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#1
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine
and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. -- Chris Green |
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#3
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
wrote:
We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Here's another link which you can follow up. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache...t=clnk &gl=uk Don |
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#4
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
wrote:
We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Another link: http://www.dstarengineering.com/piston.html Don |
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#5
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Do you have gas for cooking? If so, you can modify petrol generators to run on bottled gas. Camping and motorhoming sites would have the details. |
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#6
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Chris Green A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. -- Mike |
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#7
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Mike wrote:
wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Chris Green A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. It occurs to me that a model aicraft diesel engine coupled to a brushless motor wired as a three phase alternator might fit the bill. Starting is another matter however! :-) |
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#8
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On 10/03/2010 15:30, David WE Roberts wrote:
Do you have gas for cooking? If so, you can modify petrol generators to run on bottled gas. Camping and motorhoming sites would have the details. People are wary of gas on boats, for good reason. |
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#9
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
"Clive George" wrote in message o.uk... On 10/03/2010 15:30, David WE Roberts wrote: Do you have gas for cooking? If so, you can modify petrol generators to run on bottled gas. Camping and motorhoming sites would have the details. People are wary of gas on boats, for good reason. Depends on the boat and the installation. Many (most?) narrow boats have gas heating and cooking with the gas bottles stored outside in a gas locker. An outside gas locker can be more difficult in a GRP sailing boat. The biggest problem (especially with Broads cruisers) used to be petrol in the bilges. |
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#10
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
David WE Roberts wrote:
wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Do you have gas for cooking? If so, you can modify petrol generators to run on bottled gas. Camping and motorhoming sites would have the details. That's a thought I suppose, we do have gas for cooking. -- Chris Green |
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#11
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Mike wrote:
wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Chris Green A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. .... but that's electric start which is exactly what I don't want as I don't want yet *another* battery to maintain. I want something fail safe such that if batteries are all flat I can still get myself up and running. -- Chris Green |
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#12
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
wrote in message ... Mike wrote: wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Chris Green A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. ... but that's electric start NO it also has a pull start -- |
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#13
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:41:41 +0000, wrote:
So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, Would "a few hundred watts" be enough? I'd expect you'd like to the batteries to recharge in less time than it took to dischrage them... which can be started manually A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. Very similar to the 2kVA or there abouts one I have. It is *very* noisy but a decent exhaust and silencer may help that. Mine seems OK as well but doesn't get much use. .... but that's electric start ... So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed. -- Cheers Dave. |
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#14
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Mike wrote:
wrote in message ... Mike wrote: wrote in message ... We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. Chris Green A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. ... but that's electric start NO it also has a pull start Ah, that wasn't clear from the Ebay advert. I'll take a harder look, thank you. -- Chris Green |
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#15
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:41:41 +0000, wrote: So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, Would "a few hundred watts" be enough? I'd expect you'd like to the batteries to recharge in less time than it took to dischrage them... which can be started manually A friend of mine has one of these on his boat http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110448752958 its Chinese, very noisy, but very cheap and seems to work ok. Very similar to the 2kVA or there abouts one I have. It is *very* noisy but a decent exhaust and silencer may help that. Mine seems OK as well but doesn't get much use. .... but that's electric start ... So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed. Yes, pretty standard on diesels that. -- Chris Green |
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#16
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Mar 10, 4:20*am, wrote:
We will soon have a boat, in France, which has a diesel main engine and lots of batteries which will need charging at various times. Most of the time we'll probably use shore power and we may also get some solar panels for maintaining the batteries but it would be good to be able to charge the batteries 'independently' as it were when we're moored somewhere with no shore power for example. So, can one get small diesel powered generators, just a few hundred watts would be ample, which can be started manually (i.e. without a battery)? *If such are available where should I be looking? Diesel would be safer and more practical than petrol because we'll have diesel on board for the main engines and the heating. -- Chris Green You have it already, the motor and alternator, you may need to just upgrade the alternator, or not. Thats what I did. |
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#17
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
In article , wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote: So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed. Yes, pretty standard on diesels that. Reminds me of that Three men in a Boat mini-series where Griff was left to try to start this ancient diesel engine in the riverboat... 10 minutes heating the cylinder head with a blowtorch first, then rocking the crank back and forth before building up enough momentum to turn it over... What a wrist breaker that looked! Gordon |
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#18
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Gordon Henderson wrote:
In article , wrote: Dave Liquorice wrote: So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed. Yes, pretty standard on diesels that. Reminds me of that Three men in a Boat mini-series where Griff was left to try to start this ancient diesel engine in the riverboat... 10 minutes heating the cylinder head with a blowtorch first, then rocking the crank back and forth before building up enough momentum to turn it over... What a wrist breaker that looked! The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it. Gordon |
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#19
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote: Reminds me of that Three men in a Boat mini-series where Griff was left to try to start this ancient diesel engine in the riverboat... 10 minutes heating the cylinder head with a blowtorch first, then rocking the crank back and forth before building up enough momentum to turn it over... What a wrist breaker that looked! The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it. Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? -- *Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life * Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
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#20
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:20:16 +0000, Gordon Henderson wrote:
In article , wrote: Dave Liquorice wrote: So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed. Yes, pretty standard on diesels that. Reminds me of that Three men in a Boat mini-series where Griff was left to try to start this ancient diesel engine in the riverboat... 10 minutes heating the cylinder head with a blowtorch first, then rocking the crank back and forth before building up enough momentum to turn it over... I remember doing that on a 3-cylinder Dorman - bloody hell it required strong arms! I don't recall what the compression setup was now - I think there was a lever to pull (but the mechanism was also hooked to a solenoid, as the engine had a 24V starter, generator and control switchboard so that it could start itself if the power died) cheers Jules |
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#21
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher wrote: The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it. Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? Either ether or easy start will do. Suspect that's what TNP typed before his spiel chucker got to it. Andy |
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#22
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Andy Champ wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote: In article , The Natural Philosopher wrote: The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it. Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? Either ether or easy start will do. Suspect that's what TNP typed before his spiel chucker got to it. ether, it should have read.. AKA Easy start. Andy |
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#23
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
Huge wrote:
On 2010-03-11, Andy Champ wrote: Dave Plowman (News) wrote: In article , The Natural Philosopher wrote: The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it. Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? Either ether or easy start will do. Suspect that's what TNP typed before his spiel chucker got to it. Get some of the magnificently named "Start, Ya *******." http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Sta...ngine_Starter/ from the country that gave us 'sticks like ****' |
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#24
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:00:22 +0000 (GMT), Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? I wouldn't use easy start or similar without very good reason and a dire need to get the engine started. My little diesel genset has electric start and the battery is connected to a small solar panel (in the hope of) keeping it topped up. If the battery is flat, I can pull start it. Easy start goes with rather more of a bang than diesel and can damage the engine, resulting in it becoming "addicted" to the stuff, ie won't start, ever, without "easy start". -- Cheers Dave. |
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#25
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Mar 12, 1:02 pm, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote: On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:00:22 +0000 (GMT), Dave Plowman (News) wrote: Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? I wouldn't use easy start or similar without very good reason and a dire need to get the engine started. My little diesel genset has electric start and the battery is connected to a small solar panel (in the hope of) keeping it topped up. If the battery is flat, I can pull start it. Easy start goes with rather more of a bang than diesel and can damage the engine, resulting in it becoming "addicted" to the stuff, ie won't start, ever, without "easy start". -- Cheers Dave. indeed - I think it accelerates wear of/"proper shags" the piston rings and makes it very hard/impossible to hand start without a "sniff". Cheers JimK |
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#26
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On 12/03/2010 09:44, Huge wrote:
Get some of the magnificently named "Start, Ya *******." http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Sta...ngine_Starter/ Aw, ye didn't point at the magnificently pictured "Start, Ya *******." Girls ... http://www.startya*******.com/fun.php Start engines, they do ... -- Adrian C |
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#27
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat? Http://www.nulon-uk.com/products/aer...art-ya-******* I won a competition on their website just before Christmas and was gutted not to get a tin of the stuff as a prize. -- Clint Sharp |
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#28
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes Easy start goes with rather more of a bang than diesel and can damage the engine, resulting in it becoming "addicted" to the stuff, ie won't start, ever, without "easy start". Easystart tends to be used on knackered engines or engines with a fault, all it really does is enable the owner to ignore the fault until it gets to the point where the engine won't start at all unless it has a sniff of ether. -- Clint Sharp |
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#29
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Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?
On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:08:17 +0000, Clint Sharp wrote:
In message o.uk, Dave Liquorice writes Easy start goes with rather more of a bang than diesel and can damage the engine, resulting in it becoming "addicted" to the stuff, ie won't start, ever, without "easy start". Easystart tends to be used on knackered engines or engines with a fault, all it really does is enable the owner to ignore the fault until it gets to the point where the engine won't start at all unless it has a sniff of ether. Or brake parts cleaner as we used on one snowmobile engine a couple of months back... |
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