Charlie Jones

Irma came to us yesterday afternoon via Lowe's .
She's a 5,500 watt Cat generator .
She is a very welcome addition to our family . The reason for her name is obvious .
Unfortunately , Lowes was out of the twist lock plugs to hook her up to 230 V . So was everybody else in town .
Regardless , I brought her home and set her up . And rigged up a " power grid " with extension cords and power strips .
I managed to hook up the fridge , a box fan , and the TV .
This made Mrs. Jones very happy !
Irma toiled for about 2 and a half hours until about 8:30 PM when the power came back on . After four days .

As I was wrapping up the cords , a neighbor stopped by .
He told me " That thing still looks like new . You ought to take it back to Lowe's . "
I told him , He!! NO . It's going right in that garden shed , For the next time when (not if) this sh*t happens .

Koda

Very nice. The prepared Floridian has his hurricane boards, his generator, cords, and fuel, and his booze at the start of the season. I am an expat, native Floridian (Winter Park).

Recommend you run it on ethanol free, run the gas out of it when done, and run it yearly, with a load. Do it around Christmas so the weather is nice and you can hook a space heater to it (they pull amps). Put enough gas in it for half an hour and let her run out, then stow.

Charlie Jones

My exact plans , except I have 5 gallons of fuel in her . I'll probably use fuel stabilizer for now .
I did shut the fuel valve off and let the carb run out of gas though .
My test will be in June . Right before " hurricane season " starts .

lshlsh2

Hope you have better luck with keeping it going. Had a John Deere about the same size. I did everything to keep it working and it never worked when I needed it. Sold it and now have an older winco 15k pto driven generator. Not practical for most but I have 2 tractors to run it. It is for work.

If I was to get another, I might look into a propane or diesel one. Gas one had to many headaches for me. My .02

zeeke

Charlie if you still need the twist lock males PM me with an address and I'll send them to you. I think it's an L14 30 amp twist lock, I should have 1 or 2 here. They also make a device for the panel that ties the main breaker in with the back up depending on your panel set up. It switches the breakers on and of simultaneously so you don't back feed the grid with generator power and vise vs. This allows you the manual back up with out installing a back up panel. I don't have any females though, if you are stuck and need one I can hit the supply house for you. Just let me know.

I had my issues with Sandy a few years back and I get deployed with FEMA during these storms so I know it can get stressful.

Charlie Jones

Thanks for the offer Zeeke . However , I talked to the guy at Lowe's this afternoon .
And he told me that there should be some coming on their truck shipment tonight . I'll be there bright and early tomorrow , and hopefully get one .

Professur

Fuel stab and run it for 15 minutes every weekend. And personally ... I'd make a point of not loaning any tools to your neighbour.