Harbor Freight $162 Generator
 

Not technically diesel but I'm thinking some may be interested

After Wednesday's tornado activity knocked out power for 10 hours, I decided to check out Harbor Freight. This one was $162.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=97906

If I only need to use this 3 or 4 times, it would be worth it. Some people are still without power around here. A few years ago it took the power company 5 days to restore power to some areas in Maryland.

Purchased it for the freezer and refrigerator.

All right I admit it, it was actually not to be without Mercedes Shop :D

... for 75.00 you can get a 1500Watt inverter and hook it to your diesel...

Until the battery is drained. The 55amp alternator can only put out about 800watts of power at 14volts. You would need to upgrade to the 120amp Saab alternator to power a 1500watt inverter without draining the battery.

That 1050 Watt generator isn't even enough to power a single normal refrigerator. EDIT: Nevermind, I just measured my fridge with the Kill-A-Watt meter and it only draws 200watts at full power and 600watts surge. You should be able to hook up an 800watt inverter to your car to run the fridge every few hours and keep it cold.

That thing will be louder than hell. I would just buy a Honda generator. Then you would be set for life.

Yea, I didn't want the 55 amp alternator powering refrigerant compressors for any length of time. Not to mention the particular set of cables needed to hook up the inverter.

I wanted to get the minimum generator necessary. The outdoor freezer has been running on a 15 amp breaker for 12 years with no problem (and a cheap Sears model, no less)

um, 15amps at 110V is a LOT more than 55amps at 12v...

really, for occasional use, light duty a cheap 750 inverter will handle lights, radio, and refrigerators no problem. and you don't have to go get gas for it. your car will handle it fine. that battery is amazing.
if you NEEEED a generator, get at least a 5KW... don't bother with those glorified inverters, just get a real inverter and use your car.

Loudness don't matter after a while when your out of power. Any generator is a welcome sight. You simply locate it as far away from the central living space as you can and run a HD cord in from it. I agree that the Honda Generators are worth it though.

The thing with generators is they are so seldom used that maintenance becomes an issue. And they won't be there next time when you need them if you don't take some care of them. Be sure to put some Stabilizer in the Gas, and Keep the tank full of stabilized gas as well as this tends to keep water out and tendency to separate to a minimum. Then, once a year, dump the old gas out, put fresh in with more stabilizer in it and run it about 10 minutes under a slight electrical load (a lamp or something like that). Twice a year is better of course.

You got one of these hooked up mounted somewhere in the trunk?

Thanks, I agree completely, you must have read my mind.

Power to the Mercedes Owners!
 

Some really good comments in this thread.

I would be leery of trying to run anything with a surge load (like a refrigerator) on an inverter -- but I admit I've never played with a really big inverter, just the little ones of a couple hundred watts.

The Cheapie-Joe generators are OK for occasional use. Yes, they probably are loud and may not be happy to run at close to rated load for days on end, but for a few hours at a time in a power-failure situation they'll be fine. A Honda-brand generator will be quieter, more efficient, and more reliable over the long term. It will also cost a lot more money. That's a decision you have to make.

Consider keeping a minimum of fuel in the tank, maybe even drain it after each use, and have an extra can of gasoline that you rotate through your car or lawnmower so that you always have fresh fuel on hand.

Since I knew (in our rural location) that power failures were frequent, I went out and found a surplus military genset, a 7.5 KW Onan (2 cylinders, air cooled, gas-gaso). It had been used at a US Army base (Hunter Liggett in Monterey County) to run the pop-up targets on a tank gunnery range. I had it converted to run on propane and it sits on a pad next to my propane tank. Total investment (genset, major service/conversion, installation) was about $2000. A new one would be several times that much.

On propane, the oil stays remarkably clean and the fuel is always fresh, since we run the house on the same tank and get regular deliveries. The generator is enough to run the entire house. I have a big transfer switch and test the system monthly by running the genset for an hour and switching over the house to load it down. That way, I know that I'll always be able to access MercedesShop!

Jeremy

Someday I plan on having a similar setup. :D :D I'm fine with either a diesel or Propane System.....but not gas.

Great stuff Jeremy.

I noticed your biodiesel fleet. I just ran a tank of B20 through the daily driver for the first time in its 328k mile life. Much smoother and quieter, emphasis on quieter. It purrs at all speeds, relatively speaking. Not much difference in performance, if any.

What really surprised me after running it for 311 miles, all of it around town, was that mpg was 25, only about 1 or 2 less than normal. I did another refill on B20 yesterday to get a better mpg computation.

You do run B100, not the waste veggie oil stuff right?
I need to locate a B100 filling station, if only for curiousity.

Most inverters sold won't run AC motors, even if their rated wattage is way over the motor's. One that can is probably a lot more expensive than the generator.

odd, I have not had any issues with running my fridge off mine...

This is because the motor is an inductive load. You can't measure watts when you consider the inverter load, but rather volts*amps. Yes, I know that many people believe that volts*amps = watts, but this is only true of an instantanous reading or a steady-state DC circuit. An inductive load is neither. For a "steady-state" AC circuit, the correct formula is volts*amps*PF = watts, where PF (power factor) is the cosine of the phase angle between the voltage and amperage.

You can correct the power factor on an inductive load by adding some large capacitors in parallel with the load, but this is only typical for very large industrial motors.