to lister or listeroid, that is the question

[twainmanbg]

Hi everyone,
had a few evenings checking out engines and genny sets, can I have the opinions of anyone who has bought a complete Indian diesel and genny setup as found in the links section, and would I be better setting up with new indian or trying to get all the bits to do a genuine Lister genny setup, and which would work out the most cost effective in your opinion.
   I am slowly working through the old post's and I have to say there is a nice feeling coming through, better than any of the other sites I have visited.
   anyway best wishes to everyone,
                                   Richard and Janie.

[stephendv]

I bought a "Volvox" 1500rpm generator 2 years ago.  Volvox is a British company but the generator itself was manufactured 100% in India by Vidhata and shipped to me directly from India, volvox just specced the parts to fit to it.  It cost about 3/4 the price of a modern 1500rpm generator from a UK or European supplier. 
I regret buying it, mostly because of the poor quality.  Vidhata were very helpful in replacing parts that were faulty and shipped them next day DHL all paid for by them.  But then no matter how helpful they were, new parts shouldn't fail in the first place.  While I have some interest in generators they're not my hobby, I bought this as a machine that needs to work 100% when I need it and I didn't want to spend my weekends getting it to work properly.  For that reason if I could do it again, I'd buy a quality modern 1500rpm from a local dealer who can fully support it.

I'd only recommend the listeroid route if you enjoy tinkering with these machines.  That's not to say that you couldn't eventually arrive at a wonderfully efficient and long lasting generator - just that it will take a lot of time to get there.

[KenB]

Richard,

Listeroids are not everyone's cup of tea. I prefer the tinkering route - because I hope to increase my self reliance - rather than becoming reliant on modern engines or parts.  I have enough original Listers in storage to last my expected requirements.

Indian build quality can vary a lot.  However I have seen some from JKSon that are faithful copies of the Lister CS and have 100% parts interchangeability.

They are a simple engine, and easy to fix.  Indian spare parts are very cost effective.

If you have the space, and an outbuilding to house a genset in, then the Lister route may be what you are looking for.  I have little experience of 1500rpm gensets, but from what I have heard, you get what you pay for.  If you want a good 1500rpm genset, I'd be tempeted to buy an ex-backup or MOD genset, probably a Lister or Petter with few hours on the clock.


Ken

[twainmanbg]

Thanks for the info,
Just out of interest how much do these Indian jobs cost ?
                                          Richard.

[stephendv]

Got a quote 2 months ago from Poweranand.com for complete genset units, hand start as follows:
- 6/1, 3.7kVA = 2900 USD
- 8/1, 5kVA = 3100 USD

Includes shipping to nearest port.

[County 4x4]

Includes shipping to nearest port.

Just be a bit careful about the "nearest port" bit! I imported one of Jkson's engines a couple of years back and asked for it to be shipped to Liverpool - our nearest major port - so I could collect it myself. I was sent several copies of shipping documents etc, all of which stated Liverpool as the shipping destination. When the engine landed in Felixstowe I tried to find out why, and was told that ships from India don't go to Liverpool and that "I should have known that"! Cost me around £600 to pay all the port duties, the storage while I argued the toss with the Indians, and the carriage up here from Felixstowe!

Cheers,

Andy