Duck Pond Redneckery


I should probably design a huge raft that's sea-worthy. And I mean "sea".


Meh, easy as... been done, go google "Kon Tiki"

Even a Waka can be made capable of going from NZ to Polynesia, NZ Maori has linguistic roots in the islands and still have tales of the voyages from the isands. Several of the founding tribes tales indicate they came from Hawaii.
 
Meh, easy as... been done, go google "Kon Tiki"

Even a Waka can be made capable of going from NZ to Polynesia, NZ Maori has linguistic roots in the islands and still have tales of the voyages from the isands. Several of the founding tribes tales indicate they came from Hawaii.
Google "Son of Town Hall".

That pile of garbage crossed the Atlantic. Bunch of American rednecks. They had some weird plan to eventually make a bunch of floating boxes the size of truck sleeper berths & call it a floating orphanage & pick up kids from 3rd world countries. :coocoo:

From what I remember reading about it, it was built around a telephone pole & had an egg-shaped cross-section & they kept the weight low. And they ate dog food or something. Somehow it survived a storm on the high seas.
 
Since my air compressor is dead I think I'm gonna put my old one back in service.

This one hasn't been touched except to move it around in storage & to pull the starter rope once or twice a year to splash some oil around, since I bought my electric one 18 years ago.

0608141947b.webp

I pulled it out & washed 18 years of dust & bird shit off of it.

I think I'll change the oil in the engine & pump, then get the engine running & if the pump doesn't immediately fly apart I'll fix the plumbing on it & see if it'll build pressure. If it reaches 125 psi I'll run it with the drain valve open for about 30 minutes & shut it off & pull the engine off & convert it to electric. Running it for 30 minutes would just be to clean out rust from the engine before shutting it down & putting it in storage til I have a use for a 5 HP engine.


I also have this:

air compressor.webp

This was a failed experiment from when I was about 15. That tank is made of PIPE. Not sheet metal. It's extremely heavy. Two guys can barely lift it. I had to use a chain-fall & a tree branch to get it up onto that little wheeled skid/dolly thing by myself when I was 15 & it's been on it ever since.

I knew how to weld but didn't know jack shit about how to plumb up an air compressor. It worked, and would build up pressure but it leaked like crazy & there's no unloader valve. So once it shuts off, it won't restart again without popping the breaker on the back of the motor.

I grabbed the pump flywheel today & verified it's not seized.

That thing takes up a lot of floor space & it cannot be stood up on end because the pump will spit oil everywhere.
 
Not a bad video for a crap-o-matic flip-phone I've had since 2007.



I took the head off the pump & it looked good. Changed it's oil anyway. Took the engine's carb apart. Blew out all the little holes & jets & stuff. Changed it's oil too. Mounted a 4x4 to the bottom of the tank to hold it kinda level. It's still a little low but that's ok cuz that's the end with the drain. Bought a new air filter for it. Had to use an Easy-Out to get broken brass threads out of the bottom so I could put a new drain valve on it, did some other plumbing stuff to it, then fired it up. Took about 5 pulls with full choke. I was able to take the choke all the way off after about 10-15 seconds.

It reached 125 & quit building air. The unloader valve is supposed to kick it down to an idle at some point via a little air cylinder on the engine but that didn't happen. The regulator is leaking too bad for it to build up any more than 125 psi. It says 150 psi on a tag. I don't know if that's just the tank rating or if it's not supposed to cut the engine to idle until 150.

I ran it about 30 minutes & shut it off & drained the oil. I didn't pull the head on the engine so it could've had crap in there. Rusty rings, insect nests, who knows.

The compressor was my uncle Dave's. When he died in '87, my Grandpa took it. When he moved to TN in '90 he gave it to my dad. My dad didn't want it & never touched it. I used it a lot but in 1996 I bought an electric one & never messed with this one again til yesterday.

I guess you can say it's a family air-loom. Get it? Hahahaha (snort)
 
I let the boys strap my truck generator on the back of an old golf cart I've got because I was curious to see whether it would drive while charging with low batteries.

It did fine, like he batteries were fully charged. :)

My grandson said they could go anywhere now!!
He asked me if they drive it to town.
o_O

:eek:

Redneck Prius!!
:D

:shift:
 
I let the boys strap my truck generator on the back of an old golf cart I've got because I was curious to see whether it would drive while charging with low batteries.

It did fine, like he batteries were fully charged. :)

My grandson said they could go anywhere now!!
He asked me if they drive it to town.
o_O

:eek:

Redneck Prius!!
:D

:shift:
Put that thing on a meter & measure the amps when it's just cruising along on flat ground at it's top speed.

Then put a generator on it that can provide only that many amps. You'd need an alternator that can produce twice that many amps, but put it on a limiter so it can be run by a smaller engine. (You don't want the alternator putting out it's max capacity but you want the engine to be running at it's optimum load.)

That way it draws from the batteries when accelerating & climbing hills, then re-charges the batteries when it's slowing down or stopped for a minute.

THEN it'll be a redneck Prius. Right now it's a redneck locomotive with batteries added.
 
I've wondered if it's possible to take the jet drive out of an old junk jet-ski & powering it with a 5 or 8 HP Briggs & Stratton or something. I don't need speed though, I need power. I don't think jet drives are energy efficient. I bet a lot of energy is wasted creating cavitation & noise.
and your point is :confused-96:. I like my toys loud obnoxious
 
and your point is :confused-96:. I like my toys loud obnoxious
Yeah I'd prefer the way his is set up right now so that generator will run it like normal while also charging dead batteries.

More power than you need, .. that's the American way. :thumbsup:




What I don't know though, is how you'd limit the amp output of the generator so you don't charge the batteries too quickly. The ideal rate of charge is 10-15% of their amp-hour capacity. For a 100 ah battery that's 10-15 amps. His generator must've been cooking those golf cart batteries.
 
The ideal rate of charge is 10-15% of their amp-hour capacity. For a 100 ah battery that's 10-15 amps. His generator must've been cooking those golf cart batteries.

The charger stays on board so they just had the charger plugged into the genny.
I think it's 15 amps max and decreases as the charge comes up on the batteries.
It's a 36v cart with 6 (6v) batteries....
although, I believe those motors accept anything from 24 to 48 volts.


If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
The charger stays on board so they just had the charger plugged into the genny.
I think it's 15 amps max and decreases as the charge comes up on the batteries.
It's a 36v cart with 6 (6v) batteries....
although, I believe those motors accept anything from 24 to 48 volts.


If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Ok I thought you were talking about some homemade contraption with one of them 4-for-$2000 diesels spinning a big-truck alternator. You said "truck generator". I should've known. :bonk:
 
This one's too far gone.

My friend's dad gave me this. Said it worked but had a leak.

0620140028.webp

It's a rust hole in the bottom of the tank.

I brought it home & put it in the screened-in half of the generator shed. I guess melting snow got inside it somehow. It seized up.

Pulled the head:

0620140042.webp

PB Blaster:

0620140044.webp

0620140045.webp

I let it sit with PB blaster for a while. It's raining like hell right now. It's so loud under the steel roof it would scare the crap out of a lot of people. It's about as loud as a jet taking off. I couldn't even hear the little pancake compressor I was using to blow the dust & cobwebs off it.

I don't know why I'm even bothering with it at this point, trying to get it loosened up. There's no point unless I can get replacement parts for it. It'll need the cylinders honed/bored .020" over, new pistons/rings, and I probably fucked up the connecting rods hammering on the tops of the pistons with a 2 lb sledge & a piece of wood. The reed valves are junk too.
 
Yeah this thing's junk. One of 'em is still stuck in there but I pulled the connecting rod end cap off the crank.

0620140117a.webp

0620140125.webp

0620140127.webp

0620140125a.webp

Pretty sure the motor works though.
 
Currently tho only effective self propelling vehicle using solar energy is a sailboat. Winds are caused by solar heating, and sails are far more effective than current electric solar cells.

I don't know if you can stick a mast and bowsprit on a Prius?
 
Currently tho only effective self propelling vehicle using solar energy is a sailboat. Winds are caused by solar heating, and sails are far more effective than current electric solar cells.

I don't know if you can stick a mast and bowsprit on a Prius?
I thought the prius has a toaster motor in it:D. there ugily and there slow. people in eurpe wouldn't think of buying a hybrid wheres a diesel is more economical. the volt only get's 38 mpg with the gas engine what a joke I get 55 in a 5 passenger suv!
 

Back
Top