probably loud, not designed for long term use, and if made by generac, probably unreliable.
Look at the specs and listen to one if possible before spending (or wasting) your money.
Regarding propane usage, they will not use any more propane than any other genset at a given load, as long as they are tuned properly.
If you have a good sized tank, you'll have no problem. for example I have a 100 gallon tank, a 7.5kw genset, and I can run two AC/s full on for a week and still have half a tank left....
Bottom line, if these made good gensets for busses, we'd probably be all over them...but I've never heard of anyone using one yet...
...Like John Arbuckle always said
"you get what you pay for"
(Ohmygosh, does that date me!!) |
Jim Stewart (H3jim)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 11:49 am: | |
I like to modify John's saying to read " You don't get what you don't pay for" since you don't always get what you pay for. |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 10:02 pm: | |
How about "You pay for what you hope to get"? That seems more like it, to me. Then, when you don't get what you hoped for, you get to try to enforce your bargain.
Since that can be too much fun, we are always trying to find ways to ensure that we will get what we are going to pay for, before we get it!
It doesn't always work, but it seems easier than just waiting for a problem to crop up before trying to do something about it.
We get nipped occasionally, but not very often.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher
Ketchikan, Alaska |
Bob Vandawalker (Rav221)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 6:57 am: | |
Please do NOT purchase a Generac Guardian and expect any kind of dependability. As stated in previous posts, I purchased 3 Guardians in 2001, two are now out of service and the third is on it's way. These units have engine and electronic problems. Customer Support is nearly non-existent from Generac. They tried to bill me $1025.00 for a repair to a unit that had been in service for 6 months and had less than 70 hours.
They are quite loud.
Problems encountered:
Failure To Start
Failure To Shut Down
Fried engine control board (Twice)
Fried Transfer Switch w/fire (this was bad)
Low oil shutdown w/oil full (numerous times)
Overspeed Shutdown (numerous times)
Generac Customer Service Rating (1-10 scale) -2
But I'm not bitter.
I did purchase a Coleman PowerStation to replace one of the Generacs and teamed it with a Zenith Transfer Switch and have been quite pleased with the unit. The PowerStation has a twin cyl. Honda engine. and is much quieter than the Generac.
Bob V |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 7:20 pm: | |
Generac is owned by Briggs & Stratton now.
So the low quality that we grew to expect lives on. Noisey and great for lawnmowers but generators? Been there done that, Never again!
Of course burning a gallon an hour of gasoline and needing a secondary fuel tank is such a pain!
All my stuff that makes prime power is kubota powered and diesel. Makes lots of noise but sips fuel in tiny - tiny amounts. And they rarely break down! ( Less than a quart an hour! ) |