A Cowboys generator

[cowboy]

Finally paid my little brother for engine and generator picked it up this monday. For those following this here is where I am. Bill your insite's are more than welcome. 400 cub I am no math wizard and I hope you will help me figure some pully sizes to the the rpm's I need to get when I get there. Oh well this is what it looks like now. I will keep you updated as I get things done. ps Turbo is my younger brother and the braines behind this project

Hi Turbo

Got a little work done today. I do not have the frane welded on yet. Look at the picture and tell me if you think I should move my 2"x2" frame in from the edge closer to bolt holes. Also do you think two v-belts will handle the full output on this system? I want to to do this right the first time and not having you see what I am doing and how you are setting up yours is a pain. I want to make a self contained unit with the battery cooling system and fuel tanks on it. I have decided not to make it into a trailer as I had first planed too easy to be stolen. But I want to be able to pick it up and put it on a truck or trailer to move it. I want to remove fuel and water tank. With a 5 gal tank for dino diesel and 30 or 40 gal heated and insulated tank for running strait vegatable oil. As for cooling I want to run a radiator with a electric fan but with ball valves so I can cut it off and sent the waste heat into the house as planed.

cowboy Billy

[beaconlight]

Billy the pulley on the gen and the one on the engine want to line up. The groves of the pullys that is. I can't make out from your picture if they do. If the pictures were closer and brighter these old eyes of mine might do better. I found out how old today.
I took Bev to the Disnay ice show in Philadelphia today. While Bev was in the loo. I saw some women with two kids and a third in arms. I came over and offered to help her two little girls with their coats. The mother said thank you. I then realized I am so old that she wasn't afraid I would steal one of the kids. What a let down that was.
Phillie is easier and quicker than for me to get to manhattan even though I am in NYC too.

Bill

[cowboy]

Hey Bill your getting a head of me. The engine/generator mounting plate isn't done yet I just set it infront of the engine for the picture. Engine and generator are sitting on the floor. Engine is a 20 hp chinfa deisel and the generator head is a 1800 rpm 12,000 watt. I'm running as fast as I can but I still can't keep up with you.

Billy

[Kodiak]

Billy,
That will make a good setup when you get all the details worked out. Bill is a good source of help that I may tap when I manage to get my "parts".
I want to build a setup I can hook to my PTO on my Cub. About a 10 to 12kw would be nice.

I hope to see Bill at one of the Cub events someday and talk about Alaska too!

[beaconlight]

Going back to Alaska in June. Bev has always wanted to see the place. We are on a 14 day tour of which 11are ground tour and 3 on the boat to Vancover on the way home. We will cover the interior and some of the places I worked at. The first thing we do is the train out of Anchorage to Denali. Aday there the the train to Fairbanks. It was just a regular train the 60's when I was there. I always reccomend that trip to all I know going to Alaska. Never had any one that took it complain. Then we go down the highwy to TOK. I worked for months in TOK. Later we go to Chicken, Eagle and Dawson Canada, Eventually we take the narrow gauge train to Skagway and then the boat. We are getting chancy on the way home with a 4 day stop in Las Vegas. It should be fun.
You want to talk Alaska Meet us for a few days next Oct when we spend 2 weeks in Hilton Head SC.

Bill
Bill

[Rudi]

Bill:

If you get a chance going by the Queen Charlotte Islands, look to see if you can spot Masset. One of our 291er stations... now is just a remote site, but was the best place to hunt Stika Deer (miniature deer that is.. they is about half the size of a regular white tail).

Hope you enjoy Dawson Creek. Interesting place. Only got to get about 2,000 feet to it (Herc overhead - me in the Herc) on the way to Inuvik..

Enjoy the trip to Alaska. One of these days I want to take Em up there. She has never seen the north, and it has been almost 30 years since I was in Fairbanks.....

Cowboy:

Take pics and drawings of all you do.... it will certainly benefit those of us who are planning on building a genny setup such as you are contemplating. It looks like a nice mill and generator that you got to start with, so it should be an interesting project for you..

Enjoy

[Kodiak]

Bill,
Sounds like a great trip. I've recommended the train trip too and like you never had a complaint.
My youngest son is getting married in May and is talking about going there for their honeymoon. He was up there with me 7 or 8 years ago and loved it.

Cowboy, I don't mean to hijack your post If you do some drawings as Rudi suggested I'd be interested too.

Happy New Year to all!!!

Ron W.

[beaconlight]

Rudi over 40 sunce I was there. Told Bev I would take her to the Gold Rush Saloon if it is still there along the Chena River. I am following Cowboys project closely too. It sounds very interesting. You will need a way to put tension on the belts too Billy. You are talking about using 2 belts. You should probably use a set of matched belts if you do. You are probably familiar with that on heavy Eq. A system with a base with an upright and two threaded rods would be good but is is a pain to adjust. Fasten the generator with a hinge and a system with the belts holding the Generator up using gravity to keep tension might mork but might not keep sufficient tension. If it does it would act to even the strain on the engine when a large electrical load comes on or off line. More I think about it I wonder if you could get enough tension that way. ASny way lots of luck with it.

Bill

[Lurker Carl]

I'd use a ribbed belt instead of V-belts. It's gonna be more expensive but a ribbed belt puts more belt surface area on the pulley than a V-belt which reduces slipping. You could use an idler pulley belt tensioner, automotive style. I've always found multiple belts bring multiple problems.

How many rpms does the Changfa need to make 20 hp? If it's only 1800, consider a direct drive.

[cowboy]

Hi Carl max hp is rated at 2200 rpm so I could run it direct drive. But I want to tun the engine at about 1100 rpm getting a longer service life out of the engine. I wish I could get a hp/torque vs rpm chart with fuel usage at specific rpm for it so I could decide what rpm I wanted to run for general house hold use. And have a second set of pulleys for max hp if I wanted to use the welder. I would have liked to use a surpintine belt but the pully is a three bolt assembly that bolts to the flywheel and would have be a custom made and ballenced part that is way beyound my abilty.

Bill I am going to use a thredded rod type tensioner as that is the way the engine plate is setup for. Not to mention that gen head weighs 150 to 200 pounds. You can hijack my posts any time. Thats a lot of the fun here I never know where somthing is going to go other than it will be interisting.

Rudi My brother made the engine plate a laser cutter so the deminsions must be in a cad program. But that would be for a secific engine gen combination. But I will you and everyone informed of what I am doing. And I need to get me a camera right now I am filming it with the camcorder downloading into the computer frame grabing a picture converting from bmp to jpg. and it takes me three or four to get a kinda clear one that explaines my poor quality pictures.