This has worked for me for several years . Need to replace starter battery again . easy on fuel runs all day on 5 gal
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I have three different generators, 17k kohler, 4k belt driven craftsman, and a 5k china built. I prefer the 17k 4cyl. Ford 2.3l 1800 rpm. water cooled for whole house. I will eventually run it on wood. As far as the small ones, depending on how much your going to run it, not much- buy H.F. or as cheap as you can, run a lot- buy best 1800 rpm. you can afford. The fuel savings between 1800rpm, and 3600 rpm will pay the difference, not to mention repairs, and life of the units. Just my opinion from life experiences.
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Buy something with a Honda, Robin Subaru, or Kohler engine stay away from the Briggs & Stratton. I have also been hearing a lot of good about the Newer Kawasaki engines. Predator seems to run alright but I have not been running them for long. For a welder generator; In My opinion Miller is the best I have run both a Miller and a Lincoln of comparable size, usage and style on the same steel with the same rod and the Miller blows the Lincoln out of the water.
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I’ve had very good luck with the Powerhorse 9000. Runs all day on 5 gallons of gasoline.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_generators+powerhorse
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Good Morning LarryO.
As you can read the list of good, recommended small portable generators is much shorter that the ones, new or used, that are a PITA.
Lifetime like some responding here I’ve used many . . . too many. Ha! Actually the most ran and durable on woodgas was a Briggs and Stratton branded 5500 watt unit. From COSTCO.
The best I’ve had was a Miller/Kohler Trailblazer 12kw welder-generator. At $4,000 that was actually reasonable per kW for a can-get-parts, and service information gen-set.
I did switch over to Honda Inverter-generators. Along with one 2700 watt Yamaha inverter-generator set. The electric start 6500-7000 watt Honda Inverter-generator unit sare now THE-ONE used by most all trailer food service vendors now. Super unobtrusive quiet. And gasoline fuel sippers. (Hey. I can dream a little too.)
Both of these brand/manufacturers do their own engineering and manufacturing. And do offer parts and service manuals. And they do design and manufacture to preserve their World quality brand names.
That my advice to follow. Parts and service information is the most important criteria.
Save up. Scrimp, and save. Sell your blood and plasma. Wait for that.
“Cry only Once. At the Buying-In Price.”
Or . . . cry many times later frustrated with cheapest quialty manufacturing and NO service info or parts.
And often just having to do a set-aside, walk-away on a cheap one.
Buy cheap new. Then buy three at the same time. You’ll need that, to be your own parts supplier and learn-as-you-go repairman.
S.U.
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I want to say thanks to Dan Alard, Billy North, Ron Ohler Henry Buehler, Al Frick ,jacob North Bill Shiller and Steve Unruh for sharing there knowledge with me .I sure appreciate it. I’m going with the Honda with electric start.Again thanks guys I really needed your help.
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You are welcome. My uncle used a honda for years. The only problem he had with it was that you have to monitor the oil level better than he did. But they are good machines I am sure you will get years of good usage out of it.
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I won’t add anything to the C/V discussion. It has been well covered. I do want to write about the economic situation. It affects all of us. I’ve been writing about the economy since 2007. America went from an agrarian economy to a manufacturing economy to a service economy. All the while, automation was chipping away at job niches. When containerized shipping was perfected, outsourcing took away more jobs. Automation was still at the center of the problem. It is claimed that Amazon erased more jobs than China did.
Martin Armstrong has a super-sophisticated program with the history of the world going back 5,000 years. It is primarily focused on ecomnomic factors. He does economic forecasting for GOV and business around the world.He also writes on his blog. Keep in mind that his paying customers don’t want him giving too much away for free. The program, Socrates, gets all the news feeds and, financial news from all over the world. It runs about 35,000 variables. It is a very good idea to check in to the blog every now and then.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/blog/
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Well it was a long process but I finished turning that lumber I sawed the other day into a chicken coop in the back of my barn and got the Guinea fowl and NH chickens moved in today.
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Hey Dan .
I don’t want any of my chickens to see these pictures . They might take off and fly north thinking all northern chickens have these type accommodations 
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Well I have room for 50 and only 29 in there so there is plenty of room for some of yours to fly up here. 
Those lower nesting boxes and the oversized door is so I can add ducks if I want later it was about the only chances I had to make to accommodate both.
Oh the led strip on the wall will be on a timer so they get the 14 or 15 hours of light they want all winter. To keep them laying eggs. It was much easier to add that than try to put a timer on the barn lights.
Oh and the roost is on hinges so I can hook it to the beam on the ceiling and clean out under it.
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nice looking coop Dan. That should keep your chickens happy.
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What breed of chicken are those?
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The ones on the roost are about 4 week old French Guinea fowl. They are suppose to be great at eating ticks when they get old enough to free range. The red smaller ones are New Hampshire chickens. My plan is to dress off the French Guinea in the fall for meat birds and keep the NH all winter for eggs. The NH chickens are 3 weeks old monday.
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Agreed Wayne . My chickens would want to move out. I used any old kind of box shaped contraption for chickens. Refrigerators, old cars, right now they are in a cage made from refrigerator shelves.
Also. Congrats Chris.
Also, does anyone out there have an interest in buying cheap hogs. I have a source for hogs by the semi load. 300 lb + . 180/load. Price is a little dependant on location of delivery. But I just ordered a load delivered to Alabama for$50 /head. They come from Iowa. If anyone is interested or had a friend who is, let me know. They won’t last long since they are trying to get them off the trough ASAP. The ones that don’t sell are going to be buried on the farm.
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By the way Wayne, Jakob and I are driving past your place about now. We went up to Athens to get a load of 5 gallon buckets. I think we have enough wood along . I’ll probably try to sell some buckets also for anyone close by. Food grade, sealing lids with gaskets and bung hole. 4$ . That’s,$2 cheaper, and better than home Depot
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By the way. The hogs are available because of Covid shutdown of the kill plants. Nothing wrong with them, just no one available to kill them. All the while, ground beef was$9 / lb this week.
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They ship to Slovenia? 
Dan, guinea meat is a treat. But their eggs are even more! If l were you l wuld leave them for a nother year. They are amazing layers and thrive on nothing but pasture. Eggs are smaller and you risk breaking the pan edge off (extremely hard shell!) with them, but delicious. Problem is l can never sex tem. To me males and females look and act the same.
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Haha, have you ever looked in on chickens at 3am? They do not look like they want to be up anymore than you or I! They do lay more eggs, though 
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