Thunderbolt siren info

[Greenrid]

I don't have a Thunderbolt (yet), but I was still wondering at how you can properly do maintenance and wire the motors correctly. Here are some of my questions:

- Is the chopper motor 120v or 240v?
- What is the overall amperage and voltage of a fully working Thunderbolt?
- can single phase blower motors run off of standard housing electrical systems?
- does a 3 phase blower need a special converter to run? (like a single to three phase converter)
- Where can you usually find brushes for the motors?
- What are the costs of the parts if they were sold separately?
- Along with the blower, does any other part need to be greased/oiled?

I think that these are all of the questions, I might add more if I remember some.

[clarksburg_1000t]

I can't answer everything, but I can answer a few of these.
"Is the chopper motor 120v or 240v?" It's 240
"can single phase blower motors run off of standard housing electrical systems?" In North America at least, no. They're 240
"does a 3 phase blower need a special converter to run? (like a single to three phase converter)" Yes, This is North America. We're single phase. You'll also need a step up transformer.
"Along with the blower, does any other part need to be greased/oiled?" The rotator box and chopper (solenoids for 1003).
Manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16ayS7e ... mn3VZ/view

[HDN]

Definitely read the manual for the siren and that'll answer many of your questions about operations and maintenance. They're freely available from multiple places across the internet

You can convert single-phase to three-phase using an appropriately-sized variable-speed drive. I think the drive needs to be oversized for this purpose, and I don't know the math to size the drive off the top of my head. Based on the manual, I'm guessing you'll need at least 50 amps available at the panel to provide enough juice to the VSD to run the whole siren. I say this being an amateur electrician.

If you can afford it, I'd buy a military surplus generator that outputs three-phase power. I don't think I'd go lower than a 15 kW unit - I'd prefer a 20 kW unit myself at a minimum, and have a 30 kW MEP-805 genset trailer in mind to tow behind my M35A3 for my Model 5 siren. When you're not using the genset to run the siren, it can provide power to your home during an outage!

The nice thing about this setup is that if it can run a Thunderbolt, I think it can run pretty much any other commonly-available siren. However, you'll need an even bigger generator to run a Super Sirex or one of the ACA 50-horsepower units!