hi all. i am in the process of setting up my van for the great aussie trip. and at the moment i am looking at a 4 stroke homelight generator 6500w. new for $1200 i need this size in which to operate my mig welder. so i would like any one out there for your comments on the matter, good or bad would be appriciated.

thanx

big al

Hi Al, Just curious is the Mig traveling with you ? The geny certainly sounds cheap enough, but i suspect it will be fairly noisy. At that price it will be a fixed RPM motor for 50Hz it will run @ 3000 RPM. Pretty big for camping & wont like long runs with light loading, causes glazed bore then oil consumption. Cheers Daryl

yes the mig will be traveling with me its a light weight compacked mig. the genny has a 80 db noise reduction on it. its weight is 80kg, as i am not the arragante type i will take into consideration our camping neigbours, my wife and i want to be completly self suficant, and in the event we need to use it. it will be forward planning and working out the loads. eg, charging up the batteries. doing the washing. watching the tv (if possible) and if thats not enough. help out a freindly traveler with some power, whilst we are waiting,

ps. i have just read that if you connect a new oil filter on the end of the exaust it will dampen the noise down as well. (dont know about this one so im going to have to check with the son-in-law on that hes the enginer in that field)
regards

big al

Allwise, i'm interested in what you son-inlaw has to say. I have an Engel Genny and it's quite noisy and would love to know what i can do to keep it quiet.
dean

You will have to be a bit mindful of back pressure if fitting one of those oil filters.

Oil filter bit iffy. What Ihave done is weld a short piece of 1inch dia pipe to the engine muffler, then fit small car muffler eg morris Mini muffler very quiet & no back pressure.

thanks dean

i just spoken to him on the phone and they are comming to bundy for the weekend. so he said that he would go with me to have a look at the genset. and then he can work out from there what needs to be done. but told me he could reduce the noise level by half. now i have no idea what 80db sounds like so i will be waiting in anticipation on how he can reduce that to 40db. will keep every one posted when i find out. problem is trying to explain what 40db sound like. or having something to compare it with.

regards

al

G'day Al,

Reducing noise level by half is only a 3db change. The ear can barely detect a 3 db change or the halving/doubling of a sound level. He probably means make it actually sound half as loud so maybe 10 db quieter.

Regards

this could be but i won't know until he shows me how and we test it out. all i know is if the mines get him in to fix what their own staff cant, he must know what he is on about.

but thanks for you comment

I have a Kawasaki 4 stroke geny and I used a 2 stroke muffler of a 50cc dirt bike, heaps on ebay, was a easy fit, I used a elbow to run the muffler back along the geny so it did not stick out, you will still get motor noise but the exhaust will be quieter.

I should not know this but oil filters work great on guns.