Building your own Generator

just a picture of the generator that I put together. Cost about $700.00 and is 10,000 peak 7500 continuse. Hurbour freight generator head unit and a 13 hp engine that I got off line. scrap metal base and wheel off a oven unit. Wallmart battery. One day build. Powers all of van. Warmer, 6gal water tank,true frig,a/c top unit,lights,and cash regster.

this is the kind of stuff i love to see......
thats awesome !
 
dual belt drive i think i see ? what size pulleys did you end up using ? final rpm ?  great thread !v 

Hey there backalleyburger
I think but not sure there 3 1/2" and 1" center engine 3" 1" center gen head. not sure of rpm    might try going to a 4" on engine and 2 1/2 on gen head. see if I can bring rpm's down more.

Nice, how loud is it?

Louder than I like But was looking in the trash at where I store the van and just so happaned that I found a exhaust for a small engine that I grabed and going to build a custom muffler for it. God provides for just what I needed. It's a chi-knees knock off of a jap-o-knee Honda engine. Don't worry about copy rights.

Barbeque barn


Louder than I like But was looking in the trash at where I store the van and just so happaned that I found a exhaust for a small engine that I grabed and going to build a custom muffler for it. God provides for just what I needed. It's a chi-knees knock off of a jap-o-knee Honda engine. Don't worry about copy rights.

I can appreciate your desire for silence, but dont forget to calculate for backpressure with the added exhaust.
 
Just a thought

to much or to little back pressure. Was going to use a car muffler like a mini cooper muffler or something simular to that. Can restrict that if I have to, too give more back pressure.

Just to bring this up to the front for people to think about making there own. Cost about $700.00 and a day to put together.

Barbeque barn
to much or to little back pressure. Was going to use a car muffler like a mini cooper muffler or something simular to that. Can restrict that if I have to, too give more back pressure.

 
Mike,
you should be fine with back pressure as long as your manifold pipe is the correct size....... after about 6 inches your pretty much free to build it as you like
 
edit: i would go with a nice big expansion chamber after the manifold pipe, and then run that back down into a small car muffler, that should have you set up very quiet and bullet proof..... if you want to get fancy, run a sizable exhaust pipe down to trucks exhaust, and "Y" it in before the trucks muffler..... i bet you the noise will be 1/10th what it is now if even that much......
 
remember, not enough back pressure and you hurt performance and rattle valves..... too much back pressure, and you hurt performance greatly, and start burning valves

hey Bruse

hey

I went on craigslist and got a muffler off a KZ600 kawasaki and fitted it to the generator in about and hour and cut the noise at about half and at a cost of 20 dollars.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/photo.php?fbid=217767314914305&set=a.195122253845478.47907.100000431140276&type=1&theater

there ya go !.... man i love hearing about self sufficient people :)

Bruce I have to, I haven't the deep pockets as some people do and been a dumpster diver for years and can't seem to throw anything out.  You got to make do with what you have.

my dad was the same way..... sometimes he would go to the dump, and come back with more stuff then he took off with, lol
i wish i had his insight on things like that.... i can remember him bringing stuff home, and thinking what in the world!.... and then a month or two later being in the middle of a project, and that certain something being the perfect piece of the puzzle we couldnt do without....

I was thinking of something else when I went and got the muffler. But when I got home and started to take the exhaust off the generator I had it figured out in 15 mins how it was going to be a fit and work. 3" washer and 3 1/4 bolts was all it took and a little filing.

"I think but not sure there 3 1/2" and 1" center engine 3" 1" center gen head. not sure of rpm    might try going to a 4" on engine and 2 1/2 on gen head. see if I can bring rpm's down more. "
 
Do you mean that you need to bring the Generator RPM's down (ie.  bring the frequency of the output down) ? If so, bigger on the engine and smaller on the genhead will do the opposite of what you need.  If you mean that you would like to bring the engine  RPM's down, how do you know you won't just end up increasing the HZ output and running at the same engine RPM?

yotphix


"I think but not sure there 3 1/2" and 1" center engine 3" 1" center gen head. not sure of rpm    might try going to a 4" on engine and 2 1/2 on gen head. see if I can bring rpm's down more. "

Do you mean that you need to bring the Generator RPM's down (ie.  bring the frequency of the output down) ? If so, bigger on the engine and smaller on the genhead will do the opposite of what you need.  If you mean that you would like to bring the engine  RPM's down, how do you know you won't just end up increasing the HZ output and running at the same engine RPM?

 
thats the whole point of different size pulley wheels.....if the gen head is designed for 3,600rpm, and the engine runs best at 3,600rpm, then same size pulleys work..... if there is a difference in optimum speeds then pulleys get adjusted to give the correct rpms ...... if you adjust either wheel separately, they will simply "meet in the middle"........if you adjust both ends properly, then you can achieve the correct rpms where you need them 
 
edit: the slower of the two pieces will get the larger pully
 
here is a simple pulley calculator http://gadi.agric.za/software/renting/pulley.php

Bruce thank you for the link as to how to match pulleys for the generator. I look up the operating RPM range of the 13 hp Honda as a generator and they only use it on a 7500 watt and that runs at 1650 1950 rpm range with a 3600 rpm top for the engine and I don't know what I'm at as far as that my generator is a 10,000 watt. I'm at about half throttle so somewhere in the 1800 rpm range I'd say. Also I gained about an hour more time with the muffler change. to 5hrs time on a tank full of fuel.

whats the RPM on the power head supposed to be ?
and good to hear on the muffler swap !!... 25% increase, thats a huge difference!! will make the pockets happy towards the end of the month
thats like getting a week free gas at the end of the month, compared to what you were getting with it !

On the ad for the power head on the harbour freight it says you need a 16hp engine at 3600rpm for 10,000watts,This has to be at full load cap and I'm only using a 13 hp and runs fine. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=generator+head

muffler KZ600 kaw motorcycle $20.00 craigslist

Need to pick your brain...I have a patent on a Generator switch (EZ Generator Switch) and can't help to ask a couple of questions >>>not meaning any harm of course
where's the GFCI on your 120 volt side?
How did you ground your system?

The GFCI was in the panel and used GFIC outlets. Used a copper wire and stake to generator for ground.