Rocket boy I need to speak to you if possible. I concerns my lister engine. It is not one of yours but I think you might have the answer. My email address is listed but I would rather speak in person. My phone # is 620 339 5671. It has to do with oil filtration on a 24/2. If you send me a tele # by email I have free calling US wide. Thank you, DRDEATH (Mike Lisenby)

Robert welcome to the forum. I too am new in the slow engine field. I was brought up on a farm so I do have practical experience with diesel and gas engines. In the last 4 or 5 years towns in a hundred mile area of us have had black outs for some reason or another. Ice, tornado's and storms. I decided that our town was either lucky or our time is coming. I started looking for something for backup when it hit. I looked at numerous 3600 RPM machines and even thought about a 10,000 wat welder. Then I saw an ad for a lister 24/2 with a 15 k head on it.

Well when I was talking with the head of our maintance department and he said that would not be big enough to supply the house if we really needed it. Just FYI I work in the medical field if you didnt notice the name. So I started looking for another head because I have a wife that is well into the 21 century. I picked up a 20 K head and then I had plans for the 15 K head. After all of this I found this wonderful forum that I just had to let everyone know what a good purchase I made.

Man the replies made me feel like I was dumber than dirt. So now I have a 24 hp engine and a 20 K head which I knew up front was to large but someday I hope to convert to wind power since our city is listed as the windest city in the uS. We have two large wind farms on both sides of us.So in the end I used the 15 K head which i had already planned to do and make a portable generator out of it and mounted my 180 wire feed welder and 225 am stick welder and a box for a 220 feed out to plug into a house if needed and run it with my 20 hp diesel garden tractor.

My stationary set will be mounted in a above ground storm shelter for two reasons. Cement makes a good sound barrier and it will also be where we can go if a toranado get close. Now all we have is looking out for one or becoming mobile if we need to to miss it. So with my stationary I will have enough power for myself without problems and I will be able to be a good neighbor and run BIG extension cords.

I noticed in you intro you stated you made all of your lumber you needed for your house. This tells me you must have some sort of a pioneering spirit. I would guess you must have included some sort of heat supply in your house other than what you will produce with a generator. Wood heat I would guess. You will probably have a few candles sitting around if needed. So the worst would be if the generator quit for a short time you could stay warm and have light with candles.

What Bob said is true since you will be off grid is to get something already running. I dont believe you will have to much problem with finding that. Its the preperation of getting it set up that might be the issue. I may be new but I realized very early these engines like good pads to set on. There is quite a bit of cotroversy about how much cement. I chose the solution that to much is not to much. It would be much harder to add more later. Another part of the plan that you need to think about is these engines need food. Now granted not as much as gas engines but you still have to feed them. How much fuel supply do you plan to have on hand?  Remember that if for some reason where you get your supply from might be without power so you being off grid I would always have plenty of extra. You also have to change thier oil and minor other repairs. Then heaven forbid something major that might take a few days to fix.

Do you have any other form of power that could run a generator? if so you might think of getting a head and building a portable system then you have a backup for your stationary system. This saw mill you used. Is it an option for putting a generator head on it. There is a guy in Georgia and his son is in Las Vegas who sells ST heads and they are pretty reasonable.

There will be plenty of advice from this forum and some of it might seem negative.  Like RAB said we have no idea of what you needs are and then what you wants are. These can be to completly different amounts. In my case I needed to plan for what my wifes needs were and she loves the 21 century. There is one guy up in your area in Washington or Oregon that you might want to steer clear from. He will sell you a bill of goods. You can probably figure it out when you get a price for his systems. I wont mention the name. Keep in touch I have my email listed and even though I am new I still have some knowledge. I may know more about health care so if you are out there in the woods and cant get to a doctor I might be you savior. I also have a fair amount of experience in welding and a little about engines. I depend on the forum for help there. Bob, Bill, Murph,Jens and the Oliver guy have been very helpful and if I havent said it lately "THANK YOU GUYS". Good luck, I would like to see your place sometime. I have a son in CA. Mike

I ordered an international PU from there. The order was cancled because they quit making them. I had a boss when I worked at Heston KS that lived there. Evertt Cress I believe is how his name was spelled. He was a good guy to work for. i believe he is dead now. Your right Florence has just about dried up. That would be a good town to live off grid. You would probably have it better than most people around there. Mc Pherson and Newton are not far away. Lots of hunting and fishing in that area. Bob did you see my question about Lovejoy couplers. I will look to see if you answered. Have a "GREAT DAY".

Bob I read you post a little better and noticed you grew up in Wichita. I was born and reised in Wichita. Moved out in the early 70's and have never had any desire to move back. If I read right when you move back you probably wont need all of your cool stuff. I know someone in Dodge looking for more toys. lol  Let me know when you move you might need someone with a strong back and week mind. Mike

OK I waited for all of the dust to settle because I have a question about lovjoy couplers. On my generator trailer I used one of these to go from the generator to the 540 attachtment which came with the generator. I think I have it pretty good "BUT" it is not exactly straight across. How close to straight does this have to be. I welded a bracket to secure the 540/1800 gear box   to the trailer so there is no actual weight on the coupler I think. It seems to turn freely. Any help would be nice before I shell out something. Thanks

I guess I would like to put in my 2 cents. Of course with inflation it would now equal 2000 dollars. Our nation has been strong all those years because we had something the rest of the world wanted. It seemed to continue to work because we had open arms for everyone who wanted to come and in return the imagrints made a commitement to the US. This is still happening but not as it use to be. We have a large share of people who just come here for a free ride. A large share of people. I know the arguements that these people are doing jobs no one else would do. The "JOBS" were being done by Americans before and they would still be done if no one else would do them. unemployment is at its all time high and the lower class jobs are still in demand.

Now the next problem is that the quality of our health care is second to none. In most ways this is good. People are living much longer than even 50 years ago. It has been predicted that 90 % of a persons medical expense is spent the last 6 months of thier life. Twenty years ago this was less than 50 %. This has created a large expence towards government and private insurance companies.

Another is that ther is a large influx of people who have never donated a penny towards medical coverage and yet they expect the same medical treatment that everyone else who has been paying thier entire life. People are crossing the boarder at such an alarming rate it would scare you. We have girls coming to the US to have thier babies just so number one they get better care and number two the babies are citizens. Well for all of you who didn't know obstrecticts is one of the largest malpractice specialities only second to neuro surgery. Now these woman have had no prenatal care. If the babies are born with complications it is not unsual to spend 1/2 million dollars on them. You have to spend it because if you dont even if they are not citizens there are lawyers out there that will help them get paid for what they think is our fault.

Next I suppose explain why health care continues to climb. Some of it is related to greed. This is only a small precentage of it. There are more test run than use to be. The cost of these test continues to climb. This is all because there is no such thing as an HONEST MISTAKE and in some cases it really wasn't a mistake. It use to be that sometimes things just did not turn out the way we thought it would. We use to call them risk. Risk now are considered mistakes until proven other wise. Litigation cost a fair amount of everyones doctor bill they get every time the visit the doctor.

Now we have the BABY BOMMERS hitting the retirement age. The average family is now 2 to 3 members. This includes the parents. Inother words the average family of 2 parents and 3 or 4 children is almost unheard of except minorities. This is why anglo's are slowly becoming a minority with the hispanic slowly becoming # 1.

So what are the solutions. Solutions are like belly buttions, everyone has one. One solution wil be that people who live in the US are going to have to start respecting the US and work for a stronger US. I cant tell you how much is irks me when I hear how crappy the US is just before someone expects medical care with no intention to pay for it. I have other ideas of what might help bu I will keep them to myself. I dont wish to offend anyone. Almost all of us were imagrints at one time. So I suppose I need to come down from my soab box and quit befoe I offend someone. DRDEATH

So as I was working on my portable generator trailer today a project which I need to finish before I start on my stationary engine I noticed what I think is the oil filter. It is tubing coming from what looks like the bottom of the engine and goes through a tube part way up the engine and then looks like it has a site glass or maybe I just need more sleep. If in fact this is the oil filter system then is it ok to cut into the system and put a real filtering system on it and just leave the contacption at the top end because it looks like it is rather large to try to manfacture something to replace it? Also when I get ready to work on my stationary engine my goal is to slow down my engine to around 700 RPMs. When I do this I surley hope there will be a kind soul out there that will let me know what size of pulley I will need to make the generator run at 1800. When I am ready I will post the size of my flywheels. If someone post a formuls for me to figure out then I am SOL. I gave up on math when they decided to include number, letters and silly figures. This is not to say I cant figure out a drip rate on numerous cardiac drugs without those formulas. I can even get close without a caculator. It is just my form of math. My teachers always shook thier heads but had to pass me because I always came up with the right answers without cheating. LOL  I think I have decided on how I am going to build my base but I will post it before I do it to see what type of response I get. I think it will be about 3 1/3 to 4 yards of concrete. It might be over kill but I only want to do it once. Waiting for answers for my oil solution. Mike