Time to connect the 803

[jimbo913]

I was only interested in extending run time a bit. My longest outage prior to getting the 803 was 5 days. My 55 gallom drums are rotated through my tractor so oldest is about a year. I dont draw off the bottom 2-3 inches to avoid dirt and water.
While not necessary to add a 15 gal aux tank, I would feel better when I go out of town that the wife is less likely to run the generator dry and screw up the house in the process. Of course, the aux pump could fail and that could still occur.

 

[Blackbear]

Looks like most options have been laid out, it's up to your preference. And you can always modify your choice good luck and enjoy it, I hope to get mine ready for the ky cabin then I'll have the same issue to decide.

 

[jimbo913]

Winds started to pick up and the blizzard is now official. Power just burped for the first time and it is usually not long after that before it goes out for good. Looks like I may be woken up to the power out alarm tonight and have to go shovel snow off the 803 and power it up. Who knows how long until the power comes back if there are 5'+ drifts of snow covering fields around here. I should be good with 120 gal of diesel on hand and only running at around 30% average load. Wish me and everyone else in the northeast luck as we ride it out.

 

[Blackbear]

Nothing like being prepared, how deep is the snow?

 

[jimbo913]

Well is is hard to measure with 30-40 mph winds but maybe 22-24". Expecting another 10-15 before it ends late this evening. I am about at my limits in pushing it with tractor. I just got in from a 6 hr plow session and could not keep up. So far the power is still on. I swept off the genny and it is level with the trailer deck all the way around. Glad I left it on the trailer!

 

[jimbo913]

News just said its closer to 30" that fell in my area. Its hard to measure..

 

[jimbo913]

During the heavy winds the wife asked if she and the kids should take a shower before the power goes out. I laughed and asked why. She said, well the generator wont power the hot water will it? I laughed again, and said no worries, you can run anything you want. Best purchase I ever made and I have not even had a reason to use it. You would not believe how much I stressed out when all we had was a 5500w Yanmar powered generator.

 

[Korgoth1]

I have a knock off yanmar, and it was definitely stressful relying on it. After it broke 2 valve rockers in a row, I modified them, we'll see how it works.

 

[jimbo913]

My Yanmar was brand new and the shaking from the single cylinder loosened the exhaust and broke off the head studs within 10 hours of running. I repaired it and ran one more outage (10 hrs), and then sold it.

One time it just shut off and I never figured out why. And it was loud, very loud.

 

[Korgoth1]

Haha, They are pretty crappy. Ive almost got 200 hrs on mine. Besides as you mentioned, various fasteners creeping loose, having to loctite and re-tighten them, replacing hoses and fixing leaks, at 60 hrs the valve rocker bolt broke, a few hours later same one broke. I ground the rocker arm flat on the bottom, and put the locknut on the bottom side and It has been good for around 130hrs. It's nice for when I don't need much power, it's pretty good on fuel and saves hours on the mep, but man what a pain..