Generator propane/Natural gas conversion big sale

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Tri-Fuel Kit Central Maine Diesel.

Send them your carb, they modify, send carb & kit back.

Price as good (or better than) DIY kit from US Carb.

Excellent service!!

Have same on my Yam 2400i - works great.
Use for power outages - mainly on natural gas.

I don't use gasoline (ever) in that gen - have other gas gens to keep me busy with care and feeding.

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There is nothing different on engine if you want to run on propane or natural gas except for the carburetor. But you do not need to buy a new generator you can just get a conversion kit. It bolts on in between carburetor and air cleaner.

This is where I got my kit for my EU2000: honda propane generator

FAQ's Page:Frequently Asked Questions Page

Testimonials: Testimonials

turbojimmy wrote:
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I'm definitely going to get a kit for my portable generator. All this time I was under the impression that I'd have to make permanent change to the carb that would limit me to one fuel. Depending on how that works, I may get one for the Onan in the RV. It would be nice to have a propane option for it, too. ...

turbo,

You were correct up 'til about two years ago that the conversion approach was to drill a hole in the carb for some applications.

A less invasive approach was to use a brass disk, IIRC it was like 1/2" thick. Propane would be introduced via a port on the rim of the puck and the "hockey puck" was installed between the carb air inlet and the air filter. This frequently caused installation issues because the air cleaner had to be moved that 1/2" and brackets and other parts would interfere.

The new approach is use a thick "gasket" instead of the hockey puck. The gasket is like 1/8" of an inch and most all generator's can have this installed without any interference issues. Propane is introduced into the edge of the gasket... think thin, pliable hockey puck. :)

Learjet wrote:
I see lots of questions... all I can say is I've used my tri-fuel generator for several years and I'm very happy. Including 48 hours on natural gas at my home after a hurricane.

I lost power after "Super Storm Sandy" for over 2 weeks. We had generators, but getting gasoline was a problem. At first it was because delivery trucks could not get through due to downed trees, then it was because the gas stations did not have electricity to pump fuel. The handful of stations that did have power and that could get deliveries were quickly overwhelmed with demand. Lines were miles long and they ran out of fuel within hours. We had hoarded probably a little over 100 gallons of fuel by filling up the cars and a lot of 5-gallon jugs. We only ran the generator for a few hours a day for necessities and heat. Having the generator run on natural gas would have relieved a LOT of stress.

I get that gas stations need power to refill propane bottles, but there are a lot of places that had racks and racks of Blue Rhino tanks that didn't get used. Plus, I have natural gas so I wouldn't need propane anyway.

I'm definitely going to get a kit for my portable generator. All this time I was under the impression that I'd have to make permanent change to the carb that would limit me to one fuel. Depending on how that works, I may get one for the Onan in the RV. It would be nice to have a propane option for it, too.

Propane does not run hotter. In order of BTUs, it goes gasoline, propane and then natural gas. That's why my natural gas grill doesn't get as hot as my old propane grill.

See the FAQs at the US Carb site here:
http://www.propane-generators.com/faq's.php

I know for a fact that the generators you can buy with a gasoline or natural gas option are mechanically identical other than the carb.

I see lots of questions... all I can say is I've used my tri-fuel generator for several years and I'm very happy. Including 48 hours on natural gas at my home after a hurricane.

It's all about options on what fuel and when :W

There is a helpful forum at US Carb that discusses issues such as those you raise.

I have not seen anyone post of the need to modify the engine as you describe. My generator runs smoothly and has no engine modifications. If I remove the "hockey puck" adapter between the carb and the air cleaner, my generator would be restored to stock condition.

If a propane engine is "smoking" there is clearly an issue with the installation OR the engine itself.

There is a years long thread at this site that documents many, many propane mods made by RVers... As I said, I am not an RV person, so I make no recommendation as to the advisability of converting to propane for an RV.

Some generator manufacturers are now offering a propane fueled model using the same engines with no internal modifications. Seemingly temperature and other parameters are not an issue in their minds. Indeed, IIRC US Carb offers a popular RV propane modified generator with a full factory warranty.

This past summer I was searching for a LP powered generator for home back-up. I found one that I had never heard of, so I was doing a little research on it. Found a link, don't remember where, that was for asking the manufacture about it. I guy stated he and a neighbor both had purchased a gasoline fired one, and his neighbor had convered his to LP. And that his neighbors now smoked a little, while his did not.
The person answering stated that LP fires at a much higher temperatue, it was stated the degrees but I don't remember, and that now the warranty on the converted LP one was now void.

Many years ago I was thinking of converting a farm tractor to LP. The local LP supplier stated that I would need to have the head machined down to raise the compression on the engine.

Golden_HVAC wrote:

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I have never actually seen a LP fuel pump that did not run on electricity. So if the gas station does not have power, it will not be pumping propane either. You can 'draft' propane into a empty tank, as the empty one is 0 PSI, and the storage tank is say 140 PSI, but soon after adding some propane, both tanks will become the same pressure, and you might only get 1 gallon into a 5 gallon tank.

Stupid me for posting that propane would be more readily available during a general power outage. I should have checked with someone from California about availability here in MD. lol

Oh wait, as I said, propane is readily available in this area when the gas stations have no power. Now don't go to a gas station that peddles propane if it has no power. lol There are numerous propane sources available that always have backup power... I generally use a Rental Center. One that, are you ready, rents gasoline powered generators and sells propane - they like to be open when people want to buy or rent generators or propane during a power outage. I have never, not once, had to stand in line to buy propane during an outage.

Propane arguably is safer to store, doesn't go "stale", doesn't gum up the carburetor, a 20# tank lasts the equivalent of 4-5 gallons of gasoline and costs close to the same. And, I say again, it is readily available in the greater Washington, DC, area.

Of course, YMMV. :C

turbojimmy wrote:
Interesting. Do those kits work? I have a portable generator that I use for emergencies at home. I would be great to run it on natural gas.

Not sure if/how that would work on my Onan 6500 in my Allegro. It would be cool to run that on propane, too.

in the RV i would prefer gasoline or diesel
the main RV tank holds much more fuel than the avg RV lp tank

SaltiDawg wrote:
I paid the $180+ a year ago and converted my new 7500 Watt generator to run on propane. I am not an RVer, but for residential power backup fuel, in a long term area wide black out, propane will remain easy to get... gasoline not so much.

US Carb is a great outfit to deal with as far as Customer Service and I can not believe they essentially halved the selling price.

I have never actually seen a LP fuel pump that did not run on electricity. So if the gas station does not have power, it will not be pumping propane either. You can 'draft' propane into a empty tank, as the empty one is 0 PSI, and the storage tank is say 140 PSI, but soon after adding some propane, both tanks will become the same pressure, and you might only get 1 gallon into a 5 gallon tank.

Delivery to your home will solve the propane problem, however the trucks can only fill a 100+ gallon tank. My buddy who delivered propane could fill a 500 gallon tank in 15 minutes, so filling anything less than 10 gallons was a problem, as they could deliver 30 gallons per minute from the big trucks.

Propane only has about 90,000 Btu's per gallon, while gasoline is 115,000 Btu's per gallon. So if both are $3 per gallon, you get about 25% more fuel energy from the gasoline than the propane. It would be better if gasoline was $3 and propane $2. Then you can get more Btu's per $1 with propane.

Changing to Natural Gas will work great. Except if you live someplace like Northridge, where when they lost electrical power, (1994 earthquake) the natural gas lines also broke in the same earthquake, and you could not use Natural gas, or buy gasoline.

It would help to have a larger diesel generator backed up with Natural gas. By using 80% natural gas, the diesel generator will run extremely clean, and will use only about 20% of the fuel as when running on diesel alone, so a 1,000 gallon tank that might last 36 hours will last about 1 week.

Good luck!

Fred.

Yes they do run compressed natural gas on diesel garbage trucks, they have done that in Long Beach CA for well over 15 years. They still use about 10% diesel, for upper cylinder lubrication!