Its time to service my 10 foot turbine

[mbk]

   Well I think its maybe time to bring my turbine down this week and check the bearings and either repack them or put new ones in and check the blades for balance again its been up for almost a year now.I havnt had really any trouble with it no bearing noise or blade shaking or anything but there is one thing i would like to ask is it doesnt really furl but instead it turns the whole thing yaws out of the wind then turns back into the wind again it does this back and forth im not sure maybe the vane is to heavy or the off set may not be enough its 5 inchs made after the dans the tail is 5 foot long too.I was thinking about adding another inch or two when i get it down and putting a lighter tail on it its 3/8 inch thich now.Any ideas are welcome  Thanks
                                                                                           Max

[mbk]

    I got our turbine down today and took apart .The blades was weathered pretty good the finish anyway but they wasnt warped or twisted and the glue joints was all still in good shape ill just paint more stain an oil back on them an they should be fine.The outter bearing was in good shape an still had grease but the inner one had some rust in the grease so ill prolly put new bearings in it.I had the grease seal in but i had taken the spring off from it maybe thats where the water got in.I made another vane from 1/4 inch plywood an put it out farther on the tail maybe this will be light enough to furl better without adding to the offset any.Im hoping moving the vane back a little farther will make it stop yawing around back an forth maybe.I think it was more stall controlled  than furling im going to make the air gap wider too it was really tight.The stator looks like it did a year ago no hot spots or anything ive seen 75 to 80 amps at 12 volts at short periods mostly in gusts but it runs at about 40 to 45 most of the time. Do yall think i should try it like this now or while its down and apart go ahead and change the offset alittle more?  Thanks
                                                                                            Max

[Volvo farmer]

If it survived a year, you may not have a furling problem at all.  It took me a while to understand the furling mechanism myself, but once I read something Flux posted, it made more sense.

He said something like: Think of the tail as anchored downwind. When a big gust comes, it rotates the rotor out of the wind, due to the fact that it is offset from the pivot.  I used to think my machine wasn't furling correctly, when in fact I didn't have a good understanding of the mechanics of it. Mine does in fact "move all over the place" like yours, but once I understood that every gust of wind is trying to steer it out of the wind, while the weight of the tail is trying to steer it back into the wind, the movement made more sense.

I have far less experience than a lot of other folks on here but I would think if the machine won't hold a sustained 75-80A at 12-13V, it might just be furling correctly.

[mbk]

   Thank You volvo farmer for the reply. Im gonna leave the offset the same and see if just useing the lighter vane will let it fold up some but your right about it prolly working good enough or it would have been burn up by now i just wish it would fold the tail around instead off the whole thing its kinda like the tail was welded solid or something.thanks again
                                                                                                   max

[wooferhound]

Here is a video of a furling turbine
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,141321.0.html

[mbk]

   Thanks wooferhound  for the video site.mines forsure not folding up like that when its really blowin hard though it does try to i think but it just dont quite make it. When it trys the top off the tower kinda torqes and the turbine tail starts to raise then it comes back down but then the whole thing just turns out of the wind its kinda funny actin anyway im gonna see what happens now with a lighter tail and i moved the vane back somemore. thanks again             
                                                                                                          max