SPROCKETS Small watercooled motor around 20HP?

A 3 point hitch genny sounds like a great idea, if you have the equipment.

I don't have a tractor. I have nothing to use a tractor on. Just rocks and trees. Well, rocks now and severely damaged trees. I think that HF generator is made to be used on a PTO like on a tractor.

You can ALWAYS find a use for a tractor. That would be true multi use: plow your rocks, drag your damaged trees, generate electricity.

I think you just upsold yourself doc.

What I need is a backhoe or a trackhoe. With a PTO. Then I could push over the trees that need pushing over, move pushed over/fallen trees, move rocks (well, some of them), smooth out the driveway so my friends on street bikes don't freak out, and generate electricity. However, economics is the study of unlimited wants with limited resources. Thus, the quest for that magic $50 jap bike in a ball.

what you need is a TLB....

tractor loader backhoe..

http://www.kubota.com/f/products/tlb.cfm

orange gives me wood.

Why exactly is a small 4-cylinder car motor out of the question? Anything late model and fuel injected would do the trick, it's only going to use the power it takes to turn the generator, like driving a car coasting downhill. I would think there are plenty of the smaller Civic engines pulled for swaps pretty much anywhere for nearly nothing. Sure it may take up more space then necessary, but who cares if it's stationary?

And if you feel bad about the over-sized engine hook a couple big car AC compressors on it and build yourself a gas powered home AC unit to keep you cool too when the power's out. Heck, wouldn't take much to divert the coolant to a heat exchanger and use it to heat the place as well. At least heat and cool the shop with it.

ignorant wrote: what you need is a TLB.... tractor loader backhoe.. http://www.kubota.com/f/products/tlb.cfm orange gives me wood.

I wuvs Kubota stuff.

oldopelguy, I haven't ruled out a small car motor, but I'm leaning towards a bike engine for the weight. I'd really like this under my porch. If it is bike engine based, I can muscle it down there. An iron block motor weighing 300 lbs, like a 4AGE, would be too much for me to move down there. I thought about putting one behind or next to my shop, where I could probably muscle one to, but that wouldn't link into my house power system very well. Under the porch does, and I can use a true generator switchover box and actually be safe. It's about 150 ft to the shop. If I could find a small and light enough car motor, that would be OK, but then I have to have a transmission or some other means of attaching the generator, etc., and not a simple chain drive. I don't know how well a V belt or multi-grove belt will handle 10HP. I guess it might.

You probably don't want chain on the generator anyway, very few of them are designed for any sort of side load on the rotor. Same goes and worse for belts. You really want the generator to be driven off the end of the crankshaft using maybe a misalignment coupling but probably a u-or cv-joint. Subaru or VW AC would be easiest here because of the airplane crowd already making prop drives for them, though those parts aren't really in the GRM spirit.

The easiest solution for driving it would probably be a pair of auto trans flex-plates, one with a standard electric motor coupler carefully welded to the middle and then attached to the other with matching bolts and spacers. Add a plate to the trans end of the bell-housing and use it to attach the generator head off the back of the motor. The only odd-ball part is the welded flex-plate, and neither of the two parts used to make it is expensive or difficult to replicate later if it fails on you.

If you're building this to be stationary you're going to need to build a cage around the motor to enclose it for keeping the critters out and dampening the sound a bit. Also to hold up the radiator in front of the mechanical fan (you do't want to worry about an electric) and probably mount some gauges and cotrol switches to. For wrestling it to the back yard even 300# isn't going to be any worse than a dishwasher when you can strap it to a furniture dolly or hand truck once it's in a framework. As long as you pick something reliable and under-stressed, it's not like you're going to need to move it much.

I've always wanted to trailer mount a volks-aire converted VW air-cooled motor with a welder/gen head on it. I always figured it would be just about perfect for hauling tools somewhere and being able to use both the air ones and the electric ones, and it would make a great back-up gen unit as well. Couple of modified plugs and I could use the welder leads to transfer power to the house even.

Maybe an old aircraft-style engine, they are made for 100% duty cycle and run at lower RPMs.

Hey, a 2 wheeled section! Cool!

Here's a simple way to connect a gennie to a shaft drive engine: chain and spider couplings.

The chain allows some axial and angle misalignment. They aren't generally rated for a lot of HP, though. The spider couplings can be had in higher ratings but don't allow as much misalignment.

As far as engines, right now they are in high demand but if you could find a Geo Metro 3 banger that should work as well. That would be a lot lighter than the iron block 'Yota motors. Another light one would be the Subie pushrod flat 4. Those are getting pretty old now, though.

In the 20HP range maybe a Kohler or similar aircooled would work and they are usually pretty easy to find around lawnmower shops. I realize you said liquid cooled but that keeps bringing us back to car and bike engines which are generally not intended for continuous single speed operation. The Briggs V twins seem to be pretty tough as well

kidsscooter wrote: Hi there I’m a newbie here I also wanted to know more about scooter particularly kids scooter I suppose I’ll be able to gain information here and also hoping to give you some tips regarding to this matter. ______________________

Canoe.

Canoes are reviving some very, very old threads...

Dr. Hess wrote: I'd really like this under my porch.

Under the porch may not be a good idea, unless the porch is made of asbestos. There may or may not be code issues in your area, but in general a generator should be located away from the building and/or equipped with an appropriate enclosure to minimize the risk of a fire.

Hey Woody, When you quote the canoe, don't quote the linky. The linky is what they want for their google rating, which is why they canoe, near as I can tell.

Stu, I bought a Honduh powered 7KW load, 8.x KW surge generator at Sam's for one large. My plan is to build a generator house for it out by the power pole. I have a 200 amp generator switch box (HF, used the 20% off coupon) and the box is so big that it wouldn't fit in or even under my house, so that dictated the "where" a bit too. My porch is open and about 7' up in the air over where I had planned on putting it. Fire hazard there would be about zero, unless the whole thing burst into flames.

Dr. Hess wrote: Hey Woody, When you quote the canoe, don't quote the linky. The linky is what they want for their google rating, which is why they canoe, near as I can tell.

Thanks. Fixed it.

Motorcycle engine is definitely a bad choice. They aren't that light anyway, because of the tranny. A complete Honda D-series engine is about 1/3-1/2 the weight of the engine out of my 'wing.

Use a DPFI manifold with a single barrel downdraft carb, stock distributor with a GM HEI module (or a JDM carb'd distributor if you can find one). At 2000rpm it should make ~25-30hp, and it will probably run 24/7 for years at 2000rpm.