Trailblazer 302 to power cabin ?

[riderudedog]

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of useing a Trailblazer 302 to power my cabin ?
I have been looking at 10'000 watt generaters at the cost of 1500.00 for loud contractor type.
and 3000.00 to 4000.00 dallors for 10'000 watt standby type of generators,
my Miller dealer said for a few dallors more I could buy a Trailblazer 302 to power my getaway cabin , and it is built for high usage and will outlast one of those other generators plus i could weld with it ,
that sounded like a great idea to me,

So what do you think about that ?

[fun4now]

sounds like an excelant idea if you dont mind useing gas as the fule and the run time is not an isue.
seems to me Home Depot had a small back up propain generator for around $2,000 might also be at TSC.
again the only drawback i can see is the limits of the gas tank size. it is intended to run alot and using it only to run a cabbin would be light usage for it. if you set the cabbin up to be battery powerd for lighting you could greatly redue your run time by only running when needed for high use times and charging the batterys. i run my trailor home on a 5,500 wat genny with oil heat and a 220V water pump, a stand up freezer and a reg frige as well as multiple lights and TV & DVD player. so a 10,000 W would barly be on idle i supose that would also increse the run time.

[dabeldesign]

The 302 won't idle with any amount of load on it; mine kicks up to full throttle even if I am only using a small grinder.
The 302 is an awesome machine but you might be able to find a generator more suited to simply powering a cabin....

[dabar39]

Trailblazer power

A couple of years ago when we got hit with back to back hurricanes (Frances and Jean).We had no power for 18 days and used my Bobcat 225 to power the house. We could only run minimal items though, no a.c. and we had to shut every thing down to run the oven and stove. I don't know the ratings on the 302 but would think you would have similar problems. We now have a generator to run the house and another so I can still run the shop. I would think you should get a generator for the house and leave the welder on the truck. Dave

[Tex]

If you're not a professional welder it seems the Bobcat 3 phase is more suited to you. Even if you're a pretty great welder I think you would be happy with the 3 phase. Either way you're a winer

[Richard]

[QUOTE=dabar39;11690]A couple of years ago when we got hit with back to back hurricanes (Frances and Jean).We had no power for 18 days and used my Bobcat 225 to power the house. We could only run minimal items though, no a.c. and we had to shut every thing down to run the oven and stove. I don't know the ratings on the 302 but would think you would have similar problems.

I was hit by Katrina and I used my Miller legend and it did good, I also had the same problems you stated. . but I will tell you that the legend has full power at idle.
but I had power. and the legend did great. and I want to thank Miller for making a great welder/generator. I love it

I was told that the Trailblazer 302 burns about a gallon of gas a hour. when you are using it as a generator at fast engine speed

...................
Richard

[fun4now]

i wonder if you could convert it to propain ???
i dont mind running my place on the genny when the power goes out, it dose it a lot out here. but i would not want to fit the bill for gas if i was using it long term. i think i get better than 1Hr per gal but not shore. i know its a much smaller generator and motor, only 10Hp i think but not shore.

[MAC702]

I'd recommend the Bobcat 250 for this, assuming you are okay with the loudness of these engines. The Bobcat's skewed rotor design makes it have slightly better AC power quality than the Trailblazer series, which is more designed for welding and aux. power at the same time without interference between the two.

The Bobcat 3-phase would also be neat, but its 3-phase is 480V, which may or may not be useful to you; it also has the standard 120/240V single-phase available.

All of these should also be available in a propane version, though you lose 10% of your outputs.

Unless you seriously think welding would be needed, I'd be looking at stand-by generators in the nice quiet boxes.

[weld_13]

well if u decide not to go with a welder combo and u want somethin portable i would check out hondas generators im not shure how they do on powerin house but i know they work great for travel trailers and are very qiet. some of em come with cool jumper cable setups so u can charge betterys strait of the generator without a charger. just a suggestion

[fun4now]

bargan outlet has 15K standbys for $3,000 in LP or propain. i think that would be a better choice. if you dont have a true use for the mobile welder i would just get a genny for the cabbin and a nice MM212 for the garage. if you are thinking you have a use for the mobile welder and may even make some $$ with it, then by all means kill 2 birds with one stone and go for it.

[Big_Eddy]

I bought my Bobcat in place of a generator. We don't have a lot of power outages, but they can come at the most inopportune moments. My wife insisted that any generator I bought had to have Electric start - she didn't want to spend 1/2 hour cursing at something and pulling the cord . That put the starting price over $2K new for just about anything. I got a lightly used Bobcat 250 for $1000. I've got a great welder, she has an electric start generator - and we're $1K better off. I think we all win. If I need to run off the genny for a day or 2 - the 1 gal / hr isn't going to bother me.

[littleboss]

The engines in the Miller welders aren't any better than the engines in the generators. Both have high rpm engines.
You need a generator that runs at a low rpm for it to last a long time. Look around for a military surplus unit.

BTW, I have a Bobcat 250 and it does use about 1 gal per hour while welding.