Generac 17,500w

These were not farm trailers, they were tandem axle utility trailers with a 500 gallon tank on them. It may not have been legal but it got the job done.
With the full weight of a full 500 gallon tank some around 3,000 pounds I'm assuming that the tank stayed on the trailer.

 

I guess generac really never figured anyone wouldwant or even try to use more than 50 amps from this generator. The linesingle and neutral are not 8 gauge they are all 10 gauge. 105°C rated 10 gauge is really only good for around 40 amps continous and 50 amps on a fairly long duty cycle and 70 amps on a pretty short duty cycle.
My 70 amp breaker came in so it's off to lowes to get some white and black 6 gauge, I have a roll of red 6 gauge but I like the different colors.

 

If I kill this generator I will put a better one on there.

 

All the smaller receptacles even the 30 amp ones are all daisy chained together with 12 gauge wire and the L14-30 is on 2 single pole breaker.
I don't like it.

New equipment and bigger wire.

 

I could almost pass as an electrician.
Almost.

 

I have been shopping around looking at generators upon the anticipated demise of this one.
A real 15kw generator weighs 360lb.
A real 20kw generator weighs 385lb.
The generac generator weighs around 100lb less.
I think if I were to get a replacement I would go for the 20kw.

I have power factor corrected all my big inductive loads, welders and air compressors as much as possible.

 

I got my generator on its own trailer.
I reused the aluminum tool box (not installed) tongue and axle plus springs and hardware from my old 4x8 trailer that I rebuilt. The frame was from an abandoned trailer project.
All the extra room between the generator and tool box will be for fuel cans and/or a fuel tank.
The aluminum tool box will hold extra oil, oil filters, cords, adaptor cords maybe some fuel.
This generator suffers from catastrophic fuel consumption, 1.6 gallons of fuel per hour at half load. In an earlier post I said it had a 12 or 13 gallon fuel tank, no its 16 gallons.

 

You might want to rethink the placement of the generator on that trailer . most of the weight needs to be forward of the axil .
Other wise the trailer will wag like a tail behind you .

 

It's not even close to being finished.
I have a tool box on the tongue and the space between the generator and tool box is going to carry between 100 to 300 pounds of fuel.
All my spare power cords are going in the tool box so it could weigh up to 100lb.
I'm not going to cut free and reweld the generator each time I add something.
I put the generator so far back to try and keep the finished tongue weight under 200lb.

When I say cords I'm not talking about a few 25ft 16ga 120v cords.
I have 8/3 welder extension cords up to 50 feet long each, I made the ultimate 120v welder cord which is 75 feet long 10/ SO cable with a L5-30 plug and 5-20 heavy duty duplex and a L5-30r, some 4 conductor 10 gauge cords for L14-30 each cord is 20 to 50 feet long, my L14-30 plug with 4 pack of 5-20 receptacle adaptor. And my 6-15 and 6-20 cord sets. Plus a bunch of different lengths of 10/3 10-30 and 10-50 cord sets. They will pretty much fill the tool box.

The larger cords my be ratchet strapped to the top of the generator if there isn't enough room in my tool box for them.

 

The 17.5kw generator and my new gently abused 17.5hp riding lawn mower both take the same oil filter. One less filter to keep track of.

 

This is good because I bought a pile of these oil filters on clearance at advanced auto parts this summer. They were practically giving them away. They only had 6 I would have bought more if they had them. For $3 each for puralator, you can't go wrong.
I also drained the gas out of the generator, about 15 gallons, put it in the car and took the generator to the ethanol free station and filled it back up.

Everything is so much easier with the generator trailer. The generator is up high enough to where I can take off the fuel line, put it into the cars gas tank and open the fuel shutoff valve and just gravity feed the contents of the generator fuel tank into a car, then tow the generator to the gas station and fill it up. It takes 16 gallons to fill it. Much easier than gas cans.

 

There was a post about VAR a while back, all my machines such as air compressors and welding machines are power factor corrected.
The next big thing I will be adding is a well pump, I'm sure I can power factor correct it too if needed.

 

Well my 17.5kw is at the generac dealer getting worked on.
It wouldn't start yesterday.
When I forced it to start it wouldn't build up volts.

 

OP4
Time to learn how to be a sparky

 

I can easily repair my 7kw generator.
This one has electronic throttle body and is all computer controlled.