Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gotta love....

...a backup generator with the power out and a wicked storm like tonight going on.

The permanent setup was a enjoyable project and the dividends are so appreciated when needed.

Curious who else is hard-wired for weather and disaster?

We have one. Was nice during Harvey. We had AC

PTO tractor since 1975. I shudder to think of being without one.

Backup gens are a must in my area. Everyone that can afford one has one.

Aside from Wabigoon what is your fuel for you generators with?

Gas would be the easiest to start, propane should store the best, diesel the cheapest to run.

agreed, installed a transfer switch in my current house for a back-up portable generator (with electric start so wife can do it when I'm gone). was an enjoyable project and nice to have heat and water when power goes out for any extended period of time. granted, only needed it a couple times since installation for a few hours, but a good feeling if I ever need it long term. mine is gas... a couple 5 gallon cans normally full (use for mower and snowblower to keep it fresh) on hand

You should have said.
Everyone should have a Back Up Generator.

I have a Lincoln Vantage400 that pumps out 11.5 K single phase and 17 K three Phase at the push of a button and I always have fuel on hand to run it.

Many years ago we had a 5 state outage and I had a 4000W Colman. I supplied power to 3 neighbors to power up their Refrigerators saving their food .
A fan for one of them with a New Born , our Refrigerator a fan and the TV to find out what was going on for my home.

The thing ran for over 24 hours before the power came back on and 2 tanks of gas from the draw.

I will never go with out a Generator If I can afford to have one. They are an essential piece of equipment everyone should have even if it is only big enough to run you fridge to save your food.

25 kw diesel. Diesel because we always have it on hand for the dozer, excavator and tractor. The generator sits on a stand with a 80 gallon diesel tank below.

Mine is a 7.5K-9K peak..gas..only because I always seem to have 10 or 20 gallons in jugs around here. Runs the Franklin sub-drive well pump safely and that was my main priority should we need to fight fire. About half the house is wired for gen use, the vital stuff: Fridge, micro...55" T.V.

When I built my house I installed a diesel generator in the crawl space. The house is built around it.

I fixed up a transfer switch and breaker panel for a buddy that has one of the older Air Cooled Diesel generators from the .gov auctions. It is horrifically loud, will run his whole house and not get over 50% load, sips diesel. I think we figured it up as .3-.4 gallon per hour at full load?
We mixed up everything from burnt engine oil, Used transmission fluid, Transformer oil, off road Diesel, and 2 stroke engine oil. Runs great, starts really good when cold some how. You can change it from 1Ph to 3PH also.
I think it has a 18-20 gallon tank and it has a siphon tube and pump to use fuel from a 55 gallon drum.
We made a stand to hold 4 55 gallon drums and they are tied together on a manifold. Just hook up the hose and turn a few valves on. Approx 800 hours worth of fuel at full load.

Those of you who have installed the transfer switch - care to share the parts source and your experience installing it? I have the generator, and am looking to do this project soon.

Here's what you are looking for...this one is a Siemens...

I was out of town in December 2002 when we had last bad ice storm...wife and kids without power for a few days. First thing
I did when I got home was buy a generator....then a few weeks later had an electrician install a panel in garage next to
circuit breaker box. Have not had an ice storm since. Best weather protection system I have ever heard of. I doubt the generator
has run 25 hours since new. I start it and let it run for a few hours a couple times a year. Hope it rusts out before I ever need it!

I was all set to invest in a PTO powered generator that was big enough to run the house and all the buildings until I talked to a guy from the power company. He pointed out that my juice came from a main trunk line which had to be on before anything else could be repaired.

He stated that if that line would go down, I would have bigger problems than just losing electricity.

He must have been right because in the ten years here, I might have lost it about three times. No more than an hour at a time.

Pretty much my story too, October snow storm with leaves on the trees left us without power (therefor, heat and water too) for 11 days. Sort of sucked, lucky it wasn't January. Got a 4500W generator and a transfer switch, and have it set up so I can rotate the genny between the freezers, well pump and boiler. Of course now that we have a generator we haven't lost power for more than 30 minutes sense.

I have a 22kw back up generator runs on propane. We have a 1000 gallon tank on it. It comes on automatically if the power goes out for 5 seconds. Turns itself off too when there is good power back on for 15 seconds. It starts itself once a week to check things out.
I haven't run the AC on it but once we had various lights, fridge, two freezers, furnace, and the dryer going and It didn't even seem to work hard.

Plus we have two wood stoves.

I picked up a kit from Home Depot, had everything you need except the wire from outlet to the transfer switch.

Had good instructions and easy to follow.

If you have any questions, feel free to pm me or email me.

After last fall's devastating Wildfires in California I'm pretty dialed in with survival gear.