One for the collection

[Appyasme1]

I've got a mate who drove Chieftains in the Cavalry; the L60 was badly designed rubbish and the offence was compounded by the installation being an utter dog's breakfast; an engine swap was a regular event but even a good crew took upwards of 6 hours to get the old one out, the Bundeswehr chappies with their Leopards had unitised powerpacks and a swap could be completed in a couple of hours if they were on the ball. The Jordanian Chieftains had the same powerpack as the Challenger 1, a David Brown transmission and a Perkins/Rolls Royce V12.

Can I use it in my house in case of a power cut!

 

[wookie]

Can I use it in my house in case of a power cut!

Sure you can, assuming your house is big enough, you do live in a huge mansion don't ya ?

If I've done my sums right it... a house with a 100A supply can pull 24Kw so that genny could supply 31 houses each pulling the maximum 100A and still have a smidge in reserve

Alternatively it might just be enough to power Nigel Tuffnel's guitar amp.

 

[jerrytug]

Interesting about the multi-fuel military engines. The hospital set advertised has heat exchangers, so presumably it would be totally dependent on LOTS of mains tapwater running through the heat exchangers? (Unless it was next to a river and plumbed in to the river? )

I used to keep old tugs and dredgers going back in the days, up to about 1500 hp, sea water was obviously in plentiful supply but... on such a hospital or factory standby unit, if the mains water stopped, presumably the standby generators had to be shut down due to no cooling available?

Good for the 'winter of discontent' but not if the mains water went wrong..

It's an interesting question, what is the most "independent" engine, it would have to be air-cooled, and run off any thing!

 

[ronan]

Wasn't the sterling engine supposed to be developed to be a low maintenance agricultural engine ?

 

[wookie]

Interesting about the multi-fuel military engines. The hospital set advertised has heat exchangers, so presumably it would be totally dependent on LOTS of mains tapwater running through the heat exchangers? (Unless it was next to a river and plumbed in to the river? )

Wouldn't they pump the hot water around the central heating radiators ?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Salt water, or anything acidic.
Some copper coins.
Some Silver plated or nickel plated coins.
Something up soak up the liquid.
Some wire
There, one battery to power things.
Simples.

 

[jerrytug]

Wouldn't they pump the hot water around the central heating radiators ?

Yes that might be enough in a hospital, with dozens or hundreds of radiators.
Off the cuff, from memory, a 700hp trawler engine, just idling in harbour, kept about 14 radiators toasty hot. That's with the engine fresh water plumbed directly into the central heating circuit, with the sea water cooled heat exchanger also pumping S/W as well. Big motors make lots of spare heat!
( If anyone is interested, probly not , the example given is a Ruston VGB7 XM in a 1957 Cat class Grimsby sidewinder. 7 cylinder 4 stroke turbo, 200 litre swept volume at a rough guess, weight 25+ tons)

 

[penfold]

Interesting about the multi-fuel military engines. The hospital set advertised has heat exchangers, so presumably it would be totally dependent on LOTS of mains tapwater running through the heat exchangers? (Unless it was next to a river and plumbed in to the river? )

I used to keep old tugs and dredgers going back in the days, up to about 1500 hp, sea water was obviously in plentiful supply but... on such a hospital or factory standby unit, if the mains water stopped, presumably the standby generators had to be shut down due to no cooling available?

Good for the 'winter of discontent' but not if the mains water went wrong..

It's an interesting question, what is the most "independent" engine, it would have to be air-cooled, and run off any thing!

As installed it would have been attached to either a massive open-topped tank like the old hopper-cooled Listers or more likely a man-sized radiator with a fan blowing through it. There's no particular reason for not aircooling such things other than the disproportionate cost in large sizes; the biggest non-aero air-cooled I'm aware of are the Russky and Czech aircooled diesels of ~400hp that were fitted to some military lorries.

 

[J.B. Welding]

I got a call from a customer a good few years ago. He told me he had just bought the exact same Mirrlees engine/generator as this from Germany for less than scrap value and he was wondering if I had any ideas for lifting it off the truck. It happened that he had a load of 450mm Ubeams so I went along with my gas bottles, mag drill and a couple of hundred M20 bolts and built a gantry to do the job. The beam could be raised by four 150mm diameter hydraulic rams, two on each end. The stroke of the rams combined with the lowered air suspension of the trailer allowed for a simple lifting operation and the truck pulled out effortlessly. It hung there for a few days until he thought about what to do with it next, I think it's still with him till now perched on a couple of big axels. The oil wasn't on the dipstick with 200 litres in but it's enough to flood the pump. It must be seized on the rings by now though as it didn't come with the compressor and reciever to allow starting. Good Doomsday project.....

 

[penfold]

Depends if it was inhibited at all; a squirt of Shell Ensis or similar into each pot, or even just lube oil to keep the damp at bay and arrest gum build-up. A road-tow compressor would probably spin it, although perhaps not fast enough to start. I recall someone down your way advertising a Mirrlees on ebay a few years ago; would it be the same bloke?

 

[J.B. Welding]

Depends if it was inhibited at all; a squirt of Shell Ensis or similar into each pot, or even just lube oil to keep the damp at bay and arrest gum build-up. A road-tow compressor would probably spin it, although perhaps not fast enough to start. I recall someone down your way advertising a Mirrlees on ebay a few years ago; would it be the same bloke?

Recon it probably was mate. I think the listing photo showed the gantry too..although a quick completed item search reveals it's long since dissappeared.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Distant relative of mine lived on a small holding and was renowned for being the man that can find anything agricultural related. Didn't matter whether it was last used 150 years, mention it and you'd be getting phone call a day later! In any case he acquired some back up gennies from somewhere, not sure on the size or breed as I was only little but there was 4 and each turned up on their own artic