Dual Fuel Generator

WNYBill

Member
Leaping over dollar bills to save small change! How do you switch fuels on the Dual Fuel generators? Can you do it while it is running? Or, are there some adjustments that must be made? If the grid goes down, fuel will not be available.... no way to pump or deliver it. 250 gallons of LP is easier and safer to store than gasoline and it doesn't age.
 
No adjustments, but shutdown and restart in the other fuel mode so no stumbling under load.

LP is poor choice for SHTF, impractical to store enough volume for long run times, the energy density just isn't there, you need a huge tank. Diesel is what you need, much easier to store a large volume and treated with biocide it will store a good long time.
 
ID the water is drained off at the bottom of the tank annually the biocide is not needed. I'm using a tank that has been used for only diesel fuel for about 70-80 years now with no problems with algae or anything else we just drain any water off each year. I have not used any biocide in any thing yet.
 
Belt and suspenders - Drain accumulated water regularly and use biocide :) Also tank snakes or tank tampons are a good way to get the water out continuously. Many can be air dried and reused a number of times.

This post was edited by wp6529 on 05/05/2023 at 10:04 am.
 
According to the owner's manual for the Champion 3500W dual fuel generator, it's as simple as select the fuel, and start the generator.

The manual says NOTHING about switching back and forth while the generator is running that I could find on a quick scan. The way the fuel selector is designed you can have one fuel or the other turned on, not both. Getting switched from one to the other before the engine runs out of fuel and quits appears to be tricky at best, impossible at worst.
 

Why double when you can go triple ?
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In the 1950 dad had an irrigation pump we pulled water from the Yellow river.
I don't recall the size of the engine other than it was a V8 chrysler.

Dad would start the engine and warm it up on gas and switch to LP while it was running.

Our old John Deere tractor had 2 gas tanks.
The small one was for gas and starting the engine.
Once it was warmed up, switch to diesel or kerosene.
Farmall MD same, start on gas and switch to diesel.
I knew an old man in the early 60s convert his F250 pickup. He too started on gas and switch to LP.

I don't know what it was back when I was a kid, 60+ years ago, but people started on gas and once warmed up switch to LP.

I can't say anything about generators and how well they would start on LP in sub zero temps.

The man with the F250 said he needed the engine hot water to help evaporate the LP.

Please Fact check everything I posted.
I have little experience with LP engines other than our old irrigation pump.
 
Glad I have a Natural gas fueled stand by generator for the house and farm. Nothing to store or worry about if it can be delivered or not.

If you dig into and look at LP fueled generators closely. You will quickly discover that 250 gallons of LPG will only power the average (6500 - 10,000 watt) generator for about 40-50 hours.

In a SHTF situation. I would want a diesel powered generator if I could not have natural gas. I have saw 25 to 30 year old diesel pumped out storage tanks of shut down mining sites that was still good. Sometimes it may smell a little funky when burning. But it was still useable.
 
(quoted from post at 16:06:42 05/05/23) Glad I have a Natural gas fueled stand by generator for the house and farm. Nothing to store or worry about if it can be delivered or not.

If you dig into and look at LP fueled generators closely. You will quickly discover that 250 gallons of LPG will only power the average (6500 - 10,000 watt) generator for about 40-50 hours.

In a SHTF situation. I would want a diesel powered generator if I could not have natural gas. I have saw 25 to 30 year old diesel pumped out storage tanks of shut down mining sites that was still good. Sometimes it may smell a little funky when burning. But it was still useable.

Nat. gas is good for most situations, but not for SHTF or a good earthquake, either of which can disrupt nat. gas service. I think the folks in CA are familiar with nat. gas being turned off after an earthquake when there are leaks and fires all over the place. I think they have seismic shutoffs now in a lot of places there to try to prevent the fires.
 
(quoted from post at 06:00:05 05/05/23) Leaping over dollar bills to save small change! How do you switch fuels on the Dual Fuel generators? Can you do it while it is running? Or, are there some adjustments that must be made? If the grid goes down, fuel will not be available.... no way to pump or deliver it. 250 gallons of LP is easier and safer to store than gasoline and it doesn't age.

I just went though this on a Pulsar 10,000 watt generator my nephew gave me. What I found out is this. There is no switch or anything to tell it what fuel to use. To start up on gasoline I just open the gasoline petcock and use the electric start.

To switch to propane, one has to close the gasoline petcock but the trouble with that is that there is still gasoline in the lines to the carb so that the gen only knows to start on gasoline.

So, the gasoline lines have to be cleared for it to know to run on the propane. There are two things one can do. #1 start it up on gasoline and close the petcock so it runs itself out of gasoline, then turn on the propane supply and start it again on the propane.

When I start and run it on gasoline and decide to shut it down, I always close the gasoline petcock and let it run itself out of gas.

That way, I can just open the gas petcock and start it on gasoline or just leave the gasoline petcock closed and open the propane supply and it will start up on propane.

I have never tried to switch fuels with the thing running so I don't know if it can be done.

This post was edited by Caryc on 05/05/2023 at 02:34 pm.
 
Bill, my dual fuel Champion has a sliding switch. You have to have the gasoline fuel switch in the off position, then you can slide this big yellow slide over the gas switch. That triggers a microswitch that turns on the propane within the machine, IF you have the propane hooked up. I think, like others have said, the engine might stumble if you have to do all this while it's running under load. steve
 
"... but not for SHTF ..."

If you consider trying to survive SHTF you are just fooling yourself. Nothing will matter. Get a beer, sit outside and enjoy the light show. As to your standby generator, use natural gas if available. In case of earthquake it may not work, but little else will either. Just have a liquid fuel (diesel or gas) backup storage tank as large as you wish.
 
(quoted from post at 15:00:55 05/06/23) "... but not for SHTF ..."

If you consider trying to survive SHTF you are just fooling yourself. Nothing will matter. Get a beer, sit outside and enjoy the light show. As to your standby generator, use natural gas if available. In case of earthquake it may not work, but little else will either. Just have a liquid fuel (diesel or gas) backup storage tank as large as you wish.

There is no nat. gas service anywhere within miles of my place. There are also many SHTF scenarios and I expect I'd survive most of them just fine. An asteroid impact probably not, but even a nuclear war I'd probably survive since I'm not close to any likely targets as far as I know. Besides, my wife thinks nuclear war might be interesting.
 
Something to consider.
My small portable generators hold less than a
quart of oil and no oil filter.
If you run it non-stop for 3 or 4 days, it will
need an oil change if it doesn't burn the oil
first and cause engine failure.

There is something to be said about using gas.
When it runs out of gas, it's time to check the
oil.
 
(quoted from post at 16:38:41 05/06/23) Something to consider.
My small portable generators hold less than a
quart of oil and no oil filter.
If you run it non-stop for 3 or 4 days, it will
need an oil change if it doesn't burn the oil
first and cause engine failure.

There is something to be said about using gas.
When it runs out of gas, it's time to check the
oil.

Larger diesel generators hold more oil, have filters and you can typically top up oil running if necessary. I've seen diesels with dipsticks marked "this side engine stopped" and "this side engine running".
 
The dual fuel Gens I have seen plum the NG/LP after the carb so anytime you turn to NG/LP on the engine has to be running are cranked fast to pull it in.

On my NG Gen I use a demand (my guess at what'cha call it) NG regulator you push a button on the regulator to open the regulator (bypass) that floods the engine with gas vapor to start it. Once the engine fires up engine vacuum keeps the regulator open to flow NG.

A few weeks ago there was a post on the regulator used. The safety must be built into the regulators are regulator to turn the gas off if the engine stalls. How they accompanist that I dunno.
 

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