On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:52:42 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:



Onan (right here in Fridley) does make excellent gennies if price is
no object as in military, marine, RV, medical, etc. Too bad they
don't have a "bargain store" selling discounted scratch 'n dents.
With his network of contacts, Gunner might be able to find one from a
crashed RV. An RV genny might have lots of hours on it, but Onans
run for many, many hours. The Army had a bazillion of them 40 years
ago, from little 2.5 KW gas jobs up thru 300KW diesels.

The last "scratch and dent" Onan I saw was about that time. It was
intended as backup power for a flood control reservoir and had arrived
at the freight depot but could not be delivered for a couple days due
to a local equipment problem. The general contractor's superintendent
took it upon himself to pick up the unit from the depot with his
pickup truck, of course it was too long to close the tailgate, they
hadn't tied it down, and, for expediency, they hadn't removed the
rollers from under the skids. To access the generator room, they had
to back over a curb cut and along an approach slab, and of course,
being careful, the driver backed slowly, when the rear wheels got to
the curb, the truck stopped but the generator continued, turning end
over before coming to rest at the threshold of the access door.
A temporary power unit was brought in to provide backup until a new
replacement was delivered (by the freight company) four months latter.
Poor George endured "advise" such as "next time make sure the door is
open" and "hit it a bit faster next try" for the duration of the
project.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada