Thanks thanks thanks,
I should add that I have been a member here since 2003. I had a few years after returning home where I just didn't have internet, nor did I want it. Now that I have high speed cable, the internet is a lot of fun. Especially for getting parts.
If you want to know where your tax dollars are going, check this out on google maps, satellite view...
33.290319,44.06333
That was where I was located for 10 months.
The wall to the south of that spot was where they lined up the Kubotas, Mitsubishis, and the like.
I tried every generator on the market. Kubota ROCKS! 9000hrs non-stop.
I saw every other type blow up. Lambardinis, Changfa, Lister Clones, Onan, White, and even some Russian stuff. All went blooey!
The ones that lasted were Kubota, Yanmar, Mitsubishi, Continental (vietnam era), and the giant Cummins (of course).
I had a Lister clone literally explode, showering me with cast iron shrapnel. You couldn't pay me to take one of those. I do like the Original British Listers. I found one on the FOB that powered a one bag mixer, that bugger would go all day on a quart of diesel. It had been there since the British built the place.
Anyhow, the Kubota in the picture powers the bush camp. Its turning a 6K Leroy Somer head.
My duffle bag was a 40ft shipping container. I asked every man in the unit if they wanted a generator boxed and shipped in that container. We got 12 takers. We found 12 discarded but running kubotas, Mitsubishis, or one guy just wanted a little portable thing, crated them up and shipped them home. Customs was really cool about it. They looked in every box, and I don't think they even noticed the generators, while they were looking for weapons. Christ on a crutch! Who'd want to ship weapons home when America is the last place on earth where you can go to a gun show and just legally, pick out whatever you want.
http://www.fieldlines.com/images/scimages/999/gun.JPG
This gun was found in a shower room we cleaned out.
I am grateful for the welcome home now, I wasn't when I got home. One day we were getting mortared, a week later I was changing diapers back at home, wondering why I wasn't shooting the MoFo that just cut me off. Couldn't they see I was convoying children? We hid in the bush for a couple of years. I couldn't understand anything when I got back. I have an inkling of what the guys who came home from Vietnam went through (not much mind you, just an inkling). You can't give people life and death responsibility one minute and then just dump them on the street like a discarded Walmart bag. Anyhow, enough of that.
What is going on now, is America has kicked its own ass. I have a mixed bag of emotions about that, and its open for discussion. The thing I see is that the Chinese Yuan is tied to the dollar. They have purposefully kept their money deflated against ours. We wanted cheap goods. An example, is when I started using 6.2 liter diesels, the starters cost $400 apiece at the parts store. That was the old kind that had a shunt wound direct drive motor (heavy!). I just bought a Chinese permanent magnet gear drive starter, NEW, for $87 delivered. That difference was in just 8 years. We let that happen. Is it good? A cheap starter is good for me but not for the poor clod who used to work at Dayton Engineering Laboratory Company! Those guys are doomed.
I don't think this is good for America. I think the worst is yet to come. I am not an endtimer. I don't go around chanting from Ezekiel (but I have seen a Chebar!) but I do see a problem. The US government has too many high dollar entitlement programs out there that suck up lots of revenue. Trouble is, we shipped all the taxpaying type jobs over to China, so now where does the money come from to pay for all these things? I dunno. I do know that there will have to be an adjustment. When that adjustment comes, it'll behoove me and mine to be as independent of inflationary price swings as possible.
Like Poco says, the food comes on diesel trucks. When diesel goes up, what happens to the food? Lets see...2+2=.....hmmmm.
So thats where we are at with all this "alternative energy" stuff. Its a great damper for calming the pain of inflation.
The producer gas is the ultimate end game. Solar is the answer for stationary applications but producer gas provides a home made independent fuel supply for automotive engines.
So I am in the process of working out a lot of bugs in my various producer gas enterprises. I tread dangerous ground because I come from the "gas storage" camp. Here is my historical precedent for producer gas storage.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3315550836_2fb603dfda_b.jpg
My presence here, helps prevent me from becoming a "one trick pony" obsessing on producer gas. I really need to delve into more solar applications, and wind projects.
Thanks for looking and please, by all means, comment. Its no fun living in a vacuum. I'll post more pictures as soon as I figure it out.
DF