To elaborate a little on what Butch mentioned about the expense of importation, expect to spend more than what you spend on an engine in freight and import fees. At times it feels like one is being panhandled at every opportunity along the way when the freight is going through the import process. Strangely enough the only people not asking for money are US CBP, all they want is a folder full of forms and paperwork.

My first import was a learning experience for sure. Second was a little easier as I had a better idea what to expect but the price the crooks wanted was a little more second go round. The worst was the final "bonded" warehouse local to me where CBP does it's final inspection and where I picked up the freight. They made me pay $200 just for unloading a pallet from the transportation company's truck who delivered it to them and then loading it on my truck. Then they charged me an extra $12 for a pallet which it was already on when delivered to them. It has become a fee game to them and there is no recourse as they hold your freight hostage.

That said there are plenty of shippers that offer door to door service and they handle all of the logistics and palm greasing, all the buyer has to do is file paperwork with CBP. It costs a little more but alleviates a lot of the stress and BS. Just beware the freight industry is rife with incompetence and outright dishonesty. I handled everything on both of my shipments and it ran me about $1000 each time. I could have gotten door to door service for about $1200.

I did the math and found it worthwhile to go the import route after looking at what originals and clones were going for here. That said if one found a decent deal on a CS already stateside I would say that is a better solution and a hell of a lot less of a headache.

I found these diagrams. Sorry about the quality.

Good news is it is 120/240 single phase. Not 3 phase as was thought.

Congrats! Nice looking project there. The gold on the generator head is an original Kohler color. I think yellow is a pretty common Lister color as well. May have been two tone originally. I would probably paint it all Lister(mid-brunswick) green or all Kohler gold. How did the Tacoma do on the road trip?

If it is an ST2 it weighs ~375 lbs. An SR2 is ~416 lbs. I would double that and it should get you pretty close for the entire unit weight. I think your Tacoma will be fine, I have toted way more than that in mine.

Came home to this today. My porch is literally 20 ft. from the mailbox. I am really tempted to go see the postmaster on Monday.

Just ask the guy that near took out the front of my car this morning when he did a lane change without looking and then really proved he was just stupid rather than made a mistake by stopping his and getting out his car to engage in discourse with me on the matter.  Fortunately my articulated communication with my displeasure of his actions and the possible and highly probably outcomes if he did not resume speedy progress of his vehicle along the carriageway, soon had the blockage of the traffic flow corrected promptly.

Were you still wearing the Nurse outfit?

Bruce I didn't put two and two together that you were modifying the window units to be the water chiller you mentioned. I must have missed it somewhere, it makes more sense now. I see no reason a stainless brazed plate HX wouldn't work just fine. They make plenty that are refrigerant rated. I will look through some of my tech books and see if there is a compatibility issue with POE oil, the oil likely in a window unit compressor, and propane. I have never seen them recommended for use together but it doesn't mean they aren't miscible.

As far as the mini-splits I thought the inverters may be a problem. There are a couple of companies starting to make small chillers with them but I think 18,000 Btu is as small as they go.

As an aside, just to give you more to think about, 24VDC variable speed compressors are available pretty cheaply these days. Being an electronics guy you could likely come up with a control system for one, the simplest ones just vary the voltage. Being as your load will be pretty constant and intermittent use I think you are on the right track with a modified window banger chiller though. Cheap and simple. Any idea what kind of capacity you are looking for?