What's the dirt on "cheap" diesel gensets v. onan?

[runnysucklehose]

I am dead set on getting a diesel genset for my bus, but I am still looking for one that I can afford. Right now I would like to spend about $1500 or less, but I have found that limits me to the rare used ebay genset or one of these...

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-EVERLAST-6000-W ... Z762813850 7QQcategoryZ106437QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/Commercial-Diesel-G ... 7417954QQc ategoryZ106437QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There are always a few of them for sale and they are always about the same price. I know nothing about these manufacturers, I am assuming that the are Chinese fly-by-night types, but maybe you all can set me straight.

Everyone seems to think water cooled is the way to go. My onan gas genset is aircooled, old, and not my friend. However, I will put up with a little extra noise to save a few beans but a water cooled engine would help with my veggie oil conversion that I plan to do on the genset.

I should ask, is anyone using these kind of gensets for there conversions and how have they worked out, and more importnatly, did you have to do many modifications to make it a good RV genset? Are the indeed Chinese colnes that will be hard to find parts for?

I am also looking at an Onan 6kw genset (6kw will work just fine for me.) This is the info I found on the tag, the photo was hard to read so some numbers may be a little off...

Model and spec # 600JB-363/838840
Serial # 036030679
AC Volts 120/240
Ph 1
kW 6
Amps 25
Hz 60

This genset looks super clean and they say it runs great. They want $2500 for it. Is it worth that much and is it worth 1K more than the units I posted above.

Maybe I am way off on all of these units, but maybe you all could help find me a better deal...

I also thought this looked like an interesting gneset...
http://www.generatorsales.com/order/yan ... yanmar_4kw

[busone]

You should be able to find a decent genset for $1500. Some say the chinese chepos are clones of the yanmers others say they are junk. Either way I would avoid anything that runs at 3600 RPM and air cooled. Get an 1800 RPM unit they last much longer and are quieter.

I know a guy that bought a big 12KW water cooled genny from a contractor. It was at an auction. He paid somethigng like $900. You can also build your own for less. Several guys have used the engiens off reefer trucks and bought a generator head. Some of those engines are too big for your needs though.

[hoser]

Dead set huh....




If I were you I would LISTEN and FEEL one run under load BEFORE you buy it, know a few guys that thought a diesel generator was the way to go until they used it a few times, the NOISE and VIBRATION is KILLER they pretty much gave them away and bought a GAS generator they only lost about 4k each on the diesel learning curve, one was so stuck on making his diesel "the thing" spent over 1200 bux just trying to make his qiuet and to reduce the vibration.