They also sell AC Voltage generators, but it appears to be for Euro and Asian market since they output 50hz instead of 60hz.
This only charges batteries
Building a wood gas unit would be a snap
The load could be adjust to be steady and the gasifier could be sized and adjusted for constant speed and load
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Ha! Ha! Three different theme approaches be discussed here now.
And that’s O.K.
TomH when I said shovel, rake and hoe I meant engines types best suited for specific needs.
Not a one-use-for-all engine power source.
As I said that is a failed, lacking approach.
And my last introduction of wanting to push the Wife into now a Honda 7000 was she’d be doing the buying. Her money. For her own peace of mind.
Face it guys . . . our SWMBO’s really do not like our DYI “projects”. They do not trust them .
I was looking for a 7000 dedicated propane mixer system and found this:
As I’ve said again and again I aint afraid of fuel injection or electronics.
S.U.
S.U.
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I rather avoid complexity
A good inverter hard wired to a solar System with some wind and IC back is in my opinion superior
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Not the point Wallace.
The Honda 7000 would be the wife’s for her peace of mind. Turn key starting. (as long as I maintain it!). With a pull rope back up. Converting it to clean propane better assures the longers turn key to safe plug in power for her.
I already do have the good inverter. An original, made in BC Canada, Trace SW.
www.getoffthegrid.com/swtrace.html
Stand alone inverters and PV solar are not worth much without a battery bank.
Not the point of this topic.
This topic is woodgasing the IC engine component ALL PV, micro-wind, micro-hydro I’ve ever know have learned the hard way they will need too.
PNW cheap, cheap Hydro and the Grid is our primary. When it fails us, as it does annually, randomly, then we step in with our own made power; and keep getting on, with getting on.
I just refuse to interconnect tie their Grid into our, make-our-own. Thier rules. Thier game then.
S.U.
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This is peace of mind.
Big dum simple grossly underrated and can be put up in storage for years without much worry about if it will work when required.
Too heavy to steal…
People always say they will maintain things and they don’t
So its better to buy something used and get yourself set up for if and when with a unit that will not need fussing or care.
Fog the engine change the oil put an oily rag in the exahause and make sure both intake valves are closed.
Cover with a tarp that breaths inside a dry building…
Spray area down with caster oil and moth balls to keep insects and rodents out of the machinery.
Buy a dry gas propane kit so you can fire up on propane when you need it and scavenge for gasoline when you have time…
Understand Human nature:
Your going to get slack and forget about it so make sure its something that be up in the reserve fleet for a very long time and can still be trusted to start.
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Good reply, good answer Wallace.
This will work. I even know good documentation of two of these Onan opposed and one Briggs and Stratton opposed being wood gassed successfully too.
On the south of me town road I have been watching for years and old set-aside motorhome with a missing generator compartment cover. One of these is factory stuffed in there. For sure buyable cheap. Ha! Ha! They’d want me to remove the whole motorhome, likely. Wife would kill me dragging that home.
Great gerator units alright.
And they haven’t been any new manufatured in 30 years, 40 years? And in the decades they were made, what . . . . 50,000 units?
Each year, each decade; there are less of them not been scrapped out.
In the meantime Wallace I’ve been seeing these Honda EU7000 carbureted for the last 3-4 years walking distance in Town and local drive-to Event’s, in food carts, and show booth’s displays.
One gal I know with her foodcart trailer been using one of these in the back of her GMC pickup truck for 3 years. It has past 1000 operating hours now. Just oil changes, filters and spark plugs.
And ticky-ticky-ticky-accumulting: I’ll bet Honda is selling/suppling at least 10,000 a year into the US and Canada. So now at least 40,000 out there. No pattern of system design or manufacturing problems. Each year more and more working shop small engines guys and Motorcycle shop are seeing these, clearing clogged fuel systems, bad fuels, gone too long on that spark plug, sludged up, oil hanging up low oil sensors, etc.
Another 3-4 more years and there will be 100,000 of these and 10,000 less old Onan and B&S opposed.
AND the non-technical, not-DYI-projecting, men and woman been walking past these Honda’s humming along quietly in camping grounds, and events for years.
Confidence building.
Sure. Sure. The being actual wheel barrow like portable means more thought and systems needed in walk-a-way security. That very same portability what makes the Honda much, much more current day useable.
Plus less fuel on any kinds used.
Less exhaust stink.
And all of the time much more quiet running. Quiet IS no-hear-'em security.
My bellowing hopping 12/1 Liostroid could be heard for one mile around. Ground shake felt for 300 feet around.
My 12 kW Miller-Kohler Trailblaser welder-generator could be heard for 300-500 feet. Not really a portable units at 400 pounds.
One of these Honda EU7000 is actually noise running un-noticeable from 100 feet away sitting out in the open. Just lay four half sheets of plywood, or OSB, tee-peed over it and it disappears. Disappears running, loaded.
Yup, Wallace you and I could with just a VOM and time sort out the Onan system. Only some have this capability.
Sorting out the Honda is, and will be the users, easily hauling it into a 5,-8,000 network of servicing dealers.
My astonishment with the Natural gas system video link was they were able with out engine modifications get equivalent produced wattage as it had on gasoline. Wow. This is on the later actual fuel injected Honda “ei” units. Shows just how much better NOT sucking air thru a restrictive carburetor venturi.
Them NOT restricting air flow with their add-on system.
And that their plug-in electronic controller is able to greatly modify the delivered spark advance timing.
These all show a system on alternative’s gaseous fuels better potential.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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The Kohler brand is just as good and shares many of the exact same qualities
This 4000watt unit has been on the back burner a long time but its even simpler in some respects and has only one cylinder to worry about so I can fog it in store with both valves closed and probably leave it that way forever…
Im not saying a Honda is not good I have one myself…
Im just saying how much I prefer things that don;t need to be excersized
best of both worlds maybe?
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Ya that happens here too…
You wake up and your lawnmower is running because they stole your generator and covered it up by starting your lawn mower and hiding it behind the shed while you slept…
Maybe you need a fleet of them like I have.
One for every need and one or three to lend and so on…
If the Honda works for you then that’s the thing.
But if a freebie spare crosses your path put it away for a raining day.
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Ha! Ha! You know right Wallace I meant the four half sheets as portable noise abatement??
We are so much the same on many Wallace . . . I’m not happy until I have three of things needed too.
The EMP fearful get a snort from me and you. Having three, then one or the other will work. “All electronic being wiped out” is a scare static to do nothing but sign a proxy vote. An all-fall-down novel scare element.
As far as set-aside, snore, ignore for years until needed: first get rid of the degrading gasoline. Get rid of the scum growing diesel. Propane. Propane. Propane.
Never have that system have any belts dependencies. Or even a Viton plastic spider cushion in a drive coupler.
Have a system able to be both electric started and hand crank started. Starting battery’s go flat in at best months. Stock a l-o-n-g set of jumper cables with the unit. Pull starting ropes go bad sitting in a few years. Replace with better rope. Seal up, triple protected a spare cut rope and the tools to change it. Toss in a couple of three spark plugs and the tools to change too. An extra spare ignition coil-pac with install instructions.
Used woodgas system fare even worse sat aside unused.
If you are “lucky” you will have 3-4 power outages needs to force, you exercising-using these systems.
And then we are different.
We have always lived behind closed field type gates. Have overlapping ages and capabilities dogs. The walk-a-way stuff is kept 300 feet, or greater from our property perimeters.
Until the last few years I’ve not hidden that I’ll with a ka-boom, boom; that I’ll wack coyotes and chickens hawks.
I am taking the same advice I give all who insist on living urban compacted with too many, and too close of neighbors . . . move away. First step. First thing. Don’t delay engineering “solutions”.
Wife and I did not change. The surroundings, around us, did.
Have neighbors sure. Rural neighbors just like you chosen to be. Not a cheap choice by any means.
Cheap choice power back up? A big box store made in China by the lowest bidder system.
Steve Unruh
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I know I look at things differently.
But wow this is a game changer a water cooled block.
I’ll pick through a parts bin to figure out what I can build with that.
Yes there will still be a need for some fan cooling on the head but now there is a clone you can use as part of a heat recovery co gen skeme
Man where can I get this block I guess I need to email them.
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Thanks for pointing out the lower end water cooling.
I’d glanced at this previously and took the black plastic body to be a crankcase pulsator fuel pump.
I’d wonder why it was mounted blocking the crankshaft end.
For lower end heat farming I’d just use an oil pumped engine with an oil cooler. Heat exchange off of the routed to cooler lube oil flow.
Of course you know that there’d be more heat to farm out of the engine exhaust than from the crankcase.
S.U.
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The design has evolved.
The earliest versions used PM generator that bolted onto a standard clone using a V taper crank.
I really liked these because you could use any V taper in any clone and rebuild it as long as you like.
Newer version seem to be built on a standard clone but with a new flywheel and alternator bolted to the front end of the machine ( better idea less parts )
This new one has no governor so its electronic speed controlled now and the ed stub for the crank just seems like a simple reasonable place to put a water pump I guess.
link
This is a really slick set up.
If the last time I bought from them had I been able to older this block in a 240 config I would have used it on the kohler repower jut because the radiator can be located outside the enclosure to improve cooling.
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Of course, I was out grading with the Auto patrol 12, which has the RD6 engine. I was showing my son how to operate it. We lugged it down and could count the firing.
623cid running 850rpm governed speed.
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So the interesting bit about the Auto patrol, is the idea that the engine maximum speed is 850rpm and the stroke is 8" long.
18.8 feet per second
1133 feet per minute
Where as the predator 212 has a 2.165 stroke @3600rpm
21.65 feet per second
1299 feet per minute
Really not terribly different if one was going to fuel either one with gas.
The BIG ginormous difference is the Caterpillar engine will destroy all restricted or plugged piping. It creates quite a surface area for vacuum to work on.
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Yes, BruceJ.
You do understand that as far as internally pre-compressed, then combustion process is concerned: one of core factors is the piston speeds.
The compression ratio was about the pre-compression.
Ignition pre-starting timing is about that compressed fuel-air combustion proppragtion changed speed. And cycling/re-cycling speeds. (RPM) The amount of head starting needed.
Ha! Ha! I say the Caterpillar’s able to destroy restricted or plugged piping would be about the HUGE displacement volume in the Cat engine. Not many revolutions, much time needed at all to suck maximum negative pressure!
S.U.
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I have been getting an empirical idea about running engines lately. When gas was cheap, I didn’t work too hard getting a fine idle on the Hs or the Chevy small block, or even the Briggs. Now, however I have been putting a big effort into it. It’s really really tough getting a steady idle on these old engines that have sat. Vacuum leaks, and particles of dirt or gunk play havoc.
The idea I get is that with the throttle plate closed and the engine depending on the idle fuel circuit, and air bleed, it’s really difficult to control the air/fuel ratio of the charge at idle.
I see the easy answer as sizing the engine size to the load, so one is working in a more controllable band of the carburetor, or do like the gimmick guy on you tube, and put a small engine carb on a big engine so you have better control over the idle.
I am talking about power engines not road engines.
Oops, I forgot to add that air leaks on a gas producer also become the death of idle too.
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A question to the motor guys .
If wood gas had the very same characteristics, btu’s and energy per cubic foot as vaporized gasoline, what would be the % of the motors power loss while pulling a vacuum on the gasifier ?
When running on gasoline the vacuum reading between the air filter and motor is almost nothing . Depending on how clean the filter is .
When cruising on wood the vacuum reading between motor and closest filter will be apx 20-30 inches of water . WOT and high rpm 50-70 inches of water is possible .
Most agree there is a 30% power loss with woodgas . I think this all depends on how well the gasifier breathes. 
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Mr. Wayne,
Given your constraints, it would boil down to how well both sides of the air fuel ratio breathed.
For a gasoline engine or a diesel engine the limiting reagent in the reaction is always the oxygen in the air.
If wood gas was the same as gasoline, it wouldn’t have inert nitrogen in it. Then the only inert chemistry would be coming from the air side of the ratio.
I think the other misleading statement, when comparing wood gas to gasoline, its derated at what throttle setting? Is it a 30% loss at every throttle setting? Or at equal throttle settings? I say this because you can run a wood gas engine WOT all day and maybe 15 minutes on gasoline before it blows up.
I’m trying to say that comparing wood gas to gasoline in the same engine is impossible. The problem is if you ran gasoline in an engine with the wood gas timing, it would blow up. If you ran the gasoline engine with wood gas it runs poorly.
Sorry, my mind is wandering.
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Yes Bruce . This woodgas stuff can strain the brain.
My main thoughts were how well the cylinders can fill with air and gas being drawn from the atmospheric pressure vs how well the cyl can fill after the restraints of the gasifier system .
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