Craigslist Score!

[Ryan Ruck]

Take a look at what I found on Craigslist. A Generac 5500XL generator.







After we were without power for the better part of a week due to the remnants of Hurricane Ike blowing through Ohio, I decided it was time to get a generator.

This one was advertised for $370 which I thought was a pretty good price to begin with for a 5.5kw brand name generator. Managed to get it for $350. The previous owner used to race cars and didn't need it anymore.

It's 9 years old, the oil was very dark and thick, it looked like it had the original oil filter (it has an external spin-on filter), the air filter was filthy, and it was extremely hard to start. This all surprised me considering the previous owner raced for fun. I would have thought he knew how to take care of mechanical things...

Went out and picked up a new oil filter (it uses the same as a Toyota Echo! LOL!), oil, new spark plug, new air filter, some carb cleaner and did a thorough tune up on it (changed the oil 3 times to "wash" out the sludge). This thing will now start up on the first pull and doesn't burn any oil!

Next step is to put some swivel casters on it since at 170lbs it is a little heavy to move around. That's why I've got it on that dolly temporarily.

Needless to say, I am pretty pleased with my purchase!

Anyone else had any Craigslist scores?

[Malsua]

Grats.

Are you on a well? I've got all the wires and plugs (just haven't done it yet) so that I can run my well pump off the genset. In an emergency, I could have the well going in about 20 minutes.

I figure, run the well, get water...then run the fridge. There is enough left over on my 4000 to run some lights and the fans on the fireplace insert.

Also, get some gas and stabil it.

[Ryan Ruck]

No, not on a well. That could be a good or bad thing depending. Being close to the Ohio River, we get our water from a local water company. All things considered, I think I would prefer well water though.

I am in the process of laying in a nice supply of fuel. I've got a number of steel NATO gerry cans and just recently picked up 6 55 gallon HDPE plastic barrels like this but white:

Used to be Pepsi syrup barrels that I also found on Craigslist!

I've got 3 filled with bleach treated water, 3 that will be filled with gasoline, and plan to get 3 more to fill with kerosene. Unfortunately, due to storage options, it looks like 9 will be about the limit otherwise I would have a couple more for each item. I plan on picking up some more of the gerry cans as they are very handy.

The gas in the gerry cans gets rotated out regularly. The gas and kero in the barrels will of course get Stabil treatment.

I figure that between the gerry cans, the barrels, and fuel in fuel tanks I can run my generator for a VERY long time. I'm also planning to get some spare oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, and a couple cases of motor oil to keep in stock for the generator. It only cost $15 to get the parts for the tuneup the first time so I figure $60 worth of parts for storage is well worth it if it keeps the genny running long term.

And if it ever gets to the point where gasoline runs out, I figure I'll have to go to something like Woodgas!