Champion dual fuel generator, convert to nat gas?

Snowman9000 wrote:
Thanks all. My DD and SIL live in TX and are now thinking about a simple generator. Knowing their ways, a gasoline one will end up not working when they need it. So I’m looking into the LP and natural gas options. I see that the dual fuel version of the Champion 2000 inverter is $500 more than the gasoline only version. Yikes.

Are they going to be interested in dragging the gen out, checking oil level, hooking up to natural gas, pull start and then run extension cords all over the place?

That is the reality of portable gens, some folks may not be all that happy with all of that..

For yrs I had a 2000W and a 4000W gens, both only had 120V output which meant one critical load I could not fire up which is a 240V water well pump..

Both gens I had to pull out the back door of the garage out into the backyard, check oil then add fuel and then pull start.. But once it was started I had to layout a couple hundred feet of extension cords all through the house..

Once power was restored I then had to pickup all the extension cords, plug all the stuff back into the wall outlets, pull the gen back into the garage..

It took one slip and fall down the basement steps while picking up extension cords to wise up..

I bought a 8700W 240/120V gen with electric start and put that in an outbuilding and added exhaust pipe to the outside.. Then I turned my attention to the extension cord issue and installed a manual gen transfer panel with breakers for my priority loads and moved the priority loads to that panel.

Now when I have a power outage, I can walk out to the outbuilding, push a button and have the gen operational, go back inside and flip the transfer panel to gen.. I am still working on moving a couple of more circuits and when that is done will only need a couple of short extensions to power up random things as needed..

Now I have all of my lighting circuits, my water well, furnace all on that panel and the fridge and freezer will be next on my list..

Having running water during a power outage = PRICELESS!

If they are not all that electric/mechanically inclined, I would recommend getting a automatic standby gen with auto transfer installed. Pricey for sure but I suspect by the time you go through buying a 2000W inverter gen, add in the natural gas conversion, get them setup with a natural gas quick connect setup plus extension cords you could be nearly the same price as a small autostart/autotransfer standby gen.

You can get a "Briggs and Stratton" 10Kw Propane/Natural gas auto start gen with transfer switch for $3200 at Home Depot.. Yeah, B&S not the greatest name but hey, it really beats not having power..

SEE HERE