I know that we have a LOT of monkeys in Florida. With Irene just passing by, maybe you are thinking about a backup Genset for the Outfit. Well here is one going DIRT Cheap, and you get a Reloading Bench, as a bonus.... ...... YMMV..... ebay Item 350487244342 Metal Work Bench with Attached Onan Diesel Engine | eBay
Thanks, I am looking into it. I have a buddy who is a genius with generators. I might bid. Emailed him the link.
One thing to keep in mind about these older onan's. I have had a couple for a few years now, and can tell you that some of them can be really hard to find parts for. Not sure about the diesel versions, but they are about the same age as the gas ones I had. When you have them working, they are fantastic to say the least.....
My friend the mechanic says this gen set is a piece of crap from day one. Air cooled, and notorious for over heating, even if in good shape which this one ain't. I am intriqued a bit about the locked cabinet drawers, but not enough to make a bid, and have to drive 500 to 600 miles round trip to get this.
Well it turns out that it was just the Engine, without the Genend, used as a Portable Power Pak. One could drive an external Genend from it. The thing about these particular Onan J Series units, is that they built them for 4 decades in various versions, and there are literally Hundreds of thousands of them out there. Onan does still have many parts for them in the OEM Parts System. I have a few of them around here that I run, as well as some of the neighbors use J Series Onan Gensets, to power their whole outfits. These are a HEAVY, Ruggedly built, 1800 Rpm Design, and many I have seen are in the 20-30K Operational Hours In-Frame Maintenance routine. Onan built both Air Cooled and Water Cooled versions of the J Series, as well as Diesel and Gas/Gasoline Fueled versions. I have both air and water cooled versions, here, and find that there is very little difference in their Longevity, between the two versions. ...... YMMV....
Location, Location, Location....... might make a world of difference. . Down here in sunny Florida it's hot enough that the air cooled versions of these 1970's Onan Generators (as identified by my Mechanic) overheat more often than not. just sayin' . But then up your way, the weather most likely would freeze the balls off a brass monkey!
