Tractors, Mowers, Chippers, Trailers, Chainsaws, Generators, Driveway Erosion Control, ETC.

So you can now run it on gasoline or propane? That is slick! I didn’t know you could do both, I thought it was pick one and that was it.

 

This is the company I went with for my wee Predator 2Kw.

https://pngtec.com/predator/predator_9.htm

Here's their homepage for generators.

https://pngtec.com/generator_page.htm

 

It's actually "tri-fuel" now. It can also be run on natural gas. Of course you have to adjust the regulator pressures between propane and natural gas.

Predator 68530 8750w Propane/Natural Gas Tri-Fuel Conversion Kit

Amazon.com: Predator 68530 8750w Propane/Natural Gas Tri-Fuel Conversion Kit : Patio, Lawn & Garden

 

Interesting you are bringing this up. I got a guy coming to set me up with a transfer switch (wife is office manager for cell tower builder and he’s doing it on their dime. Can’t argue with that). and the Genny I got my eye on is dual fuel, so I’ll be looking into hooking it up to my 200 gal propane tank used for cooking and fireplace. I have zero experience in this except a couple gas powered ones I been running extension chords through the window. I was quite proud of myself for hooking up my bbq to the pigtail the builder put out the wall on my patio but now I gotta splice into the system somehow. Or run gas until I figure it out

 

All right, took a while to get in contact with the seller. It’s a 2015 BC2600HM, Honda 388cc engine. I haven’t been able to find a hp rating for it.

 

13hp.

https://www.billygoatparts.com/oemparts/a/bil/6017ffbb87a8661e44341db3/engine

 

Just looked at the kit for my generac generator and the kit is 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost of the generator. Yikes

 

That is slick. Thanks for bringing this up, I learned something

 

You can get a black iron manifold on AMZ like this:



The left comes from the tank (regulator) the center is to the furnace and the right feeds the range. 3 ports available for future devices.

$32 Pro-Flex PFMN-CBC Manifold 3/4x1/2/3/4

https://www.amazon.com/PFMN-CBC-Pro...1728648022&sprefix=propane+man,aps,371&sr=8-6

 

Busted the QD on the 490

 

must have been really going at it to break parts like that.

 

Your power to size ratio must be real good!

Quick changers are usually built strong.

 

In my defense the he backing plate was cracked when I started it up that morning. Mentioned it to the boss and he said they beat the hell outta it at the quarry so run it till it breaks and we’ll fix it and re weld the plate.
The plate in question red arrow needs to be brought back down to the face (blue arrow) and re welded. The movement of this plate is what caused the ram to fail.
When you get into the realm of 400 and up size excavators, things can get sideways regularly

 

owch!

 

One of my Trail Cams caught me with some big chunks of an almost 5ft diameter red oak that I had to get cut down last fall because it was half dead. The tree was between my driveway and stable, and if it came down on its own it could have landed on either. I was moving these large pieces (that were not suitable for splitting) about 40ft into the woods.....









It didn't seem to bother these guys who came later to inspect . . .

 

Thought I'd follow up since I hadn't started the generator last post.

Hooked up a battery and propane tank this morning. Followed the instructions which say to open the fuel adjusting block wide open, purge regulator by pressing purge spring, start generator. It eventually started but was flooding badly. If you ever hook one up, I'd say the instructions should be close the fuel adjust block, press the purge valve to purge to the main regulator (and again you begin opening supply), start cranking, and gradually open the valve until it runs. Using this method and once adjusted to idle needs, the generator ran really smoothly.



The bolt shown below is the fuel block to adjust flow volume and instructions say it will need to be adjusted again when full power load is applied.

Since cold weather outage is my main concern, I think my strategy will be to adjust when the lights, refrigerator, TV,... AND furnace are running, then just make sure not to cause the water well pump to kick on when the furnace is running. Since both are intermittent loads, seems it would be wasteful for the fuel supply to be adjusted to supply both all the time. Frig is also gonna be on/off load.



Lastly, the total cost of the parts excluding the adapter plate would probably be around $80-100. Amazon price $200. The adapter plate however is not "off the shelf". It was 3D printed with a hose fitting screwed into it.

The adapter plate is something I (or @koditten) could draw up and cut out on our CNC tables, drill, and tap it in an hour or so. But if you add to that hour the time to accumulate all the other parts, spending that other $100 to me seems easier to swallow.

For now, I'm going propane but I hope to get ambitious and plumb a natural gas hookup to the generator place....TBD.

 

Why does that setup appear to have two regulators on the propane line?

 

You're right, it does. For propane, I could remove the bigger natural gas regulator or bypass it. It doesn't hurt anything to flow through it. That's actually how the instruction shows setting it up.

If I decide to go natural gas, I just remove the black hose and the smaller propane regulator and run feed line in there. Basically, just storing the natural gas regulator there.

 

Stumped on this one.

Friend brought this by, it was locked up. Got it free pretty easy, drained the gas, added fresh gas. New spark plug, nice spark.

Can not get it to fire, won’t even attempt to fire with ether.

Put some wd40 in the cylinder and let it sit to maybe free the piston ring, if it was stuck.

An engine needs 3 things to run, fire, fuel, and air. This one is getting all 3.

I’ve pulled it 100+ times over 3 days and I have yet to hear it attempt to fire.

I’ve tried half throttle, full throttle, no throttle, no choke, half choke, full choke.

Heated the spark plug with a torch, no help.

What is wrong with this piece of junk?