Dog, It is a copy of my gen which they used to sell and then made their own.
http://www.powertech-gen.com/product...products_id=30

The 3 cyl runs so much quieter and smother. I can hear other APU's and trucks running more than I can hear mine.With over 17000 hrs the engine oil is still clear after 200 hrs, a very good tight engine. I can change oil and filters in a few minutes, it will prime it's own fuel filter, it does hold a gallon of oil so oil and filter changes are about 20 bucks.

The 3 cyl Kubota is the proven engine for gen sets, Powertech has them in thousands of trucks and motorhomes. Average life is 35000 hrs and I know of one with over 50000 hrs.

HD, I have to admit that seems to be a good APU. I feel the price is still too high, but with the service your getting out of it, it's worth it. I've just talked to LOT of dissappointed APU owners.

I just can't imagine that they can't put one of these systems together for 4 grand.

Do they build a smaller unit? I don't need 7000 watts.

The markup on APU's is insane.

No doubt about that. I know of a manufacturer here that is building zero turn lawn mowers with like 30h.p. engines for less than the price of these apu's. I may be wrong, but I would think there is a heck of a lot more expense to building the mowers. Their actually pretty well built mowers too, the guy that mows my yard has two of 'em that he runs commercially. At one time (couple of years ago), you could buy one retail for $7500.

Well, anyway was gonna say glad you didn't smoke up any of that fresh paint.

Have you thought about describing exactly how you were able to cause the wire to burn? You'd probably want to copyright the instructions, but no telling how many copies you could sell on Ebay these days! :twisted:

LOL.....Sorry Rev but I did have a good laugh. You gotta lotta balls for fessing up. I wonder if they make wire NUTS big enough for them...lol
I think you need to change your avatar to a previous one you had, at least for a few days.

Ya well, live and learn and I think we all just threw a little more caution to the wind reading about what happened to you.

Does everyone have a smoke detector and CO alarm in their truck?!?!?!?!?
Does everyone have a fire extinguisher on both sides of the truck!?!?!?!?
Does everyone have a fire extinguisher next to their bed?!?!?!?

I do.

As far as the 1/3 1/3 1/3 rule stated earlier, not true. I travel all 48 states and Canada and use my heat and A/C non stop throughout the year. I'll be in the Mohave and it's 100 during the day and 35 in the morning. I'm in Canada right now and had the A/C on when I went to bed and the heat is on now as I type this.

I do not think there is an APU on the market that can cool the whole cab to a comfortable temp. You can close your curtains and cut the cab space in half, have the air blow directly on you and survive going to sleep.

For the most part, the Rigmaster does a fine job but when the temp hits 90 and above that's when you start to make concessions and only cool the sleeper part.

I've been in 2 trucks so far that have had a Rigmaster in one and another APU in the other one. They were both running the Carrier 15,000 btu unit on top and it was below 70 inside.

I want comfort, not survivability. I may even put an Espar in also if it doesn't take up too much room.

Now, as far as your loud engine goes. I don't think your going to be able to do much about it. It's a single cylinder engine and they run their nuts off.

I would suggest going to Meinike muffler and have them install the pipe and muffler for you. They can reduce any pipe to any size. The trick to making an engine quiet from what I was told is to have the longest pipe possible from the engine to the muffler like a car. The closer the muffler is to the engine, the louder it is.

Here are a few tips for all you brave souls that want to "roll your own" APU........
Liquid cooled engines are quieter than air cooled.......
Generator heads come in two main types, two pole that must run at 3600 RPM and 4 pole that run at 1800 RPM. This is for direct connect and 60 HZ.
Figure about 2 horsepower per 1000 watts needed.
You will use about 0.09 US gallons per hour, per 1000 Watts.
Larger engines are slightly more efficient.
Belt drive systems are slightly less efficient but offer more flexibility.

Look for used gen sets in RV scrap yards.....They usually are not used much..........

Have Fun :P

Last year, I moved a guy who was in charge of the APU division at Kohler. He had offered to sell me an APU system at cost. It was $2500.

I really wish I had taken him up on the offer.

Go to a Harley dealer and see if they'll let you have a stock muffler for a decent price, they should have plenty given all the straight pipe aholes running around.

I think you can get a muffler at the RV shop's, just ask for their universal model. 1 1/4 outlet will be fine as long as you have a length of pipe that sizes down to the RV muffler. Steve is right, if you have some length between your genset and the muffler it will run quieter. Mine is 8' long and then goes into a snake work of 2 mufflers, and you can barely hear sound come out of it. It has good exhaust flow, be sure not to restrict you exhaust too much, or you will over heat your engine.

170 seems OK, but the cooler the better. Mine runs around 145, its uses the trucks radiator.


Steve I have a CO,propane,&smoke detectors all hard wired into my 12 volt system. Also 4 fire extinguishers.
1-In the cab
2- in the side boxes
1 Under the bed
Safety first!! fun later.

A water cooled engine will cost you atleast $1,000 and then you have to use the trucks cooling system, or a small radiator, then fabricate a base plate to hold the two units in place for belt drive. Direct drive like you have now takes major machine shop costs.
You will probably exceed the $3,600 cost that the jax generator people I found who have a self cooled unit for $3,600 and a tied in cooling system for $3,200.
Its a water cooler twin cyl Kubota with a 5,000 watt gen head. It seems like a good deal.

Hey Doghouse this might interesr you

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...romZR41QQfviZ1