Work on the project yesterday was frustrating.
I did go pick up a riding lawn mower muffler. Only $7 at the hardware store. It uses standard 1" pipe thread, so I picked up a 1" pipe nipple a couple inches long while I was there.
However, I searched the WHOLE STORE to find something that could connect to the 1" straight tube of the generator's exhaust and could find NOTHING!
I checked electrical conduit and connectors, plumbing, and anything else I could think of. There was NOTHING there that would simply slip over and clamp onto a 1" (OD) pipe!
I did get all the sheet metal put back on the generator. For as many screws as I needed, I just bought a box. However, when I was reassembling, I found out a few holes were a different size, so there's STILL a few holes missing screws.
I pulled two BBQ tanks off an old camping trailer, along with the "T" and regulator connecting them. One tank had the modern OPD valve on it (that one was empty) and the other had the older-style valve and was full!
It's been cold around here lately. This morning it was negative 1 degree Farenheight. Removing LP tanks from a backyard in that weather is not fun. The line to the camper was corroded, and had to be chopped off.
So, I now have THREE, yes, THREE LP tanks to run the generator from. I have a forklift tank with a vapor out ( when stood vertical, about 40 inches long, 100 pounds) an RV tank (horizontal mount, about 40 inches long, 100 lbs) and an old school 20# BBQ tank.
Of course each of the three has a different style connector....
When I was at the hardware store, I picked up several different hose barbs to be able to make the connections from the various tanks to the generator.
I had been using the tall forklift tank to experiment. I did get the generator up and running using that tank. Of course that tank is not particularly portable, so it's not what I want to use in the final version of this project, but it did run the generator.
So, last night, when I was working on the project again, I hooked up the old-school BBQ tank, really thinking that it would work, as it didn't have the OPD, and seemed to have really good flow out. I hooked it to the genny and..... NOTHING. Couldn't get the generator to run.
Grrrrrr.
Next, I hooked it to the RV horizontal tank, which supposedly, is what originally ran this generator. I cranked the starter and.... Black Smoke! AND NO STARTING! Bad LP? Old corroded regulator? Who knows.
So, lets go back to the tank that works. I, once again, rigged up the forklift tank (keep in mind that I don't have a separate primary regulator for each tank; everything I switch, I need to swap parts, thread in new adapters, etc.)
And the good old forklift tank, the one that always worked...
NOTHING! That one wouldn't start the generator either!
ACK! I must be cursed. All that work, and now it won't start at all....
The one upside is that I did figure out how to run the remote start. I just have to ground wire #17! Of course, why didn't I think of that sooner!
It will be real easy to rig a wired remote starter for the generator now.
Assuming I can get it to start at all....
