A little fish camp

[Magicman]

One of the hiccups in building the little fish camp has been the gen set.

You did not indicate the wattage that you are needing but I have been very pleased with my Champion 3100 watt inverter generator.

I actually have 3 different Champion generators.

[Walnut Beast]

Mine is a 7000 Watt unit in my 40' Toyhauler 

 

[tule peak timber]

This is what I paid for last year and would not get until next year. 

Compact, quiet, but a little on the heavy side. Sad to cancel the order. The only benefit is that I am now looking for something to go in place of the truck's back seat thereby putting it completely out of the living area. I want a lighter genset in order to carry more water. Still looking and thanks for your inputs !

[Walnut Beast]

Hopefully they get your good chunk of money back soon!!!!!

[Magicman]

I would absolutely lean toward an inverter generator.  They idle down with no load and adjust the throttle as the load increases.  Very fuel efficient.

[tule peak timber]

An inverter diesel set is what I wanted for sure. I can get inverter gas gensets and that is possibly an option as I will need to carry gas anyway for the boat outboard. One of the options at 5.5 kw is this 2800 rpm diesel set that I can use waste heat from for the camper shell.

Still trying to get my $$ back from the Cummins folks.

[tule peak timber]

Tom King, Loved the Hobie concept but went another direction, more on this later.
 SCSmith42 I run a Kubota Stamford here as my standby and it is 100 % reliable. In my boats I ran John deer, Kubota, Yanmars, and Cummins, all of which performed great as generators. My challenge with this build is size and weight. I can't afford either
  Magicman I love the inverter technology, but it is difficult to buy it in diesel without a very long wait period
  In calling around it is noteworthy how little the generator advertisers actually have in stock, and that reminds me of an old friend who made a very handsome living selling stuff that didn't exist. Briefly; he would pull full page colour inserts in the LA Times for around $25,000 Sunday edition. There would be a picture of brass tea pot sets or other "crap" that people couldn't resist. He would bring in massive orders, roll all this money into FDIC insured treasury jumbos and just sit on it. Eventually he had to refund quite a bit of the order monies on products that never existed, but the interest earned, safely invested with the government, was quite a bit of money. People who asked did get their order money back, much later and those who forgot about it went on in life. This advertising of something you don't have and taking the customer's money is more common than you'd think.
This takes me to the $11k I am still trying to get back so I can move on to another generator. 
I also knew 3 guys that did a savings and loan FDIC backed company just before Charles Keating got famous, but that's another story for another thread. !
  Some boats from Kodiak that I fished on.

 

 

[Ljohnsaw]

That last pic brings back some memories of a story from my boat's previous owner.  He would fish out of Bodega Bay.  There was a loader that would sling your boat off a pier and later pick you out.  But one day, gone.  So, the PO of my boat, being an auto shop teacher, and had an affinity for Corvairs, outfitted his boat trailer with Covair hubs for the tandem axle and replaced the front jack wheel with a pair of hubs making the trailer a 6 wheel thing.  They would take it down to the beach and tie a long rope to the hitch.  They all would get in the boat except one guy with waders.  He would push it down into the water to launch and pull it out with a jeep.  To get it out, one of the guys would get dropped off who would push the trailer out into the water.  Then, they would ride a wave in and land on the trailer.  Just get one chance at that one!

[tule peak timber]

I have a lot of fond memories diving abalone in Bodega Bay and the surrounding area. 
If I could figure out how to post a video, I would share my experience on this really neat wheeled RIB. This boat self launches, does 30 something knots on the open ocean and drives right up the river mouths until the water is too shallow to float. The wheels come down and off it goes through the brush and tundra, upstream to spots that never see people. Amazing fishing!! This is a still shot of the boat driving alongside the river, through fields of flowers and brush. Too much fun.

 

[21incher]

Just wondering if you have considered batteries instead of a generator.  100 amp 48 volt li batteries  are fairly  common  now as rack mount and 3 probably would probably  fit under a backseat.  A good charge controller/ inverter would  let you charge them with the truck alternator on your way to the site,  some flexible solar panels on the roof or folding portable panels,  any 110 to 220 outlet you come across. Even a small generator for longer trips with noise. Not sure the loads you require or duration of trips but they should handle a small efficient freezer for a couple days. The lost heat from the inverter may even provide a little  warmth. Just thinking  green. Can't wait to hear about the maiden voyage. 

[tule peak timber]

No, I've never really looked at batteries and solar. At this point trip duration is around 5 days. It takes a full day just to get to Kodiak, so if everything works, 7-8 days will give me 5-6 days fishing. As far as load, so far, I have an electric 110 VAC toilet, the deep freezer, microwave, 3000w water heater, crockpot, roaster oven, rice cooker, coffee maker, induction stove top, forced air heating for the head/shower area, lighting, vacuum bag machine, my Sopranos DVD tapes and TV to view them, electric blankets and heating for inside of the shell. We also need to have pressurized air for flat tires, lighting for outside cleaning, water pickup pumping, and stuff I've not thought of yet. A great deal of crap shoved into the 8-foot bed of my pickup truck. Short frequent trips with a hot shower. When I get there after a long day of travel, I need for things to happen.

[Magicman]

Magicman I love the inverter technology, but it is difficult to buy it in diesel without a very long wait period

I did not realize that Diesel was a requirement and I certainly understand.

[21incher]

I guess I thought you just had a freezer and couple of LEDs but those kind of electric loads  definitely eliminate batteries and a simple small inverter.  .   

[tule peak timber]

Carrying gas is not out of the question as the boat outboard will need it. I really want to do an onboard, no sliding shelf, for several reasons. So, air cooled, and portable sets are out. Still looking and talking to folks today. There is a new startup Co. in Indiana featuring Yamaha engines (good) with Chinese inverters that reached out to me, but I said double no. There is no repair or backup on the Island with Anchorage/Seattle next best. There is going to be a balance of my age, usage, reliability, and practicality, and other factors. We shall see. I have some time but want to be going by spring. Plenty of work still to do on the basic rig. Just getting over the fog of Covid and going back to work the last day or two,,,ugh...

[tule peak timber]

I guess I thought you just had a freezer and couple of LEDs but those kind of electric loads  definitely eliminate batteries and a simple small inverter.  .  

No, my aging carcass needs to be well fed and warm.
 It just now occurred to me that over the years that I have fought and extinguished two different close quarters, in your face, diesel generator fires (both successfully as I am still here). I am definitely going to say "no" to a gas generator. When I go to sleep, I intend to wake up.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Are those kind of generators used on some of the bigger pusher type rvs?  If so, any chance of getting a low hour one off a unit that was crashed or vandalised?  Just trying to think of a different avenue to look for them

[tule peak timber]

Yes, they are and that is a very good idea.Thanks

[tule peak timber]

The last few weeks have been tough energy wise recovering from covid. Not a lot done on the fish camp except setting the latch assembly in the door. chiseling carbon and Kevlar was a challenge. Work has picked up in the shop, temps here are triple digits and daily chores, like rattlesnake wrangling and machinery repair, never end. Wednesday I hope to nail down what I am going to do on the generator. It is unbelievably hard to find what I want.

 

 

 

[beenthere]

Looks to be an interesting belting maze shown in the 3rd pic.   :D

That a planer? 

[tule peak timber]

Yes a Powermatic planer. A little spring on a chain idler broke and there was a cascade of collisions with chains, belts, and another idler as things tangled up resulting in spaghetti nausea....... >:(

[Walnut Beast]

Looks great! Speedy recovery 💪

[tule peak timber]

So one of my design ideas is forced air heating in the shower/head space. My theory is that if I'm already warm in the shower, I will use less water. Water is weight and I'm cutting corners on weight everywhere I can. Warm air will also act to dry my foul weather gear/boots like a hanging locker and be my clothes dryer. I will eventually need to wash a set of clothes to get back on Alaska air and not stink like a dead Halibut going home. I'm big on testing stuff, so I ran the little heater setup all day checking for problems and found none.The rest of the day was spent grinding out vent and drain holes, pretty itchy arms tonight. 

 

 

[Ljohnsaw]

My theory is that if I'm already warm in the shower, I will use less water. Water is weight and I'm cutting corners on weight everywhere I can.

I have unlimited water at my cabin most of the time but there are times when I'm running the bathroom off a 20 gallon fresh tank.  The toilet is old so probably 2 or 3 gallon flush

During those times, I'm taking a Navy shower.  Actually, I do that most of the time up there because I don't want to waste propane heating the water (tankless).  Get wet, water off, soap up and rinse.  Probably use less than 1/2 gallon.  The key is short hair!  You need to have a crew cut and shave off that beard! - long hair is a water waster! :D

[Hilltop366]

Some inverter generators are made to chain together.

If it would work with two smaller generators it may be possible to run one for lighter loads and two when required, this would be more fuel efficient and quieter and provide redundancy to run essentials if one fails.

Thinking out loud.

[Walnut Beast]

Looking good. Have you thought about using a little more durable and smaller diameter duct work ?