Small, manual start, diesel generators - do they exist?

Smallest one I can find is 3 Kw.

Here's another link which you can follow up. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:FrvoRCGFLDMJ:

Another link:

Do you have gas for cooking? If so, you can modify petrol generators to run on bottled gas. Camping and motorhoming sites would have the details.

A friend of mine has one of these on his boat

It occurs to me that a model aicraft diesel engine coupled to a brushless motor wired as a three phase alternator might fit the bill.

Starting is another matter however! :-)

People are wary of gas on boats, for good reason.

Depends on the boat and the installation.

Many (most?) narrow boats have gas heating and cooking with the gas bottles stored outside in a gas locker.

An outside gas locker can be more difficult in a GRP sailing boat.

The biggest problem (especially with Broads cruisers) used to be petrol in the bilges.

That's a thought I suppose, we do have gas for cooking.

... but that's electric start which is exactly what I don't want as I don't want yet *another* battery to maintain. I want something fail safe such that if batteries are all flat I can still get myself up and running.

NO it also has a pull start

hundred

Would "a few hundred watts" be enough? I'd expect you'd like to the batteries to recharge in less time than it took to dischrage them...

Very similar to the 2kVA or there abouts one I have. It is *very* noisy but a decent exhaust and silencer may help that. Mine seems OK as well but doesn't get much use.

So is mine but you can pull start it, there is a knack to that though. You have to get it spinning about as fast as you can from multiple pulls with the compression removed (you can't sensibly pull a diesel through compression like you can a petrol engine) drop the compression in and hope the flywheel has enough umph to take it through and fire. It then coughs and splutters for a bit producing rather large quantities of smoke before running up to speed.

Ah, that wasn't clear from the Ebay advert. I'll take a harder look, thank you.

Yes, pretty standard on diesels that.

You have it already, the motor and alternator, you may need to just upgrade the alternator, or not. Thats what I did.

Reminds me of that Three men in a Boat mini-series where Griff was left to try to start this ancient diesel engine in the riverboat... 10 minutes heating the cylinder head with a blowtorch first, then rocking the crank back and forth before building up enough momentum to turn it over...

What a wrist breaker that looked!

Gordon

The best way to star diesels that dont have glo plugs is either there, or throw a rag soaked in diesel in the air intake, and light it.

Can't you get an aerosol of 'easy start' or whatever for when the battery is flat?

I remember doing that on a 3-cylinder Dorman - bloody hell it required strong arms! I don't recall what the compression setup was now - I think there was a lever to pull (but the mechanism was also hooked to a solenoid, as the engine had a 24V starter, generator and control switchboard so that it could start itself if the power died)

cheers

Jules