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nemobuscaptain
Samba Member
Joined: March 07, 2002
Posts: 3874
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GoEverywhere
Samba Member
Joined: December 13, 2020
Posts: 890
Location: Portland, OR
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 Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:59 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| xoo00oox wrote: |
| Phishman068 wrote: |
| xoo00oox of course you have a custom generator running a VW engine. Is that a turbo engine?!? |
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Nope- Just an inline 2.0 4cyl from a 2012-15 Jetta. You can buy them for about $300 with low miles. It is the same engine they used in the MK4's from '99-2005, they brought them back into production. It was probably the most reliable engine I've seen from VW.[/quote]
Not too often you see a fuel injected generator. I love it! |
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xoo00oox
Samba Member
Joined: February 11, 2010
Posts: 2724
Location: East Nassau, NY
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 1:00 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| Phishman068 wrote: |
| xoo00oox of course you have a custom generator running a VW engine. Is that a turbo engine?!? |
[/quote]
Nope- Just an inline 2.0 4cyl from a 2012-15 Jetta. You can buy them for about $300 with low miles. It is the same engine they used in the MK4's from '99-2005, they brought them back into production. It was probably the most reliable engine I've seen from VW. |
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Phishman068
Samba Member
Joined: February 19, 2007
Posts: 1996
Location: Pittsburgh PA (ish)
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xoo00oox
Samba Member
Joined: February 11, 2010
Posts: 2724
Location: East Nassau, NY
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:57 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| heimlich wrote: |
That right there is awesome. Did you have to do major modifications to the engine or does it output everything you need?
| xoo00oox wrote: |
Here's my generator- I made it remote start so I can just push a button from inside the house to turn it on. You can barely hear it run.
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Thanks Heimlich, the engine is not modified at all. It just turns a high power alternator to charge my battery bank up. It only runs at about 900 rpm to keep the noise down. I have a moped muffler on it to help keep it quiet as well. |
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heimlich 
VWNOS.com
Joined: November 20, 2016
Posts: 7470
Location: Houston, Texas
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:14 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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That right there is awesome. Did you have to do major modifications to the engine or does it output everything you need?
| xoo00oox wrote: |
Here's my generator- I made it remote start so I can just push a button from inside the house to turn it on. You can barely hear it run.
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_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
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xoo00oox
Samba Member
Joined: February 11, 2010
Posts: 2724
Location: East Nassau, NY
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:58 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| jimf909 wrote: |
| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| fxr wrote: |
If you go off-grid (and I don't believe you can't!) then $6,000 will buy you a DIY 15kW solar setup complete with 12kWh of LiFePO4 battery back-up.
No good if you want to still have access to the grid of course, as permits etc would be prohibitive. |
Can you share more details on how all that is purchased for $6K?
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I have been living totally off-grid for years and only have about half that invested including my backup whole house generator.
4 100 watt panels, Victron controller and battery monitor, 6 6v deep cycle batteries in an outside storage enclosure, 2015 VW Jetta 2.0 engine for my generator. I can go a full 9 months without using the generator at all. In the winter when the days are short, I usually will need to key it run about an hour or hour and a half each day to charge up the batteries. No inverter, the entire house is 12v DC. |
That sounds like a cool system. Do you have a propane fridge to keep electric needs down? I don't doubt that living off-grid can be done with a modest, inexpensive system. I'm 100% off-grid with 1700 watts of panels, 12 FLA, 390 ah batteries, 2008 Outback controller and inverter and an old 7kw diesel generator. I'm just not clear on how to get to a balanced system that supports 12kWh of LiFePo for than $6K. Regardless, we're not talking about systems that will support Skillz 800 acre farm. |
How do you charge your battery bank with the generator? Just by using a car battery charger? |
A 2008 Outback VFX3524 inverter/battery charger (black box close to the middle of the photo). The battery bank and generator are connected to the inverter/charger and it will invert the 24V battery bank to 120 AC to the house. When the generator is running it will step-down the 120 AC from the generator to charge the batteries while also passing the 120 AC from the generator to the house, i.e. when the generator is running it charges the batteries and provides the AC power to the house.
The Outback inverter: 4/0 (I believe) cables from the battery bank, the grey conduit brings AC from the generator, the steel conduit carries AC to the house.
The set-up was created by the previous owner in 2008 and the batteries were new in 2014. Our daily consumption is in the 3.5 - 5.0 kWh range with the electric fridge being the pig using 1.75 kWh per day. I hate that fridge but that's what was in the house when we bought it. The well pump, internet, appliances and lighting (LED) are other consumers of electricity.
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That is a nice setup you have there and from the little bit I can see in the pictures, it looks like you've got a very nice spot there.
Here's my generator- I made it remote start so I can just push a button from inside the house to turn it on. You can barely hear it run.
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heimlich
VWNOS.com
Joined: November 20, 2016
Posts: 7470
Location: Houston, Texas
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:17 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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Those news sources are biased. If you read the headline only it's misleading. Texas can do nothing about exporting gas. This is controlled by the federal government as they are responsible for the permitting and control of it. The price of natural gas is on a global market and when someone else such as Europe is willing to pay more they export it. The federal government can stop this by banning exports but they will not.
The electricity bill payments is a quite complicated matter as well. Texas has something called wholesale power. The retail electricity providers buy this wholesale power from the generators and sell it to the consumer. When electricity demand is high the price for this power goes up. When it is low the price is low. When you purchase retail electricity which is how most consumers do it the retail providers factory this in and amortize the price across the year. Wholesale is buying straight from the generators who make it. A few companies stepped in and were selling wholesale power direct to the consumers. The problem is when there is high demand the price of wholesale power jumps to $9,0000/kWh. So the consumer rate became the $9,0000/kWh. The best analogy to this is mortgage fixed rates and ARMS. As long as the federal interest rate doesn't move an ARM is a good deal. But as soon as the federal rate goes up the consumer is left paying a huge mortgage. It's real easy to see a large number on a publication about electricity prices for one day or week when something happened. Texas sells millions and millions of dollars of electricity every day. 29 million in that article is a drop in the bucket. Most likely some regulation will come about that will fix the issue to keep a consumer from doing a stupid thing.
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
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Sodo
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2007
Posts: 10620
Location: Western WA
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:31 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Quote: |
| i don't blame companies/corporations for taking every tax break they can find. I do the same thing. everyone should. i don't make the rules but am forced to play the game. |
The difference is the corporations do make the rules. They even became people recently. |
Yeah that was an alarming change.
Groups of people are becoming corporations too now.
If power is there, someoneโs gonna figure out how to wield it.
But back to the subject of overpriced Westys, if they outlaw Solar panels, only outlaws will have Solar panels.
_________________
'90 Westy EJ25, NEW oil rings (!) 2Peloquins, 3knobs, SyncroShop pressure-oiled pinion-bearing & GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox.
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered original gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb |
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steve244
Samba Member
Joined: March 18, 2022
Posts: 1787
Location: GA
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heimlich
VWNOS.com
Joined: November 20, 2016
Posts: 7470
Location: Houston, Texas
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:24 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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Companies only make the rules when the government allows them to. The larger the company grows the more rules they want made. These same companies want regulation. Regulation gives them more power. It keeps other companies from participating. The best company to have is a government backed company that allows you to operate as a monopoly.
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
5% Off your order with coupon code: 5%OFF
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 23790
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:38 am Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| Quote: |
| i don't blame companies/corporations for taking every tax break they can find. I do the same thing. everyone should. i don't make the rules but am forced to play the game. |
The difference is the corporations do make the rules. They even became people recently.
_________________
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skills@eurocarsplus
Samba Peckerhead
Joined: January 01, 2007
Posts: 17828
Location: sticksville, ct.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:31 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| MsTaboo wrote: |
How about the all the corporate welfare? Like the subsidies that fossil fuel/pharma/milatary industries are still receiving despite their record profits?
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lot to unpack here...
i'm fine with what you call "corporate welfare" as long as me, you, my family and neighbors can afford, live and thrive on what they are selling.
this is a bigger problem than many realize. take those on a fixed income that are elderly and can't swing the 50/mo lawn service because the guy doing it is now 95/mo
say said tradesman is forced to scrap his equipment and buy all electric stuff. he has a choice... close shop or invest 100k+ to keep his biz going and now charge 130/mo to the same folks that were paying 50/mo
the labor didn't change...cost of doing business did
and you know, i don't blame companies/corporations for taking every tax break they can find. I do the same thing. everyone should. i don't make the rules but am forced to play the game.
the big problem that djkeev brought up was deregulation, and the simple fact ONE company has a goddam monopoly on the grid here.
this is why a free market works. i don't like gas prices in Mystic so i will go to another town and save .15/ gallon
I can call around for home heating oil and save .25/gallon
don't like the price of a 2x4 at ACE? home depot, here i come
I can't go buy a bucket of electrons anywhere else other than Eversource.
i applaud those who want to homestead but i don't. i grew up poor and as a kid remember the milk in a bowl of cereal i had for dinner one night being almost frozen on the kitchen table the following morning. i've worked too fucking hard to go back to that lifestyle
_________________
| gprudenciop wrote: |
my reason for switching to subaru is my german car was turning chinese so i said fuck it and went japanese....... |
| Jake Raby wrote: |
| Thanks for the correction. I used to be a nice guy, then I ruined it by exposing myself to the public. |
| Brian wrote: |
| Also the fact that people are agreeing with Skills, it's a turn of events for samba history |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 8162
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 9:09 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| GoEverywhere wrote: |
Dang, thats a pretty low power consumption there! Looking at my solar controller stats, I'm over 10kWh today with no heat or AC running at all. Though I've generated almost 30kWh so I'm still well into the positive. |
We're just two people living in the country. We do have a washer/propane drier and dishwasher used once or twice a week. No television, no furnace, no a/c, no fans. The well pump has it easy with a 25' lift so that leaves the fridge, wfh pcs, satellite internet, LED light bulbs, two slices of toast and 30 seconds of coffee grinding each day, etc. Have I mentioned I'd love to take the 28 cu ft fridge w/ice maker the previous owner left us to the dump?
_________________
- Jim
| Butcher wrote: |
| This is the main fault with DIY'ers, they get together on these forums and pat themselves on their backs spreading bad information. |
Guilty as charged.
Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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GoEverywhere
Samba Member
Joined: December 13, 2020
Posts: 890
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 8:39 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| jimf909 wrote: |
| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| fxr wrote: |
If you go off-grid (and I don't believe you can't!) then $6,000 will buy you a DIY 15kW solar setup complete with 12kWh of LiFePO4 battery back-up.
No good if you want to still have access to the grid of course, as permits etc would be prohibitive. |
Can you share more details on how all that is purchased for $6K?
|
I have been living totally off-grid for years and only have about half that invested including my backup whole house generator.
4 100 watt panels, Victron controller and battery monitor, 6 6v deep cycle batteries in an outside storage enclosure, 2015 VW Jetta 2.0 engine for my generator. I can go a full 9 months without using the generator at all. In the winter when the days are short, I usually will need to key it run about an hour or hour and a half each day to charge up the batteries. No inverter, the entire house is 12v DC. |
That sounds like a cool system. Do you have a propane fridge to keep electric needs down? I don't doubt that living off-grid can be done with a modest, inexpensive system. I'm 100% off-grid with 1700 watts of panels, 12 FLA, 390 ah batteries, 2008 Outback controller and inverter and an old 7kw diesel generator. I'm just not clear on how to get to a balanced system that supports 12kWh of LiFePo for than $6K. Regardless, we're not talking about systems that will support Skillz 800 acre farm. |
How do you charge your battery bank with the generator? Just by using a car battery charger? |
A 2008 Outback VFX3524 inverter/battery charger (black box close to the middle of the photo). The battery bank and generator are connected to the inverter/charger and it will invert the 24V battery bank to 120 AC to the house or step-down the 120 AC from the generator to charge the batteries if the generator is running while also passing the 120 AC from the generator to the house, i.e. when the generator is running is charges the batteries and provides the AC power to the house.
The Outback inverter: 4/0 (I believe) cables from the battery bank, the grey conduit brings AC from the generator, the steel conduit carries AC to the house.
Solar array about 100' from the battery bank:
7kw Gen-set with a three-cylinder Perkins diesel
The set-up was created by the previous owner in 2008 and the batteries were new in 2014. Our daily consumption is in the 3.5 - 5.0 kWh range with the electric fridge being the pig using 1.75 kWh per day. I hate that fridge but that's what was in the house when we bought it. The well pump, internet, appliances and lighting (LED) are other consumers of electricity.
. |
Dang, thats a pretty low power consumption there! Looking at my solar controller stats, I'm over 10kWh today with no heat or AC running at all. Though I've generated almost 30kWh so I'm still well into the positive. |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 8162
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 8:31 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| xoo00oox wrote: |
| jimf909 wrote: |
| fxr wrote: |
If you go off-grid (and I don't believe you can't!) then $6,000 will buy you a DIY 15kW solar setup complete with 12kWh of LiFePO4 battery back-up.
No good if you want to still have access to the grid of course, as permits etc would be prohibitive. |
Can you share more details on how all that is purchased for $6K?
|
I have been living totally off-grid for years and only have about half that invested including my backup whole house generator.
4 100 watt panels, Victron controller and battery monitor, 6 6v deep cycle batteries in an outside storage enclosure, 2015 VW Jetta 2.0 engine for my generator. I can go a full 9 months without using the generator at all. In the winter when the days are short, I usually will need to key it run about an hour or hour and a half each day to charge up the batteries. No inverter, the entire house is 12v DC. |
That sounds like a cool system. Do you have a propane fridge to keep electric needs down? I don't doubt that living off-grid can be done with a modest, inexpensive system. I'm 100% off-grid with 1700 watts of panels, 12 FLA, 390 ah batteries, 2008 Outback controller and inverter and an old 7kw diesel generator. I'm just not clear on how to get to a balanced system that supports 12kWh of LiFePo for than $6K. Regardless, we're not talking about systems that will support Skillz 800 acre farm. |
How do you charge your battery bank with the generator? Just by using a car battery charger? |
A 2008 Outback VFX3524 inverter/battery charger (black box close to the middle of the photo). The battery bank and generator are connected to the inverter/charger and it will invert the 24V battery bank to 120 AC to the house. When the generator is running it will step-down the 120 AC from the generator to charge the batteries while also passing the 120 AC from the generator to the house, i.e. when the generator is running it charges the batteries and provides the AC power to the house.
The Outback inverter: 4/0 (I believe) cables from the battery bank, the grey conduit brings AC from the generator, the steel conduit carries AC to the house.
Solar array about 100' from the battery bank:
7kw Gen-set with a three-cylinder Perkins diesel
The set-up was created by the previous owner in 2008 and the batteries were new in 2014. Our daily consumption is in the 3.5 - 5.0 kWh range with the electric fridge being the pig using 1.75 kWh per day. I hate that fridge but that's what was in the house when we bought it. The well pump, internet, appliances and lighting (LED) are other consumers of electricity.
.
_________________
- Jim
| Butcher wrote: |
| This is the main fault with DIY'ers, they get together on these forums and pat themselves on their backs spreading bad information. |
Guilty as charged.
Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro).
Last edited by jimf909 on Thu Aug 04, 2022 9:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DuncanS
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 7:03 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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Maybe off topic, but at 27 k is a fully spiffed up '91 Westy over priced? Oh by the way it has a 175 foot pound torque electric motor with a 270 mile range. Plug it into my windmill.
Duncan |
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heimlich
VWNOS.com
Joined: November 20, 2016
Posts: 7470
Location: Houston, Texas
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:18 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Quote: |
| he federal government just takes your money and then gives it back. I don't call that helping but it's the system we have now. |
They take it from 7 blue states , 2 red states and hand it out to the other 41 States that boast low taxes. It turns out Ronnieโs welfare queens were his Republican friends after all |
Now they just print it and make our kids pay for it. We were paying 500 billion in interest a few years ago at close to 0 percent interest. Those rates are now rising. We are all to blame, you, me, and everyone that votes.
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/interest-...utstanding
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
5% Off your order with coupon code: 5%OFF
Restored Distributors Available (<--Click here) |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 23790
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:03 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| Quote: |
| he federal government just takes your money and then gives it back. I don't call that helping but it's the system we have now. |
They take it from 7 blue states , 2 red states and hand it out to the other 41 States that boast low taxes. It turns out Ronnieโs welfare queens were his Republican friends after all
_________________
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heimlich
VWNOS.com
Joined: November 20, 2016
Posts: 7470
Location: Houston, Texas
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:47 pm Post subject: Re: Are Westys artificially overpriced? |
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| djkeev wrote: |
Surprisingly they are also one of the leading States in fully Electric vehicle sales! |
Lot's of Tesla's here. They are great if you are wealthy.
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
5% Off your order with coupon code: 5%OFF
Restored Distributors Available (<--Click here) |
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