Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Invest in a bottle of Stabil for Ethanol gas....run it in the gas tank all the time. Much cheaper & easier than rebuilding carbs every year.

 

OK,gonna throw this out,,anybody need some 12b danner boots?My feet have gotten larger with age(doctor says it is normal,I have some danner(usa made) insulated 12B (yes,narrow) boots that I would like to go to a good user.Just pm me

 

It's a fair question badbob , about every 10 years or so we have a major multi-day outage in this area, the Ice Storm of '98 we were without power for 14 days, the Ice Storm of 2008 we were without power for 7 days. These are major events, that affect hundreds of thousands / millions of electric customers: it takes time to rebuild that much electric grid infrastructure.

Having a Genset allows you to remain at home, keeps the water pipes from freezing, and keeps you warm. It's not so much convenience, as it is preservation of systems (water, etc.) and property, during these events.

* It's also "self-preservation", if I told the wife we were going to be without running water or a flushing toilet for a week or two ..
Well,


We do not have Propane or Natural Gas available, so DV heaters are not an option - it's #2 Oil furnace here, which is common in our area.

Our Genset cost $900 new back in 2007, about the same as (1) of the dv35 heaters there. I figure we'll be due for a new one within a year or two - depending on how this one (Craftsman 5,600 watt / 7,500 surge start) runs this season. It has about 800 hours total run-time on it, but is starting to show it's age.

In case you're interested:

Ice Storm of '98:
January 1998 North American ice storm - Wikipedia

Ice Storm of '08:
December 2008 Northeastern United States ice storm - Wikipedia

 

I know Pete, I know.. Every season I'm guaranteed to dump at least one can of non-Stabil'd gas in that tank.

 

One can of non-treated gas should NOT be the cause of a carb rebuild each year.

 

It isn't Pete, on it's own - carb gets pulled each year as part of service, and it's just easier to disassemble & inspect / clean / replace, vs. having to worry it starting, under adverse conditions.. been there, done that.

It's an old heavy Briggs motor, and takes moderate pull strength to even get it to turn 4-5 revolutions on each pull. -Any- kind of film or crud in the carb, and it isn't starting. The gen is only 5,600 watts, but the motor on it is sized up to run a larger genset. 20 minutes trying to pull-start this motor, and I'm a tired, sweaty mess, w/ a sore shoulder as a bonus - not ideal when ice and tree limbs are crashing down around you.

Dunno why any standing fuel fouls the bowl & jet in the carb on this motor, if it sits for more than a season or two - while the same fuel can sit in the lawnmower for all winter, buried under sn*w (usually), and start on the 1st, or 2nd pull.

Today's project: find some 8 10 gauge wire, some spade & ring connectors, and make some adapter wires so the lawn tractor battery will power the electric starter on the generator. And put back everything I tossed out of the woodshed to clear space for the generator last night.

 

When you live alone the priorities are totally different just like your pellet stashNot knocking you one bit, we others also would like to be alone at times Hope I didn't think that out loud

 

Glad your genny is working and everyone is warm and happy

 

Thanks G, and good luck getting those Shear Pins today. Stores are closing early, heading out soon here.

 

Well the missing shear bolts have had me doing way more research on these bolts that I have before. In the past I have done some because the Honda Dealers charge way too much for a bolt and nut. But there was always the nagging "what if" and not wanting to toast the gearbox.

I have now found that the bolt is used by Honda in many applications as a bolt so it is nothing special. Part # for the bolt is 92101-06016-0A. Its used in automotive as well under exact same part #

Its Metric Grade 8.8 16 x 6 bolt. Period. The auger setup is designed to brake this bolt within its tensile strength.

In the end, this little episode can save me some coin going forward.

Aubuchon doesnt have metric 8.8 I need in the size but plenty of grade 5 that I can use for Monday

 

I stocked up for my Ariens years ago, home de(s)pot had them. New blower, used the same as the old. Have two on the machine and more in my spare parts chest.

 

I think it was 2012, the first week long power outage was for the October snowstorm, then we were out another week later in the year. and i think a 2 dayer as well. generator ran intermittent duty to warm the house, showers, and whatnot.

since then i think we had only one occurrence for a day in cold weather. but the State , towns, and Eversource have been trimming trees a lot to prevent another October deal.

 

The generator I am going to get is going to be dual fuel, I'm through playing with gasoline all it does is foul up during any longer than 2 months sitting idle. I had one such on order that *zon made good on. I gave my 5000 running watts one to my nephew along with the old snowblower and parts, both are up and running again.

 

Me too. Got 10 original ones off fleabay cheap.

 

In over 10 years we have lost power for 30 hours and that was this past October during a windstorm. The prior major outages didn't even cause the power to flicker.

 

I haven't gone looking for any. I like just picking the gas up where I fill up the car make's it simple now I can get a couple of empty 40 lb cylinders and get them filled and end of fooling with long term gasoline handling.

 

Success!!

Now that I had the specs, Aubuchon had the exact replacement bolt and the locking nuts to match

Metric 8.8 6 x 16 course thread, 1.00 pitch.

$1.25 for the bolt and locking nut. Way cheaper than the Honda dealer price and they dont give you a locking nut so they need to be re tightened fairly often.

 

Just lost a crown on the tooth implant

Got the crown and it has a small break on it from when it was chewed on after it came out. This better be warranty

 

WTF
Great timing Holiday weekend