walkers2rad
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Re: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
I was wondering when we were going to hear how that was working out for you. Its good to hear a good lenghty honest and open opinion on something like that to give individuals an insight on how something may or may not work out in their situation. It would have helped me nail down a decision quicker on what I ended up doing and taken away some of the risk but in the end I would probably do it over. Glad you got a deal on it as it takes some of the sting out of something not quite working out exactly to expectation! You can always get your money back out of something if you buy it right!286Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Hmmmm, C42412 with a hour meter. 16 hrs per day x 610 days = 9770 total Change oil every other tank. Tank cap. 1.45 US GAL. Spark plugs last 960 hours. And 'Pigs fly'. Floyd Alot of people might be... lets just say more crafty than you? Maybe he has a bulk tank to run his gen off of. Installing a 120v hour meter is probably something most people could pull off. Did you know that half of all americans score below average in a standard intelligence test?387Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
A follow up as I asked the seller what the digital box replacement cost would be and here is the reply.... I dont believe it, almost want to send the money just to see what I get! Told him to send me as many air filters and spark plugs as he could for my credit for not having the RV plug in. "we can credit you 20 dollars or we can send you an air filter and 2 spark plugs and we will pay for shipping. please let me know what you want. a digital box is about 35 dollars with shipping." I also tried hooking up the snap on digital tach and advance timing light and tho I figured that it would not be accurate with a single as opposed to a 4 6 or 8 cyl. (somehow it does that automaticly) I am not sure if dividing the reading by any of those is very accurate either. I was showing 6300 rpm in economy mode and 9600 rpm with the economy off. Ray313Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Old & Slow wrote: Richheck, I noticed the plug in a local RV store last week. I need that for my home shore power cord. Guess I'll have to return and buy one. Floyd Using that at home will not quite give the same benefit as it does from a gen but rather a possible sense of false security in thinking one can pull more from the outlet than they should. With that said I dont necessarily think those should be sold to the general public. It does make a better connection to the outlet but may move the place where things get hot to inside the outlet box where the potential for fire is greater. Most houses are wired so that both plugs dont pull power from different circuts between the two outlets in the wall. In a gen they may be on seperate circuts. Sure if you pull your outlet out you may notice that it has two sets of wires to it but one is power coming in and the other is going to another outlet. Sure one could be wired with two different circuts with this in mind from the beginning but not likely. So you would be limited by whatever your outlet is wired with, 14 gauge wire and a 15 amp breaker is going to be just that using this or the adapter you probably allready have. If it is on a 20 amp breaker and you have 12 gauge wire and so on. Pulling 30 amps requires 10 gauge wire minimum... 8 if it is a long distance. So consider the distance from that outlet box to the breaker when trying to pull extra power because too much distance can create a dangerous condition with wires heating up. The key is knowing what your actual loads are and your limits.336Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Thanks for the notes of appreciation, it took alot more time writing and rewriting all of that to make sense than anything else! Had it not been for a pm of encouragement from somebody I came to respect in reading most of this thread it may have ended with eff em if they dont want to know. I figured the orange adapter was just too good to be true! Prof, do tell with pics of your creation when the storm gets done with you... but then you might be needing it! Hope for all effected to come out ok. Being fully aware of my loads now kind of indicates that I may be able to get by as is, but then again I am not known for leaving things alone. Yes it seems that the numbers on the package are no indication of actual output, that was partially evident in the specs tho. I cant help but wonder what actual proven capability of others is in comparison to claimed. To answer some questins... I have absolutly no inkling to rip out my built in and replace it with this nor do I suggest anyone else does. Even if some major problem was to surface with th onan I doubt it. Time will tell on how long this thing goes for... throw away probably more likely than not. If it does see an early demise I will struggle with thoughts that agressive testing played a part. Lets hope not! Normally I am the type that only runs a gen when absolutly necessary and as a result batteries can take a beating. It is mostly an economics kind of thing along with the noise. To give you an idea I had a 4kw microlite in my previous 01.. to 06 MH and I dont think I broke much more than a hundred hours with it. I didnt care much for the high rpm's and noise, it was just past the edge of being annoying for me. My 06 has about a hundred hours now, the lower rpms make it easier to take so I have used it more. With this handy I dont have any reason to abuse batteries, the low rpm and better economy may compel me to use it quite alot. I expect at least a hundred hours a year possibly more. So if it lasts four or five years I am sure that there will be better and maybe cheaper out there. It is exciting the increases in efficiency that comes with this technology, can you imagine using this method of generation on a small efficient diesel engine? I think light loads going up to 8 hours on a gallon of fuel could be possible. I think onan and the like needs to take the bull by the horns on this with a new line of lighter, quieter and efficient rv gen sets if they can work past the patent hurdles. They seem to be producing some smaller units but for all I know they are just putting their name on on the side of something not too unlike this. I think honda is missing the boat in not producing a size up from the 2kw that is more convienent than the 3kw. All sales are probably sagging, evident by rebates and special offers. I have never lifted a 3kw but it looks like a two man lift and I generally dont go camping with two men. :) As far as the speed this runs... maybe I could access something to get a photo tach on but for now I can only guess. I think it idles in economy at 1800 rpm or less, 1750 watts seems roughtly 3600rpm which matches the economy off speed I am not sure yet if that is annoying for me. Full output may be 5000 rpm and it would bother me in more ways than one to have it there for long. I think this will spend most of its time running a load between 1 and 1.5kw and it seems easy to live with at those loads in the economy mode. I didnt think of using my clamp on analog current meter to measure the surge... DOH! Come to think about it I have a snap-on digital advance timing light that gives rpm's maybe we will see how close I am! I will ask the seller to get me a price on the digital box and have him send me a plugs and air filters in leiw of the rebate for what I allready have. Ray336Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
So I ran all of the tests that I could think of, let me know if there is anything I missed that might be worth the trouble. I could probably get a scope to look at the sine wave but I dont know if that would be of much value. First the 12v battery (overcharging) output. I hooked up a charged auto battery reading 12.6 volts. Economy mode with no load voltage climbed quickly to 15.75v, ramped up to speed 17v. So leaving this on a battery you like will not do it any favors unless you are going to keep an eye on the voltage. Kind of to be expected, the obvious answer would be an automatic charger. In the interest of efficiency I may tie this into the solar regulator on my big box trailer that only has a 5 watt panel to keep up the battery for storage but does not keep up very well when the lights and such are used much. For some reason I wanted to find out what kind of load it takes to demand more rpm from the economy mode. At around 350-400 watts you start to notice by the sound of the engine that it is loading some with no change in speed. 500 watts is where it is obvious that the speed starts to pick up some. Subsequent testing finds that with 1kw loads there is a significant difference in speed with economy mode on and off and at 1750w they match up about the same and loads over that gains more speed, all as to be expected. So I turn off all breakers in the MH except the input and the A/C. Measure the fan only draw to find 275w lo and 300 hi, consistant front and rear. Give a try to start the rear compressor w/fan on low in the economy mode and no other load and no dice, stalls the motor with too much surge load with the rpm's so low. However I find it does start a 1550 watt resistive heater box load or a 1400 watt microwave from the economy mode. I suspect that with maybe about 600 watts of base load so that the engine has more momentum it may start the compressor but that might be just plain hard on everything. So I start it with economy mode off. I have no way of telling what the surge current was but pressure building starts at 900 watts. It settles in at about 1040 watts but it is not working hard cause it is in the cooled garage. With one a/c running I add 1020 watts of resistive load (heater box on low) to the other plug in and it picks it up kind of reluctantly and carries it. Clicking it up to a Hi 1550 watts for a total of about 2600 watts surge triggers an overload and it idles down and needs shut off and restarted to reset. So I see what it will take by sneeking up the load slowly and at 2250 watts I add another 60watt light bulb which finds its limits. My altitude is 2650' if that makes any difference, it was likely the electronics kicking it out. At 2250 it was wound up tight like it was near its limits, sounded like 5,000 rpm's. I check and note what all my loads are... Reefer takes 315 watts when switched on. TV, DVR, DVD/VHS and surround consumes 85-100 watts. Small three stage charger for the coach battery pulls 85 watts in its bulk charging mode. Batteries were up so did not really test the PD 45 with cw, if I remember right it takes what it wants up to 875 watts. Since the batteries are up and it is in float mode, draw was minimal. The only additional mods I have planned for it is possibly add that rv recept and an hour meter to be able to see how long it lives. I am hoping at least long enough to pay for itself in gas savings to make the convience factor a bonus. It will save me the most using it on the houseboat. I expect at least a 75% fuel savings over the 8kw westerbake marine 4cyl. I hate running that for several hours a day just to run the chest freezer and keep up on the batteries. The savings in not having to buy so much ice may be a side benefit. I expect to save at least half or more as an alternitive to running the 5500 onan a good deal of the time. Being able to run a single a/c at night for sleeping while camping in the summertime will be a great comfort for sure when the nighttime temps are high. I can handle a dollar an hour at todays gas prices much better than twice that. I will come back and own up to it if the smoke gets out of it before its time, but for now I am happy with it as it does everything I need it to do. I hope that everyone understands that I didnt share any of this to try to convince anyone to buy one of these or sell out of whatever they are using, especially if they like what they have. It is all in the spirit of sharing of knowledge and experience. Not everyone needs to be saved from themselves and if nobody goes out on a limb nothing gets learned. Ray205Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
So this is the fuel mod I did to allow hooking up to any external fuel source be it marine tank or in my case the main 75 or aux 25 gal tanks of my RV. Nice thing about doing it this way is that I can shut off the on board tank and run aux without messing with any kind of thru cap set up and when not everything operates normally. Fuel from the built in tank enters in that open nipple to the left and goes to a fuel shut off valve, after that is the "Y" that I put in. I punched a small hole in the case only big enough for the barb of the quick connect with built in shut off to poke thru and clamped the hose to it. The thing to the right is some kind of vacuum operated lift pump as far as I can tell. Funny thing is that I thought of the primer bulb as more like an outboard primer but it is more just a vacuum pump to run this pump. The third line on it goes to what looks like manifold vacuum.205Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Maybe you can call the supplier who advertises all parts in stock and get some sort of replacement parts cost breakdown. That would be extremely interesting! Hmmmmmmm - Don't want to sound jaded here, but - Walkers, where have you seen that suggestion before? ~ JC JC, Funny you should mention that because I was going to follow up on the issue of it not having the 30amp RV recept and while I was at it brought up spare parts. If anybody doesnt want to read the e-bay dirty laundry move on to the next post. In the interest of disclosure here it is... At least a partial victory for you bay haters... enjoy! Question about my dilema on the bottom. My first e-mail sent monday night... went something like this (excerpts to shorten it) "my only issue is that it did not happen to come with the "built in 30 AMP RV (TT-30) receptacle for direct plug in for most RV's." as the listing states. You may not consider that a major issue, however that configuration is how I expected to use it and was a major consideration in bidding. I am hoping that there is a way you can send me the RV panel for me to install. I may be interested in purchasing some spare parts for it ie:..." I get the playing stupid and offer to buy me off reply. "the rv amp is installed in the unit. if you need a plug in then only place to get that adapter plug in is at radio shack. they are 15 dollars. we can credit you that amount of money. let me know if i can further assist you." Radio shack... gimme a break! RV amp installed? Watcha talking bout willis? "The unit you sent has two 15 amp standard household outlets. This is copied and pasted directly from your listing, not something I just made up... "It also has a built in 30 AMP RV (TT-30) receptacle for direct plug in for most RV's" The pictures in the manual show it along with one standard outlet if you dont know what one looks like. It allows the full output of the generator which may exceed 20 amps to be availabe at the RV receptacle. A 15 amp outlet is just that and trying to pull more power out of it is obviously asking for trouble. Your listing also states... "We are always fully stocked on all parts for our GX-3000 watt digital generator if you ever need them in the future.". So I would assume that you stock the correct RV panel along with the parts I asked about. If your supplier did not send generators with the configuration you expected then you are going to have nothing but problems with the RV market you are targeting with your listing as it is." Reply, not getting what I want but there is a refund option. "we have only the parts that you have on your generator. we can credit you money if you need to buy that 15 dollar adapter. you were the first one we sold to so we have fixed a couple things in our site. there is a built in 30 amp however there is no plug in recepticle. we carry every part that you see on your generator. any other part we can credit you money for you to buy or i will have ups pick up the unit. let me know before your 30 day return warranty expires." Now I know some of you want to say take the refund and run but that is just not the direction I care to take, besides I made a small hole in the case for the fuel mod I will detail later. There are a few ways I can deal with this situation from here and I could use some input. 1. I could plug into it with an adapter like I tested it, it is a pretty heavy duty one and may be able to take the current but I dont know about the recept. My most severe draw which would be rare would be running a single coleman mach a/c out of my two which has a load share/shed system to be able to run from a 30a service on my 06 fleetwood 32'. I dont know what btu they are but I am sure it is not the big ones. The most draw I have measured from it is about 1650 watts. I can shed any other load and this would probably only be at night for sleeping when it is hot and humid fridge on gas and 130w solar keeps the batts up pretty well. Do you think I can safely draw that thru the adapter on a single outlet? 2. I have seen an adapter block for a honda that takes the two outlets and combines them into a 30amp recept for full power. I dont know if my outlet config would match up so I would have to look into it, but do you think these outlets could be tied together to safely get full output from this gen? Although I would probably do it by taking a 30a female pig tail I have and grommet and strain relief it thru the panel and solder and heat shrink them all tied together. What do you think? I will ask him for a parts price list in my reply. Thanks in advance for your input. This is the gen load running an a/c, moho was in the garage so it wasnt working quite as hard as it normally would.205Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Matt, thanks for pointing out the things I wasnt sure of... Sometimes I know just enough to be dangerous! Spectacular failure and smoldering blocks of charcol, now you are starting to scare me! Could happen but minor in comparison to the things I have seen as far as failures go. I have worked with gen sets up to 2000kw and diesel electric haul trucks capable of payloads in excess of 340tons (do the math on how many fully loaded semi's you would have to pile in the back of one of these to fully load it) How many electrons it takes to move that load up grades greater than you have ever seen on a highway. The braking it takes to stop it from 55mph. I spent several weeks helping to make one fully autonomus, if you want to talk about serious potential for costly damage.205Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
So this is what takes in three phase power from the six black wires on the upper right side, turns it into by my measurements 124.2v @59.85HZ. It meaures the load via those two hand made looking doughnuts you see there (I think) to tell it where to run the throttle and cut off the load if necessary. There are some possibly servicable caps there, some probably for filtering of the a/c noise or smoothing voltages. Beyond that if it stops doing what it does you probably have the rest to part out unless you find another part you are willing to pay for. It does concern me that the inspection tag shows 2kw hopefull that is an indication of what they test it at and not what it is rated for! It does seem like there are alot of these gens starting to hit the market if the bay is any indication and only difference might be the color of the case. This is the back of the panel... nothing too exciting here, everything quick connects via keyed and non matching connectors. Professor... Is there a difference in the claimed digitals and what honda does? Somewhere I read that they were transistor technology and more of a msw output? Just curious cause I dont know. Tune in later for testing details and a fuel mod for hooking to an external fuel source without messing with the cap.259Views0likes0Comments
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