I have this same generator also built in 2005 that I picked up a few years ago at a government auction. Mine is rated at 20 or 19 kw but has the 65kw gen head on it. They also make this unit in a civilian version but it only has a 20kw gen head on it. You need the 65 kw head because it is 3 phase. So to actually be capable of getting 20 kw single phase power out of it without overloading any single phase the generator has to be three times larger than the rated capacity. If the gen head was only 20 kw you would only be able to get 10 or 12 kw of single phase power. But since it's extra big you can get full output on any single line without over loading any single line. Basically the military gets better quality stuff so they can run it at ita max output in any electrical output configuration. Wether single 120 volt or single 240 volt 2 phase or three phase. I actually added voltage switch board to mine out of a 60 kw military generator so I can quickly change mine from 208-240 volt up to 416-480 volt in a couple minutes. Allowing me to hook up any kind of three phase or single phase equipment I need to operate. It's a great generator and the isuzu engine is well made and easy to find parts for. The gen head size has nothing to do with the frequency. The frequency is maintained electronically from a magnetic pickup on the flywheel and a dc actuator on the fuel rack. It's controlled by the little black box under the either bottle. Which you were correct about. I removed my either assist because it has glow plugs already. That had to be an added feature for the military so it would start in any temperature. Better to not use either though as it causes the glow plugs to pit and crack. And as far as harmonic distortion is concerned it will be very low because is a brushless synchronous gen head. The power should be almost as clean as the power from your electric company. Good luck with a great generator. All the military ones I've had were all over built for there ratings so they should be able to start much larger loads than the commercial equivalent and they should last much longer.
Thanks for the additional info. No complaints here so far with the unit. For my application it's a bit oversized and I certainly don't need the 3-phase power at this time. I was thinking the larger alternator head would provide a more stable frequency due to the extra mass of the unit during large load starts and stops . The 15kW rating on each phase makes sense and is good to know. I'm hoping the electronics will stand the test of time. More so from not being used much. We'll see. So far so good it seems.
Can you recommend any books on this topic? I envy your knowledge and I’m planning on buying at least one of these. I know next to nothing about the details of diesel power generation and what components are needed in a delivery system for usage.
Yeah the old diesel fuel seems to be a big subject of talk on the smokestack form. They're always talking about having to add biosides and lubricants because the modern low sulfur diesel doesn't lubricate the injectors like the old diesel fuel did and it also is prone to bacterial growth in the fuel tank. Then you got to worry about water separation. My advice would be keep the tank full and use good quality fuel.
When I bid on this one there were probably a dozen up for auction. I picked the ugliest one to have the best chances of getting it which may have helped. I remember when I went to pick it up there was a guy who thought it was a single phase generator. Unfortunately it wasn’t but I’m still happy with it. Knowing what I do now I probably would have opted for a dedicated 240VAC single phase diesel generator of a lesser wattage but the 1800 rpm versions of those aren’t really that readily available either for around the same price. I hope you find one eventually as they are nice units. Thanks for commenting.
There is an adjustment pot on the back of the control board behind the gauge screen. You can turn it with a tiny flat screen driver while you have a multimeter on the battery to tell you the voltage. Turn it counter clockwise until the screen voltage and the multimeter are the same. I had the same issue with mine reading high voltages. And btw the screw adjust on the front of the panel with a big V under it is the voltage fine adjust. The frequency adjust in on the black box under the either bottle.
It would be nice if this could be adjusted to 240VAC across any two phases as I installed a voltage boost transformer to get up to the 240 needed to get the inverter to work as a battery charger. I realize this would set the single phase voltage to something like 132VAC, or at least this would seem to be a likely consequence but right now I'm only regularly using the 240VAC output from the boost transformer which is limiting me to around 3200 watts. It is fine for what I'm doing because the inverter only can use 2000 watts max to charge. A problem may arise if the inverter is both charging at 2000 watts and then demand above that is more than 1200 watts which I could see potentially happening in the future. This is a disappointing limitation in the configuration used especially since the unit is capable of much more. It's not high enough on the priority list to address at this point though. Thanks for the tips.
That is what the voltage adjust knob on the front of the control panel is for. You can turn it up to 240 only takes a few seconds. It's for the fine adjustment of voltage. The thing you said in the video that adjusts frequency adjusts voltage. Hopefully that will.fix most of the problems you had with your inverter and charger.
Yes the single line voltage would be a little higher which is why I usually run something around 230 volts between phases. This usually gives your appliances that need to see more volts that won't run on 208 the power they need but will not dry your 120 volt appliances as the single line voltage is under 130. Most electrical devices can withstand a ten percent voltage variation either above or below 120 volts and be alright. I would see if the charger runs at 230 volts and then everything else should also work. Good luck.
@@jordandavid1671 That's awesome - and here I added a boost transformer to fix the problem :( I'll check out the voltage adjust and let you know - thanks again!
That will be difficult for me. I don't really have anything handy that uses that much power for any significant length of time. Maybe I could dry a couple loads of laundry in an electric dryer or two if I could round them up.
I have 25 kw of heating elements with a home hvac blower on them and this generator runs them with no problem. We ran it for two days with all the elements on to dry out some rough sawn lumber. Did the trick and was very economical on the fuel. So you would need a laundromat attached to really start to make it sweat! It probably won't wet stack unless you run it with a small load and the temperature outside is very cold. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you have fuel coming out the exhaust or the oil level starts to rise again and the injectors are still working properly.
I think you're having a harder time finding old diesel-powered equipment because of the environmental kick that they are on if they want us all to be driving Electric cars in less than a decade they certainly cannot be selling old more reliable technology so unfortunately probably just scrapping it
I have this same generator also built in 2005 that I picked up a few years ago at a government auction. Mine is rated at 20 or 19 kw but has the 65kw gen head on it. They also make this unit in a civilian version but it only has a 20kw gen head on it. You need the 65 kw head because it is 3 phase. So to actually be capable of getting 20 kw single phase power out of it without overloading any single phase the generator has to be three times larger than the rated capacity. If the gen head was only 20 kw you would only be able to get 10 or 12 kw of single phase power. But since it's extra big you can get full output on any single line without over loading any single line. Basically the military gets better quality stuff so they can run it at ita max output in any electrical output configuration. Wether single 120 volt or single 240 volt 2 phase or three phase. I actually added voltage switch board to mine out of a 60 kw military generator so I can quickly change mine from 208-240 volt up to 416-480 volt in a couple minutes. Allowing me to hook up any kind of three phase or single phase equipment I need to operate. It's a great generator and the isuzu engine is well made and easy to find parts for. The gen head size has nothing to do with the frequency. The frequency is maintained electronically from a magnetic pickup on the flywheel and a dc actuator on the fuel rack. It's controlled by the little black box under the either bottle. Which you were correct about. I removed my either assist because it has glow plugs already. That had to be an added feature for the military so it would start in any temperature. Better to not use either though as it causes the glow plugs to pit and crack. And as far as harmonic distortion is concerned it will be very low because is a brushless synchronous gen head. The power should be almost as clean as the power from your electric company. Good luck with a great generator. All the military ones I've had were all over built for there ratings so they should be able to start much larger loads than the commercial equivalent and they should last much longer.
Thanks for the additional info. No complaints here so far with the unit. For my application it's a bit oversized and I certainly don't need the 3-phase power at this time. I was thinking the larger alternator head would provide a more stable frequency due to the extra mass of the unit during large load starts and stops . The 15kW rating on each phase makes sense and is good to know. I'm hoping the electronics will stand the test of time. More so from not being used much. We'll see. So far so good it seems.
Can you recommend any books on this topic? I envy your knowledge and I’m planning on buying at least one of these. I know next to nothing about the details of diesel power generation and what components are needed in a delivery system for usage.
Yeah the old diesel fuel seems to be a big subject of talk on the smokestack form. They're always talking about having to add biosides and lubricants because the modern low sulfur diesel doesn't lubricate the injectors like the old diesel fuel did and it also is prone to bacterial growth in the fuel tank. Then you got to worry about water separation. My advice would be keep the tank full and use good quality fuel.
The comparison to solar panels... loved it! BUT - I would love to have a generator like that in Northern Nevada!
Hey Very nice Subscribed to Steel Soldiers. A lot of smart people and advice if needed. Very very helpful
Been trying to find one of these for years. Very cool lucky to find a good one!
When I bid on this one there were probably a dozen up for auction. I picked the ugliest one to have the best chances of getting it which may have helped. I remember when I went to pick it up there was a guy who thought it was a single phase generator. Unfortunately it wasn’t but I’m still happy with it. Knowing what I do now I probably would have opted for a dedicated 240VAC single phase diesel generator of a lesser wattage but the 1800 rpm versions of those aren’t really that readily available either for around the same price. I hope you find one eventually as they are nice units. Thanks for commenting.
excellent
There is an adjustment pot on the back of the control board behind the gauge screen. You can turn it with a tiny flat screen driver while you have a multimeter on the battery to tell you the voltage. Turn it counter clockwise until the screen voltage and the multimeter are the same. I had the same issue with mine reading high voltages. And btw the screw adjust on the front of the panel with a big V under it is the voltage fine adjust. The frequency adjust in on the black box under the either bottle.
It would be nice if this could be adjusted to 240VAC across any two phases as I installed a voltage boost transformer to get up to the 240 needed to get the inverter to work as a battery charger. I realize this would set the single phase voltage to something like 132VAC, or at least this would seem to be a likely consequence but right now I'm only regularly using the 240VAC output from the boost transformer which is limiting me to around 3200 watts. It is fine for what I'm doing because the inverter only can use 2000 watts max to charge. A problem may arise if the inverter is both charging at 2000 watts and then demand above that is more than 1200 watts which I could see potentially happening in the future. This is a disappointing limitation in the configuration used especially since the unit is capable of much more. It's not high enough on the priority list to address at this point though. Thanks for the tips.
That is what the voltage adjust knob on the front of the control panel is for. You can turn it up to 240 only takes a few seconds. It's for the fine adjustment of voltage. The thing you said in the video that adjusts frequency adjusts voltage. Hopefully that will.fix most of the problems you had with your inverter and charger.
Yes the single line voltage would be a little higher which is why I usually run something around 230 volts between phases. This usually gives your appliances that need to see more volts that won't run on 208 the power they need but will not dry your 120 volt appliances as the single line voltage is under 130. Most electrical devices can withstand a ten percent voltage variation either above or below 120 volts and be alright. I would see if the charger runs at 230 volts and then everything else should also work. Good luck.
@@jordandavid1671 That's awesome - and here I added a boost transformer to fix the problem :( I'll check out the voltage adjust and let you know - thanks again!
Thanks Jordan - czcams.com/video/qsN1KlYPEVY/video.html
I am seasick from watching this video😂
Would be better with a small single phase unit. Don’t you need 240v?
The 65 kw rating is probably for 50 hertz operation at 1500 RPM, while the 85 kw rating is for 60 hertz operation at 1800 RPM.
85 is kva. 65 kw.
You think it can run 50hz?
@@tujuprojects It probably can. It would just be a matter of adjusting the governor on the engine to run at 1500 RPM instead of 1800 RPM.
Hey How are you making out with the unit ??
Good so far. Thanks for the comments :)
Audio was low enough I had trouble Hearing parts.
I’m working on that. Thanks for the feedback
You may like to watch this video from KBI, which describes how their Dieselmatic cold-starting system works: czcams.com/video/QCmDNly-Rn8/video.html
you will want to load this up at some point or else you will end up wet stacking the engine.
That will be difficult for me. I don't really have anything handy that uses that much power for any significant length of time. Maybe I could dry a couple loads of laundry in an electric dryer or two if I could round them up.
I have 25 kw of heating elements with a home hvac blower on them and this generator runs them with no problem. We ran it for two days with all the elements on to dry out some rough sawn lumber. Did the trick and was very economical on the fuel. So you would need a laundromat attached to really start to make it sweat! It probably won't wet stack unless you run it with a small load and the temperature outside is very cold. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you have fuel coming out the exhaust or the oil level starts to rise again and the injectors are still working properly.
I think you're having a harder time finding old diesel-powered equipment because of the environmental kick that they are on if they want us all to be driving Electric cars in less than a decade they certainly cannot be selling old more reliable technology so unfortunately probably just scrapping it