6 thoughts on “New! – Your Chicagoboyz Delayed Friday Weather Pic”

  1. Stay safe, OK? It looks like Dorian will slant northerly, but still. Stay safe. I hope that you already have a generator, a water-bob, enough canned goods, and slabs of plywood for your windows…

  3. Don’t be a hero, but my experience is that there is always a generator left in the back if you know the right guy to ask.

  4. I’ll say a good word for Mr Briggs and Mr Stratton if I may.

    I bought a 5KW generator with a B&S engine in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo. Used it for a couple months. When the power finally came back put it in my basement and probably didn’t use it again until Hurricane Georges in 1998.

    A couple month’s daily use and put it away. Didn’t do anything special, just ran all the fuel out of it.

    Didn’t take it out until Hurricane Irma 19 years later. Checked the oil, still looked OK, put some gas in and gave it a tug.

    It fired up first pull. Ran really rough, but didn’t stop. Fiddled with the needle valve a bit and in about 5 minutes smoothed right out. Ran it 4-5 hours a day for nearly 4 months.

    Just can’t beat those american engines. Probably the identical engine they were making in the 30’s.

    OTOH, if you are buying a new generator, I recommend one with an inverter. The B&S runs at constant RPM regardless of load.

    I also have a cheapo, no name, Chinese 2kw inverter generator. It won’t run much but it runs the refrigerator, microwave and some lights when we have short power outages. The nice thing about an inverter is that it only runs as fast as necessary for whatever load it has on it. A couple lights on and it slows right down to an idle. When the fridge kicks on, it speeds up to handle it. Much quieter and much better on gas.

    Also, buy gas now, don’t wait. After a hurricane it may be impossible for the first few days. If you live on an island, weeks. I have 8 5 gallon gas cans. Most empty but I keep 10 gallons during hurricane season. Put it in my car in October.

    John Henry

  5. Ditto Tecumseh. Inherited a 2KW Sears generator in the early 2000s. It looks to have been purchased new in the 1970s: manual choke, float bowl carburetor. Every few years when the shed gets cleaned out I put some gas in and it starts on the first pull. Then it gets a splash of Sta-Bil, run dry, and put away again.

  6. Generators that are virtually unused can be bought cheap all the time, because people move. Check your local town or neighborhood lists of things for sale. And yes, run them out of fuel for storage, put fresh gas in when you need them. Up here in NH it is ice storms that cause the power outages, so we have to fight against cold, which is an added level of urgency, but it’s the same principle.

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