generator advice

I have four stroke generator i used in the past for camping,its eight years since i ran it and its been stored in side,is there any thing i should do to it like putting a small amount of lubricant in the plug hole and turning it over without a plug in,or just put fresh petrol in it and go for it.

Wish we could help Mike, I bought a generator a few years back not knowing anything about them and thinking it would be great but the only thing we could run off it was a light. I had visions of it running a hairdryer and hoover amongst other stuff

We decided not to keep it as it was bulky and a bit noisy for what we got from it.

Mike,

Change the oil,fresh petrol & it should start up...I have used WD40 down the plug hole & turned it over a few times (You dont want anything to viscous like engine oil),when it strikes up it'll smoke for a few seconds but nothing major

Sometimes the contacts on the coil & flywheel get a small coat of surface rust and need cleaning with some 1200grit wet & dry with WD40 as a lubricant. When you set the coil back upto the flywheel use a folded piece of A4 paper to get the gap correct

I served my first year at work on horticultural equipment & generators I wanted to be working on the tractors but we had to start somewhere

If you want a good quality,reliable & quiet generator then a Honda EU10i is the one...It does move upto its higher rev's when boiling a kettle but powered the girls hair straighteners & hair dryer at the last VW show we attended

Ill be upgrading to an EU20i this year i think

The Honda's are expensive and probably best used alot to justify them but when the sites got EHU its not cost effective with the price of fuel

vessey44 wrote:Mike,

Change the oil,fresh petrol & it should start up...I have used WD40 down the plug hole & turned it over a few times (You dont want anything to viscous like engine oil),when it strikes up it'll smoke for a few seconds but nothing major

Sometimes the contacts on the coil & flywheel get a small coat of surface rust and need cleaning with some 1200grit wet & dry with WD40 as a lubricant. When you set the coil back upto the flywheel use a folded piece of A4 paper to get the gap correct

I served my first year at work on horticultural equipment & generators I wanted to be working on the tractors but we had to start somewhere

Thanks i will try the wd40 just thought the cylinders may benefit from a little initial lubrication

Another way of doing it is remove the plug lead & keep pulling the recoil a few times like your trying to start it

These small engines are splash fed anyway so it'll get oil onto the bore

vessey44 wrote:Another way of doing it is remove the plug lead & keep pulling the recoil a few times like your trying to start it

These small engines are splash fed anyway so it'll get oil onto the bore

If you do this make sure the ignition is off.

Turning an engine over with the ignition lead not grounded through an attached plug will kill a lot of electronic ignition systems.

Hi,

Just to revive an old thread, I have the chance to buy a 1000w silent generator for £50, are sites generally ok with them?

I have found the following about the generator

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

ShaunJUK wrote:I have found the following about the generator

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If the one your buying is the same do you have 120volt appliances? or is yours a UK 240V spec one?
4 stroke every chance to be better than the cheap 2 stroke units you see.
Remember If running any electronic equipment start the generator, then plug in and plug out then stop the generator.
generators may be better now but you used to get voltage spikes on starting and stopping. these spikes would kill electronic equipment.

Its UK 240v

Try this UK campsites thread [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If it starts and there is an output you can't be going far wrong at that price.
It has a good level of silencing. I presume your looking to run for a few hours to maybe watch the TV and charge the batteries.
If you are happy with this generator and go for longer term use there are LPG kits for them .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

But what are the campsites opinion of them? Allowed? Not allowed? Daytime only?

C&CC UK club site policies, Your Place in the Country page 173:

Noise
(iii) Generators may be used at the discretion of the Holiday Site Manager who will advise on the most appropriate running times. Customers may be asked to refrain from using them if they cause a disturbance.

That seems like a definite maybe

I think that the answer is that it varies from site to site as to whether and when they are allowed and you just have to check on websites and when booking

Well I got it (too cheap not too)

However I am not sure if I will ever use it camping, unless we go seriously into the sticks somewhere.