Justme

I think you might want more than 30 ton. I have just done a track & used 70 ton for a 3m wide & about 50m long track & really it needs more. I used "sub base" which packs down hard.

That looks the part. I would deff need one with the acoustic cabinet or I would be up for that.

Yeh I know, we bought a used one & it dint last long. It still does start, run & make power but after about 20 mins cuts out. I was thinking of sending it off to be sorted. But sounds like its not worth it so I might just tinker with it. The 16 kva sound interesting. Whats the fuel consumption like? Yes I know its the noise thats the issue (neighbour & us). The Pramac with the lid shut is OK but open the lid & it gets loud. (but the 1kw petrol suitcase type one I borrowed is worse, not louder just worse, I guess its the frequency) How much? If its a 2001 wont it be a listeroid? Whats the fuel consumption like on that? I guess as you have not fixed it it will need a new alt or costly repair? Got any pics? I could fit a dc alt to direct charge the bats as a temp fix. Typical when you want one there are no canopies on ebay. I think longer term a 2 or 3 kw one for regular use & a 10kw+ one for bigger jobs. At least have a spare then & also wont be using to much fuel on a big one running small loads. I did consider a "heat & power" set up but even in winter we dont run the genny enough to provide heat. Plus it will mean having the genny closer to the house. I have also toyed with the idea of a steam powered one as we have "free" wood. They seem to be small model types or large ones.

No problem then.

Nice stack. If I was going to stack it neat I would have done it with the bark side up. Thinking that any rain would run off.

That would give me a genny replacement cost of £330 per year over the 5 years it will take me to do 4000 hours. At that its almost worth buying cheap ones & changing them every year. (but they are not a quiet) I will defo be upping the oil changes. I guess I will sell it when I feel its starting to show signs of wear & to be unreliable. I would prefer a longer lasting one but the cost & the noise is an issue. One neighbour that is about 250m away was complaining about the genny we had before this one (powerplus I think) this one so a thumper is not a good idea.

Well its arrived back. So I refilled it with oil & started her up. Was running smooth (remember this is with no load & before the service). I then connected it up to my system to see what it was doing with a very small load & a larger load. I then fitted the service parts & repeated the test. I was hoping to be able to show a difference in the before & the after shots but they were the SAME. This is small load This is a larger load UMains = incoming mains voltage IMain = incoming current UOut = voltage entering the domestic meter IOut = current being used via the domestic meter Udc = battery bank voltage Udc = ripple is battery bank voltage variation Idc = charging current going into the battery bank Freq Out = Hertz at domestic meter Freq In = hertz from genny The first pic shows a 0.3 amp load on mains & no charger (the other 0.1 amp is the system load) so 0.4amps from genny. The second pic shows a 9 amp total load on genny with the same 0.3 amps to the mains meter & the charger using the rest to charge at 106 amps. As you can see the herts (so engine speed) is high at 54 hertz with virtually no load & still slightly high at 52 hertz with the largest load we can apply. It is also interesting to see that the £200 AVR module seems to not be working very well as the genny voltage alters from 226v no load to 219v under half load.

I can even if needed set the inverter to Assist Mode. So if the power need hits the limit set for the available power from the genny (which I set for 1 or 2 amps below max) it will sync with the genny & add in the extra power needed. It also has a UPS mode where the switching is extra fast (but the standard setting does it quick enough for tv, lights & computers any way) A full strip every 2400 hours is about every 3 years for me. What is it likely to need? a, a clean up b, full recon At the min I am borrowing a cheapy import petrol 2000w genny. Its coping with all our standard loads apart from the inverter drops the charging when the freezer starts (due to hertz going down to 47/48, at 52 off load), but once started it starts charging again so is coping with the load just not the starting load.

Thanks for the comments. Yep its the P6000s. Lovely & quiet. Runs smooth starts on the button every time. Has some good design features (like the oil drain pipe, Fuel filler & level indicator, single lifting hook, elec & pull start, not that its been needed yet). The wheel kit is ok but does add to the noise so needs a bit of padding to stop handle shaking. I would highly recommend the genny, but so far cant recommend the UK agent. The dealer has been ok too. (had it failed out side the warrranty I would have done more tests on it my self & would have found the fault & fixed it for less than a tenner & if I could not find it a local genny place would have done it for a reasonable fee, in fact last time I have work done (sorting out the elec motor on a hydraulic sausage stuffer) I paid him in fresh meat from our own on farm butchers shop) I want to add remote start & stop to it (but not auto mains fail start) so in winter I dont have to go outside in the rain to opperate it & I also have a bat SOC (thats state of charge) meter that can activate a set of contacts at a pre programmed V or SOC to trigger the remote start & then hold it till the bats are full & had an EQ charge. I can also do the same with the inverter & solar charge controller as they too have controllable relays. I had a genny before this one that had auto start on mains fail. I just used the on & off switch on that to trigger it as the mains was not passed through the ports just turning it on would start the genny. In fact I still have it but would need to sort the wiring out to add it to this one. Service oil change is in the book at 200 hours I have been doing it at 100. But if you think its best to do it at 50 I will up it (oil condition/feel/ colour seems ok still at 100 hours). Its not a huge cost. My tractor "looses" more than that in a week or so. It runs for between 6 & 12 hours every 3 to four days. So about 12-20 hours per week max. Just checked that & my usage this year has been Month Hours JAN 88 FEB 80 MAR 88 APR 86 MAY 88 Had less solar panels in Jan to May as I added 50% more in Jun/Jul JUN 33 (just for power tools) JUL 0 KWh made from genny (only started recording from here) AUG 25 24 (just for power tools) SEP 29 56 OCT 65 113 NOV 68 112 DEC ? June July & Aug was mainly running it for power tools. I check the oil every time I start it. When new it used lots of oil for the first 50 odd hours & then slowed down & is now hardly using any. We dont use it much in spring & summer as the solar will provide nearly all our needs. Just the odd day running power tools ect. Our standard max load is less than 4000w with every thing on & the longer its on the more it goes down due to the bats taking less from the charger. The biggest single load would be my welder. But that only ever used on its own at low settings & is plugged in via the 15amp breaker so cant draw more than 3600watts ish & I dont use it often. I am however looking at a bigger genny (poss PTO as its more mobile & can be used as a back up if the main one fails again) for it as I cant turn it up to max for thick stuff. They have point blank refused to do it under warranty. Even after my selling dealer tried to convince them. The dealer has just passed on the costs with no mark up. The repair bill is courier both ways £90.70 (which is cheap for a 200kg plus pallet on next day) capacitor £4.50 Labour £54.67 (just to test & fit cap) VAT £19.14 (already added in above costs) Total £146.75 (the thing is I would have been liable for the courier any way & had it been a warranty item I would have had the dealer service as well, so all it would have cost them is the £4.50 cap & 30 seconds to fit it) Thats the min to fix. They also wanted to do a service for about £100 but I said no. So they would have got more money out of me doing it as a warranty item. But I did buy a service kit for £37.63 inc vat that contains 1x air filter 1x oil filter 1x gauze fuel filter 1x paper fuel filter 2 x 1 litre bottles of oil (did try to not have the oil as I buy that in bulk but its part of the "pack") The thing is that have now fixed it (due back on Monday) & I assume tested it WITHOUT DOING THE SERVICE that they say caused the failure. It will be interesting to measure the RPM when it returns to see if it really is slow & if it changes after fitting the new filters.

No Andy I'm not on the tranny forum. Thanks for your comments gensetsteve. I have been very happy with the genny (and recommended it to lots of people) so far & was not even that miffed when it failed still in the warranty period. How I will feel about that company in the future will depend on the repair cost & how they treat me. I would have gone down the lister road but need to keep the noise down as we have a complaining neighbour. Please do give me your honest opinion. Thats what I dont get either. Even with a pallet cost each way we are not talking much. I might know more once I get their quote for fixing it.

I am on the Navi forum (and others) already. I am getting a good mix of replies from them all.

Yep they do sound a bit yehar. I would guess they are a franshise but the people I am dealing with are the makers UK importer / dealer / agent. I bought from an independant. I might just make that call to a few genny places to see what they say. I have a petrol one that I am using. Its up & down the rev range like billyo. What about the ones with saver settings to knock back the speed to save fuel under low loads?

They had it collected so I have the couriers paperwork. It is the makers tech dept lol. (well the Uk branch any way) As my "rights" are with the seller & not the maker. I will have to get it fixed & then chase the seller. But they will use the makers report as defence. Unless I can find an expert to "diss" there report I am stuffed. But like I said they will loose out more. I will diss them to hell & back & if I loose them one sale it will have cost them more than replacing one cap. As I am an off gridder I am in contact with lots of people that use & buy this sort of genny. A personal recommendation goes a long way or not lol.

Thats the trouble. Its in with the dealers & they are saying that the air filter & fuel filter are causing the engine to run "rough" & have blown the cap. I think the engine sounds lovely & smooth. So they wont fix it under warranty. dont know yet what they will want to fix it. If it is just a cap which cant cost much to change or fit I think they are playing a stupid game risking their good name for a few £. Mine does have the AVR as I paid extra for it. That should make the standard cap redundant.

1, Thats what I thought 2, Ditto 3, I bought it new. Its 2 weeks inside its warranty 4, This one comes with no AVR. The AVR add on is about £200 which I paid. As it has the Avr (with its own 2 caps) the alt cap should be redundant I would have thought?

Its a 4.8kw / 6kva unit. No sync with mains as we have none. Does not need to sysn to inverter as the inverter drops out & passes through (but still monitors) when genny is on. The inverter lets the genny start under no load then once stable will pass through the power. The load it takes over is quite small (1 or 2 amps) & then the inverter will ramp up the charger slowly adding the load. On shut down the charger will have lowered its demand & the inverter again senses the shut down & switches back to inverter power before the genny shuts down. So I dont think its a sudden loading / unloading problem. Will check out that how to link thanks.

I know that the engine turns the alt to make the elec. I am after a bit more than that. Without going in to to many details just yet. I have a genny (no not a cheapy ebay jobby one but a £2k plus one) that has stopped making power. Its been diagnosed as having a faulty cap. They are saying that the cap blew / failed due to the engine running at to low & variable speed. (which they are blaming on a slightly dirty air filter & the fuel filters that still flow fuel freely so cant be blocked at all) Now I would assume that the caps job is to smooth out any variances in the speed especially as the genny was fitted with the add on AVR module so that the power produced was suitable for sensitive equipment. Also of note is that the power is fed to the appliances via an inverter charger that monitors the power for V & Hertz & will disconnect if the values are not up to spec. The inverter has not been doing that. So what does the cap do (the genny has two, the second is wire to the AVR but I dont know which one failed) & why would it fail. The engine sounded lovely to me, never missing a beat, easy to start & stop

Think about that for a min. Unless you use a smaller drill the plugs will have shrunk & still be too small.

That maybe but when that green plug dries out it will shrink & fall out the hole. Just the same as oak building pegs are made from seasoned oak yet go into green oak beams. Then it gets tighter as the beams season. Your way is the opposite of that.

Will that be wide enough for 2 wheel chairs to pass? Even at 2 x 60cm it sounds a bit tight. Might need passing points as well. Price wise its about 1.4m3 (49.5 cu ft) I would guess that £15-20 per cu ft would be about right so total cost of £742 to £990 (so £8 per board is about right if it takes 100 boards) But you do need thicker than 3cm unless the frame work is very close set so that will up the cost.

That buster seemed like the wrong tool for the job to me. As the only thing that needed to get in was large steel tracked diggers a harvester would have been quicker. It could have cut a path wide enough to get the digger in & also enough space at the side to lay / stack the trees even with all the branches on but they could have used one that snedded & cut to length as well. Not only quicker but would have had a product to sell to of set the cost. If the stumps were a big problem then the brash would could have been laid on the track way. As to the super experianced helo pilot, well as soon as I saw the first shot with the cable length I said he should half that or he will have to much swing.

IF you are going for a grant make sure you do all the stuff you want to do but they wont like first. If you do it after claiming but before getting paid out they will default on the payment as happened to me. The stuff they dint like had nothing to do with the work they were paying for (I say paying as the 50% they worked out was more like 25% of real costs). It was a real pisser as some of the work we did how they wanted it & not how we wanted it so we could claim.

At £173.48 +vat just for the box I was right I cant afford one lol.

Yeh works using IE Dare I ask How much? Do you do a smaller version for non pro, occasional or home type users? (as I am guessing it will be out of my afordability range)

Must not work on Chrome cos all I get is a holding page.