Hooking up a dryer to a Bobcat

[woof]

Lots of questions about hooking up welders to dryer outlets but how about running that clothes dryer off of the Bobcat or Trailblazer? This info may come in handy when trying to justify a purchase.

[David R]

I run my whole house off a Ranger 250.

David

[lorenzo]

I have a generator switch in my house and I use either my Trailblazer or the Rnager 9 with no problems.

[MAC702]

Piece of cake. Either put a NEMA 14-50P on your dryer, or build an adapter from a NEMA 14-50P plug to a NEMA 14-30R (or C) receptacle. They both carry four wires with two hots, a neutral and a ground.

If the dryer has a 3-prong plug, you can replace it with the correct modern one, or adapt without the neutral prong in the middle.

I built a subpanel that actually plugs right in to the same NEMA 14-50R on my TB301G.

[littlefuzz]

How do you go about wiring a house to plug into the generator? I'm clueless when it comes to wiring stuff like that.

[rusty ripple]

then its best not to, if done wrong you can energize things which ought not be energized and backfeed into the house, forgot exactly why, but it can be bad.

[gtrman]

On a bobcat it is no problem. Just change the plug on the end of the dryer cable. On a Trailblazer it could get a little more difficult if it is 3 phase.

[littlefuzz]

then its best not to, if done wrong you can energize things which ought not be energized and backfeed into the house, forgot exactly why, but it can be bad.

I didn't say I'm a complete idiot:p I just wanted to know how, basic steps.

[yogie]

Okay guys, is it an American thing, I've heard "dryer" mentioned a few times, is it (omg :confused: ) a clothes dryer, or some american term for something else.Leaving myself wide open here I just know it. :jester:

[littlefuzz]

Okay guys, is it an American thing, I've heard "dryer" mentioned a few times, is it (omg :confused: ) a clothes dryer, or some american term for something else.Leaving myself wide open here I just know it. :jester:

Yup, clothes dryer.

[yogie]

Yup, clothes dryer.


Bugger... So what would you want to hook it up to a bobcat for ?????, go answer that one then....:waving:

[jknight8907]

Bugger... So what would you want to hook it up to a bobcat for ?????, go answer that one then....:waving:
Most likely so as to dry your clothes.


:D

[Roy Hodges]

Bugger... So what would you want to hook it up to a bobcat for ?????, go answer that one then....:waving:.................................. .............
FOR when we have an electrical power outage -

[steve45]

then its best not to, if done wrong you can energize things which ought not be energized and backfeed into the house, forgot exactly why, but it can be bad.

If your power goes out, your generator needs to be isolated from the power grid. If a repair crew is out there trying to fix the lines and they power is off, then you turn on your generator, you could fry them! This is why your setup needs to be approved by your power company.

I have an old piano that I would like to use to power my television...:confused:

[sail2u]

Perhaps this link will help: about power transfer switches. Hopefully they come with instructions for installation (-- or call your electrician):

http://www.everygenerator.com/Transfer-Switches-C26965.html?refid=G4073.generator+transfer+switche s[/url]

[yogie]

this what we call a bobcat in Australia.... So just maybe you can under stand my even more deeper confusion in this post...:mad:

[yogie]

Most likely so as to dry your clothes.


:D


Oh so funny..... :nono: (made me chuckle:laugh: )

[MoonRise]

Hey yogie,

Yup, the skid-steer machines are Bobcats too. We have 'em here in the states.

But since this is welding related, the Bobcat in question is a Miller engine-driven welder called a Bobcat. See http://www.millerwelds.com/products/enginedriven/bobcat_250/ for a pic and some specs.

It's an engine, with a generator to power the welder. No need to plug in the welder to an electrical outlet, the Bobcat (and other engine-driven welders) makes its own electricity. And since it is making its own electricity, if you had a power outage or no power available you could use the generator to power your electrical tools or machinery.

Like powering a clothes dryer from a Bobcat if the power went out or was unavailable.

And littlefuzz, the proper way to feed generator power to a house is to use a transfer switch as stated above. The transfer switch lets you choose whether power into the house is from the utility or from the generator and keeps the two power sources from 'mixing'. This way you aren't sending your generator power back into the utility's lines (trying to power the entire neighborhood off of your generator, or energizing the 'dead' lines when a power crew is working to fix the 'dead' lines) and you aren't sending POCO electricity into your generator (which might let the magic smoke out of your generator).

[MAC702]

At least modern Miller Trailblazers are only 3-phase for the welding current, which is why they weld so much better than Bobcats. But they have a separate aux. power generator on the same shaft, and it produces the same 10kW of single-phase power that the Bobcats do.

Either way, they have the same NEMA 14-50R receptacles, which are single-phase.

I have a special cord that I can use to backfeed panels from my Trailblazer. But, as mentioned, if you do not use an appropriate transfer switch, or if you do not know EXACTLY what you are doing, you can kill a utility lineman. Just as their 23,000V (or more, depending) lines go through a few transformers to bring 240V to your house, if you backfeed 240V to them, it´ll be 23,000V when it hits them.

[Roy Hodges]

It seems to me that it doesn't take many brains to unplug the dryer from the house and plug it directly (with a proper extension cord) into the BOBCAT. then, there is no danger of frying a lineman , or messing up the house or wiring .

[wlbrown]

HELLO TO ALL,
it seems to me to prevent backfeed in this situation,
you would need to turn your main breaker OFF!
i had a 16 hour outage, and i hooked my bobcat 250
up, and powered my house, but i turned the main OFF!
wlbrown

[Washman]

this what we call a bobcat in Australia.... So just maybe you can under stand my even more deeper confusion in this post...:mad:


Ahhhh we have those here too but they were talking about this kind of Bobcat. .. ....

Washman

[Roy Hodges]

HELLO TO ALL,
it seems to me to prevent backfeed in this situation,
you would need to turn your main breaker OFF!
i had a 16 hour outage, and i hooked my bobcat 250
up, and powered my house, but i turned the main OFF!
wlbrown........................................... .................
AMEN ! I was wondering when somebody would state the obvious ! It's not like weldors are TOO stupid to know to turn off the main breaker FIRST .At least , i don't think so . You don't have to be an electrician to know that .

[wlbrown]

HELLO TO ALL,
one other thing to consider is the fact you are hooking
in a dryer outlet that it #10 wire good for 30 amps, but
the generator is proucing many more amps than that.
my opinion, not a good choice. it should be hooked into
the main breaker panel, and the wire in it will handle the
extra amps.
wlbrown

[MAC702]

The Bobcat can only produce 39.5A of continuous 240V power. #10 wire in this temporary situation is not going to be a problem. Most of it is actually rated for 40A, but limited to 30A protection by Code.