[TenTec] emergency power via generator

[Gary Hoffman]

Not to belabor the point Josh, but teens and 20's are not what I consider
cold at all.  Pretty much anything will start there.  I'm talking 20 below
zero and downwards.

The fact that you need a "hot" battery is also problematic, since the
battery, at say 30 below zero will have almost no energy left whatsoever.
You won't be cranking anything.

My gas engine will start - with my hand crank - the only starter I have - at
20 below just fine.   Of course I do use synthetic oil in it to allow it to
rotate at those temperatures.

The whole point of the heating and insulation systems on the better propane
systems is to keep that engine up in "the teens and 20's" you mention, if
not above, so that the engine will crank, and the battery will have some
power left to crank the engine, and everything is fine then.

It is a fact.

Yes, you can make a propane engine run in harsh conditions but it imposes
requirements on you.  That is the principle point.  And since many
installations do not meet those requirements, and many people do not
understand them, my earlier statement that propane engines don't start cold
was not, after all, an unreasonable overstatement.

73 de Gary


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Josh" <jkelly at hiwaay.net>
To: <geraldj at storm.weather.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment"
<tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 5:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] emergency power via generator


> Not so at all.  Propane will start when gas or diesel will not.  I have a
> 10K propane
> on a 500 gal. horizontal tank  Yes, mucho surface area.  It starts fine
in
> the teens or
> 20ies.  But, and this is a big BUT,  you must have a hot battery.  These
> engines now
> have a low oil pressure cut off.  The starter MUST get some rpm's for the
> oil.  NO
> hand crank.  Also it will run at 8.5K on natural gas with no change.  The
> fuel never
> gets old.  73 Josh   N4VB
>
>
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