I was saving it for a surprise! 
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First Predator Run
Apparently, the repairs to the gasifier at Argos were successful.
We were standing around the shop tonight, and decided to improvise a fitting to the new Predator engine.
We hadnât even unloaded the charcoal from the gasifier from Argos.
A brief inspection of the alumina nozzle with the fiber scope leads us to believe that another crack is developing.
But, we thought what the heck.
At first, we couldnât get it to start.
Then, we realized that, in our excitement, we had failed to disconnect the blower before trying to crank the engine, and the gas was too rich.
We disconnected the blower, and it started right up.
Man. I really like that electric start.
Anyway, will try to post a short video soon.
EDIT - Here it is.
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First Predator Generator Test
OK. Finally got all the parts and got the generator put together.
It ended up being:
13 HP Electric Start Predator Engine from Harbor Freight $360
Chicago Electric 7.2 kw running 10 kw peak generator head Harbor Freight $300
1/2 inch plate steel to mount everything on $50
2 4" pulleys and belts (around $50 I think).
Total cost approximately $760.
Got everything assembled this weekend and did the first run from charcoal gas yesterday.
Test went extremely well. Havenât made any changes to the gasifier since Argos. Still has the same charcoal in it. Lit it up, just barely touched the starter, and the generator fired right up. Tried running various loads including an air compressor, a mig welder, angle grinder, shop fan, etc. It handled all the loads with no problem.
Very pleased so far.
I will paste in the video shortly.
EDIT - Here it is:
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After the Test Run
I decided to go ahead and empty the gasifier out and check the condition of the nozzle. I expected that it was getting eroded because the heat lobe had moved closer to the front. Sure enough, the nozzle was about shot. I will post more about that in the ânozzleâ thread.
I would make the following comments about this generator design:
For my intended application, I could have used a smaller gen-head. However, as it turns out, the harbor freight gen head was cheaper than smaller gen heads that I could source elsewhere.
If somebody really wanted to maximize the output of this setup, especially running on woodgas or charcoal gas, the 22HP V-Twin Predator engine would be a better choice. It could probably achieve full output of the gen head even when derated by 30% or more. However, the engine is about twice as expensive ($700).
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Nice set up.
Chris offered a good suggestion about finding a Geo Metro engine for the 10k gen head I have. I have looked in Craigslist and found some for about $200.
Did you load this generator down?
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No. Havenât done any kind of scientific load test. Tried a few pretty heavy loads and it worked fine. But my guess is that this setup will make around 4-5 KW on charcoal gas.
The gen head calls for a 16 HP gas engine to make full rated power. Thatâs why I think the 22 HP Predator would be about right if trying to make full rated power on charcoal gas.
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Kyle, nice jobâŚ!! I know this sounds crazy but I pulled my head out of storage 
and plan to belt it up to one of my small clones. It should serve two functions, 1 - generator 2 - flywheel⌠
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HF online or mailer super coupon this month (July) for $599⌠still a lot of cash!
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Minor Redesign
The puff-back at argos cracked my filter bucket. The stress cracks have been growing, and I have started sucking air. So, I took this opportunity to do a minor re-design on the gasifier.
I cut the end off the old filter bucket, with about 2 inches of sidewall remaining. I stuck this down into a new filter bucket and RTVâd everything in place. This beefs up the bottom of the bucket, giving it more rigidity.
Then, I changed up the plumbing a little bit.
Since several of you guys have said it is not good to having the hot gasses flowing through your bilge blower all the time, I added a valve and some different piping so that gas goes through the blower only for purposes of firing up and flaring. After making good gas, the valve is closed and flows directly from the filter bucket to the engine, bypassing the bilge blower.
While I had the gasifier apart, I also snapped a few pics of the nozzle and some weird white slag that was forming. See the nozzle thread.
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Surprising Results
After putting everything back together, we did a test run on the new gasifier / generator setup.
Previous to now, we have only placed comparatively light loads on the generator.
But Hoss wanted to try hooking up our Miller 211 MIG welder to it.
Frankly, I was skeptical. We have previously tried to run this welder on a Honewell 5500 watt generator, and on a brand new Generac 6500 watt indistrial grade generator. Neither of these generators would pull the load.
So, we got a big surprise when Hoss plugged the welder into the new generator It welded pretty good. You could tell it was pulling it down a little bit when he was welding a continuous bead, but it was never enough to bog the engine out.
Very surprising. By my calculations, I did not expect to be making more than about 5,000 watts with this setup on charcoal gas (even though the gen is rated at 7,200 continuous and 10K peak).
Anyway, we were very pleased with these results.
After about 35 minutes of welding, the bottom of the gasifier barrel started getting very hot, to the point where it was glowing red and smoking. I also thought I could see a corona of hot gas protruding from the air intake port. At this point, we thought it prudent to shut everything down.
I am assuming that this is because we were pulling on the gasifier and generator much harder than we ever have before, but I am not sure.
Anyway, I will post some video when I get it edited.
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Sounds like a win to me.
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Kyle and Hoss,
Looks and sounds great! Iâm not a welding expert, but the arc sounded stable! That generator setup looks good too, maybe the PTO/ belt drive generator is properly rated and the package generators are over-rated! And all on wood charcoal! 
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Thanks for the video Kyle and Hoss
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Great video guys. Nice motor and a great gen head, most importantly accomplishing real work with the unit. Congrats
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Kyle and Hoss,
You could put that set up in the back of a small truck, run the truck on it and you can weld out the back of the truck anywhere. Great job on the build.
Bob
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Bob:
Thatâs the next mini-project. Hoss has a small chevy pickup he wants to try on charcoal gas.
In the mean time, we are still working on the V-10 with a WK gasifier. But that is a bigger project. Hopefully, this fall and winter will give us more time to devote to that.
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Wow! that looks too easy. You have to be running that on gasoline:grin:
Got to love that charcoal!
Gary in PA
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Enjoy the lemon moments⌠the stayâs foreverâŚ
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A few more improvements
Now that we have the new generator working, we wanted to make it into more of a âproduction package.â
So, we added a few things.
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Valve springs under the steel plate for vibration isolation. Now, it can sit on a table or in the back of a truck without trying to walk around.
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A steel frame for handling, and to hold the gasifier components.
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Some removable âhandlesâ (actually 1 inch steel tubing slid through 1 1/4" bosses) so that we can pick the generator up either length-wise or cross-wise, and move it around.
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A âwheel barrowâ style removable wheel in the front, so that we can roll it around (that was Hossâs idea).
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Adapting the existing gasifier platform and components to fit the new generator frame.
We just did our first test of the integrated system. We are pretty pleased with the results. The only down-side we have noticed is that the whole system is heavier than expected. I had hoped that two men could sit the system into the back of a truck using the carry-bars. However, it is too heavy to do that (at least, if I am one of the guys trying to do it). Otherwise, it worked out pretty good.
I will post video when I get it edited.
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