glenlloyd wrote:. . . the original mounting brackets that were intended to be used with rubber mounts. Personally I would think these might be fairly weak for direct mount.
Oh, I agree.
I like the sensor / magnet input . . .
The older units I've worked with all had pretty low sensitivity, meaning high drop-off. This last unit worked a lot better than others I've worked with. I was pleasantly surprised.
. . . with the conventional governor setup are these engines brought to operating rpm immediately upon startup? I personally would have a concern with running up to operating rpm immediately after startup...maybe unjustified.
The commercial units will do a warm-up period at reduced RPM, before coming up to speed and transferring the load. All the smaller units I've seen (ie <20kw) run up to operating RPM immediately.
. . . is the power generator directly coupled with the engine on these so when the engine starts the power generator runs as well? In other words, there's no clutch / drive assembly? Is this the case with all gensets?
Yes, and yes. Personally, I'd prefer a nice PTO clutch, but the only units I've seen to use one have actually been PTO-driven (ie connects to a tractor). If you don't have an electrical load on it, a generator is just a large rotating mass, so it's just more flywheel. If your starter can handle it, is there a downside to direct-drive?
A few years ago, I was going to build a 10 Kw genset using a Honda CX500 engine I had spare, and run it on propane, but didn't get as far with it as I'd like. Propane burns very clean compared to gasoline, requires no choke or cold start enrichment and no fast idle either. The CX500 makes its power up high though, I would have to run it in the 5-7k range, and though they are pretty quiet up there, now that I'm on the biodiesel bandwagon (ie carbon-neutral), my LPG hardware languishes on a shelf. Someday, maybe . . . but for a genset I might build, it's diesel, baby!
The Lister-clones are very attractive just from the funky/weirdness factor alone, but I want more output than the low-end Listers can provide; I need more HP. I think a turbo'd SD2x or similar is about ideal, though I have to run the numbers before settling on one or the other.
I want no less than 12Kw at the minimum. I had a 16HP/10Kw rig and for some things it was perfect, but as I wouldn't be having to move it I don't care what it weighs, and a heavier-but-higher-capacity unit would be my next genset. I've been looking at CraigsList and eBay for the perfect head.