[T2] Run engine on idle to charge batteries

[John Anderson]

I do trust Jon's opinions and all, but I actually called and chatted to dad.  He has two now, an EM500 and an EX650.  Both still run as fine and quiet (with no real maintenance) as they always have, and both are mid-late 80s vintage.  I know we ran those suckers at night in scouting after the younger kids had gone to sleep and you could barely hear them.  They start in a pull or two, and as I recall them (and he says it is still true) run quieter than either my EU1000i or my Chinese Kipor knockoff (McCulloch branded) 2kW, even though their mufflers are near 30 years old.   He changes the oil irregularly, and probably uses them every 4-5 years.  He does run them dry when done with ethanol gas now days.  Certainly for clean waveform 110V, they aren't perhaps up to the task, but he actually prefers the EX650 for his ham equipment because he went through a lot of effort when new removing a bit of paint under all the screws both sides and putting
 some NO-OXID between each steel panel on the case on it and it ended up better shielded than his EU2000i that he bought to replace them with.
 
So I guess you never know sound wise, probably depends on the muffler state.  I will say, his buddy had one that got dropped a couple times and although the motor noise was OK, the steel case buzzed louder than the motor at times, and he could never get it not to do so.  There is an EX1000 on CL up here now for a massive $150, beat to hell, but reported to run well, but they end up pretty much the size of the inverters, just in a steel case instead of plastic.  The only issue I've ever read about any of these is losing the field magnetism and can't for some reason be re-flashed successfully, though I don't know why that would be.
 
I'd like to find one of the little ones for recharging, I mean running 30-80 cc's seems a lot smarter to me than spinning a 67hp motor to run a couple hp to the alternator.  Those tiny ones are just so damn compact, and so damn cute.  Even the original E300's are a choice but are getting quite collectible now, to sit by your mid 60's Airstream at shows I guess, and command $300+ even in beat up condition if they run.
 
John
 

________________________________
 From: jon <scintilla_22 at yahoo.com>
To: type2 at type2.com 
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [T2] Run engine on idle to charge batteries
  

JohnA et.al.,
     We had an early 350 watt Honda generator in the late 80's at one of 
the PWS field camps.  It ran for ~ 8 hours on one tank every Friday to 
charge our battery bank while we were in town. it was quite practical 
for that purpose _provided you weren't in it's vicinity_. For sure the 
background noise level in Olsen Bay was as low as it gets, short of a 
cave, but that thing, all 35cc or so of mighty Honda tech,  was 
definitely not quiet by EU genny standards.   I also doubt you could 
find a 30+ year old Honda that was working worth anything.  We have a 
couple in our warehouse, but they are just taking up space. Haven't been 
used in >10 years. We _never_ take anything but an EU series to the 
field any more, there is no comparison in reliability, fuel efficiency, 
or noise level. In an alternate life I am around thousands of generators 
in the desert every Labor Day weekend.  Amongst many other things, that 
event has engendered a rapid evolution in power generation 
systems-solar, wind, and fossil fuel. You will get some pretty harsh 
vibes if you run a construction type genset in the camping areas. Folks 
would instantly loan you enough extensions to tap into their EU just to 
shut it off.  Yamaha makes an equivalent series, and there is an 
authorized, Chimp knock-off of the EU 1000 that has a good rep with the 
RV crowd (who are very frugal, and harsh in their reviews if things 
don't last).  As an aside, the inverter parts last much longer than the 
motors (which last a very long time) in the Hondas.  How come no one has 
come up with a replacement motor for them?  We have not been able to 
find anyone who will rebuild the motors either.