DeepBass9

That is odd. How hot do the LEDs get? I just checked the LED bulb above my desk which has been on all day and it it only slightly warm to the touch.

Stainless steel flues are very expensive though. I had a galvanised flue running up the outside of the house for years before I replaced it with a stone chimney. When I removed it it only had some light rust where I hadn't painted it. In fact if you have a steel fireplace, the galvanised flues will probably last as long as the fireplace. Some other things to watch out for if you are not using the fireplace, like in highveld summer, you get condensation forming inside the flue which runs down into the fireplace causing rust spots, so put a container inside to catch that. Also if you spray the inside with Q20 when not being used it helps with rust. I am looking for that Zebo stove polish which doesn't seem to be made anymore, anyone have a source?

Wattle definitely has a higher energy density, but tends to form coals better so is more suited for braai or in a closed stove. For more flames and radiant heat bluegum is better. Cast iron is better than steel for longevity, and will last decades, but mild steel will burn through in a shorter time. I have a jewel cast iron stove that is ancient and still going, but a similar steel stove collapsed in a pile of rust in about 8 years. The best supply of wood is to buy your own chainsaw, and find someone with a bluegum/wattle problem. You can cut a tonne of wood in about 2 hours. Drying takes 3 months minimum. I start cutting winter firewood in Feb/March, so it is now getting fully dry so as to not be too smokey. Its best to tile around and behind a fireplace like that as you will get soot on the walls, no matter how good you are at making smoke free fires.

The brown looks nice. Just pretend you bought brown ones in the first place.

I have now switched the motor around so I have 3 forward speed and one reverse. It was actually good that my wife spotted that the wheels were running backwards, otherwise I may have jumped on, twisted it's ear and ended up having a reverse crash. A question on charging. If I get 4 x 12V car batteries, would it be possible to charge them by putting them in parallel with my solar batteries for a short time. Either when the solar batteries are at float, or early morning when the charge current is low. In that case I can just charge with jumper cables or make up a dedicated plug to do the charging. The other option would be to use one of my solar MPPTs to charge the quad batteries. I could put a changeover switch on the MPPT output to go either to the solar batteries or to the quad batteries. I don't think car batteries are that particular about charging voltages?

Where the fuel tank was I'll get a plastic box to put the electronics inside. There is lots of space where the engine was to fit batteries, so I'll make a tray to hold them with some tiedowns or something to hold them in place. On the controller there are plugs for a forward/reverse switch, a three way plug for forward slow/medium/fast speeds and another plug for a brake on the motor. I have the rear disk brake on the quad working, and I'll wire the brake light switch on the brake lever into the engine brake, so you will be able to pull the lever a bit and get engine braking and then further and the disc brake will engage. It actually seems like it will be quite powerful, more than I expected. If you open the throttle (so to speak) it spins the wheels up very quickly. I'll still need to test that to see how it actually performs, but the gearing will be quite easy to adjust by using different sized sprockets. How much longer is this lock down going on for??????

Here's a video of it running : VIDEO. It makes a clanking noise because the back chain is loose and running over the frame. I still need to adjust that and make a rubber chain slider. Otherwise, apart from body work etc, I am quite please with the results so far.

With lots of lock down time on my hands, and a quick visit to Bearing Man beforehand, I have managed to progress on this project, almost to completion. I have a 4:1 reduction chain onto the quad final drive which is a further 3:1 reduction. One thing that I forgot is that when you use another gear set, the rotation direction is reversed (duh!), so I need to remove the motor mounting and reverse it. So it currently has one slow forward speed and 3 fast reverse speeds. I don't have batteries as yet, so it is running from jumper cables from my solar batteries (hence why it is standing on the paint bucket). After the lockdown ends there is a place in Kdorp that does recon car batteries for R500 each, so I'll get 4 x 30Ah or 40 Ah and get it mobile.

Or just wait until the fire starts, then you'll see exactly where the problem was.... Joke, heaven forbid that happens.

Sounds like low voltage due to a dodgy connection somewhere. Maybe check the connections in the switch seeing as all of the lights on that circuit are affected. Those energy saver tube lights don't last for ever, maybe replace those or switch them around somewhere else.

I presume these are LED lights?

Those voltages look too low for the batteries (I'm assuming cycle is bulk and standby is float). So it appears that your batteries never really charged properly and were possibly damaged. Although they are new, and maybe just undercharged. Changing the voltages to the correct one's may revive them. Does anyone else have experience with these batteries?

You need to set the bulk and float voltages for your battery type and bank size. I am not familiar with axperts, but lots of people on the forum have them and should be able to help. Bulk should be 29.4V and float 27.6V from the specs above.

That midpoint deviation is very high, definitely looks like a battery problem. What are your charging voltages and settings. If these are new batteries they shouldn't have died so quickly under normal conditions.

Have you checked the generator voltage and Hz. Can be that is out of tolerance. Is there a significant RPM change when the load connects? There will be an adjustment on the governor to make sure that the generator is running at 50Hz.