As I often say, the power of utterpower is getting reports from DIYers around the world, what works and what doesn’t. A lot of us like the two bearing generators when we can find them.
CF-Diesel_ST-head
One thing I like is trouble shooting them. If you have a new noise, you can quickly drop the belt, and investigate whether it’s coming from the engine or the gen side.
Richard’s Simple DIY machine provided all the coverage he needed, and I think he’s still smiling..
CF-Diesel_ST-head2
Following is Richard’s email:
Hey George
Sorry it took so long to get you these pictures.
This is the generator that I built with the pulleys from you and inspiration from your CD and website. It ran thru Isaac, even in the pouring rain. I plan to make a cover for it soon. When not in use, it stays covered. It amazes me how a 3KW diesel can outperform a 4 KW gasoline gen set easily.
I recommend diesels as generators compared to gasoline more now than ever!
Many thanks for your help!
Richard Gray
New Orleans, Louisiana
—–Original Message—–
Sent: Mon, Sep 3, 2012 3:33 pm
Subject: RE: UtterPower.com Contact Form: Isaac and a diesel generator
———————-
We can’t get much simpler than this, but it’s a fact that it served Richard’s needs, it ran through a storm that caused a lot of people misery, and it reminds me of a few pictures I’ve received over the years.
One memorable set of pictures was a DIYer who was serving up hot meals to his neighbors, a blender and large bucket of ice for making margaritas. The hot humid period of a day when they were in the calm center of the storm. The trees uprooted, and debris laying everywhere. But for that moment, the sound of a lone ‘thumping’ generator was music to their ears..
GB
Looks about as simple as you could get.
Appears to be a 2:1 drive ratio, keeping the engine in the “sweet” spot.
KISS (1)
Issac (0)
Russ,
Great score, and don’t we all know what a good feeling it is to know it make every stroke it needed to make 🙂
This is 4.2/7.0, so we give the engine a little under running on the RPM to move it’s life expectancy into the green a bit, and still we have plenty of horse power left to meet the goal as defined by the customer. In theory, our no load fuel cost is less per hour, and we can have a better fuel/kwh figure IF our max power requirement is lower that the full 10HP the CF186 makes at 3600 RPMs. Need only 3-4 KW? There’s a case to consider the two bearing head.. but overall cost is always a consideration.
George,
Sure wish you were still selling your PMGs. They would have been perfect for that. I found this site a little to late.