Sticker shock on marine generators

[Harry2208]

Free is too much to pay for fischer Panda.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by geoleo

Thanks! Great info. Now where can a good purchase be made on the 3.5?

Best deal I found was ordering direct from them, that was years ago and may have changed off course.
But do your own checking, just cause I like it doesn’t mean it’s best, many people and I’m sure I’m not immune think whatever they have is the best.
I guess maybe it reaffirms they made the right choice.
Besides maybe something better is available now that wasn’t then.

I chose the 3.5 because it would fit, barely in my Lazarette opening without any modifications, but if I had more room I might have gone for the 5.5.

The NL and Onan are much more long lived, probably smoother and quieter generators, but they are huge and heavy things by comparison, to say nothing of the cost.

If you choose a Nexgen, the Starboard side if you call the end with the exhaust the stern is the side that all servicing and fuel and water lines enter etc, so it’s the side that needs good access. The cover is rather ingenious, and can be removed with the generator within a couple of inches of a wall.

Also and I agree with them, but Nexgen says the oil change interval is 100 hours, so make sure you can access the Starboard side with no pain, cause 100 hours comes quick on a generator.
If I had mine out now and I may still do it, but I would put a valve on the inside of the sound shield and connect the oil change hose to it to change oil. Nexgen has a hose with a plug that lays loose on the floor of the sound shield. I somehow found a way for it to be caught under something and the vibration wore a hole in it. So now I ensure it’s not caught under anything, but I used to just shove it back in. With it connected to a valve, it’s position is set, it couldn’t get caught under anything.

The next thing you should do is buy some aircraft SCAT hose for the air exhaust, SCAT hose won’t crush easy and is smooth bore so it will flow much more air, the generator came with bilge blower vinyl hose that gets soft when hot and can collapse easily and won’t flow air well as it’s not smooth bore.
You may also decide to buy an extra set of vibration isolators from them, that way the generator is mounted on two sets of vibration isolators, it’s a single cylinder and like all single cylinders, it’s not the smoothest thing there is, so extra vibration dampening is good, and they aren’t Yanmar priced either.
Bleeding fuel is the easiest and simplest bleeding procedure you will ever do. Just remove a plug from the panel, and short across two pins, this makes the fuel pump run, let it run a couple of minutes, and the engine is bled, nothing to it, so fuel filter changes are painless.
Mine came with a small Racor, and it’s not real common and the filters cost more for it than a 500, so eventhough it’s insane overkill I put a 500 on mine, and use a 2 micron filter as there is no engine mounted filter. I draw from the boat’s main filter for a primary filter, but I’m sure just the 2 micron by itself would be good enough, just I like two filters.

Oh, and buy a couple of spare capacitors on Amazon. An inexpensive China Cap will last a month, maybe two. This GE Cap I’ve had on there for a few years, and it’s still working fine. When they fail it seems they Telegraph it by slowly losing voltage, or at least the two I had fail did.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1