The journey begins - purchased a truck.

That's a unit I never seen before? Diesel?

 

http://www.powertechgenerators.com/pages/cd8000si

 

..

Quality unit, what's the price and expectant life?

 

Cost a lot, should run 50,000 hours, mine has 25, 000 hours and was put on the truck in 1999 and has bounced around for 1.6 million miles. Probably spent 3000 on it including a generator end and a radiator, new motor mounts, fan shrouds, water pump and rebuild pump and injectors. That is less than a few hundred a year.

 

Blair, I don't want to be a naysayer, but do you think that the heat could be a bit much for the wood? I realize that you have cut a hole for the exhaust, but...

 

Got it. I hope it works well.

I have the same brand of generator (5000) that I bought for power needs out in the field. It hasn't run too many hours, but has run flawlessly with the exception of the float in the carburetor stuck once and gas was dribbling out. It wasn't running when that happened, but since then I shut the gas valve from the tank off when not using it.

 

The biggest problem is going to be engine cooling. Heat is the big killer of an air cooled engine. There is no place for the heat off the engine to escape, other than to recirculate around and around inside the box with the exhaust heat.

Engine heat increases greatly while under load, which the engine will be the majority of the time it is running. You need fresh air to the front of the engine where the hand starter/flywheel screen is, as this is the cooling intake area.

 

Looks like he could keep it open while it's running and then closed when he rolling down the road. Pretty nifty idea and setup if you ask me but I've had APUs in company trucks and that's the only thing I'm getting.