THROWBACK THURSDAY: Generators, Backup Power, Fuel Storage w/ Toolman Tim

Hey guys, Toolman Tim here. Welcome back to the workshop where we create community, find freedom, promote preparedness, and share success. Tonight is April the 7th, 2022, and this is episode 92 of the workshop podcast. And it's great to have you guys back here. Tonight we are going to do a community feedback episode. Haven't done one of these in a long time. Gonna kind of deal with generators, backup power, fuel storage, One of my favorite topics, you know that. But, as always, before we do that, let's get our announcements out of the way. So, officially, I think this is, well, this is the first time on my podcast I've announced it, but I'm going to be, I'm officially speaking at Prepper Camp. That is in Saluda, North Carolina, September 23rd to 25th. I'm rather excited about that. I'm going to be teaching on the subject of repairedness and The art of home maintenance when help isn't around the corner. So I am looking forward to that. So if anybody's up for meeting in person, come by the Prepper Camp, North Carolina. I guess it's the world's largest outdoor prepper exhibition, expo, whatever you want to call it. It's like a Comic-Con for preppers, I guess. Number two. So next week's repairedness will be the last regularly scheduled one for two weeks. Regularly scheduled live stream for two weeks. There'll be a couple of pre-recorded episodes as I'm going to be in Tennessee for the LFTN Living Free in Tennessee Spring Workshop. I'm going to be speaking there on entrepreneurship and how it leads to a freer life. So if anybody's in the Tennessee area, Nashville, for the last two weeks of April, I will be around and I would love to do a meetup. And beyond that, We are going to start a new segment. If you guys follow me on social media, you will know that I do quite regularly a Today's Tools segment. And it's where I spotlight something I use on a regular basis. So today's tool is going to be Mother's Vinyl Protectant. And if you haven't used that stuff before, you are missing out. It is spring. It's spring cleanup time. Your vehicles are probably a mess. And if you're like me, but the only time you really pay attention to your vehicle is in spring... Get yourself some of this shit. It works great. So, why do I like it? Well, number one, it smells like strawberries. Number two, it's the longest lasting, way better than Armor All. Spray it on anything vinyl in your vehicle. It gives it a shine and it protects it. And my brother-in-law recommends it. He is just an incredible mechanic. We basically brought a little, what is it, a 2000 Ranger back to life. It had been smoked in, everything. And this stuff made that vinyl just beautiful. So if you're looking for that, I always put the Amazon affiliate link in my description going forward. So you'd be able to get it from the video, from the podcast feed, whatever it is. And if you're looking for more recommendations for tools like that or products like that, go by toolmantim.shop and check it out. Okay. So tonight, like I said, I think last week I announced that I was going to, Hey Pappy, evening to you. And we got Chris Dixon in here as well. I think I mentioned that I was going to do cleaning supplies. And I was going to do that, but I got thinking about it today and I was really, you know, I was kind of excited. I started getting a lot of questions the last few days about generators and fuel storage on YouTube. And I realized it had been, I don't know, three, four months at least, maybe longer than that, probably since before I started the Repairedness Thursday series, since I've done a community feedback episode. And that's where I share tips shared from the community and answer questions asked from the community. And I started going through them all and it discovered, hey, we've got a theme. The theme is backup power, fuel storage, and generators. There's a few other odd ones in there, but they all kind of fall around that theme. So we're going to work our way through. I'm going to share with you guys first because, okay, you guys know, I believe that the best part of building a community and being part of a community is all of the information and all of the joint knowledge that we can all share together. That's the best part about this. And So much of this stuff is things that people just kind of pass to me through YouTube in passing. And then I throw it up on the comments and then maybe some people see it, maybe they don't, but putting it all together in an easy kind of digest format like this, I love it. It's a way where we can all lean on each other. So it's great. Yes. And Pappy Cannoli says, it's almost hurricane season again here. Tune up time for sure. Yes. And I've got a video coming out probably won't be until the 1st of May, but it is going to be my generator maintenance kit and generator maintenance routine. And it's going to be a good one. I've talked about it before, but I've never kind of physically had. It's going to be similar to my blackout kit, but much smaller. I'm going to talk about the stuff I keep on hand. But yes, it is tune-up time indeed. So let's start with a few tips. Every single one of these came from somebody on YouTube. So some of their names are kind of funny, but... So the first one, and this one was great. So if you guys remember back a while ago, I did a video and actually, I think if, uh, Mike Loco, the, uh, Filipino nomad, Hey, Liberty late night. Nice to have you in here, man. I brag about those guys. If you guys don't follow Liberty late night, you need to, I had so much damn fun on their show. They're just awesome. So yes, I did a show a while back on the benefits of a diesel generator and it was Mike Loco. Um, the Philippine nomad who asked about it and I did the benefits. One thing that I'd never thought of or never mentioned in that episode, and I probably won't do a follow-up because I don't have enough information, but IDK or I don't know on YouTube mentioned the biggest reason they've stuck with diesel generators was their ability to make diesel fuel from scratch in a shit hit the fan situation and to use biofuel. And I thought, wow, that is great. Never thought about that at all. so I had to throw that out there. If you guys are ever thinking about going on and getting a diesel generator, there's yet another benefit to going diesel, because you can run it off biogas. Now, Jake, if you guys follow Ravenwood Acres, if you don't, you should. He's doing an awesome series on comms right now. I think it's a seven-part series, and I look forward to it every week, and he's just talking about emergency comms and building plans. Well, this one came out of Was it last week or two weeks ago we did the RV repairedness episode? And he had mentioned how a mobile RV repair system or mobile RV repair business would be an incredible side hustle. I never really touched on that in the episode. So I thought, hey, you know what? I should really share this with people because there's a few things. Number one, anytime you want to get an RV repaired, if anybody's ever run through this, what do you got to do? You got to take it to the RV dealer. And I mean, if you live in a big center, great. But for me, that's like an hour and a half away. And then you got to leave it and you got to, you know, take it up with the trailer, hook it up, unhook it. Anyway, so from there, he's like, you know, this is something you could do. Get out there and do some repairs. So simple things like resealing windows or fixing doors or replacing broken hardware or plumbing fittings. And who doesn't love having someone come to their place to do the work for them? So just an idea, if somebody's out there thinking, I'd like to start a little side hustle, and you've got a little experience in the RV end of things, a mobile RV repair service, even on simple things, you don't have to go crazy with it, would be a great side hustle. There's a guy in a city nearby me that does mobile oil changes and tire rotations. Another awesome, awesome kind of concept. So Something to think about. Take the business to the customer instead of making the customer come to you. And you can upcharge for that because the convenience factor. How much more money are they willing to spend when they don't have to spend that money to take it to you, right? Next one's from Chicken Hawk. If you guys don't follow Chicken Hawk Farmstead on YouTube as well, man, he's great. I love him. Good buddy of mine and a fellow creator on the Fireside Freedom podcast. So this is more of a story, but this comes out of, again, my RV repairedness episode, I believe. Hey, Silver Streak. We got Silver Streak over in the Element chat room from PBN. We are, and I forgot to mention, yeah, we're live on five platforms tonight. Facebook, Odyssey, Float, YouTube, and PBN, Prepper Broadcast Network. So we'll have questions coming everywhere, and it's great. Yeah, so Chicken Hawk says, I picked up two tons of mulch on the wrong ball one time. Two inch instead of two and five sixteenths. Been there, done that. When I went to the dump... I went to dump it at the dump. The whole trailer popped up, and the only thing that stopped it from going all the way was the safety chains. Scared the shit out of me. Glad I was not up next to it while it was dumping, because that could take your head off. He said he has an idea that he'd like to paint the ball and the hitch part on the trailer the same color so he doesn't do it again. That is a great idea. Because, like I said, in the past, I accidentally hauled an RV all the way across the province... with a two inch ball and a two and five sixteenths receiver. So pay attention to that. But that tip about color coding with spray paint, man, that is golden. So if anybody's done that or seen it done, it's also a good idea. I've also seen it where the ball was spray painted like a bright orange so that it shows up good on your backup camera. But just another idea, just a great tip. I love that one. This one's from Bobby over on YouTube. This one's actually about the cordless heat gun I did a review on a little while ago. but he he said absolutely nobody talks about the practicality of a cordless heat gun for little quick jobs and this was something i hadn't mentioned but he uses it for doing a lot of repairs and the main thing he uses his cordless heat gun for is speeding up epoxy or super glue says he's got a wagner 300 that's 26 bucks that he plugs in for the big jobs but if you've got a small job and you want to cure adhesive a lot quicker, then that's the way to go. Hey, that's a great tip because I love my cordless heat gun and I do use it for a lot of small jobs, but I never mentioned curing adhesives. And I thought, Hey, somebody could use that. This is another one. We've got a few from up for anything up for anything's a big part of the workshop community. And they talked about how they build their business organically and locally and And I thought this was kind of cool. Basically, whenever he goes to fill up at the gas pump, leaves one of the business cards behind at the gas pump. It's local. You know, it's a pretty good chance that somebody who lives in your area is going to find it. And what's the worst that's going to happen? They're going to say, whatever, and throw it out. But that's what business cards are for. Free advertising. You hand them away. And he says, it basically keeps the business local and usually within a five mile radius. That's a great idea. So sometimes we just got to think outside the box when it comes to advertising, getting our name out there, whatever it takes to get going. And once you get going, well, sometimes you just can't stop, right? But that's it. Building up a business and getting going and just finding a way to advertise yourself, sell yourself, get out there. Uh, next Henry from YouTube. This one was great. I like this one a lot, but, um, talking about, just one, we'll go down here a little bit further. Actually, we're going to skip that and we'll come back. But Cruz and Kevin from YouTube said, he's an ex-pat from the Philippines and diesel here is 40% cheaper than gasoline. Go figure. Beyond that, this is a pretty cool story. He said, we just went through a Cat 5 typhoon and the fuel lines were long, but the diesel lines were a lot shorter said, I just, so there's yet another benefit to going diesel over gasoline. And the whole idea was again, when everybody is out there looking to run their generator and the power's out or the weather shit, everybody's in lineup and they're all waiting for gas. Good chance. The pumps might run out of gas right away, but the diesel, well, maybe not. And he also said that water-cooled diesel generators last even longer than air-cooled diesel generators. So if you can find yourself a water-cooled diesel generator, try to say that 10 times fast, you'll end up having even better value. Although I'm sure you'll end up paying a little more for it. Uh, this one was really cool. This one came from Charles and they said, um, that, so this was, I talked quite a bit about whole house generators and And of course, you know, the, the permanently installed full backup ones are expensive and, you know, a big job to install. And they're about the only ones that will actually run full on central air units. So he'd mentioned in Louisiana, they had a bad storm last year and he has the same generator as me, could run everything but a central air unit. So what he ended up doing was picking up a couple of window unit air conditioners, running them off the generator and and was able to get by, cool the areas of the home that he needed without, you know, running beyond the capacity of the generator. I thought that was really great. And then he said he's also planning on doing a gas conversion, like I had mentioned that I've done on mine. Well, I already have it. It already runs on gas, but having it hooked up permanently to natural gas is just, it's the cat's ass. John from YouTube, this was a great one. This was another hustle that I just loved, and I hope you guys enjoy this one too. But he said, it's a pretty cool story, I needed two brake cables for my golf cart. On eBay, they were $ 35 for a pair. But he's seen a guy had 20 assorted cables for 50 bucks. He was the only bidder, and he said so far he sold eight cables for a total of $ 300. Two cables were worth $ 100 each. And he said, years ago, I never bought car tires. I could always find good tires on trash night. Yes, and if you're in a really hard way, another tip that you can go along, but Most car places have recycling bins for the tires. Now, they probably won't necessarily give you permission to go digging around, but if you're in a hard way and you need a tire, I've been known years past when we were in pretty poor times to go digging around in those recycling bins to find a tire that still had some tread left. So if you're in a real hard way and you need a couple of tires or a tire, especially if you've got a flat and you need to repair it, well, it works. I actually had a mechanic that He was a shade tree mechanic, like a very shady shade tree mechanic. And to save me money, he went digging through a recycling bin one night and found me a tire that got me on the road and kept me going. It meant a lot. So Up For Anything says, Here in Central North Carolina, we don't have near the snow or ice. You do. I know that. Yeah. He said, But I have an old kitty litter bucket that you can close that has ice melt in it. But he does a 50-50 mix between ice melt and sawdust. It helps stretch it out. It gives him some extra... traction, and it's a way to reuse a waste product that he might not be using otherwise. I really like that one too. Hey, Martinson family, we've got a big crew in here tonight. It's been a good night so far. And then Jake from Ravenwood, once again, says every couple of years in Washington State, we have a major snowstorm. Usually causes a whole bunch of power outages. He says, and then, and this is common everywhere, so it doesn't have to just be Washington, but he says, Many people run out and they buy brand new generators and they use them until the power is restored. And then the following spring after storm season's over, they have buyer's remorse or they, you know, they want to buy a new ski boat or, you know, they got to pay their, you know, trailer lot fees for their camper, whatever it happens to be. And they're like, well, let's sell the generator. So the best time to buy generators and things like that is, you know, a couple of months after the storm went through when people are like, yeah, it's time to offload it. you know, the post COVID thing when everybody was done with their canning equipment and their freeze dryers and all of that, that was the time to buy that kind of stuff. Exercise equipment, I'm sure even to this day, you could buy that dirt cheap because people want to, at one time there was like a worldwide shortage on weights and weightlifting equipment. And now I have no doubt you could get a ton of it on Craigslist or Marketplace or Kijiji up here in Canada. So those were the tips. That was the stuff that people from the community, share it out. So if you guys have that kind of stuff and you want to contribute to this portion or the question, it doesn't matter, but my email, therealtimcook at gmail.com, not the fake Tim Cook that runs Apple computers, you know, but just send me your tips or just post them up on social media or link me in something, tag me in something. So we're going to dig into the questions now. This one was, so Brian said, this one was about Anchor battery banks. Now, if you guys use battery banks at all for your backup power supply for cell phones, that kind of stuff, you want to know, do you really need to let them get down below 25% before recharging, or is it safe to top them off? So with lithium ion batteries, there's really two things that you're limited to, and that is charge cycles and temperature. So the first thing we'll talk about is a charge cycle. You know, most lithium ion batteries, like in those battery packs, they have, they're good for between three and 500 charge cycles. And a charge cycle for the record is when you go from 100% down to zero and then charge it back up to 100%. So if you let it go down to 50 and then charge it back up to 100 and do that twice, that would be one full charge cycle. So they basically, you know, they come from the factory having 300 to 500 charge cycles. So number one, you're not shortening the life per se. But if you let it run all the way down and then let it recharge, there's more of a chance of it overheating. And heat and cold are way bigger problems for this. So you're better off to let it just go down 25% to 50% and then top it off. Don't put it in direct sunlight. Don't leave it in a hot place. Just be careful. Being more careful with the temperature is more important than letting a battery bank go dead and bringing it back. Now, the one thing you don't want to do is let it go completely dead and then let it set for months on end. That's when you can actually really shorten the lifespan of a lithium ion, especially in those battery banks. Even Anchor, the company themselves, say that, you know, keep it at least at 80% when you're you're storing it long term. So long story short, does not matter with lithium ion. They really don't have a memory like the old NICAD batteries did. So just remember, you're limited to the charge cycle lifespan that they give you, and go from there. So from there, Doug says, can you leave DeWalt batteries in the charger slots? Wanted to know, is it safe to do? Is it a fire hazard? Well, I have a ton of DeWalt chargers. So number one, I've left batteries in the charger slots all the time. Never had a problem. But just because I do it, doesn't mean that it's recommended. So I just, I looked it up, and especially any of the chargers made in the last few years, no big deal at all. They're smart enough to know they shut off when the battery's full and then they'll go into trickle charge mode when it's topped off. So if it's sitting there and eventually it discharges just a little bit of the charge life in it, then it just tops it back up. The four port rapid charger that I have, that thing is ultra smart and it does exactly that as well. But yeah, no, there's literally no risk because Once it's charged, it shuts off. I mean, 20 years ago when you were dealing with some of the early DeWalt and Makita stuff, yeah, there was a lot more danger involved there. But with the DeWalt, and it doesn't just go for DeWalt. It goes for Milwaukee, Makita nowadays. Any of the modern lithium-ion batteries with the companion chargers, you have no concern about leaving them on the charger all the time. And I do. I leave a lot of my batteries on that four-port charger. It's all I ever use. Mal... from YouTube, wanted to know, asking about the plastic jerrycan containers, and how long gas theoretically could sit in a plastic jerrycan container. So first off, I, you know, none of my gas tends to sit more than a year, because I cycle everything out once a month for 12 cans throughout the year, so that I always have, it's no longer than a year old. And I also treat it with fuel stabilizer. Now, if you want to use my go-to fuel stabilizer, PRI-G, that stuff works like a charm. And you can actually, the company actually says you can theoretically keep your gas fresh indefinitely. Because as long as you continuously re-treat the gas, so every 6 to 12 months, re-treat the gas, no problem at all. Now for me, The jerry cans, I would just keep an eye on them. I have had a couple over the years kind of lose it around the seams. So the seam kind of splits and then the gas comes out. But that happens very rarely. I mean, up here, it gets to 40 degrees Celsius and minus 40 Fahrenheit or minus 40 Celsius as well. So the gas cans expand and contract. If you live in kind of a moderate climate, you'd have no issues. But I have I have no concerns whatsoever about leaving it for long term. I've used, a lot of my gas cans have been in service for seven or eight years now, and some of them were used when I found them. The only thing I'd keep an eye on would be the rubber around the nozzle. Those tend to degrade over time. Just, I mean, whenever you're dealing with petroleum products, that's a thing, right? Daniel wants to know, says, I have a dual fuel Furman generator. Wants to know how hard it is to convert the dual fuel to tri-fuel for natural gas. They've already got a propane setup. So the reason I brought this specific question is there are literally pretty much any generator on the market that runs on gasoline can be converted to propane and natural gas. And you might not realize that, but it basically just bypasses the carburetor, Hey, James. We've got James Richter in here tonight. So, it's really not that bad. The website, centuryfuelproducts.com. If you go there, I will try to remember to get that link, but it's centuryfuelproducts.com slash generators slash conversion dash kits. And they literally have a conversion kit for just about every generator on the market. So, if you want to go to a cleaner, easier... easier to store, safer fuel to run your generators off of, check those guys out if you didn't know it. And they're fairly simple. Now, if you want to get a little more creative and a little more outside the box, there are a ton of, I would say, maybe not fully recommended, but a ton of really good videos on how to do that conversion yourself. But most of those conversion kits are around $ 150. And they're worth it. I looked at a bunch of those do-it-yourself deals and they were not, I didn't feel comfortable doing it. So, and speak of the devil, there's Loco, the Filipino nomad himself. Nice to have you. We've got a good crew. We've had a lot of faces through here tonight. So Robert from YouTube says, I live in South Florida and I have a three and a half ton central air unit. I got a natural gas water heater and a gas stove. Is there any portable generator that can run this without spending $ 15, 000 on a Generac? So here's my thing. Most portables out there, most of the top end portable generators are kind of in the $ 10, 000 or the 10 kilowatt range. And that is basically good enough to run any household, you know, I mean, other than like Leonardo DiCaprio's mansion or something like that. That'll run anything you need in a home, except, and the big problem is, a central air unit. So if you're looking at a $ 15, 000 Generac, those can be, I mean, that's super expensive. You don't need to spend your money on that, number one. Number two, where I would say to spend your money on is, and if you haven't heard of these, it's something to check out, they're around $ 500, and they're called a soft start for your air conditioner unit. So the big issue with most generators, even up in the 10 to 12 kilowatt range, the big problem there is not the running of the central air unit, it's the starting of the central air unit. Now, central air, if you guys are familiar with electric engines and things like that, when that stuff starts up, there's a huge spike in the power, and it's too much for most generators to handle, and they just won't run it. So what you can get, and I don't know the full science behind it, but I believe it has a capacitor in there. It basically slowly charges up, and it handles that big spike so that your generator doesn't see it. That's something to get an electrician to install, but they run installed for about $ 500. So if you get yourself a real good tri-fuel 10,000 kilowatt generator and a soft start on your central air unit, you've basically got a whole house generator with... the portability and convenience of being able to roll it away into your garage and for a tenth the price. I love it. I'm a big fan of portable generators because it gives you a little more peace of mind. It allows you to know where you're going to put it. It allows you to put it away in a safe spot. It allows you to keep it in and out of the elements. Hey, John Palmer. Got another fella in here tonight. Nice to see you. So the next one here, guys, comes from a Mr. Ross. I had a math teacher in high school named Mr. Ross. Nice guy, but he was strict. This question is on the Big Buddy heaters. If you guys haven't checked those out, I did a review this winter. It was right around minus 25, minus 30, and I heated my wife's little she shed out there, and it worked great. Now, his big concern was, he heard a lot of people say, you've got to buy one with a fan. Well, I don't know. I don't necessarily agree with it, but he wanted to know, is a fan required, in my opinion, on one of those heaters? Now, is it a bonus? Sure. Does it use batteries? Yes. So in my opinion, what I like, you know, if you're only heating a small area, I mean, you might have a fan on hand anyway, but put it at the lowest point in the room and let, you know, in a corner and let it come out and up so that the, you know, kind of the natural convection moves it out. Now, is it nice to have a fan? Sure. Could you have a small battery fan that you kept behind it? Yeah, you could. So that if you don't have the fan, for instance, or you don't have any batteries, you could still run your Mr. Buddy, your big buddy. So I don't think it's a deal breaker at all. I just, I think it's one of those things. It's one more moving part that can break down and one more thing that you need to have backup power for. So yeah, I don't think it's necessary. Now this was a good one. I like this. Up for Anything, another one on YouTube. said that, Tim, you've talked about picking up used gas cans at the junkyard and off the side of the road, but how do you get used parts for them? Do you have to improvise them? And I put this one in here because I got a question earlier this week, and I can't find it for the life of me. It came through email or on the website. I don't know. And they basically wanted to talk about improvised gas cans. I'm not a fan of making my own gas cans. I just think there's too many things that can go wrong. But a couple of things. Number one, I standardize. All of my gas cans are Scepter. S-C-E-P-T-E-R. I think those are available in the States, but the important part is standardizing in one standard thing. So if I find an old beat up gas can, I'm still going to check it for parts. Can I swipe the vent cap off it? Can I swipe the collar? Is that medallion piece in there good? Is the nozzle good? I'm going to take all those parts and I'm going to put them in a milk crate that I have in the garage because I have a milk crate just for fuel parts. But also, you can buy them. I buy three packs of the medallions because I lose them. Although, if Chris Dixon's still in here, he'd give me a great tip on not losing them. I just haven't got off my ass and done it yet. But, You can buy brand new packages of them. I keep them in the card and put it on a nail on the wall so that I don't lose those parts. That's the best thing. I mean, have I improvised in the past? Sure, I've used heavy garbage bags, put it over the top and then just screwed the lid down for a little bit just to keep the gas in for a minute. But yeah, number one, I scrounge and save any parts. So if I've got a gas can that is broken or busted, I save all the parts off it that I can throw anything out. And I bought some new O-rings as well from, I think it was Mr. O-ring. It was a company in New Jersey. They seem to be holding up good so far. I'm going to keep testing. Now, as far as improvised gas cans, this is a weird one. If you guys have followed the survival podcast for a lot of years, Jack used to have Stephen Harris on there all the time. And that man is a genius. He comes up with more ideas. He, He's had, he's forgot more things than I've ever learned, I'm sure. And he used to use these, I don't think they were used food barrels, something they were 15 gallon food safe barrels. Now I got to look it up. I want to say it was HDPE, but you need to make sure they're fuel safe. So look for the proper stamp on the bottom. And they just, they took a bung wrench and he used either, I think he just used a gravity feed shaker siphon for it. But yeah, he used those and he said they were great. They just got to make sure whatever you store it in is made out of the same plastic that your fuel can, your jerry cans are made out of. So as far as improvising, like he wanted these, the guy that sent me the other question wanted to know about basically, you know, they like the NATO metal gas cans and those are great, but they wanted to know how to make their own. How would you build this boat in? How would you cut it? And It was just beyond me. I wasn't comfortable building my own, but I wouldn't mind, you know, using something that seals properly, that's made for the same purposes, but not necessarily designed for that. So yeah, there's an idea anyway, but yes. So yeah, I have found gas jugs on the side of the road because when I'm driving, I'm always scanning. You know, I'm always looking for like livestock, you know, wildlife coming out anyway. So if I see a blue or yellow or red gas can in the ditch, I've been known to pull right over and pick it up. I found two full ones over the years. Those are great. And then whenever I'm cleaning out bank properties or doing junk runs for people, I always save the jerry cans if they're in good shape. And if I'm not sure, I save them, inspect them. Worst case, I throw them to the landfill later on. So I hope that helps. Now, the next one. I love animals. Yeah, so do I. But that's the name of the YouTube user. I like that. And they wanted to know about how difficult it was to set up quick connect fuel hoses on generators. So if you've got a, most generators that are made to take propane or natural gas have one of those flared fittings on them. And the downside to that is if you want to hook them up, every time you hook them up, they're brass and you need to put a wrench on them. So you have to wrench them on, you have to wrench them off. There's always a possibility that you over-tightened and that you strip out the brass, because brass is soft, or you tighten it too much, and you bottom out the flare, or worse than that, you end up breaking the little nipple right off your generator. None of that is a good thing. So what I've done, and these are all over my YouTube channel, but I use the quick release natural gas fittings. They cost about $ 50 for a male and female pair, but they're worth every penny. I've got a set set up on my barbecue. I've got a set on the inlet to the house and I've got a set on my generator and they look just like if you've ever dealt with air compressor fittings, like those little, you know, quick release compressor fittings. They work just like that. Put a little bit of yellow, make sure it's yellow because you want a thread tape on there, but don't use the white. It's not made to hold up to things like natural gas and propane. So use the yellow stuff and put it on there. And then what's great about that, yeah, one drawback, it sticks out a couple of inches. So just be careful that you don't put something heavy that could fall over and knock on it. But that's the drawback. But the good thing is, once it's on there, you never have to take a fitting on or off. It's just simply pull it back, snap it into place, pull it back, pull it out. You're going to end up saving and extending the lifespan of that gas fitting on your generators. And who doesn't love, I don't know, I always. I enjoy using those quick release fittings. I feel like a little kid at Christmas or something. I know it's foolish, but they work great. And once they're on there, you never have to worry about taking them off again. Manny on YouTube said, after using a generator with natural gas option, said, do you need to let out the acquired gas safely? Also, when you plug in natural gas, do you just connect properly, turn on the gas? And once you turn it on, Can you just keep it in and keep it going? Will the generator contain it within it no matter how much fills up? Says I'm really new at this and I'm just learning my education on it. So this was something I had to learn too. And I'm not sure if all generators are like this, but the natural gas ones I've used, the way to be safe about it is I have a shutoff at the house. So I hook everything up, then I run over, turn the shutoff on or off, and then start my generator. Because Once that gas flows in there, there's really no way to regulate it to stop it. So if you were to leave it running for a bit, you're going to start smelling that natural gas coming out of your generator. So the best way to be safe is to hook everything up, then turn on your main at the house, and then start your generator. Because no, most of those aren't designed to contain that gas. They don't have like a shutoff in there or anything like that. So that gas will free flow out if... you're not careful. So if you're new at it and it, you know, makes you a little bit nervous, you know, just be careful, hook everything up, test it, make sure it's all hooked up good. And then turn on your natural gas at the house and let it start flowing and then start it right up. And then you won't have any worry. And then also leave it running, go back to the house, turn that switch off, turn the, the, the natural gas shutoff off, then let it run dead. That way you know there's no gas left in the line, there's no gas left in the generator, and there's nothing to surprise you, like with a barbecue, for instance, the next time you turn it on. So with my barbecue, maybe not everybody thinks about this, but have you ever had a big poof of gas when you go to start it because there was still propane or natural gas in your burners and in your barbecue line? Well, the best way to do that is to turn the gas off at the source. let it burn itself through, and then turn off your burners. But if you turn off your burners first, then you trap all that gas in your burners, and it's the same with the generator. You trap all that gas in there, and then all of a sudden you turn it on and it goes, and then you lose what little bit of hair you have left on the top of your head. So yeah, that's important too. Just one of those little safety things that my dad taught me that years ago. And also, side note on propane, maybe you don't know this, but a lot of the 20-pound, 30-pound propane tanks, have a flow, an automatic flow shut off in them. So if you crank them open, wide open right away, it can end up shutting off the flow in the tank or extremely limiting it. So if you end up finding that a lot of times you go to start your barbecue and you're not getting a whole lot of propane flow, there's a good chance you opened it too wide. So just open it a little bit, light it, then turn the fuel up. Have a good night, Mike. Loco's got to run. Have an unbelievable weekend. Yeah. He's already, it's already Friday there, I believe. Yeah. So always love. He is a huge encourager on the social media platforms. I just, yeah, he is a great guy. He's into the telegram group. If you guys aren't in the telegram group, geez, come by and join the telegram group. I love it. Sometimes we'll have conversations that run for three, four hours and sometimes we'll go a day without a big conversation in there, but take your time. Come by and join us there because it's, yeah, I love it. It's the best way for all of us to keep up together. Always enjoy it. Okay, now this one was a good one. No Name from YouTube because their name was not worth saying. I don't even know what it was. But they wanted to know what the proper break-in procedure was for a generator. So I know, like, I have a good idea of how this works. But some of this actually just came recently because I just called Furman. That's who makes my generator. Had two nice long conversations with customer service. Could not recommend them more. They were incredible people to deal with. Loved talking to them. And I talked to them about... I was wondering if there was any benefit to switching to synthetic oil on my generator. And they said yes. But. with vehicles, when you switch to synthetic, you can go longer between your oil changes. They don't recommend that with generators, but what they do say is there's a good chance it'll extend the life of the generator even more. So I am going to switch my Furman Trifuel to synthetic this year because I've had it for a year. I've only got like 10 run hours on it, so I haven't gotten near to where I need to be for the break-in procedure for the initial oil change, but I'm still going to do it once a year, so we're going to switch it over. But most generators recommend every 100 hours of run time changing the oil on the regular once things are up and running. But for the break-in, the very first time, they recommend around 50 hours. And I don't know all the ins and the outs about it, but it has to do with, you know, getting the seals in the engine seated properly and getting rid of some of the gunk that's in there when it first starts and that kind of stuff. But so basically all that's involved in the proper break-in procedure for most generators. Now I'm going to get, this is what happens, you know, people who are big into generators, they all have their opinions on what you should do for a proper break-in procedure. But what I've done in the past and what they recommended to me from Furman was simply going half the time. So like I said, their intervals are 100 and they recommend 50 on the first. So 50 run hours or a year, whichever comes first, swap out the oil, get rid of it all. And at that point, so it comes with conventional or most come with conventional oil. And they do say that initial break-in period, you should use conventional oil. And then switch to synthetic if you want to. Also, swap the spark plug out. Always swap the spark plug. Say that five times fast. Always swap the spark plug every time you do an oil change. It's cheap insurance, and you don't want an old spark plug dealing with the new gas, the new oil, all of that stuff. So just swap it out. What are they, $ 5? And if you're doing an oil change and you're spending $ 40 on the oil, you might as well spend an extra five on your spark plug. And that's really it for the break-in procedure. There's not a whole lot involved other than that. So I had one more question here, and then I was going to tell you guys a little bit about my week and a couple other things, but, and I don't have an answer for this. So this is for the community. And if Chris Dixon's still in here, oh, I just give it away. I wasn't going to use his last name for it. Sorry about that, Chris. But his question was, is there a clinical name for the remorse felt after purchasing cordless corded tools? And I couldn't come up with a good name for that. So if you guys can come up with a good name for that, I would love to trademark it or something. No, I'm just kidding. But so basically what he is saying is he, Oh, uh, said, um, Oh, I'll bring that up too. But yeah, so Chris wanted to know, and a lot of us do this. Sometimes I go to the store and I'm like, I need, let's say for instance, I need an orbital sander. And of course I can get a cheap crappy tire version for 30 or 40 bucks. You plug it in, it works great. If I want to spend twice that, I could get the nice cordless one. But if I've already spent half, then I'm starting to think, well, I could just spend that half again and get a nice cordless tool. But in my older days, especially when I really didn't have any extra money to spend, it didn't feel like spending any extra money, I would go and buy the corded tool. And as soon as I bought that damn corded tool, I was like, well, shit, I really wish I'd have bought the cordless tool. So if anybody else has ever felt that remorse of buying a corded tool and then thought, Jesus, I should have just bought the cordless version. Let me know. We need to come up with a name for that because I think us men, we really suffer from that sometimes. You know, you don't want to spend too much, but who doesn't just love a cool cordless tool? So Chris said, did you ask about the hydroscopic properties of oil? Most say one year max for low runtime machines. So I didn't ask a specifically about that simply because i didn't really know that i should but yes they definitely recommend it i've pretty much any generator i've dealt with any company i've talked to they always say one year max and so that must be it i'll do some digging into that a little more but but yeah they basically say whether it sits or runs if you haven't hit your hour run time so for my firm and it would have been 50 for this year simply because this is the break-in period then uh Yeah, you would basically need to swap it out either way. And that's what they say. And I'm okay with that. I don't mind. It's good practice anyway. And it's nice, you know, once a year to give your generator a great look over and figure it out from there. But yeah, I'm like you guys know, I do regular maintenance on my generator anyway. And this once a year oil change and that kind of thing, it's going to make a good video. It'll be a nice learning experience for some people out there. And it'll be information I can share with just about everybody. so now I want to talk about a little project or I don't even know what you want to call it, but, uh, last year, I, you guys know, I put siding on my garage and insulated it, but there's a few more upgrades that I need to do. Uh, yet corded. Oh, that's great. I like that. Anybody else like corded remorse? I just, that sounds like some kind of thing you'd see in a medical textbook. I like that. If anybody else has no other suggestions, I'm happy with courted remorse. That sounds really good. So anyway, we're, you know, it's quickly warming up here and I'm looking at doing some more projects, of course, in my backyard. And if Chris, Chris knows my garage gets rather cold. So my next step is to put a new garage door in there because I have an old kind of panel wood one that the bottom, um, track piece or the bottom piece of wood is split in half, and you can see about three inches of daylight under it, and there's literally no insulation properties. And I've wanted to do this for a couple years. We've got a local place in town that does garage doors. I've called them three times to come by over the last 18 months to give me a quote, and I'm still waiting. So I decided, hey, I'm going to learn a new skill. So I have been saving up for a garage door. And that's something I wanted to tell you about. This was my, the insight to how I made this work. So I told Becky I wanted to get a new garage door. And, you know, if we wanted to, we could save up and get a garage door. Wouldn't be a big deal. But I wanted it to be something that I used extra money for. So I made it my goal. Excuse me. I made it my goal to scrounge up money in any way I could to get this garage door. So first thing I did was when I went to this latest bank property, I found a really nice toolbox that fits in the box of a truck. And I probably could have sold it for more, but you guys, if you've ever watched my video on how to get rid of junk, I always say price it to sell. So I put it up for $ 100 and it sold within minutes. So that was my first $ 100. Next $ 200 from there was my empties. I saved whole bunch of empties for about six months, took them all back and made $ 220. So that got me a little bit closer. Now, I did mention a while ago, you guys have asked what some of my best finds were, and I have decided that I'm holding on to a lot of junk that I did not need. And one of those things, you guys might go, Boo earns! One of those things was the Nintendo that I found, you know, doing a landfill run one time. And it was great. It was nice to have, but I wasn't going to play with it. And it was just sitting up on that shelf collecting dust. So I listed all of my Nintendo, I listed my Nintendo and all the games that went with it, put it on eBay for seven days. And I ended up making $ 863 out of the Nintendo and the games. Now you don't get all that at once because you have to wait for it all to show up, but it's been coming in in dribs and drabs. And so I now have after that and I sold my 3D printer. You guys are going to be like, wow. Anyway, I bought that last year. I learned all I wanted. And I've told you about that with me. Quite often, I learn things, get bored with things, and then leave the skill behind. And I just, I kept saying, oh, that 3D printer was sitting there kind of laughing at me. Like, Tim, come back and play with me. And I just never had the inclination or the time to do it. So I said, the easiest way to cure that is to sell it. So I sold that for $ 200. I put that in there. And I came across a gift card in my drawer that I forgot I had. So I now have enough to buy my garage door and a new garage door opener. And if you follow Chris Dixon on his YouTube channel, he just put up a really good video on replacing a garage door opener. Something I haven't done before. Wow, Tim, a handyman that's never put in a garage door opener. Never done a garage door. So I'm going to turn it into a video as well. Of course, because that's what us content creators do. But I really want to learn this skill. And I thought... I asked the lady at the garage door place, like, give me a ballpark. And she's like, well, I really need to send somebody out. But she said it won't be more than $ 2, 000. And I know a year and a half ago when I first started talking to them that they told me it wouldn't be much more than a grand. So whatever. Anyway, Home Depot has a great one for $ 819. So for $ 1, 000, I can get the door and an opener and I can install it myself. I'll get a video out of it and I'll learn a new skill. So all of that combined, was a way to save about $ 1, 000, I think, if they'd ever give me a real price and learn a new skill and create content that's going to bring some money in. And then also this week, I have been working on a wicking bed. If you guys have never seen a wicking bed, I think I did one video on it a couple of years ago, but it was old and probably short and not very well put together. So I'm going to be doing a video as I go along. I'm building a wicking bed for the daycare. It's going to be a four by eight box. So you basically frame it up with pressure treated. And before somebody, you know, I'm sure somebody's typing away right now, don't use pressure treated for a garden. Well, hang on. If you don't know how a wicking bed works, you line the entire thing with pond liner on the inside. So there's no way the pressure treated is going to touch the food. So we're building, yeah, so then we're going to put it up on the deck. I'm building a new deck at the daycare as well. And we're going to line it. You put the pond liner in it. Then you put perforated four inch sewer pipe. You wrap it along the bottom. Then you bring it up to the top. You put gravel, cover it with gravel. Put a little like old mats or something to kind of separate it. Then top the whole thing up with topsoil. Put your vegetables, whatever it happens to be in there. Then mulch on top. Then you fill that pipe. And the water, if you've never seen it, is the most wonderful thing. The water comes from the pipe. It wicks up from the bottom. So what's great about that is here in Alberta, where it's so dry that if you stick your tongue out, it turns to sandpaper. So water evaporates quickly. And if you're trying to water something from the top down, half that is lost to evaporation. So I'm going to get it down in, you know, I love, I've done wicking beds before and they work Yeah, they're awesome. So keep an eye out for that. I'm doing a video. Ryan was on the other night. Prepper Dad from the Next Generation Podcast. He come on Sunday night. And we were talking afterwards. He's like, you should do a video on that. Because I don't know much about wicking beds. So I'll put one of those together too. Chris says, that was a first for me as well. I'm looking at replacing the old tin door with an insulated one now. Exactly. That's why mine's a wood door. And it needs to be done. Yeah, so... Sure, I should have mentioned this. I've been told this a few times by other people, but Hawk here, Hawkins, Chicken Hawk says, watch out for the spring. It can really knock the crap out of you. Ask me how I know. I've been warned that it can actually kill people, at least some of those industrial ones. So yes, be careful. And John Palmer says, garage door springs are very dangerous. And yeah, I will be very careful. The video, or yeah, the company I'm buying the garage door from has some really good videos. So I'll do what I normally do when I'm learning a new skill. I'll watch the video two or three times, and then I will do it step by step, taking my time. And if I get to a point where I'm like, shit, I can't remember what I need to do, I'll watch that video again, and then I'll start watching other videos from the University of YouTube where it shows me the little parts that I don't know. James says, you'll do a better job on your opener than an installer. The old saying, if you want it done right, do it yourself. And that is true. Yeah, it... Yeah, there's no getting around that. The wicking bed that I'm building for Becky, I decided to really, really take my time on this. Instead of just, you know, doing how you would normally. I just kind of, when I'm building that stuff around home, just kind of scab it together. It looks good. But anyway, so this one I'm like, you know, flipping the boards around, getting everything lined up right, spacing the screw holes out. It's going to look spectacular when it's done. But yes, and you're right, James. That is, when you do your own job, you do a better job. Because I've had people, not this company in general, but I've had other companies who have done garage doors for me in rentals. And when you're done, you're like, really? Like, okay. But yeah, it is. And Chicken Hawk says he'll hold my beer for me. I appreciate that. Even if it's electronically, you can hold a beer for me. But it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Like I said, I always love learning new skills. And if you guys have followed me for any length of time, you know I like to stack skills together. So learn a skill. make a video, save some money, and get a new product all at the same time. Chris says, oh, they said I got nothing on trunk springs, eh, Chris? And he said, I can, but the same size door, it will only change the door slats and leave the springs and everything in place. That's not a bad idea. I thought about doing that, but mine's so bad, I'm going to replace everything. I did some digging online, and this door that I'm looking at comes with everything you need except the rear hangers and the weatherstripping. My rear hangers are perfectly fine, but I'll definitely buy some new weatherstripping once I get it into place. Yeah, just one of those things. But yeah, so I'm definitely excited about learning a new skill. And also, I'm picking up the materials tomorrow. The deck I built at the house here, 16x24, I'm building one of those on ground at the wife's daycare. Because right now it's a soupy, muddy mess. So we're going to put a 16x24 deck in and then cover the rest of the yard with a fine gravel the kids can play in. It's going to be way better than the grass we can't keep there because the kids... Well, kids are kids and they tear it up and they're like goats, right? So we're going to do that. And I'm extending the back deck at the house here. None of this is going to get done before I go to Living Free in Tennessee, the spring workshop. But it's still exciting. I like talking about my projects. I'm always looking forward to it. And you guys definitely, if you come by the Telegram group, share your projects. Just before I got started, I seen Kerry Brown was building a hoop house today. If you guys... Don't remember Kerry. He was on the show not too long ago. He runs a handyman landscaping business down in Tennessee. Just an awesome inspiration of a guy. So yeah, it's a great place where we all brag, guys and girls, about what we're doing. But we don't mind asking for help either. So beyond that, anybody's got any other questions, throw them up there. If you're wondering... I forgot to mention earlier on tonight, but if you're listening, if you're not listening on the Prepper Broadcast Network, just one question, why aren't you? There's like more than a dozen podcasts a week on all aspects of preparedness lifestyle. It's just an awesome channel. And if you get value from it, go by there and become a member. I'm a member. I haven't even logged into the membership website. I just wanted to support James and everything he's done for me. So who follows me up on the Prepper Broadcast Network? I do Thursday night and on Friday is my buddy Carl A.D. Brown. He has a show called The Strange Truth. He talks about faith, preparedness, and of course the news stories that nobody else wants to touch. And what do we got coming up this week? What's left? Well, like I said, things are going to be a little bit in flux for a couple of weeks. So next week will be basically the same. except there won't be a live Sunday show because I'm going to be leaving on a jet plane and don't know when I'll be back again, except I do because I'll be home on the 3rd of May. We're going to be gone from the 17th of April to the 3rd of May. It's going to be awesome. But in the meantime, we're going to have a Saturday evening live stream, 7 p.m. Mountain Time. I think, don't hold me to this, but I believe we're going to talk about building an essential prepper library. unless I completely change my mind and we do something totally different or if somebody else has another suggestion, but I've been working on building a proper library and working on getting some suggestions from other people. And then Sunday evening is the flagship show of the week where I have an interview usually. And it's getting to the point where I might have to do two interview shows a week because there's just so many good people who want to be on the show. And so many people who are recommended to me that I'd love to do more interviews, but geez, I, I'm not quite sure if I want to do a fourth episode a week. But this Sunday evening, we got Nate LeMaster from Two Chicks Homestead. He's a big part of the workshop community, an all-around nice guy. I'm going to get to meet him in person in Tennessee in a couple of weeks. But he's going to talk about emergency communications. So I'm really, really excited about that. And real quick, before we close up, what's coming? So beyond this week coming, We're going to have... Most everything's going to be pre-recorded for two weeks. So there'll be... I've got a couple of really cool interviews that I haven't played on PBN. Those will be for my two Thursday night slots. I've got pre-recorded stuff with guests who are on there from... Oh, yeah. So I had... Well, anyway, I'll leave it as a surprise. They're both really good episodes. So they're going to be there. And from there, we are going to have... It's going to be a really cool series. I'm quite excited about it. And, oh, hang on. We just had a new guy in here, Brett. I wanted to give him a shout out. Brett Holmes says, I only saw your live stream. You're just wrapping up. Damn. That's okay, Brett. And he also said, I left a comment on your last generator video. I have a bonded neutral generator and a transfer switch that doesn't switch neutral. I was told that a fix is to not connect the ground to the generator. I seen that and I hadn't, I don't think I've re-commented on your comment yet, Brett, simply because I wasn't 100% sure what the proper answer is on that. That sounds legit to me, but I'm not an electrician. I'm going to do some more digging and I'll get back to you, but it does sound like it. And they said, don't connect the ground to the generator. You know, it could be, but if you guys haven't, I just did a video on bonded versus floating neutral in a generator. I tried to keep it to like less than six minutes. So everybody, you know, so it would be simple and easy. And I had to do hours and hours of reading and research to put that six minute video together. But I loved it because again, it was a new concept, a new idea for me to learn. But yeah, Brett, if you, it sounds like you're a subscriber now, but I appreciate it. And if you're a Telegram user, man, come by the workshop Telegram group and you can share questions and comments there too. All the links are in the description below for sure. But yeah, so what do we got coming up? Like I said, while I'm gone, it's going to be a short kind of, so it's going to be a cool series. I've been wanting to do this for a while. It's basically going to be a, hey, I'm scared. I want to get into preparedness. You know, insert whatever reason you're nervous about because the world is gone, whatever. And it's going to be like 15 to 20 minute episodes. There's going to be five of them. that you can share with friends, and you can also learn from. So I'm excited about that. So that's all going to be pre-recorded. We've got some other videos coming up, some good reviews. But I'm going to take my gear with me, and I'm going to live stream, hopefully from the beach in Florida, hopefully from the LFTN Spring Workshop, and it's going to be a good time. But yeah, so yeah, Brett, thanks for popping in, and I do appreciate you sharing that. So guys, that was an hour. Man, that flew by. I always love when you guys come by, and this was a good episode, something just a little different. and yeah, next week will be one more live repairedness, and then there'll be two weeks of pre-recorded. So guys, like I said, you know, an hour, hour and a half, I appreciate the fact that you could spend your time anywhere, and you come by and hang out with me, so thank you, thank you very much, and as always, stay happy, stay healthy, and have a great week. Are you prepared to be the family doctor in a disaster or emergency? This is the Intrepid Commander, and I'm holding The Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W. Forgy, M.D. In this great book, you'll learn how to prepare for medical care off the grid. You'll learn about assessment and stabilization. You'll even deal with things like bioterrorism response, radiation, and how to build the off-grid medical kit at home. Look, 2020 taught us a lot about the limitations of our medical infrastructure in America. Get the Prepper's Medical Handbook today at Amazon.com. Again, that's the Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W. Forgy. Let's talk about your Prepper's Library. The Prepper's Guide to Surviving Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Infectious Disease is Dr. William W. Forgy's latest. If you want to know about the history of pandemics, herd immunity, the lockdown debate, how to prepare for bioterrorism and infectious disease, you have to get yourself a copy of The Prepper's Guide to Surviving Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Infectious Disease. Go to prepperbroadcasting.com, click the banner ad up top, do yourself a favor, PBN family. Put a copy of The Prepper's Guide to Surviving Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Infectious Disease in your home library today. Thank you for listening to the Prepper Broadcasting Network, where we promote self-reliance and independence.