I just wondered if any of the Lister/oid owners or members  have been following the 2013 Monster Energy US Supercross series? I was fortunate enough to be able to wittness the Anaheim Supercross opener live at Dodger Stadium in early January and have been following the races ever since on Speed vision. Those new 4 strokes are unbelievably fast! The Harley Davidson was the most efficient device for converting gasoline into noise until these 14,000 rpm 4 stroke MX bikes came along. Many moons ago, this was my sport, so I can really appreciate what these guys have to do to get to this level. Amazing to watch live if you ever get the chance. Just don't forget your ear plugs!

Troy 

Hello everyone
I was feeling a little left out so I thought I should speek up as I am definitly a Canadian Listeroid dealer. My company Eco Diesel Solutions Canada is located near Lethbridge Alberta, Canada. I am actualy located on an acreage in Diamond City (a short 10 minute drive just north of Lethbridge on hwy 25) I currently stock the GTC 6/1, 12/1 and 24/2's and virtualy all parts for these models. I also have one 24/2 genset (frame mount fabricated in our shop) which is for sale. I do not ship across the US/Canada border but do welcome US buyers to come and pick one up for themselves. we can be reached at (403) 329 4368 or by email ecodiesel@xplornet.com

Troy

Very sorry to hear about your injury. I agree that guards should be built and installed on all these stationary engines with flywheels even prior to starting for the first time. You don't need to be able to bend sheet metal or fancy equipment to build them. I used 4" x 3/16" flat iron for the fenders on my 6hp roid demonstrator. To build some like I have you need to  cut lenghs that shape the belts path allowing for an inch or more distance away. Once you have the outer shape of the fender figured out then you can use 3/4" x 3/4" angle iron or 1" x 1" angle iron to weld along both under sides of the fender. Cut angles at the ends of the angle iron where they weet and grind an angle so as to be able to weld the intersecting angles later. Drill 3/8" holes through one side of the angle iron so you can place weld to fasten to the flat iron. Once both sides of the fender are reinforced with the angle iron you will have the ability to cut some metal screen to fit the shape of the fender and then tack weld it into place. It took me about 8 hrs to build the guards on my demonstrator. I still have to build a fan shroud to protect from the fan. I am puting my website here not for any other purpose than to see how I made my guards. Please look at them in the pictures section www.ecodieselcanada.com  They are quite easy to build and you will feel so much safer just walking around your engine. If you want close ups I am willing to send anyone pictures if you email me at ecodiesel@xplornet.com  lets all be safe out there.

Troy 

Hi everyone!
My dad purchased a Linclon buzz box (AC) stick welder when I was about 13 years old. That was what I learned on. It was an almost evil piece of equipment which really only laid a decent bead with 7018 rod in the flat position on 3/16" and thicker. It seemed no matter what type of rod, style, method or technique I used would give me real nice results. I probably used spent enough money on grinding wheels that I could have more than made up the price difference to have gotten something much better. My father built a trailer to haul mine and my buddys dirt bikes to the riding areas with it and I built one trailer for myself years later + a deck railing for my home in Creston BC. Years back I worked for a company called Victory Equipment (no longer around) and the shop had 6 or more high production Miller Migs. I got to use these to make my drill jigs and what not. There were a few welders there that laid absolutly beautyfull welds on 1" thick frame brackets and I was always in awe of how they did that (I still had the Lincoln at home but I couldn't make welds with it like I was seeing at Victory) I have used a DC stick welder on numerous occasions and can say that it was a much more pleasuable experience. The DC Stick would strick/light up far better and I I can only describe as being much smoother while laying bead.  About 11 years ago, I purchased my Miller matic 250 mig welder for $2500.00 + Gst. This model was considered to be a high end garage welder so I was told by the Air Liquide staff. I have been production welding dead blow hammers in small production runs for 11 years with it (around 20,000 hammers) plus have used it on all the other projects like deck railings, trailers, Listeroid stuff etc. The only thing I have replaced on it is the feed cables inner liner. Of course I have probably gone through 40 or more brass tips and one brass end nossle (my fault for tapping to hard over the years to get rid of spatter build up) I also own 2 of the smaller blue shield bottles and am amazed as to how much welding I can do before I have to switch to the other. I use .030 wire for 1/16" on up to 1/2" steel with excellent results and if you need to weld outside you can get a different set of rollers, liner and tips so as to use flux core wire. You can use a spool gun with it and weld aluminum or even weld stainless with stainless wire. You can use C02 shielding gas or blue shield which is a mix of Argon and C02. The blue sheld costs a little more but produces a cleaner looking weld. The 250 model has since been replaced with a 251 model and I have heard also heard great things about it from people who have bought them.  I would highly recommend one of the smaller Miller migs to anyone looking for a single do it all welder. They use to offer a slightly smaller Miller matic 185 which was less money and would probably serve you just great. Once you have a welder you will find yourself diving into more projects just because you now can. I personaly have no financial or commercial interest in the Miller company, products etc but gladly welcome the Miller welding company to send me moneys for my testamony should they feel I am worthy.

Troy

I am in a small town called Diamond City just a 10 minute drive north of  Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Hmmm..  I thought this was the middle of no where as with all this wind we get here I was sure I was in the middle of the bloody vortex! In case you have never heard of Lethbridge, it's located an hour north of the Montana/Alberta USA/Canada border or an 1.750hr from the British Columbia  border or 2hrs from the Saskatchewan border. If you see semi trailers on their sides in the ditch and trees that are permanently bent to the east you probably here!

Troy

The other day I pulled my 6/1 roid demonstrator out to play as it hadn't been run for about a month. It had been pumping water most of the summer filling 4 of the dugouts in the neigborhood durring a severely hot and dry summer. If it were not for it we would have had no water! I had been running this engine strictly on pump diesel since the first firing as I  havn't yet fabricated my multi chamber fuel tank. About 6 days before the unit was finished pumping water The suction line became plugged with a school of minows and the pump lost its prime. It may have run unloaded for as long as 6 hrs that day and as I currently am using a temporary 1" ball valve to control running temp and the engine was normaly under a very heavy working load the operating temp had dropped from 205 down to 160. After this happened I noticed the exhaust was far more smokey and I expected that the injector had coked up from the cooler running temp. It was staring at me the other day just begging me to fire it up so today when I grabbed my yellow diesel container to fill the standard listeroid tank I discovered it had less than a 1/4 litre of diesel in it. Swell I thought! When I looked in the Listeroid tank I could see the top of the petcock was barrely covered by fuel so the tank was basicaly out of fuel when I poured in the coffee cup amount of diesel in. For some reason I didn't feel like driving to the pump and I thought to myself maybe I should go up to the kitchen and grab one of the bottles of Nextera canola oil that I had been given by an Esso bulk dealer. When I was doing sales calls last year I kept seeing display stands with this Nextera canola oil on them so I was asking the guys at the fertilizer plants if they had any samples they were giving away and ended up getting a number of bottles which I was saving aparently just for this very day. This Nextera canola oil seed produces a very light oil thats almost as light or viscous as pump diesel. I poured in approx a 1/3 litre of Nextera into the tank right on top of the coffee cup sized amount of diesel and fired it up. The outside temperature was about 14 degrees C, engine temp at 205 degrees and a constant 2500 watt resistive load on the genny. Initialy the engine ran pretty much the same as it did a month ago with smokier than normal exhaust and the same exhaust note Ive become acustomed to. After about 20 minutes of running though, the engines exhaust note changed to a slightly softer more gentler sound with less knock and the typical diesel exhaust smell disapeared in favor of a much more pleasant smell. After 45 minutes of run time on this blended mix The exhaust has now cleared right up to being virtualy undetectable and the engine is definitly sounds to be operating better than before. I am in belief that this blend of Nextera and diesel may have actualy cleaned the injector. I will pull the injector to inspect after I have a bit more run time on this blend. So far I am impressed with what I see, hear and smell.

Troy

Hi Jens!
 I like your existing swing arm style idler design. Maybe it could be beefed up if made from 2 pieces of 1 1/4" x 1/2" bar stock and the same material used for cross bracing (could be bolted together if the cross braces were keyed into the side arms or welded to eliminate flex) This could be hinged at the frame by using a heavy (but accuratly reamed) hinge base and pin. Then a threaded adjustment ( using 5/8 thread all) could be used like a turn buckle incorporating a rotating wrist pin that has been drilled and threaded installed mid point or slightly higher on the swing arm (This wrist pin would rotate to prevent binding the thread as the swing arm rises or lowers) and  two base shoes be mounted to accept the stationary end of the threaded shaft (which you machine to fit nicely into the ball nose drilled shoe (When I say shoe I mean like the thing a pole vauter sticks his pole into)(And No I am not talking Dirty!) could be drilled using a 3/8" or 1/2" ball nose cutter. A jam nut could then lock the adjustment. I used a similar setup for quick adjustment or removal of my water pump drive belts and it has worked great. You might be able to see a glimps of this adjuster on one of the pictures on my website. The idler could also be initialy made to have straight raised sides to help with visualizing the alignment durring mock up/instalation. The other suggestion I would offer is that the belt be placed opposite the starting side for safety reasons. I think you'll feel safer for having swapped the belt to the other side. By the way, nice job on your 2 speed pulley!

Troy