My favorite Generator

What type of oil does a Nissan gl600 use?

mtnman1989 wrote:
I have four generators, a 5000 watt Generac home backup system, a 4000 watt Onan on my motorhome and a Kawasaki 1400 watt I use with my travel trailer. I also have an old 1985 or 86 model 600 watt Nissan, my favorite. This little tiny 600 watt generator is an awesome little generator. I learned that it is actually a Honda generator made for Nissan. I use it with my motorhome when we are boondocking and just need to charge the batteries or play the TV etc. It only holds about a pint of fuel and will run about 5 hours before it needs refueling. It is very quiet, light weight, sips fuel and easy to start.
mtnman

I have recently acquired a Nissan GL600 generator, what type of oil does it take?

mlts22 wrote:
Onan or another company would make a killing in the RV genset market by making an inverter generator that is coupled with a decent sized battery, and having the generator run on something similar to eco-throttle. If a large load hits, the battery would carry it (like the Yamaha 3000iSEB's mechanism) for a short time until the generator is up to speed. The result would be a nice, quiet, economical genset.

.... or how about one of these built-in automatic start/stop generator setups that are only 54 dB loud (quieter inside an RV's cabinet) and skip the 120V AC step completely. Just run your entire RV off 12V DC from your battery bank and 120V AC from an inverter off your battery bank (including the air conditioner) while this great piece of engineering takes care of the batteries quietly anywhere, anytime, any weather:

http://fischerpanda.com/marine-pdf/AGT4000-DC.pdf

Pressurized oil systems always win in my book compared to splash lubricated systems. The oil has to "do" less work. With splash lubricant, that little amount of oil that is thrown out of the pan has to perform a lot of work, while the rest of the oil in the pan does nothing. A system pushing oil around means that more oil is seeing duty to carry heat off and limiting wear.

Onan or another company would make a killing in the RV genset market by making an inverter generator that is coupled with a decent sized battery, and having the generator run on something similar to eco-throttle. If a large load hits, the battery would carry it (like the Yamaha 3000iSEB's mechanism) for a short time until the generator is up to speed. The result would be a nice, quiet, economical genset.

KJINTF:

My CCK is prior to the era of that fancy improvement Onan made: oil filters! It's got none - just splash lubrication. I do have an Onan NHD 6500 with that new-fangled oil filtering system.

The CCK doesn't even have electronic ignition - it still uses points! I need something to use my old automotive timing light and test tools on. :)

I'll admit I do like Honda small engines, however. My 1983 Honda lawnmower is still running great.

DryCamper11

I had one of those old Onan's for years and loved it's twin cylinder pressurized oil system with screw on filter. Got a new Rig and a POC Onan 4Kw Spec"K" single cylinder with a splash oil system - I hate it and wish I had kept the older one

Gave away my old Honda EX650 no need for it anymore which we purchased new in early 90's it still ran great.

My favorite gen is my Honda EX5500 Electric start, Liquid cooled, Acoustic damped, Two cylinder, Pressurized oil system with spin on filter been going strong for almost 20years

My favorite generator is the CCK 4KW Onan installed in my RV in 1973. It has only been out of the RV once in its entire life (for an upgrade), and it still runs as well as the day it was installed. It's solid cast iron and near indestructable. I know it's not fancy, not light, not state of the art and not as quiet as inverter gens, but it's there when I need it, and with just a bit of TLC, it will still be running when I decide I can't go RVing any more. I just have a soft place in my heart for that old heavy beast of a chunk of iron.

NinerBikes wrote:
51 pounds is 3 pounds more than a Honda Eu2000i. For 1/3 the wattage.

The EX650 may be "more reliable" too - many running EX650s are going on 25 years old. How many EU2000is are that old yet? Maybe an EU2000i will go that long and maybe it won't .... unknown as of right now.

A running EX650 can be bought for $200-$350 ... a bit less than any runnning used EU2000i can be bought for.

Also, an EX650 putting out it's maximum constant power of 550 watts is still only 54 dB in loudness. I wonder how loud an EU2000i is when it's rev'd up so as to be above it's idle RPM enough to output 550 watts?

Remember that to use an EU2000i's power range you have to put up with a loudness range of 53 dB up to 59 dB. Regarding the EU2000i when outputting it's maximum power (which, granted, is way higher than an EX650's maximum power): I've heard EU2000i generators running at full speed and it isn't pleasant ... not only are they at 59 dB, but it isn't the mild humming sound that the EX650 puts out no matter how much of the EX650's total power is being called for.

I'm not saying that the EX650 can "replace" an EU1000i or EU2000i for all RV uses. I'm saying that the EX650 is almost the quietest non-solar way to dump up to 30 amps into RV batteries during recharging. (For what it's worth, the quietest non-solar way to charge RV batteries anytime anywhere is with an automatic fuel cell system in the RV.)

pnichols wrote:
The Honda EX650 weighs 51 lbs. because it has mostly steel in it everywhere ... instead of a plastic casing and some other plastic parts as is in the newer Hondas. The inside walls of the EX650's steel encloser are insulated for additional sound proofing in addition to it's entire design being done by Honda engineers for minimum sound.

These are the reasons that the EX650 is so bullet-proof and has a very low constant sound level of only 54 dB.

A 30 amp charger holding 14.4 volts on an RV battery will draw around 432 watts - not counting efficiency losses in the charger. If the charger is 80% efficient, it will take 540 watts to power it for delivering 30 amps into a battery at a boost voltage of 14.4 volts.

The Honda EX650 will deliver 650 watts surge and 550 watts continuous, so it should do the 30 amp job unless the charger is a really inefficient one. It's almost as if the EX650 was specifically designed to do 30 battery charging. If you use a Power Factor Corrected charger, the EX650 might even fully power a 35 amp charger.

Here's a link to the specifications of the earlier non-inverter Honda portable generators. It's too bad that Honda didn't enclose their modern 1000i generator in a case like that of the EX650 for an ULTRA QUIET generator:

http://www.tappedin.com/hop/html/litegen.htm

I also use a like brand new EX1000 out around the property for powering 120V hand tools ... but note that the EX1000 is louder ... so I carry the EX650 in the RV instead of the EX1000.

51 pounds is 3 pounds more than a Honda Eu2000i. For 1/3 the wattage.

The Honda EX650 weighs 51 lbs. because it has mostly steel in it everywhere ... instead of a plastic casing and some other plastic parts as is in the newer Hondas. The inside walls of the EX650's steel encloser are insulated for additional sound proofing in addition to it's entire design being done by Honda engineers for minimum sound.

These are the reasons that the EX650 is so bullet-proof and has a very low constant sound level of only 54 dB.

A 30 amp charger holding 14.4 volts on an RV battery will draw around 432 watts - not counting efficiency losses in the charger. If the charger is 80% efficient, it will take 540 watts to power it for delivering 30 amps into a battery at a boost voltage of 14.4 volts.

The Honda EX650 will deliver 650 watts surge and 550 watts continuous, so it should do the 30 amp job unless the charger is a really inefficient one. It's almost as if the EX650 was specifically designed to do 30 battery charging. If you use a Power Factor Corrected charger, the EX650 might even fully power a 35 amp charger.

Here's a link to the specifications of the earlier non-inverter Honda portable generators. It's too bad that Honda didn't enclose their modern 1000i generator in a case like that of the EX650 for an ULTRA QUIET generator:

http://www.tappedin.com/hop/html/litegen.htm

I also use a like brand new EX1000 out around the property for powering 120V hand tools ... but note that the EX1000 is louder ... so I carry the EX650 in the RV instead of the EX1000.