Converting a Diesel Truck Into a Generator?

[jgelt]

We are in the process of getting out of “the city” and heading to greener pastures. We bought a U-haul truck to facilitate our move.

We did all the math and for the way we are doing it, buying will be a lot smarter than renting, storage and multiple loads and reloads.

Now the trick is, it becomes a real smart idea if you can resell the truck on the other end.

Now let’s say for fun that we cross that fine line between clever and stupid and we can’t sell on the other end.

What do I do with a 26’ diesel truck?

What about using it for a back up generator?

Yep, I know it’s not going to be efficient and there are better ways to do back up power generation, that’s not the point.

The point is I might have a big honking beast in my back yard, so I might as well figure uses for it now.

I’m pretty good with electronics but my mechanical aptitude is a little lower. So use small words with me at first until I’m up to speed.

My main thought would be to keep it as simple as possible. I’d want to run a minimum of “survival” things like keeping the deep freeze and fridge running.

My guess would be that the problems would start at the alternator. It isn’t built to run a freezer. Any thoughts at getting more electricity out of an engine designed for hauling heavy weight rather than sitting in place and running appliances?

I’ve looked on the internet and the moment you say “generator” and “diesel” you are looking at pages of product and little “ how to.”

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[machinemaker]

I would think that it has enough market value to sell and use the cash to buy a generator. I just bought 3 military generators, 4 cylinder air cooled teledyne gas engines, 24 VDC @ 150 amps. All 3 for $215.00 I figured I'd use one for battery backup and charging, use the engine from one to drive some other equipment, and maybe either sell the other or store it for parts. Keep the truck for hauling the great things that our society throws out that still has value. I am amazed at what businesses get rid of, and at times pay to have hauled away. Turn that truck into a side job: mobile welding shop, wood shop, remodeling business, or a mobile retail shop.

[Mac_Muz]

It kinda depends on where your headed....

You could remove the box and use it logging.. You could add a plow and that might do it for all your needs...

You could re-rent it.

The box could make a storage / work shop, or an extra room.

If you ran a 120 acv gennie off it you could do more than you plan for sure. More or less you need to gear up the genni if it is an alternator to be at 3,000 rpm while the engine is at near idle.

BUT running that engine for 2 items seems a waste.

There are ways to run welders off it as well..

I can type in wild guess all night, but with out knowing you, what you do, a rough idea where in the world you will be...... The imaginations are the limits..

Me I would make a camper out of it.. It would hold motor bikes in the back... I would take orders and deliever bikes in the USA... A business, and part time vaction rig..

Probably I would also carry lumber, and plow with it.

[jgelt]

Yeah, I'm hoping it's going to sell but I try not to make plans off hope.

I've considered the idea of keeping it for it's truck use but for what I'm doing it won't be worth it. I'm planning on farming in the boonies. I'll be too far out to make anything profitable at $100 a month for insurance and 8 MPG. Eventually I'll have farm produce, but nothing I couldn't haul in a pick up or van for a hell of a lot cheaper.

I'm all for taking other people's perfectly good trash if it's something I need. However, I don't see me hauling $1200+ a year's worth of it.

If I'm being short sighted here, let me know. I've been in the "big city" for a while so I may not know what I am talking about.

I like to prepare for the worst case and then be pleasently surprised by an outcome that I am more than ready to handle.

Worst case here, it can't sell. If it can't, how do I turn this big -ss lemon into lemonade?

I'm skeptical on using it for any viable form of transport but I'll listen to ideas.

[jgelt]

It kinda depends on where your headed....

You could remove the box and use it logging.. You could add a plow and that might do it for all your needs...

You could re-rent it.

The box could make a storage / work shop, or an extra room.

If you ran a 120 acv gennie off it you could do more than you plan for sure. More or less you need to gear up the genni if it is an alternator to be at 3,000 rpm while the engine is at near idle.

BUT running that engine for 2 items seems a waste.

There are ways to run welders off it as well..

I can type in wild guess all night, but with out knowing you, what you do, a rough idea where in the world you will be...... The imaginations are the limits..

Me I would make a camper out of it.. It would hold motor bikes in the back... I would take orders and deliever bikes in the USA... A business, and part time vaction rig..

Probably I would also carry lumber, and plow with it.




I'm going to be in SW Missouri.

My property has trees but at this point I don't think it has a lot of commerical potential.

I'm not sure the kind of tires on that truck would be suitable to going "off road" in terms of using it to plow.

The re-rent thing might have some legs. Right now my knowledge of the lay of the land there is minimal. The area suits my needs, I haven't made a great deal of considerations into going into business again.

I had already thought of the box as an outbuilding, my wife gave me some funny looks on that one.

I guess my immaination on the price of gas must be going wild. I don't see a lot of long hual anyhting being very viable in 1-2 years.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Mac_Muz]

Well Plowing snow won't be often.. See what I mean about where depends? A 10 ton dump truck here in NH can plow with out 4 wheel drive.. I ment snow....

Still for any sellable produce you could rig this up as the store, storage for the store and set it up pretty nice. Might not have to drive all that far.

Since it runs on diesel, any diesel gennie can use the same fuel and so you could use the truck as fuel storage as well.

Just think you could make a dump run once a year.. LOL

One problem I would have re-converting this engine to a gennie is it has likely some high miles, lots of wear and tear and probably less maintance than it should have had.

Not trying to be overly nosey, about what was the price?

I mean if you got a great deal then maybe keeping it a way to go, untill you settle in and have time for wants...

I know when I act in haste I sometimes wish I moved slower.

If you took a beating on the deal and want the money back, then maybe selling asap is the thing to do.

What year make and model is this anyway?

Is yer wife a country girl? If I had a rig like that my wife wouldn't say boo. In fact she would probably paint it to what we want, or camo so it would hide..

Is the roof in the box one that allows light in? If so it could make a fair hot house for plants... Moving work shop style.

You can get 12 dcv to 110acv converters that are decent these days.

My take is there is a house you can move right into as well, but are there out buldings enough? Naw there's never enough out builds... Thar's never enough storage either for that matter.

You could store a heck of a lotta winters wood in that rig and just back up to the wall which would be cut and sealed so getting in wood is a no brainer.

I know the problem here is we don't think alike much.... I can't stand to be in any city for longer than it takes to take some interstate hi-way at 80 mph to get around it, and you like the city life, or did.

If that were mine I would get aggi plates and screw the insurance and run the hell outta of it getting in wood in spring, no sooner than I was done with the hot house deal.

As the cordwood grew and harvest time came along I would drag out what cord wood I wanted to sell and the going price in NH is out of sight at over 200 bucks a cord these days!

If it has a hydralic lift on back I would be set... I think you need to re-consider how handy that rig could be. And get yer wife into something pretty skimpy and hand her 5 gallons of paint!

[jgelt]

“Still for any sellable produce you could rig this up as the store, storage for the store and set it up pretty nice. Might not have to drive all that far. “

I’m going to set up growing fruits and vegetables. I’ll start with chickens, primarily for eggs and likely start up on sheep for my red meat. We might mess with cows at some point.

Here’s where I’m having a mental block on this concept. When it gets time to play farmer goes to market it’s going to cost me $10 a round trip to go into the small town near by or $40 to get to the big city and back each trip. What can’t I fit in my pick up truck for 1/3 the price of a trip that’s going to make it worth my while?

“Just think you could make a dump run once a year.. LOL “

LOL Indeed!

”Not trying to be overly nosey, about what was the price?”

$4100

”I know when I act in haste I sometimes wish I moved slower.

If you took a beating on the deal and want the money back, then maybe selling asap is the thing to do.

What year make and model is this anyway?”

The way this economy is going, I fear if I don’t move fast I may get stranded here. I may end up regretting some choices made along the way, but I won’t regret my haste.

I think we did fairly good on the price. They typically sell for about $2500 higher and I see people reselling their used ones near $5000.

It’s a 1988, 26” box with an International Engine.

”Is yer wife a country girl? If I had a rig like that my wife wouldn't say boo. In fact she would probably paint it to what we want, or camo so it would hide.. “

She’s not. But she’s practical. If we can’t sell it and it’s got purpose, she won’t have problems with how it looks.

”My take is there is a house you can move right into as well, but are there out buldings enough? Naw there's never enough out builds... Thar's never enough storage either for that matter.”

A house and 5 outbuildings. The box would look okay as an outbuilding. Just seems a waste to leave a working diesel engine as a daisy planter.

”I know the problem here is we don't think alike much.... I can't stand to be in any city for longer than it takes to take some interstate hi-way at 80 mph to get around it, and you like the city life, or did.

If that were mine I would get aggi plates and screw the insurance and run the hell outta of it getting in wood in spring, no sooner than I was done with the hot house deal.”

I grew up in a rural setting. The military dumped me off out here in a large city. When I retired I had lots of friends and the opportunities for making money seemed easy and endless. However I never liked it here. I like to settle. My wife gets itchy feet and wants to move all the time. In terms of finances, I’m the practical one. She was a mechanic in the military. She has fantastic skills in the mechanical and woodworking departments.

The short of it is I like to move “to” something she wants to move “from” something. It wasn’t until recently that I believed that she was being honest with herself with a real desire to move to rural MO. I’m smart enough not to push a city girl into the country against her will. A lot has changed over the last year that makes this move make good sense all the way around.

In terms of legality, I don’t know the lay of land there yet. Until I know that, I have to assume I have to do everything on the up and up. Here the only thing they fight over is whether it’s a good day to hoist the swastika or the hammer and sickle up the flag pole. The average person here gets pulled over 2-3 times a year for speeding, often 5 MPH over the speed limit. No kidding. I have a minivan and a Geo Metro. I get pulled over in the Geo routinely for non-existent infractions. They pull over any old, economy or not well kept up vehicle they see to check your insurance. I like to call it driving while poor. Funny that doesn’t happen while driving my newer min-van huh? Also, here, if you let a vehicle go uninsured, you pretty much made it yours forever. The cost to reinsure an uninsured vehicle is astronomical. So if you get to a point where you want to sell it, you are limited to a crowd of people playing the same game as you are.

In southern MO, you are talking about a place that gets 15 inches a snow per year with a 200 plus day growing season. The snow stays on the ground but for a few days before melting again. The winter, what there is of it, is an on again off again affair. The place is stupid with trees. Logically, I can’t picture that hauling fire wood is going to be as lucrative as up there in NH. BTW, my in-laws are from NH.

As I mentioned above, unless my grasp of the size of produce is way off the mark, I can’t see where the capacity of that beast is going to be worth chewing up all that fuel for.

[Mac_Muz]

The Law is getting to be kinda funny huh? Since yer headed to MO, where the heck is "here"? anyway...

I took my bride from NH to Cal makin' some 9,000 miles in the doin' and thence to Fla making another 6,000 miles. So I get lost easy...

From Fla I really got lost and ended up in Arkansas, so I got to Brason MO I think it is.. We hit Ar on turkey day 05 and man it was cold. Of course were on a big fat motor bike.

While in AR we bought a 86 Dodge Van a 3.4 ton rig all converted to be a sin bin with a bed from the factory. That rig had only 15,500 miles no less! At first I took it as 115,500, but I can be wrong.

So from there when the winter was slakin off we headed to Ky and Tn, and spent a good deal of time there looking at thing, places and oppertunties... We left Cumberland Gap on May 15th 06, and made beckely W.Va is a nasty dark rain. The morning of the 16th we discovered the bike had been lifted from the 06 trailer we bought in Ar as well. All that was and this was the first cop.

Some 3 weeks after tha event I was back in NH, and I got stopped 3 times in a month, all for nothing.

The first time was so the nice trooper could see what the inside of a van looked like, and he had never seen Ar tags before! The next time at dusk my wife entered a store for a bottl of cold water and I shut off the main head lamps. As I pulled out from the street side parking, under street lamps odd kinda yellow light from them, with my parking lamps ON, so my dash lights were also on, the instant I knew I needed more light at the edge of town bammo, on come the blue lights.

I got a warning on paper for that criminal act.. I had to explain to the officr this is clled an infraction, but he had fun with me untill I told him I would have to get out to get the reggi.. it was in a bolted down locking metal box in the way back. He had fun watching over my shoulder too, pointing hios flash light, but when He saw the amount of papers and I tild him I have no idea what a Ar reggi looks like he gave it up, and called it in. ;D

Then after my old volvo was re reggied, I got busted again! We get 10 days to get a sticka', and I had 9 left.. That cop wanted to know why I didn't have the right sticker and so I had to tell all about that bike ride.. I was then informed a bit too late that "No One has the mentaility to ride from coast to coast to coast"!

I guess someone should have told me that before I left in the first place.

It is getting to be "Papers Please" everywhere we go ain't it?

Well I suppose getting back to yer truck, you might as well put a for sale sign on it just before you get done with that ride. At that time you will still be driving it because you will need to, and since it will be running and visably so, a buyewr will be more apt to see it, the way you want it to be seen. Working.... Items like that don't like to sit about. They tend to seize up just laying about idle.

Since you got a fair deal you can ask more and drop in the barganing and maybe still earn a reasonable profit, like cover the fuel you used and then a bit..

Maybe wash the engine, and grease the zerks, so it looks better maintained.

[DM]

If it was me, i'd sell that truck ASAP, even lowering the price to get it to move, and buy something that you "can" use!

Maybe you could trade it for something usfull, like a decent tractor??

DM

[jgelt]

Hi DM, Actually the original concept was sell it. My question was what if for some reason I can't? It's one of my quirks. I "what if" everything down to just hair above the absurd. It's nice not to be surprised and it impresses everyone when you seem to have an answer on the spot for nearly every problem. The best way to have an answer on the spot for the "unexpected" is to expect it.

The other nice thing is, 99 times out of 100 things are always better than my worse case senario. When everyone else is in shock, there's me "Could have been worse..."

So folks were answering my "what if." I'll take anybody's suggestion seriously and roll it around my brain. I don't know everything. It never hurts to dig down to find out where the other person is coming from.

[jgelt]

Mac,

We're currently in Colorado. This was a fairly nice place when we got here. IMO it's become Californicated to the point where this place will be facing very serious problems in less than 10 years and will lack the capacity to solve those problems.

As far as selling the truck goes, I can sell at a loss and still come out ahead. I would have had to pay to move, rent and store in the first place. If I can sell and negate those costs, great, if not, my heart won't be broken.

[Mac_Muz]

You might add in a few gun trades to help a would be buyer out and in the end make out better than you imagine.

It once worked like this for me. I am a historical wacho case called a re-enactor. I do both the French and Indian War for public viewings, out own liltte private deals, and I do American Fur Trapping Brigade/ Mountain Man.

I ran across a dorry while hunting turkey in a gravel pit. i saw it had potential, so I found the owner and we traded.. I lost a good Ruger Single Six, and got that boat..

I tied up some time making repairs, and making it to be a gun boat, less the gun which I have still, That deck gun just isn't for sale or trade unless I get something very cool under boys toys...

But when the boat and it's trailer which there was no trailer at first, went I got a bundle of cash, and underfolder Yugo made Ak-47. That much was just the deal.

I took some of the jingle and bought another Single Six, and handed my happy wife the rest..

So I used the boat some, sold it for more, a lot more, took a gun in part as trade, plus replaced the gun I traded, an made my wife happy with a few grand..

Gotta boat to trade?

I don't think you have much troble off looading that truck and I wouldn't be looking for less than paid, and then maybe a little more.

Just do a little something and yohy can say "She's all greased and just in fresh running the downhills from CO..

You go from highlands to the flats? Man I dunno how you can pull that stunt and live.

You ever been to any of the 3 upper New England states?

I live for hard woods. I tried to be "away" but I just can't.

Here we are flooded with ney york city dwellers who fear BEAR, and MAN we got some real big BEAR.. And flat landers from Mass.

I have forgotten how many times someone from Mass threatened me with calling DOT down in Mass as if that somehow was going to have any effect on me. Now I don't know what DOT does to folks down there, but what ever it is it must be bad.

The thing is I never go to Mass and no Mass DOT means squat to me here in NH....

Just the same we got really BIG BEARS.. LOL

When I was in that area yer headed to there were tornadoes, really there were, so before you get done with that truck you go get something to hide in.. You get what ever you choose buried and good..


I don't know how many you are as a family, but a large concrete clyinder buried in a hill side, with a serious door is something you are going to want....

I think I would be after a tractor device that can plow dirt, move snow and dig. It might be you can trade the truck towards something like that.. No 4,100 is likey to get a newer rig that does that...

While I was in Ar I discovered the pay scale was low, very low.. So maybe you can pay to have that sort of working done, better, but then you can't tell what your getting and if a bad wind and or other comes along, I know I would want to know exactly what I had.

I saw well tiles dropped in the groun d witha cover.. Tgese were vertical... Bad deal IMO. If I had one of those I would want it horiziontal first of all.

When they are vertical they tend to leak, and then in a storm water still gets in, leaving you to squat untill things clear up. That idea just sucks if you ask me..

I did a little design work while there on this home made device too. The deal was bury it horizontal and frame the bunk so storage could be had under a bunk. That set on hindges..

Water, foods, and other survial items just lived there under the bunk.

You will see these things in the area, and don't waste time of fuferaw before you have one.

I saw storms there as I said, and I don't think I will ever understand the local mind set...

But get your uses and then move that rig.. I can't see any good way to use it other than what I have said.. None of that rang a bell, but still I know I'ld be interested in watchin ye wife paint it in something skimpy!

LOL No I am just teasin since thats what bikers do.... You never commented on my being so tacky, and this could be my last chance! :o

[Mac_Muz]

Ouch that was long huh?

[jgelt]

“You might add in a few gun trades to help a would be buyer out and in the end make out better than you imagine.”

I was hoping the term gun trade was a euphemism! The only way I’d give up a gun was to put food on the table. I'm funny that way.

”Gotta boat to trade?”

Nope, I’m eventually going to need one. No sense at all having one here. The nearest body of water is a man made reservoir about an hour away. It’s always crowded.

”You go from highlands to the flats? Man I dunno how you can pull that stunt and live.”

Where I am is actually the high plains. No trees, no water and dead brown stubbly grass 9 months out of the year. You can see the mountains plain as day, and if you are willing to fight your way through an hour of traffic, you can get to them.

You kidding? Hell when I get there I’ll be running up an down those little hills like 15 year old. My wife was telling me how she was going up and down the paths of all that rural property while the agent and owners were huffing and puffing to keep up. Don’t forget that at low elevation I can drink anybody short of a true alcoholic under the table.

I’m originally from Wisconsin. I’m used to green. I’m used to trees. I’m used to having a short drive to a dozen bodies of water. Nope, I’ll miss the friends I’ve made here, but I won’t miss this place a bit.

”You ever been to any of the 3 upper New England states?”

The very bottom of Maine, all over New Hampshire, Massachusetts and upstate New York (if that counts). Not to live, just visiting.


”When I was in that area yer headed to there were tornadoes, really there were, so before you get done with that truck you go get something to hide in.. You get what ever you choose buried and good.. “

The place has a storm shelter. I think the current (soon to be previous) owner got a little complacent, because it looks like no one has been down there in a long time. So I’ll clean that up nice. It’s funny I’ve been in all kinds of places with tornados, and have never seen one. Hope that luck holds out.


”But get your uses and then move that rig.. I can't see any good way to use it other than what I have said.. None of that rang a bell, but still I know I'ld be interested in watchin ye wife paint it in something skimpy!

LOL No I am just teasin since thats what bikers do.... You never commented on my being so tacky, and this could be my last chance!”

She’s probably not your type, unless you are into busty redheads.

Thanks for the back and forth. It’s good to talk this stuff out. This is going to be a very interesting regearing of my brain.

[Mac_Muz]

LOL She don't haff ta' be my type since yer the one married her... I got my own problems in a 5'7" package, but she lived in a tee pee 3 winta's for 1,095 days straight.

Every time I get the chance to get her into skimpy stuff, it's like, Hon lets wash the boat, canoe, truck, van, car, the bike, the other bike, and or a trailer, and I sit in a chair with me brewski and watch. That beats TV and she knows it, so she puts on a pretty good show.

I was tellin you to get and or take a gun or two along with cash. I like hard trade material, I can't stand cash.. but it helps.

If I had that truck and didn't want it, I would be up for a gun, maybe 2, and a bike.. I am sucker for both. Sailing craft with no engine are a close runner up..

Sailors are into realestate (sp) but we aint stink potters. hee hee... Of course I might not have much use for sailing craft where yer headed either. My canoe is about as small a rig as I want to sail about anyplace I might want.. That dorry I traded/sold could have taken us across the salty pond had we wanted. Or I guess we might have paid the ultimate price for trying.. I wonder what they would have done in jolly ol' england had i pulled that stunt with the swivel gun mounted. Who knows, maybe they would be calling me King William ;D

NEY YORK ain't anything to do with New England! That just burns my ass, but you ain't the first one to say that.

Conn has some gun problems, I am not to sure RI even matters, Mass is a Soviet Republic, Maine is sorta a close runner up, Nh is headed south with libral thinking and big spending and so that leaves oddly Vt which is libral as it gets, but with not a single gun issue worthy of mention.

You can apply for a CCW, but you don't need it unless you want to leave the state and have one... strange huh?

If I were headed to where you are to live, and had time some cash, the first thing I would do is make that storm shelter a cool place to be. Like use it because it IS a cool place to be. Have it stocked with stuff for a rainy day, and have it so you are not suffering. Some lamps on K-1, a few dozen candles, some beers, some more beers' a couple bottles of wine... Lots of batteries for rockin and rollin when times are tuff, games to play, things to do.. A decent mt stove so you could cook up good stuff and etc etc..

I never saw on of those places I would want to go in, and if I was forced by weatha', I might have chosen the weatha'.

I can take a few real hard knocks better than I can suffer dark mouldy stink and wet feet squatin on my ass in a spider hole...

I have been in sea storms were the sea takes the roads over, to kayak for kicks. In one all I did was turn up the tunes with a 12 volt car radio and light my alladins, and when the rest of the neighbors figured it out we had a party.

The ice storms I have been in are a non issue, and on 2 different occasions I scared the hell outta the labor force with heat and hot food and pallets on the floor..

Now I didn't set out to scare anyone, but the fact it was 85 degrees was the cause. They thought I had power and they had been working on the wires.

Ice storms are a no brainer. I add frozen things to a file cabinet, and then add ice duh... Usually it is in fact warmer so I burn a few less sticks.. I just don't see any problem.

Yeah you and that truck have me stumpt. It would use more fuel that the power was worth...

Where I am the power goes out all the time, so the owner bought a gennie that runs on propane. It has never had any gasoline ever. That runs the entire house and the machine shop. The propane tank would have to be used all day every day for 2 months before it ran out.
So just cover all your needs and sell it...

[machinemaker]

Jgelt,
So your half way to Kansas it sounds. I'm about an hour west of Denver and some day I'll leave the high country. Here at 9500" we don't have much of a growing season, but we're very rural and I love the mountains. Good luck on your move.
kent