Generator tech here, if possible you should avoid running your diesel generator under low loads for extended periods, this can lead to something called "wet stacking". A diesel engine needs to run under load in order to burn clean, under no load conditions you'll coke up the engine and shorten it's life. Simply put, you'll want to run your generator at a minumum 25% load whenever possible, and every so often you'll want to run it up to 100% for a few hours to burn off carbon and spooge buildup as well as verify function at rated capacity.
Former 91D (Power Generator Mechanic) for 8 yrs here 👋! The MEP models had common issues with wet stacking. Please run around a 80% load for around 30mins-1hr at your yearly service date. If taken care of & treated right which you are, the gen will take care of you. I've worked on every generator the US Army had to offer and also was a military contractor who would reset these generators on a daily basis. Your gen should have came with a TM (technical manual) so please refer to it for your services. If you have any questions or need some advice please feel free to reach out to me. Congrats on your purchase!
@delmar2169 Unfortunately, not anymore. I believe they went away with the old identifier a while back before I joined in 2010. Too many revisions and years later I forget what MOS ended up being phased out but I know the Power Generation Equipment Repairer is still going strong.
@randomguy1371 very much can attest to them! The MEP805A & B 30k gens were and still are amazing machines. If you can afford to wing it, take a look at the AMMPS model variants as they can account for lower loads to prevent wet stacking and possibly saving your engine. The AMMPS models have been out now for a few years so I'm sure you'd be able to find a 30k for a steal.
@@GoProXadventuresabout half of the TQG’s we work on have this paint scheme. (Army generator mechanic) but it very well might be marine corps. I didn’t pay attention to the USMC label
I live in TX and recently bought 1k gallon propane tank (the max size) for my new barndo build. It was $5,800. The reason I got the big one was for my generator. The reason I went with propane is not for price but for fuel storage as well. I didn't want to worry about fuel spoilage.
Good move, A friend went overboard and buried 5 of them. But propane will almost last forever! I went solar with a gas back up that I use when camping too. But solar is a LOT more expensive. I can run 2 days with AC and no energy conservation with 2 tesla battery packs. Diesel and Gas does not last more than a couple of years even with extenders.
Yes, I have a propane whole house generator. You never worry about bad fuel with propane. The local propane supplier is about 400 hundred yards away. I think I will be fine during one of our freezing rain events.
the 400 hertz are for radar systems, namely the SQS-36 Firefinder and ANTPQ-64 Sentinel. Those 10K generators have Yanmar engines and we would run them 24/7 and only shut them down for every 200 hours for oil changes. We had 2 per radar and would switch gens every 200 hours. Each generator would have 4000+ hours on them at the end of a deployment and they would go directly to Toby Hanna Army depot to get rebuilt or what we called a reset. I know those systems like the back of my hand and would by a surplus one in a heart beat.The internal tank is only good for about 8 hours of run time but you can run a line for an external tank.
400hz is also for PATRIOT systems/radar, along with other various 400Hz applications. The reason for the 400Hz (3 phase, 4 wire 220/108) is the power supplies within the powered equipment. If they wanted to strictly use 60hz the power supplies would be the size of a small car lol.
Man you reminded me of my deployment. Two MEP 803's powering some radio equipment, swapping them out with a load transfer switch whenever one was too low on fuel, because the fuel truck only came around every 12 hours and those gens were burning through their internal tanks in about 8. Though when I arrived they already had over almost 8k hours on them and they liked to shut down for seemingly no reason. By the time we finally got replacements, both were pushing 9500 hours.
I work on these exact generators all the time. The water separator fuel filter you changed at 13 minutes, well, it's a good idea to leave that water drain on there. Especially when filling with jerry cans. If you don't regularly bleed the water out of that filter the ice will blow the bottom of the filter off. If you're interested in some house-bound upgrades, a battery tender, battery blankets and block heater could help in the winter months. If you anticipate running it for a long time (greater than 12hrs straight) you can plumb a 40gal drum of fuel into the aux fuel inlet. Common failure points on these generators are the fuel return line up top, which tends to get porous, batteries, the water separator, as mentioned, and occasionally the fuel shutoff solenoid. If you're interested in service manuals / parts diagrams let me know. Enjoy!
I cannot believe how many experienced, knowledgeable people of a technical background have collected in this comment section, it is joyful to read people share their knowledge and good advice with reasoning!!
Birds of a feather- through the RUclips algorithm- will flock together. In this case, all of the engineers were brought together, because all these guys saw an industrial military grade generator, and it being installed to a normal home. That's like a video for new gaming tech, coming across the algorithm for teens.
90% of these people have never touched a military grade multi-fuel generator let alone any other type of military grade equipment. Military generators don't always need a load put on them to run. we've literally used generators to power up a coffee maker and a toaster that don't even put a load on it.
Just a suggestion, and I may be wrong, but instead of buying road diesel shouldn't you be getting farm diesel or even home heating oil delivered directly to your home? They will gladly fill your 275 gallon tank so long as you have an external fill. That should be cheaper.
He said in a previous video that road diesel is cheaper for him than home heating oil, not sure if that’s changed since then tho I believe it was when he built a fuel transfer tank for his duramax pickup
I could see it work well but it depends on conditions because Cold areas might gel up very simple and we bought two propane generators because we have lots of it but they can leak but they can easily have a long shelf life of propane and if there's a tank near the house win win
You have no need for it... yet =) It's like insurance, it costs money but you'll be glad you had it when your dog trips you while climbing some stairs.
@CoLiC2 excatly.. I live in flordia.. the last hurricane down here had me without power for 8 days.. for the price point of that generator I'm installing one lol
Waldo, A suggestion from an old electrician is to make a habit of making connections - grounding conductors (green or bare copper ground wire) first, grounded conductor ( white neutral) second and ungrounded conductor (colored hot) last. Just a simple way to create safety routes before the final connection. Remember all connections are considered energized until proven unenergized. Good habits keep us alive. Thanks for the videos.
Anyone who makes power connections should know and follow these basic guidelines. When I'm training someone, I like to watch them make the connections on their own the first time (on a non-energized panel, of course) to see if they have the innate logic to do it properly. They are the ones I trust most.
Cummins PG tech here. It would be a good idea to have a battery charger and block heater if you intend to use it during winter. Battery heater wouldn’t hurt either
Great video and great feedback regarding wet stacking. Strongly suggest dosing diesel with biocide as a prophylactic measure. Civilian diesel has so little sulfur that bacteria commonly infects long-term stored fuel. Also, air and water vapor start a long-term chain reaction to acid and waxy film the military probably doesn't see due to fuel turn over. Anything stored in smaller tanks a year or more will definitely see this change, unless tank is nearly topped, or evacuated of air and water vapor.
Diesel economy will also go a lot further with a UPS/Hi-Cap Deep Cycle battery backup system in tandem. The diesel will run fully loaded until the batteries are at maximum charge, then it can be off-cycled until the batteries run down to say 30% and then re-started at full load until the cycle repeats. Plus, running a diesel at full loads is much better on the engine than partial or no load run time.
I really liked all you did. Just one little note - the cable going to generator. I would give it a "drip loop". You ran it direct from box to generator. I would run it about 5 inches below opening in generator side and then back up. So both rainwater and condensation would drip off from lowest point. GL, HF. Just an engineer/IT from Estonia.
I worked on many of these 10K-TQG (Tactical Quiet Generator) generators during my 20 years in the Army. I definitely agree with the previous commenters about wet stacking. If these ran at low load for too long, oil would start spraying out of the exhaust. We occasionally used a load bank, basically a large resistive heater, to run them at a higher load to prevent the wet stacking.
Otherwise known as Diesel Glazing. Injectors will coat up and she'll no longer burn right turning it into a smoke generator. Also a major fire hazard, seen several generators burn after being idling for too long without a load bank.
I may look into getting one of these load banks. Or at least now I know to run the generator with the oven and a bunch of other electronics on. Thanks for the comment!
@@WaldosWorld yup! As long as you have a load while generator is on, you are ok! You put almost the max load the generator can take and run it monthly. Just need to run it for 30-60 min monthly/ quarterly would be my recommendation. Also, when not in use, disconnect one or both terminals. Cold weather, could just simply remove the battery.
Another option is to run a couple of high output space heaters, keeps the place cozy. Also handy to have in the event of a prolonged outage if your furnace decides to croak or fuel is cut off.
21:26 "I feel a little but dumb for not reading the manual on that" bro says after showing us how he can identify the internals of a military power generator and accurately read the wiring diagrams. I never consume content like this but this video was so entertaining and informative. You know what youre doing, dude!
Only bone to pick is... I hate 5 feet for both fire reasons and carbon monoxide. If I could... 25 feet. Anyone ever fought a diesel fire understands why: radiant heat is immense.
Former us army here... generators like that kept me warm on many cold nights. When I was deployed, we had a pair of 40k generators that took 20 gallons of JP8 every 12 hours. They were massive. But generally these 3k, 10k and 15k generators were the ones I loved. 3k was nice because it had some handles that 2 strong soldiers could carry it by.
warm on many cold nights and days, and cool on many hot nights and days haha. i think i remember using the 5k and 10k the most. we couldn't carry them, but one person could drag them around the motorpool. i was constantly worried that my humvees would fail, but i have good memories and a good feeling about these old generators.
Back in '90-'94 I was working at a wooden packaging manufacturer. A local motor/generator shop got a contract to make military generators as there was a need for them given increased deployment overseas. The shop I was at made wooden skids for the motor shop, so our business in massive skids, and crates to fit, increased dramatically. I'll allow one guess as to who got to hump those big-assed, 7" X 10", timbers around. The runners and end crosspieces got bolted together with 1" bolts and the "thin" deck boards were nailed on with an air tool that fired 6" spikes into the oak runners. Damn that was hard work!...But it gave me a good feeling to contribute, in that small way, to the effort that was being put out by those who had put their lives on the line! In just my little area of the Wisconsin woods, there were those who were cranking out 30mm rounds for the A-10s that gave you close air support when you needed it, and I think, also 50 Cal...the crews winding rotors for and assembling those huge generators that kept your communications up, and you warm, and cool, when on base...the crew that cut all of the parts for, and that one dude who assembled three-quarters of, the skids that carried those locally-made generators to you! Many thanks for your military service!! We at home did our level best to keep you supplied...and, just so you know, we thought of you often while we did that work!
Not sure if it has been mentioned or not, but that outlet post next to the generator might be an ideal spot for a small 3-5W solar panel and controller to trickle charge the generator batteries to keep them healthy and topped off.
As far as that's concerned, a lot of newer standby generators have heat mats that go around the batteries for extreme cold weather, and they just run them with grid power. Same could be applied for a 2 amp trickle charger, since they're minimal power draw..😉 I actually don't know of any 24 vdc trickle chargers, so a guy would probably have to double up on them.
This was a very good intro to these mil surplus gennys. I bought the 813 (400Hz) version because my house in the Bahamas is off grid solar. I will downconvert the VAC to the correct range and then rectify and filter it and then feed it directly into a high voltage charge controller which is meant to connect to a 200-300VDC solar array. The beauty of these 400Hz models for my application is that the filters are smaller due to the higher frequency. Also, everyone thinks they are boat anchors so I paid $1000 for mine with about 1000 hrs on it, but no physical damage of any kind. Finally, if you import a 60Hz house generator into the Bahamas, expect to pay a whopping 40% duty. But a 400Hz generator is considered aircraft support and thus only 5% duty.
Only 1000$ for such a machine. Nice! New at similar price here, would be a china import 6,5kw diesel generator, but they aren't exactly reliable. Field tested military surplus, that even put out more power, certainly sounds like a wonderful deal!
Clearly one of the most useful videos with probably the most informative comment section I've seen on yt. Congrats to your purchase and thank you for mentioning where you've got the knowledge to do all the electrical and mechanical works. Just awesome.
@@otisphoenix1017 Now I was wondering if you could install some sound deadening on the parts that do not have exhaust holes? It would probably affect cooling somewhat, the question is whether it would be enough to interfere with function/durability.
Yeah when he opened the electrical panel I was amazed at how easy it is to follow. Can almost see and understand how everything works just from looking at it.
from having served in the US ARMY for 24 years. I can say i had very little issues with army generators. especially our 30 and 60k generators. proved to be hard core work horse runners when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think it was a great buy
@@JenkinsStevenD if well maintained the same as any diesel or auto engine and follow the maintenance in the book. this generator should run for a long time
@@JenkinsStevenD ARMY TM 9-6115-642-10. TM stands for technical Manual. You can google this TM. We did what they called PMCS ( Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services in the army. It will have the schematics, engine maintenance as well as all checks before operations. during operations, and after its shut down checks and operations. what you should check for daily, weekly and even semi annually.
Just looking at how easy it was to access everything, it's clear that these are built to be serviced and maintained quickly and efficiently. Even had a valve to release the oil after the drain plug was removed. I didn't want one of these until I watched this video.
I was a vehicle mechanic in the US army, late 80s. I used to work on generators also. Yes generator tech (52d) was a different mos from mine (63b), but I still spent tons of time on generators, especially in the field. The big boys, 15k, 30k,60k were not happy campers running at low electric loads. Especially the 15k units loved to run between 70% -130% of their rated capacity. If you ran them with a tiny load they would sputter, kick in kick out, rpms all over the place. I do believe they called it wet stacking, long time ago.
Yes it’s called wet stacking, that’s why on diesel road vehicles whenever you see a idled diesel rev up it’ll soot out the exhaust for the same reason.
Great video. I went with a tri-fuel 14,500 watt generator. I did my break-in on 93 octane gasoline and when we had Hurricane Beryl in Houston, I still used gasoline. I went to go get gas for day 2 and it was noticeably more difficult to find gas stations that either had power or still had gas. While more people use gasoline for their vehicles and generators, it would probably only take a few more days for diesel to run out if there is a major event and gas stations can't refuel their underground tanks. That's the reason why I went tri-fuel and had a plumber install a quick disconnect T-connection on my gas meter so that I could have "infinite" fuel.
@@slickgod884 Also, the area of the pipe that was removed and replaced with the new segment was AFTER the meter as it was the section of the pipe that was heading into the house.
@@mikethemonsta15 You can have a plumber cut out a piece of the gas line that heads into your home and replace it with a new section of pipe that includes a connection for a hose. The new piece of pipe is then crush-welded to create a seal. Now, if I need to, I just run a gas hose from my generator to the area of the gas meter and connect to the quick connect line and open the valve so I can use the natural gas infrastructure to power my generator and thus power my home.
I was gunna ask if the generator was gunna be part of the MOBILE WORKSTATION THAT IS THE GOOOOOOSEYNECK TRAILER!!! LOL HAHAHAHA EDIT that can plug into the house to power it up when the pwer goes out lol
Part two, part two, part two. I have never connected an electrical wire in my life but I'm hooked on how informative and thorough this dude is. You've got a new subscriber.
I'm also an electrician. Why would you buy this when you can get a 24kw natural gas generator for around $1000 less than what he paid? Unless you don't have a natural gas line to your house obviously.
@@ericeder1693 I assume it is possible to put just about any oil into this engine, such as used cooking oil that has been dried, or used car oil. Whatever you can get for free.
During my teenaged years, my family lived off the grid using pretty much every alternative power source we could to power our house, but mostly operating on a generator. As a result this video feels weirdly nostalgic for me since it is exactly the kind of project my family would have done. I really enjoyed that the level of explanations included in the video are easy to understand.
Aerospace Ground Equipment technician in the Air Force here, we typically use 15w-40 with these and everything else we maintain (located at Ellsworth AFB, where it gets as low as -50 Fahrenheit). Love the video man! 👍
Ellsworth AFB is not in Ellsworth, it’s near Box Elder, South Dakota about 10 miles from Rapid City. It was named after General Richard Ellsworth. Since you mentioned beaches, I’m guessing you’re talking about Ellsworth, Maine. We had an Air Force base here (Loring AFB) near Limestone, but it closed in 1994.
@@bartoszskowronski 0w-40 typically sheers down to a 0w-30 due to the amount of VIs in the oil. Mobil1 is particularly susceptible to that but all 0w-40 oils exhibit this behavior.
Watching this video after seven months of posting and I’m about 22 minutes into the video. So I’m former military comms, 25 series and we use this type of generator very often. If I may offer some advice if you haven’t already done so find the technical manuals or field manuals for this specific generator and it will help you out immensely. I don’t remember the exact number for it, however, you should be able to find the reference numbers on the generator itself or if you go to a website that allows you to search for it. The manuals will also help with all your diagrams, parts, maintenance, and just about anything else that the generator will need.
I also live in NH. I spent $1500 total buying a trifuel (gas, propane, natural gas) 12k watt portable generator , inlet for my house, wiring to my panel. 1100 for the generator (new) and 400 or so for interlock, wiring, and inlet. It uses .5 gallons of automotive gas per hour running my whole house, and it has a 6 gallon tank. No auto start and transfer switch, as that set up is much more costly. In 1.5 years I've only had to use the generator once, so set up isn't needed often.
Waldo, every video, I grow to enjoy you more and more. You're so thorough, straight forward, and to the point with your explanations. It's truly a joy to spend time learning from/with you!
So I normally don't comment on videos of this nature. However I am an electrician and I wanted to say that while I can complain about anything as many of us do I am impressed that you did an amazing Job on this. I saw that you used a proper product through the knockout and the panel while not perfect was at least presentable and looked decent, noticed you labeled things, and you put things in places so many would ignore. over all I tend to quietly give low marks to people. however with that said I say you did a 9.8 out of 10 on this job with the ever minor complaints I would reserve for professional electricians. Even though the conduit did not require securement to the home due to length I would have recommended putting one into the concrete. however this is not a main line into the house from the power drop so I don't take issue with it in any way just personal preference. excellent Job over all and you did not do any of the Home Depot insanity. Thank you so so so much for leaving extra wire omg that was like honestly amazing.
@WaldosWorld definitely rerun the fuel line if it's in the same conduit. Though diesel takes a lot to catch on fire it's defintly not code to run in the same conduit if you already re ran it no worries.
And as a Electrician from Sweden where we follow Europeean standards its interesting to watch US electric installations. We really work different and also the materials differ a lot.
Something that might help with the low load condition is to add a UPS on the otherside of the transfer switch. (The Generator side) So when testing the generator it will immediately go to charging the UPS, even if it is just a top up of the batteries. In a power outage, the generator switch over can take a few seconds, so devices like computers can brown out; and thats worse than a blackout to a power supply. It can actually damage the contactor system of a generator. So you get the benefits of the UPS lowering the load, less contactor pitting, and something for the generator to have a load on at the same time.
I worked in the Shell plant that made that T6, in the blending department. I can say this with absolute confidence, we took making that stuff seriously and its why Shell Rotella is trusted through the whole diesel engine industry. I specifically made turbine oil (generator/turbine lubricants), viscosity modifier, (the stuff that makes the oil work in cold weather and gives it the winter rating) and various other lubes that most people wouldnt know used in industry. This is probably why this video came across my feed. Either way, good stuff and a great video!
I see that when you opened the front cover it doesn't have a field coil fuse modification and capacitor done. It goes up by the voltage regulator. It saves the gen head if it overpowers. Very important to do. Steel Soldiers has all the info you need for that genset as well as a auto start setup.
Electrician here; pleased to see that you're adhering to code, and doing a neat, non-lashup job. Attention to detail saves MANY problems down the road. Next: Battery bank + Inverter. Two reasons: 1) initial switchover on power loss is marginally faster, especially if your generator is cold or the outage is a short one, and 2) (more important) You can load up your generator recharging the bank, and prevent carbon depositing in the cylinders - Need to periodically run a generator under heavy load to keep it clean. Downside of a bank + inverter is more cost and more maintenance. If you're NOT getting a bank, consider getting a dummy load that can artificially load up the generator.
Let me extend the topic. With a decent inverter system you can hook up a 400Hz generator (probably cheap because less people buy them?) and potentially some solar. Since owning a generator means you don't need a giant battery you can get some LFPs or even repurpose a used EV battery or some of its surviving sections like I did. Just don't forget to hook up an active cell balancer to avoid rapid unscheduled lithium fireworks.
Adding a battery system along with your generator will make the transition instantaneous in the event of power loss. A lithium ion system should have no required maintenance. I have a diesel generator at one of my houses, and a natural gas unit at another. At the home where my family actually lives, I have no generator, but 42 kWh of battery power. Even that has proven to be overkill, as I have yet to experience a power outage longer than 15 minutes. In the case of a diesel generator, diesel engines don't really like to supply a lot of power when they are cold. You can dramatically extend the engine lifetime by giving it as little as 2 minutes to warm up. A battery system makes this very easy to accomplish. Another thing when pairing a battery system with diesel, is that it enables you to most efficiently utilize the diesel. Diesel engines run most efficiently under high load, which means 80-90%. At these levels, they will burn the least fuel per amount of electricity generated, and they will keep cylinder temperatures high enough to burn off any carbon deposition. You could even cycle the diesel generator on and off, as I do. Diesel doesn't start until battery is 30% or below, and Diesel shuts down at 90% battery, if one hour average power demand is below 2000 watts, and at full charge if below 6000 watts. Generator output is 9 kW and battery system maximum output is 16 kW. This way, we avoid short cycling the diesel engine, running for at least 4 hours at a time, but not drawing any power during warm up, as well as maximizing fuel efficiency and maintaining engine cleanliness.
You might want to look at adding a basic batter backup system/UPS. They can cutover faster than a generator and can handle things over a short power outage. Many of them have an option to turn on your generator when the battery power gets low to recharge them. They can also turn the generator off when the batteries are fully charged as well. This would allow you to use less fuel overall. PS looking forward to part 2.
One drawback to diesel is that microbial growth likes occur in the bottom of the tank at the fuel-water interface. A sludge clogs fuel filters and creates starting and running problems, not to mention a smell. This is not as much of a problem for over-the-road trucks where the fuel is constantly being used and replaced with fresh fuel and the condensation water is frequently being drained, but the generator is mostly just going to sit there.
The AUX fuel port is next to the primary fuel tank filler, there's a threaded cap on it and should be labeled. The Start/Run switch also has a AUX position for running off an Auxilliary tank. The fuel system should make the switch between fuel sources automatically depending on the Run switch position. We have several of these gen units where I work and we set them up with a 100 gal. aux tank. We use the aux as the primary and save the 7-10 internal tank as an emergency backup if the 100 gal. tank runs dry. They'll run for about 4 days straight on 100 gal. at 25-35% load.
Great to see the many days of power, but the generator will use fuel fairly rapidly even while idling just to supply power to your hallway light. A battery backup paired with the generator would allow it to run very efficiently when you need power, and let the generator shut off completely during low power demand times.
@@jsbrads1 A deep cycle agm marine battery for $120 but those are 12 volt.. I think he'd have to change the lights to 12v like a camper. idk other ways to get to 120 volts efficiently throughout the night without linking 10 of them together for $1200 or if that's safe to do lol. Could just go without power overnight at that point
@@jlofi000 inverters exist for this purpose, but you'd need a battery with enough current throughput to supply the loads temporarily while the diesel kicks back on to take over.
@@james2042 yes idk if it's efficient to run a high wattage inverter all night tho especially with one small battery. I'm imagining a fridge which can range 300 to 800 watts, high startup amp draw, 5 amps while running, 120V, that's pretty decent juice for a single battery to put out. At 1000W it seems you sort of decrease your battery capacity by 16.5% using an inverter. Inverting means efficiency of about 85% so your fridge overnight would use 115% the normal draw in addition to whatever else drawing, plus per search 10 to 20 watts idle use per 1000W inverted (1.5% assuming 15W). "A 1000W inverter connected to a 100Ah battery with a nominal voltage of 12V can deplete the battery in around 60 hours due to idle power consumption." 100 Ah in 2.5 days just from the inverter being powered. I guess the question is avoiding the inverter with 10x 100Ah batteries for $1200 to run at 100% efficiency with 1000Ah at 120V in series, vs at 83.5% efficiency with an inverter you're at 120V so maybe you don't need as many? I forget the formulas to figure. Seems it may depend how much juice overnight. You'd need 11.97 batteries to get 1000 Ah
I enjoyed watching this video very much. You see, I was a Power Generation Equipment Repairer in the U.S. Army for over 10 years and trained on these. These were called "TQG's" (tactical quiet generators). I would prefer the 10KW (4 cyl eng.) sets over the 5KW (2 cylinder eng.) because of the capacity... let's face it, 10,000 vs. 5000 watts, and it ran smoother than the 5KW. Both sets were tactically quiet and fairly reliable. Another thing we did to make it easier on the ears is surrounding the set with sandbags with a couple of open spots and an overhead cover. I was giggling a little when u had no output AC voltage when you measured between the load terminals and immediately said "close the AC circuit switch"... 😂 Great video. 👍🏽
I specifically bought the 5kw version (MEP802a) to avoid the wet stacking concern others have brought up. We had a severe ice storm in 2021 and I ran the household off the genset for 10days, half of which were sub-zero ambient temps. In practice I found our power consumption was even lower than I'd expected, I was usually around 20% rated load during the day. The fuel consumption of the 802a was also considerably lower. At under 25% load I was using 7-8gal of diesel per day. Great little units!
I have 6 years working on MEPS units in the Marine Corps, back in the 1980s. MOS 1142. It is really a pleasure to see a MEPS again (even in video). The fun we had sabotaging units and watching the newbies troubleshoot them. Good ole days.
Diesel fuel has one drawback - it can get a fungus growth in it that lines the tank and can clog the fuel filters, lines and injectors. This happened on my farm utility tractor, and took a lot of effort to get rid of. The engine would run for a bit, then stall out. Drained and cleaned the fuel tank, cleaned all fittings that the fuel went through, replacing the hoses and lines was easier than cleaning, and of course, the pumps and injectors. Ran like a charm after.
Paulmoffattat9306: He can program the software to run the generator once a week for an hour, under load, that's how the generator at my fire station worked. It would also do an extensive diagnostic and leave a report for the technician. I know that Waldo can definitely do that!
@@Refertech101 biocide treats diesel for everything algae, bacteria, yeast, moulds and fungi for example Penrite Biocide Fuel Treatment. I've left diesel in Jerry cans for up to 2 yrs with Biocide and it as need had any sign of growth in it. Do the research.
I bought one 10 years ago because I live in a remote area, and we often have power issues, it has a perkins diesel engine and a 550V 100Amp 3 phases with a 200Amp 120V / 220V transformer. I added another transformer for my neighbours house ( he paid for the transformer but I did the job ) I needed it a few times a year so far as we have electric pumps for our wells. We don't have electric heating, but water is essential as well as our freezer. It's a very reliable engine, old, but reliable. It's maybe a bit too big for our use but it's better to have more than not enough. I always made sure it doesn't run at less than 30% because it's not very good for the engine as it becomes coke up. A run at full power is required. Sorry for the bad English, it's not my language.
You know you're working above your pay grade when you keep discovering neat tricks like "oh, there's a pull string to cut the outer insulation" and "there's an interrupter switch for the power output". There's no shame in learning these things about industrial scale installations, and mad props for showing both the "doing it wrong" and the "oh, there's an obvious thing right there" shots in the video. There's a reason most people would have an installer or operator do this kind of thing, but you're an expert in most of the stuff.
Our worksite has a 25kva Shinwa Japanese gen running 24/7 for now nearly 3 years. They leave it running with no load most of the time. Diesel gens are the best. You got an amazing deal, even if it's been run for years, they keep on trucking. NEVER buy a Chinese made one.
As somebody in the military who doesn't work with these machines but has been forced to do a lot of work with these machines, I HATE THEM. Your generator is also the absolute cleanest and newest machine I have ever seen
What if you didn't have one to use at all? I think of all the stuff we provide to our people, and then have they don't give squat to the guys in the Russian military for example. expect them to Supply everything for themselves. EVERYTHING
I bought a 50$ used kerosene moonlighter w cotton wick and a 180$ generator i can lift for1800 watt 120v an 12 volt charge. port at tractor supply and a 20$ new spare carb .didn't have to pour concrete or rent a crane 🎉
Current Seabee construction mechanic. We work on the digital screen 60K AMMPS generators and you troubleshooting the back of that gauge is the perfect way to explain it to my junior mechs. Great watch!
Your Presentation is by FAR, the best I've ever found in terms of Clarity, Organization, Efficiency, Completeness & 'Voice' on RUclips!!!!!! [You are a consummate teacher! (very few really are)] Thank You 👍 👏👏👏
New sub (and Army vet) here. Everyone has gifts, but yours transcends so many differing levels. Thank you for inspiring curiosity, while being entertaining and encouraging.
Thanks for the video, I absolutely love the MEP-803A generators! With the brief glance inside your control box, it appears your unit needs both the "Fuse mod" and the "MOV mod". The Fuse Mod adds a fuse to protects the Quad winding in the generator head and the MOV mod protects the voltage regulator from voltage spikes protecting it from damage. The Metal Oxide Varister (MOV) is essentially a surge protector much like the device in surge protector power strips. Also, it'd probably save you a lot of time to just work with Kurt Klopp who already makes a Wi-Fi and 2-wire start controller for these units to get the features that you're after.
I remember while on temporary duty overseas while in the military, that the generator mechanics/maintainers had one of the best, chill jobs in the Armed Forces…so long as they kept the generators running.
MEP mobile emergency power. I was a power production tech in the service. When a unit is no longer needed or parts are hard to acquire it was one of my task to make units we are retiring be operational at 100% for a short period. In short we did what we could to make the unit operational, however minimal work was performed as as you said the unit is going to salvage.
Very nice and well done project, thanks for sharing. I would install a fuel polishing system with a 3my #500 Racor filter & water separator and an algae x fuel treating device, all on a timer which runs like 3h x week, adding some fuel stabilizers well. Problem with stored modern diesel is that it tends to grow 'diesel bugs', collect condensation water and gum up your tank and fuel system over the years. This way, your fuel stays clean and useful over a very long period of time. Modern fuel is supposed to be recirculated around every 4 weeks to prevent component separation or stratification, due to the methanol and other additives
Maybe so, but from what I've seen of all that they provide to our military, it beats the crap out of most the 'high end' stuff you can buy in the stores for civilian use.
@SykesFW Almost correct; the correct statement is "The Lowest bidder *that can meet the specification."* It's the specification that makes the difference.
i, as a civilian who closest relation to the army is grandparents being conscripted 40 years before i was born, also imagine that for the standart equipment it means it can be fixed in the field
Army vet here. I used to run missile maintenance units. We had 60KW and 45KW diesel generators to power our test equipment. In Germany, we ran them every work day 10 hours a day, and 24/7 in the field. They were insanely reliable as long as they were maintained properly. Loud, but efficient. I think ours were Stewart and Stevenson generators. That was over 30 years ago. I noticed someone wrote down the color of wires to connect to the output. Smart move, since they don't have standard power cables to those generators. Just bare pigtails! Another nice thing about diesel is that the engines are typically far more durable and reliable compared to gasoline engines.
Your little trick running the whole saw bit through the vinyl siding backwards was slick. It reminded me of my apprentice days; how the old dads have real tricks for faster and better outcomes, bravo.
What @brandon2076 said. Make sure that generator is ran hard and dont let it wet stack. I have to load bank those for hours after uses during training from them just running at like 10% load for weeks. That genset has issues with the magnetic shut off solenoid and deadman switches acting up alot. Otherwise they are pretty reliable.
The choice of diesel & a used military generator seems very good to me. It's clearly designed to make servicing easy & accessibility is good. One day you may even want access to three phase for some machine tool & this could potentially provide it. In some European countries three-phase is already available in the home. Sadly Britain isn't one of them 🙁. Where you live a backup power option seems almost essential.
Sadly,😅 I don't get to work on something like this here in Austria, as the power never stops, esp. after the power company buried all outside wires in our village a few years back. Here we get 3phase power at 400 volts coming into the house. Inside, it is split up to single phase 230 volts. I do have a 400 V outlet in the garage for power tools.
Everyone should have a backup power supply, even the bare minimum can make the difference between staying in your home or having to bug out. I live in hurricane country so it's even more important. I personally consider it a necessity rather than a luxury
@@guzziwheelersame in Russia, but not by default. We have to resign contract and pay extra to get 3 phase supply and 15kw instead of 5kw single phase.
Pros and cons of diesel vs propane for back up power. For infrequent use though, propane can be stored for very long times without going bad like diesel.
Reading almost all the comments here reminds me how devilishly complex some of these decisions (fuel, batteries and set up) can be. As an aside I live in a Chicago suburb and back in 2011 I can recall two weekends, two weeks apart when our power was out for over 24 hours at a time. Many in the area installed Generac automatic whole house netl gas units. Due to tough zoning requirements one of my neighbors and I backed off putting one in. Fast forward a few years (around 2015/16) ComEd installed smart meters and did other supply system upgrades and we haven't had a major outage (greater than 1 hr) since. I'm reminded of this every Saturday when my other neighbors generator fires up for 15 min to get its weekly exercise. That said there are costs to living out in the sticks and power reliability is one of them. Love the channel!!!
Earned a sub for truck stop lemonade 😂 This generator should be run under hard load once a month for a couple hours - owner of a large solar/generator installation biz
Most diesel generators and high-end gas generators usually run at 1800 RPM instead of the typical less expensive gas, NG or propane generators that run at 3600 RPM. Much quieter and less maintenance than the 3600 RPM units.
Hi Waldo, I would love to see you become a full-time RUclipsr. I think you would be surprised just how fast you would become a huge success. Everything you do is right on point. I learn so much from your videos. Keep up the great work.
I used to work on these generators when i was in the service (USMC 1142). Man, watching this video brought back so many memories. Especially when i deployed to Iraq in 05. These generators will run all the time just take care of it and it will take care of you.
French guy here (watching your vids from the south of France), leaving his first comment on your channel, which I've subscribed to probably 2 or 3 years ago. I really enjoy your content. You've got a lot of skills, which is impressive, and you always come up with great projects that are delightful to follow up on. And I love the way you explain things, in a thourough manner. I can't wait for part 2 to come out, which I'm sure is gonna be epic! Keep it up dude, you're really good!
I was a 63 b in the army and my suggestion is get the same wattage generator but they come with trailers that also have a cooling system for the sumer. We used them on our tents
Really love watching your content. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to find ideas, plan the videos, actually do the work while filming, then edit and publish. So no complaints about the time involved. Also gotta love NH, where if you have the knowledge, you can do the work yourself whether it’s plumbing, electrical or structural.
I was a 16th CES Power Production Air Force Senior Airman... I worked on this EXACT generator when I was stationed at Hurlburt Field AFB... which is in Ft Walton Beach FL. I am speechless... I didn't think i would ever see this generator ever again. You are correct... we used a 3 phase system... we always had to check phase rotation as well. Just brings back all those days of oil changes... cleaning... rebuilds... and more. JUST WOW! Can you track its history? Please tell me you can track its history? Are the log books still in the generator?
I might be old-school Army and I might be 20 years your senior, but I learned things watching your video and I look forward to the next one. I was in the Army for many years and seeing that generator brought me way back! Thanks for the journey! Also, I can't WAIT for PART 2 to come out! I just bought a 13000Peak/10500Running gasoline genny on Amazon for power outages here in TN. We've been hit by a few tornados and other adverse weather in the past few years but my gennies were never big enough to run my whole house. With this one, I can run everything, including the HVAC system as long as I don't run the Oven, Dryer and Microwave all at the same time (LOL). Thanks and keep them coming!
Hey Waldo, that diesel generator was a good investment! You may want to consider antigel additives in your diesel tank to prevent issues in colder weather! Looking forward to part 2!
And treat the fuel with some marvels mystery oil...that stuff is amazing for fuels both lubrication and stabilization for up to 2 years (and with the low sulfur junk now a days, it adds much needed pump/injector lubrication back to the fuel)
And a shot of biocide with the antigen. You don't need anything growing in the fuel tank or the storage tank. My car uses either Stanadyne performance formula or Power service white during the winter months.
Along these lines, think about cleaning your diesel fuel tank. With those low hours and age that thing must have been sitting around for years. I took an air conditioning brush set to an old JD tractor and flushed the tank with kerosene. The slime I dislodged was amazing….
@@K1NGA-EM74 Some of it was, but something like this, as people have said, is prone to important issues. It's part of why military surplus is, well, put into military surplus. If the military can actually use it still, they will. I personally wouldn't buy one of these, nor any diesel generator, unless I lived in a remote area. If I need a generator here on the west coast, it's due to a power outage, which is almost always heat related. You know what has never gone out during a power outage? Water and natural gas. So I wouldn't mind the price of running a natural gas generator to keep my food edible and my AC running. Diesel makes more sense for those situations where you need an engine that can basically run on mud*. Even during the worst power outages, it took days for cell service to start having issues, and generally internet will still work if you have some sort of power backup, at least for about half a day to several, depending on the infrastructure. *yes I know you literally can't power a diesel motor with mud, but that's really the only reason to run a diesel motor outside of a few scenarios, since it's capable of basically running on any fuel at such a wide range of compression, unlike basically any other motor.
@@metaleggman18 if the military can still use it, they scrap it after the designated life cycle and buy new stuff. Those are the facts and those are the regulations. Non-negotiable. No. They don’t use it past it’s use date. Far shorter than you may think. The truth is I don’t care much about the generator topic even though I’ve been outfitting data centers for two decades as a job. My comment was not about generators. It was about military equipment reliability within a certain time frame. I would put a 40 year old armed forces diesel generator against some brands bought yesterday with the beat warranties available… because they aren’t worth it. Military equipment in the 70’s and 80’s stilling running today, today’s engineers requesting the gear by nomenclature and limitless funded criminal enterprises using the foundational reliable gear is testament to its quality. Criminals don’t make money on contracts with infrastructure vendors. They use what works.
@@metaleggman18 military equipment is not used past its life cycle date. It is against regulations and sold or destroyed surplus even if it is brand new. Due to this standard, infrastructure military contracts are written so corporate vendors can get fat rich, unfortunately. I have been powering data centers for over two decades. I would rather have a well maintained diesel generator from 1983 before I would buy some new brands with their worthless warranty.
In NC and Virginia an aux genset MUST have its own ground rod installed to meet code. Inside the front hatch there is a rod provided for remote use in a canvas pouch. That one screws together and is not adequate. The Beede brand coolant temp gauge is the most common failure. Some units have VDO gauges, and they are more reliable. I have 4 of these, and have replaced the temp gauge in all of them. Second most common issue is the shut off solenoid. Expensive. Replace with a manual Bowden cable to actuate the shut off lever. I advise you set the unit on 4 compressor isolation pads, as that thing will dance off of the slab during start up and shut down. My 402A behind my house also doesn’t rattle the foundation when under load with isolater pads under it. These things are really amazing, and deliver super clean and stable current.
I am happy you figured out the AC interrupt switch and didn't get deep into tearing it apart 😅. We ran these style gennys for thousands of hours in field ops. Got a brand new 15k full LCD screen controls with the ability to self diagnose its own problems and send alerts to the screen for routine maintenance. We put somewhere around 120 hours a week on it for a month straight 😂😂.
Former 15W here (UAS Operator). We used those exact generators (mounted on trailers) for the Operator Shelters as well as the Datalink Transceivers. When I saw him meter the power output and get 0 my first thought was "INTERRUPT SWITCH! Hit the switch!" XD
Hey Waldo, former electrician here. I know you already ran your conduit, but you may want to consider redoing that run (if it's not to late) to add in some expansion couplings/fittings on each end above grade. They allow for ground movement without breaking the Schedule 40. Check out NEC 2023 Section 352 (specifically 352.44(B)) for the code requirements.
@@ctrlaltdebug I'm pretty sure you could run LFMC in this use case, see NEC 350 for code requirements when using LFMC. That being said, it would be a much higher cost overall, and it may be difficult to find the correct size for the use case.
I just got interested in military auction generators and this was the first video i found. Wow. Your delivery of the info was awesome. I will be watching part 2 for sure.
What a great price! I got mine (30k) from a military surplus auction around 17 years ago and I think I paid almost 6k…. Mine is still on a manual transfer switch, as I converted to Solar/Wind/Battery (I live in a windy, rural part of Arizona) and went completely off-grid about 12 years ago. I’ve only had to used it a few dozen times over the years, mostly to charge my batteries when I’ve used my shop tools (Welders, plasma cutters, powder coating ovens, Air compressors, CNC Machine, etc.) to excessive amounts. I keep track of when I use it, and when it’s been more than 30 days, I disconnect my charge controller from my battery bank at around 10 AM, letting my battery bank run down (This is also good for my batteries, letting me check the health of each one.) then, once my battery state gets to about 15%, I start my generator up. Thing of beauty! Make sure you rotate out your fuel. I have two 500 gallon tanks, and I rotate them, using one to fuel my truck, while using my Auxiliary (90 gallon, with transfer pump) tank in my truck to refill the tank I just emptied. That way, the LEAST amount I have on hand is always at least 590 gallons. I’m interested in seeing how you automate the thing! You got a new subscriber in me!
Seeing the rest of your comments would probably put mine to shame: no army background, no extended electrical engineering knowledge, just a good ol' regular viewer from Europe over here. I love 'home improvement' installation videos like these, it allows me to live vicariously through those videos and enjoy things I am unable to do myself. While I generally tend to not go through the whole video, let alone comment on one, yours was an exception and definitely stroke my curiosity. It has a sort of DIY but very professional kind of vibe, if that even makes sense. You've earned yourself a new sub and genuinely looking forward to part 2!
I was an Army generator mechanic too and had the privilege of working with Rick Tavares when I was at Ft. Bragg. Rick is a civilian contractor who worked with Fermont when they were developing these generators and Rick is a brilliant man. To reinforce what the other generator mechanic said, these generators were designed to run with a minimum of 80% load hence the need for a load bank which is a dummy load so the motor won’t wet stack. I had a 5 kw come in my shop that was so stopped up it wouldn’t stay running and when it did finally run, it took all day running at 100% load to blow all the soot and carbon out. This cleaning put usually takes 2-3 hours but this one was the worst I’d ever seen. Find you a load bank or your engine will eventually just quit from being stopped up with soot and carbon and then it’s engine replacement time= lots of $$$$.
This video popped up in my feed and I'm going to enjoy watching MANY of your videos! It is easy to follow and you are very good at explaining what you do and how it should be done! I love when there is a lot of technical information! I'm following your channel now and into the future! Hello from Norway!
Just a note, as I haven’t seen it mentioned. Use off-road diesel from a reputable source for your generator. It’ll save you some money and is the exact same diesel as road diesel, but has dye added. Also, when you build your transfer switch set up, be sure to have the ability schedule an exercise for your generator, basically, run your generator once a month, until it reaches operating temperature, to maintain batteries, line the engine and cycle the cooling system. You may also want to run a diesel additive like Stanadyne or Howe’s for extra protection, just follow dosing instructions
14:19 this is the most important safety tip. Some good friends of ours house burned down, they were using a new commercial generator that name starts with a G
You can pull single phase from a 3 phase panel. The load still needs to be spread evenly across the three phases for the generator to operate properly. 400htz generator is for aircraft only. This is cool!! Thank you for sharing
Brazilian here: you have two things that I wanna reach out sometime. 1. This equipament. I'm building a ranch during my plans for alternative power sources I was thiking in, almos, the exactly the same structure that you shown. 2. Your audience, with such good comments and tips you can improve anything you show here. Thanks for the video and good luck.
Being more "electro" orientated, I'd look at an inverter to run 10 - 20% of your load then control the generator to come on at 75+% power only as needed. An inverter will support your house in case of a power cut with an almost instant pick up, and an inverter is silent to support your house overnight when you and the neighbours want to sleep. Also no generator runs well and efficiently at long term low power so having a generator to cover that is a great idea.
You could go the solar inverter route and also install a small battery pack, so you don't have to run the generator, other than to recharge the batteries.
I was a generator tech in the USMC, and that is the exact one I would have for my house. Great choice. The thing will run forever with good maintenance!
Generator tech here, if possible you should avoid running your diesel generator under low loads for extended periods, this can lead to something called "wet stacking". A diesel engine needs to run under load in order to burn clean, under no load conditions you'll coke up the engine and shorten it's life. Simply put, you'll want to run your generator at a minumum 25% load whenever possible, and every so often you'll want to run it up to 100% for a few hours to burn off carbon and spooge buildup as well as verify function at rated capacity.
I second this, exactly the same thing is stated in my RV manual for the generator.
So... you need to blow its load to clear the splooge?
run your oven stove and dryer if its electric to give it a good jog
Wonder how much battery capacity you would need to use as a buffer for this
At least bump the fast idle up.
Former 91D (Power Generator Mechanic) for 8 yrs here 👋! The MEP models had common issues with wet stacking. Please run around a 80% load for around 30mins-1hr at your yearly service date. If taken care of & treated right which you are, the gen will take care of you. I've worked on every generator the US Army had to offer and also was a military contractor who would reset these generators on a daily basis. Your gen should have came with a TM (technical manual) so please refer to it for your services. If you have any questions or need some advice please feel free to reach out to me. Congrats on your purchase!
Is it no longer 52D?
@delmar2169 Unfortunately, not anymore. I believe they went away with the old identifier a while back before I joined in 2010. Too many revisions and years later I forget what MOS ended up being phased out but I know the Power Generation Equipment Repairer is still going strong.
Can you attest to the reliability of the 30k 3 phase models?
@randomguy1371 very much can attest to them! The MEP805A & B 30k gens were and still are amazing machines. If you can afford to wing it, take a look at the AMMPS model variants as they can account for lower loads to prevent wet stacking and possibly saving your engine. The AMMPS models have been out now for a few years so I'm sure you'd be able to find a 30k for a steal.
@@iBasurka671 Absolute LEGEND! - Your willingness to share, contribute, and help others is something we need more of in this world.. I salute you 🫡
I hope that the Army mechanic who took such excellent care of this beauty sees this and feels good about it! Thanks.
hahahah
This looks like a USMC paint scheme and I think it actually says USMC in black paint on one of the panels
We didn’t I promise
Military mechanics don't take their jobs very seriously 😅
@@GoProXadventuresabout half of the TQG’s we work on have this paint scheme. (Army generator mechanic) but it very well might be marine corps. I didn’t pay attention to the USMC label
I live in TX and recently bought 1k gallon propane tank (the max size) for my new barndo build. It was $5,800. The reason I got the big one was for my generator. The reason I went with propane is not for price but for fuel storage as well. I didn't want to worry about fuel spoilage.
Good move, A friend went overboard and buried 5 of them. But propane will almost last forever! I went solar with a gas back up that I use when camping too. But solar is a LOT more expensive. I can run 2 days with AC and no energy conservation with 2 tesla battery packs. Diesel and Gas does not last more than a couple of years even with extenders.
Yes, I have a propane whole house generator. You never worry about bad fuel with propane. The local propane supplier is about 400 hundred yards away. I think I will be fine during one of our freezing rain events.
the 400 hertz are for radar systems, namely the SQS-36 Firefinder and ANTPQ-64 Sentinel. Those 10K generators have Yanmar engines and we would run them 24/7 and only shut them down for every 200 hours for oil changes. We had 2 per radar and would switch gens every 200 hours. Each generator would have 4000+ hours on them at the end of a deployment and they would go directly to Toby Hanna Army depot to get rebuilt or what we called a reset. I know those systems like the back of my hand and would by a surplus one in a heart beat.The internal tank is only good for about 8 hours of run time but you can run a line for an external tank.
Tobyhanna has a first class generator shop. Everything reset there is quality.👍
400hz is also for PATRIOT systems/radar, along with other various 400Hz applications. The reason for the 400Hz (3 phase, 4 wire 220/108) is the power supplies within the powered equipment. If they wanted to strictly use 60hz the power supplies would be the size of a small car lol.
Can confirm
Man you reminded me of my deployment. Two MEP 803's powering some radio equipment, swapping them out with a load transfer switch whenever one was too low on fuel, because the fuel truck only came around every 12 hours and those gens were burning through their internal tanks in about 8. Though when I arrived they already had over almost 8k hours on them and they liked to shut down for seemingly no reason. By the time we finally got replacements, both were pushing 9500 hours.
i assume a chopper like in a modern switch mode psu would be big.@@shaun9156
I work on these exact generators all the time. The water separator fuel filter you changed at 13 minutes, well, it's a good idea to leave that water drain on there. Especially when filling with jerry cans. If you don't regularly bleed the water out of that filter the ice will blow the bottom of the filter off.
If you're interested in some house-bound upgrades, a battery tender, battery blankets and block heater could help in the winter months. If you anticipate running it for a long time (greater than 12hrs straight) you can plumb a 40gal drum of fuel into the aux fuel inlet.
Common failure points on these generators are the fuel return line up top, which tends to get porous, batteries, the water separator, as mentioned, and occasionally the fuel shutoff solenoid.
If you're interested in service manuals / parts diagrams let me know. Enjoy!
he lies those are the worse quality batteries you can buy.🤣🤣🤣
Hell yeah give my man those TMs and TIs!
Wow, nice comment. Sometimes I love the internet lol. This is what it should be for, quality comments like this
Can they be converted to NG or run reliably on used oils that have been properly processed?
@@MustPassTruck These generators are powered by Detroit diesels, normally they run on JP-8 multipurpose fuel.
I cannot believe how many experienced, knowledgeable people of a technical background have collected in this comment section, it is joyful to read people share their knowledge and good advice with reasoning!!
Birds of a feather- through the RUclips algorithm- will flock together.
In this case, all of the engineers were brought together, because all these guys saw an industrial military grade generator, and it being installed to a normal home.
That's like a video for new gaming tech, coming across the algorithm for teens.
90% of these people have never touched a military grade multi-fuel generator let alone any other type of military grade equipment. Military generators don't always need a load put on them to run. we've literally used generators to power up a coffee maker and a toaster that don't even put a load on it.
No... We are all dumb LOL Nobody here but us chickens. cluck cluck cluck ha ha
@thomaswakefield6889 The military has a basically unlimited budget unlike a normal person. Military can afford to replace these constantly.
yes. its easily the best thing about youtube
Just a suggestion, and I may be wrong, but instead of buying road diesel shouldn't you be getting farm diesel or even home heating oil delivered directly to your home? They will gladly fill your 275 gallon tank so long as you have an external fill. That should be cheaper.
He said in a previous video that road diesel is cheaper for him than home heating oil, not sure if that’s changed since then tho
I believe it was when he built a fuel transfer tank for his duramax pickup
@@woahhobble_ Farm diesel is not home heating oil.
@@coryeadamsfor sure. You can run #2, kerosene, and diesel in a furnace with no issues, but I wouldn't try running #2 or pure kerosene in an engine.
farm diesel is only slightly cheaper now a days it’s just the tax that’s the difference it used to be more but now it’s just a few cents cheaper now.
I could see it work well but it depends on conditions because Cold areas might gel up very simple and we bought two propane generators because we have lots of it but they can leak but they can easily have a long shelf life of propane and if there's a tank near the house win win
I have no need for a military surplus diesel generator, but this sure was a lot of fun to watch.
amen brother
But I want one now!!! 😂
You have no need for it... yet =)
It's like insurance, it costs money but you'll be glad you had it when your dog trips you while climbing some stairs.
@CoLiC2 excatly.. I live in flordia.. the last hurricane down here had me without power for 8 days.. for the price point of that generator I'm installing one lol
You don't have a need for a military surplus generator YET. * insert simpson's meme here *
Waldo, A suggestion from an old electrician is to make a habit of making connections - grounding conductors (green or bare copper ground wire) first, grounded conductor ( white neutral) second and ungrounded conductor (colored hot) last. Just a simple way to create safety routes before the final connection. Remember all connections are considered energized until proven unenergized. Good habits keep us alive. Thanks for the videos.
I work live sound and was taught the same thing for 400A cam lock power. Green is always first in and last out even if the switch is flipped.
@@EvildandaloJust about to say this exact same thing! Lmao Also, lick it to see if it’s live.
That is a pretty good practice. I used to work as an avionics mechanic on the UH60
I’m not an electrician (yet) but for electrical in my home i do that practice without even having to think about it, it’s always good to do
Anyone who makes power connections should know and follow these basic guidelines. When I'm training someone, I like to watch them make the connections on their own the first time (on a non-energized panel, of course) to see if they have the innate logic to do it properly. They are the ones I trust most.
Cummins PG tech here. It would be a good idea to have a battery charger and block heater if you intend to use it during winter. Battery heater wouldn’t hurt either
I believe he's gonna do at least the charger hence 20a outlet
retired gen tech here.... he also needs to engineer some mouse proofing if that is going to sit on the ground year round.
Peppermint candy and spray they hate the smell of it just put the candy and buy the spray and good to go do it every year !!
If memory serves, those systems are already in place on these units.
@@rickybailey7123 I installed gen sets for near 25 years. Proper mouse proofing only needs to be done once!
Great video and great feedback regarding wet stacking. Strongly suggest dosing diesel with biocide as a prophylactic measure. Civilian diesel has so little sulfur that bacteria commonly infects long-term stored fuel. Also, air and water vapor start a long-term chain reaction to acid and waxy film the military probably doesn't see due to fuel turn over. Anything stored in smaller tanks a year or more will definitely see this change, unless tank is nearly topped, or evacuated of air and water vapor.
Diesel economy will also go a lot further with a UPS/Hi-Cap Deep Cycle battery backup system in tandem. The diesel will run fully loaded until the batteries are at maximum charge, then it can be off-cycled until the batteries run down to say 30% and then re-started at full load until the cycle repeats. Plus, running a diesel at full loads is much better on the engine than partial or no load run time.
Combine that with solar panels and you might get even more days out of it as well.
I really liked all you did. Just one little note - the cable going to generator. I would give it a "drip loop". You ran it direct from box to generator. I would run it about 5 inches below opening in generator side and then back up. So both rainwater and condensation would drip off from lowest point. GL, HF. Just an engineer/IT from Estonia.
Yes. Water will run into your connections if left that way.
I worked on many of these 10K-TQG (Tactical Quiet Generator) generators during my 20 years in the Army. I definitely agree with the previous commenters about wet stacking. If these ran at low load for too long, oil would start spraying out of the exhaust. We occasionally used a load bank, basically a large resistive heater, to run them at a higher load to prevent the wet stacking.
I maintain these as a Military technician. Wet stacking is a problem. I agree wasteofmatter.
Otherwise known as Diesel Glazing.
Injectors will coat up and she'll no longer burn right turning it into a smoke generator. Also a major fire hazard, seen several generators burn after being idling for too long without a load bank.
I may look into getting one of these load banks. Or at least now I know to run the generator with the oven and a bunch of other electronics on. Thanks for the comment!
@@WaldosWorld yup! As long as you have a load while generator is on, you are ok! You put almost the max load the generator can take and run it monthly. Just need to run it for 30-60 min monthly/ quarterly would be my recommendation. Also, when not in use, disconnect one or both terminals. Cold weather, could just simply remove the battery.
Another option is to run a couple of high output space heaters, keeps the place cozy. Also handy to have in the event of a prolonged outage if your furnace decides to croak or fuel is cut off.
21:26 "I feel a little but dumb for not reading the manual on that" bro says after showing us how he can identify the internals of a military power generator and accurately read the wiring diagrams. I never consume content like this but this video was so entertaining and informative. You know what youre doing, dude!
Only bone to pick is... I hate 5 feet for both fire reasons and carbon monoxide. If I could... 25 feet. Anyone ever fought a diesel fire understands why: radiant heat is immense.
Former us army here... generators like that kept me warm on many cold nights. When I was deployed, we had a pair of 40k generators that took 20 gallons of JP8 every 12 hours. They were massive. But generally these 3k, 10k and 15k generators were the ones I loved. 3k was nice because it had some handles that 2 strong soldiers could carry it by.
Thank you for your service!!
warm on many cold nights and days, and cool on many hot nights and days haha. i think i remember using the 5k and 10k the most. we couldn't carry them, but one person could drag them around the motorpool. i was constantly worried that my humvees would fail, but i have good memories and a good feeling about these old generators.
I love how the 3kw gens were "4 man lift" but we all just 2 manned it lol
@@NDHat was a 3kw small enough to not be mounted on a trailer?
Back in '90-'94 I was working at a wooden packaging manufacturer. A local motor/generator shop got a contract to make military generators as there was a need for them given increased deployment overseas. The shop I was at made wooden skids for the motor shop, so our business in massive skids, and crates to fit, increased dramatically.
I'll allow one guess as to who got to hump those big-assed, 7" X 10", timbers around. The runners and end crosspieces got bolted together with 1" bolts and the "thin" deck boards were nailed on with an air tool that fired 6" spikes into the oak runners. Damn that was hard work!...But it gave me a good feeling to contribute, in that small way, to the effort that was being put out by those who had put their lives on the line!
In just my little area of the Wisconsin woods, there were those who were cranking out 30mm rounds for the A-10s that gave you close air support when you needed it, and I think, also 50 Cal...the crews winding rotors for and assembling those huge generators that kept your communications up, and you warm, and cool, when on base...the crew that cut all of the parts for, and that one dude who assembled three-quarters of, the skids that carried those locally-made generators to you!
Many thanks for your military service!! We at home did our level best to keep you supplied...and, just so you know, we thought of you often while we did that work!
Not sure if it has been mentioned or not, but that outlet post next to the generator might be an ideal spot for a small 3-5W solar panel and controller to trickle charge the generator batteries to keep them healthy and topped off.
Great idea
I have been doing this for my tractors batteries in our off season, no more issues with battles flat and they last long in total
He didn't mention it, but I would assume the reason he installed the outlet is to run a battery maintainer.
As far as that's concerned, a lot of newer standby generators have heat mats that go around the batteries for extreme cold weather, and they just run them with grid power. Same could be applied for a 2 amp trickle charger, since they're minimal power draw..😉 I actually don't know of any 24 vdc trickle chargers, so a guy would probably have to double up on them.
and a small little light to provide light at night
This was a very good intro to these mil surplus gennys. I bought the 813 (400Hz) version because my house in the Bahamas is off grid solar. I will downconvert the VAC to the correct range and then rectify and filter it and then feed it directly into a high voltage charge controller which is meant to connect to a 200-300VDC solar array. The beauty of these 400Hz models for my application is that the filters are smaller due to the higher frequency. Also, everyone thinks they are boat anchors so I paid $1000 for mine with about 1000 hrs on it, but no physical damage of any kind. Finally, if you import a 60Hz house generator into the Bahamas, expect to pay a whopping 40% duty. But a 400Hz generator is considered aircraft support and thus only 5% duty.
Epic little fun fact thanks Bahama guy
I'll remember that next house I buy in the Bahamas! Clueless doesn't even begin to describe you.
@@nathan40307They aren't the clueless one here...
@@Studio23Media When did you buy your house in the Bahamas?
Only 1000$ for such a machine. Nice! New at similar price here, would be a china import 6,5kw diesel generator, but they aren't exactly reliable. Field tested military surplus, that even put out more power, certainly sounds like a wonderful deal!
Clearly one of the most useful videos with probably the most informative comment section I've seen on yt. Congrats to your purchase and thank you for mentioning where you've got the knowledge to do all the electrical and mechanical works. Just awesome.
The layout of that thing is really nice! You'd never see a commercial unit designed for such easy access and repair!
All military generators are like this. I operated 3kw,5kw 10 kw and 50kw generators. The thing is they are noisy.
@@otisphoenix1017 Now I was wondering if you could install some sound deadening on the parts that do not have exhaust holes? It would probably affect cooling somewhat, the question is whether it would be enough to interfere with function/durability.
@@kendov288 there are things called noise fences, maybe look into that
Yeah when he opened the electrical panel I was amazed at how easy it is to follow. Can almost see and understand how everything works just from looking at it.
from having served in the US ARMY for 24 years. I can say i had very little issues with army generators. especially our 30 and 60k generators. proved to be hard core work horse runners when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think it was a great buy
How hard are they to perform maintenance and is there supporting documentation?
@@JenkinsStevenD if well maintained the same as any diesel or auto engine and follow the maintenance in the book. this generator should run for a long time
@@Bobo-ox7fj😂😂😂
@@JenkinsStevenD ARMY TM 9-6115-642-10. TM stands for technical Manual. You can google this TM. We did what they called PMCS ( Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services in the army. It will have the schematics, engine maintenance as well as all checks before operations. during operations, and after its shut down checks and operations. what you should check for daily, weekly and even semi annually.
Just looking at how easy it was to access everything, it's clear that these are built to be serviced and maintained quickly and efficiently. Even had a valve to release the oil after the drain plug was removed. I didn't want one of these until I watched this video.
I was a vehicle mechanic in the US army, late 80s. I used to work on generators also. Yes generator tech (52d) was a different mos from mine (63b), but I still spent tons of time on generators, especially in the field. The big boys, 15k, 30k,60k were not happy campers running at low electric loads. Especially the 15k units loved to run between 70% -130% of their rated capacity. If you ran them with a tiny load they would sputter, kick in kick out, rpms all over the place. I do believe they called it wet stacking, long time ago.
Yes it’s called wet stacking, that’s why on diesel road vehicles whenever you see a idled diesel rev up it’ll soot out the exhaust for the same reason.
Bullsshit
I worked on the 15k in Afghanistan. I load-banked mine once a month.
I think if it was me just buy a Kolher propane generator don't have these problems. 26kw start at $6500 new MSRP.
God i love old 2 stroke detroits. They have their flaws, but grand pappy knew how to party, what lovely un needy engines they were.
Great video. I went with a tri-fuel 14,500 watt generator. I did my break-in on 93 octane gasoline and when we had Hurricane Beryl in Houston, I still used gasoline. I went to go get gas for day 2 and it was noticeably more difficult to find gas stations that either had power or still had gas. While more people use gasoline for their vehicles and generators, it would probably only take a few more days for diesel to run out if there is a major event and gas stations can't refuel their underground tanks. That's the reason why I went tri-fuel and had a plumber install a quick disconnect T-connection on my gas meter so that I could have "infinite" fuel.
Can you explain the last sentence?
@@mikethemonsta15Illegal tapping of natural gas before the meter so he doesn’t get charged
@@slickgod884 I had a licensed Texas plumber install the natural gas T-connection which does not require a permit.
@@slickgod884 Also, the area of the pipe that was removed and replaced with the new segment was AFTER the meter as it was the section of the pipe that was heading into the house.
@@mikethemonsta15 You can have a plumber cut out a piece of the gas line that heads into your home and replace it with a new section of pipe that includes a connection for a hose. The new piece of pipe is then crush-welded to create a seal. Now, if I need to, I just run a gas hose from my generator to the area of the gas meter and connect to the quick connect line and open the valve so I can use the natural gas infrastructure to power my generator and thus power my home.
Man look at that gooseneck trailer just waiting to get finished
You mean his outdoor workbench?
I was gunna ask if the generator was gunna be part of the MOBILE WORKSTATION THAT IS THE GOOOOOOSEYNECK TRAILER!!! LOL HAHAHAHA
EDIT
that can plug into the house to power it up when the pwer goes out lol
He's not a kid. He's a smart adult. He's square, you cannot dribble him.
I was promised galvanizing. :(
Look at the surface rust on the trailer.....well thats a video in itself
Part two, part two, part two. I have never connected an electrical wire in my life but I'm hooked on how informative and thorough this dude is. You've got a new subscriber.
you probably did cause how else would you charge your phone??????? smh
@@rabbitdrink He charges it in his car on the self-charge pad... no wires needed ;)
@@Traumatree tbh same, charge ports wear out too fast nowadays
Wen Part 2??
Leaving us hanging!
I'm most looking forward to it. =)
As a licensed electrician i can appreciate this video i install generacs all the time this alternative is awesome
Yeah, i still never got a lic but i did get my _trade school certification_ 😂... and i agree. Dude did a decent job.
u us guys not sleeve your earth? :/
I'm also an electrician. Why would you buy this when you can get a 24kw natural gas generator for around $1000 less than what he paid? Unless you don't have a natural gas line to your house obviously.
@@ericeder1693 I guess he just wanted a military grade generator. This one was typically well maintained it seems.
@@ericeder1693 I assume it is possible to put just about any oil into this engine, such as used cooking oil that has been dried, or used car oil. Whatever you can get for free.
During my teenaged years, my family lived off the grid using pretty much every alternative power source we could to power our house, but mostly operating on a generator. As a result this video feels weirdly nostalgic for me since it is exactly the kind of project my family would have done. I really enjoyed that the level of explanations included in the video are easy to understand.
Generator $3,600. Know-how to repair and install-->$$$$$$$$. I know nothing but this looks amazing!
Aerospace Ground Equipment technician in the Air Force here, we typically use 15w-40 with these and everything else we maintain (located at Ellsworth AFB, where it gets as low as -50 Fahrenheit). Love the video man! 👍
This winter has been crazy. I hear a lot of the beaches have been destroyed! I didn't know Ellsworth had an AFB! Only about an hour from there too
Ellsworth AFB is not in Ellsworth, it’s near Box Elder, South Dakota about 10 miles from Rapid City. It was named after General Richard Ellsworth. Since you mentioned beaches, I’m guessing you’re talking about Ellsworth, Maine. We had an Air Force base here (Loring AFB) near Limestone, but it closed in 1994.
That didn’t look like a 20amp outlet. A 20amp usually has one prong that is also horizontal as well as vertical.
15W-40 can be replaced by 0W-40 in 99%. in operating temperature both have the same viscosity, when cold 0W-40 is moooore "watery".
@@bartoszskowronski 0w-40 typically sheers down to a 0w-30 due to the amount of VIs in the oil. Mobil1 is particularly susceptible to that but all 0w-40 oils exhibit this behavior.
nice work! reminds me of my days in the US Navy where we had massive diesel generators to power the submarine. We took pride in maintaining the genny.
Fairbanks Morse?
Chinese [[ DIESEL ]] generator, LOL
Why no solar China ?
Watching this video after seven months of posting and I’m about 22 minutes into the video. So I’m former military comms, 25 series and we use this type of generator very often. If I may offer some advice if you haven’t already done so find the technical manuals or field manuals for this specific generator and it will help you out immensely. I don’t remember the exact number for it, however, you should be able to find the reference numbers on the generator itself or if you go to a website that allows you to search for it. The manuals will also help with all your diagrams, parts, maintenance, and just about anything else that the generator will need.
I also live in NH. I spent $1500 total buying a trifuel (gas, propane, natural gas) 12k watt portable generator , inlet for my house, wiring to my panel. 1100 for the generator (new) and 400 or so for interlock, wiring, and inlet. It uses .5 gallons of automotive gas per hour running my whole house, and it has a 6 gallon tank. No auto start and transfer switch, as that set up is much more costly. In 1.5 years I've only had to use the generator once, so set up isn't needed often.
Which generator did you buy?
@@alex_ottomano Westinghouse Wgen
5 gallons per hour? 6 gallon tank? So every hour you're filling it?
@@jordangouveia1863 .5..... Half a gallon per hour
@@jordangouveia1863 There is a decimal in front of the 5. So that's half a gallon of US auto gas per hour, 12 hr run per tank.
Waldo, every video, I grow to enjoy you more and more. You're so thorough, straight forward, and to the point with your explanations. It's truly a joy to spend time learning from/with you!
So I normally don't comment on videos of this nature. However I am an electrician and I wanted to say that while I can complain about anything as many of us do I am impressed that you did an amazing Job on this. I saw that you used a proper product through the knockout and the panel while not perfect was at least presentable and looked decent, noticed you labeled things, and you put things in places so many would ignore. over all I tend to quietly give low marks to people. however with that said I say you did a 9.8 out of 10 on this job with the ever minor complaints I would reserve for professional electricians. Even though the conduit did not require securement to the home due to length I would have recommended putting one into the concrete. however this is not a main line into the house from the power drop so I don't take issue with it in any way just personal preference. excellent Job over all and you did not do any of the Home Depot insanity. Thank you so so so much for leaving extra wire omg that was like honestly amazing.
I'll gladly take that 9.8/10, and thank you for the comment!
Did you miss the fuel line running with the power wire in the conduit
@jimbo7042 yeah didn't see that, that's a huge no no yikes
@WaldosWorld definitely rerun the fuel line if it's in the same conduit. Though diesel takes a lot to catch on fire it's defintly not code to run in the same conduit if you already re ran it no worries.
And as a Electrician from Sweden where we follow Europeean standards its interesting to watch US electric installations. We really work different and also the materials differ a lot.
Something that might help with the low load condition is to add a UPS on the otherside of the transfer switch. (The Generator side) So when testing the generator it will immediately go to charging the UPS, even if it is just a top up of the batteries. In a power outage, the generator switch over can take a few seconds, so devices like computers can brown out; and thats worse than a blackout to a power supply. It can actually damage the contactor system of a generator. So you get the benefits of the UPS lowering the load, less contactor pitting, and something for the generator to have a load on at the same time.
I worked in the Shell plant that made that T6, in the blending department. I can say this with absolute confidence, we took making that stuff seriously and its why Shell Rotella is trusted through the whole diesel engine industry. I specifically made turbine oil (generator/turbine lubricants), viscosity modifier, (the stuff that makes the oil work in cold weather and gives it the winter rating) and various other lubes that most people wouldnt know used in industry. This is probably why this video came across my feed. Either way, good stuff and a great video!
Shell jet engine oil? The one woth TCP?
@@rkan2 Aero Shell is one of the few oils that doesn't come from HLP (Houston Lubes Plant)
2006 powerstroke loves your oil! T4 in the summer and T5 or T6 (which ever one I can get) in the winter..thanks!
Thoughts on using T6, instead of convention oil in other engines?
so my.. my 1992 Honda accord loves the cheaper, better oil
That's awesome, thanks for the comment!
I see that when you opened the front cover it doesn't have a field coil fuse modification and capacitor done. It goes up by the voltage regulator. It saves the gen head if it overpowers. Very important to do. Steel Soldiers has all the info you need for that genset as well as a auto start setup.
Electrician here; pleased to see that you're adhering to code, and doing a neat, non-lashup job. Attention to detail saves MANY problems down the road.
Next: Battery bank + Inverter. Two reasons: 1) initial switchover on power loss is marginally faster, especially if your generator is cold or the outage is a short one, and 2) (more important) You can load up your generator recharging the bank, and prevent carbon depositing in the cylinders - Need to periodically run a generator under heavy load to keep it clean. Downside of a bank + inverter is more cost and more maintenance. If you're NOT getting a bank, consider getting a dummy load that can artificially load up the generator.
Merchant Of Cat here; did you know petting a cat reduces stress by 99%¿
What part of the NEC says it's ok to run a fuel line in an electrical conduit? Please include the article number and subsection in your reply
Let me extend the topic.
With a decent inverter system you can hook up a 400Hz generator (probably cheap because less people buy them?) and potentially some solar.
Since owning a generator means you don't need a giant battery you can get some LFPs or even repurpose a used EV battery or some of its surviving sections like I did. Just don't forget to hook up an active cell balancer to avoid rapid unscheduled lithium fireworks.
Engine sounded great 👍!
Adding a battery system along with your generator will make the transition instantaneous in the event of power loss. A lithium ion system should have no required maintenance. I have a diesel generator at one of my houses, and a natural gas unit at another. At the home where my family actually lives, I have no generator, but 42 kWh of battery power. Even that has proven to be overkill, as I have yet to experience a power outage longer than 15 minutes.
In the case of a diesel generator, diesel engines don't really like to supply a lot of power when they are cold. You can dramatically extend the engine lifetime by giving it as little as 2 minutes to warm up. A battery system makes this very easy to accomplish. Another thing when pairing a battery system with diesel, is that it enables you to most efficiently utilize the diesel. Diesel engines run most efficiently under high load, which means 80-90%. At these levels, they will burn the least fuel per amount of electricity generated, and they will keep cylinder temperatures high enough to burn off any carbon deposition. You could even cycle the diesel generator on and off, as I do. Diesel doesn't start until battery is 30% or below, and Diesel shuts down at 90% battery, if one hour average power demand is below 2000 watts, and at full charge if below 6000 watts. Generator output is 9 kW and battery system maximum output is 16 kW. This way, we avoid short cycling the diesel engine, running for at least 4 hours at a time, but not drawing any power during warm up, as well as maximizing fuel efficiency and maintaining engine cleanliness.
You might want to look at adding a basic batter backup system/UPS. They can cutover faster than a generator and can handle things over a short power outage. Many of them have an option to turn on your generator when the battery power gets low to recharge them. They can also turn the generator off when the batteries are fully charged as well. This would allow you to use less fuel overall.
PS looking forward to part 2.
You guys are awesome and super supportive. This is how the platform should be used. Love your work & the comments by the community.
One drawback to diesel is that microbial growth likes occur in the bottom of the tank at the fuel-water interface. A sludge clogs fuel filters and creates starting and running problems, not to mention a smell. This is not as much of a problem for over-the-road trucks where the fuel is constantly being used and replaced with fresh fuel and the condensation water is frequently being drained, but the generator is mostly just going to sit there.
It's no big deal to polish the fuel every year or so. Fuel sits in marine applications too, it's not a problem.
Biobor JF
Add Diesel Doctor additive?
Most military gens also have an external fuel supply port, so you could connect the gen directly to the large fuel tank.
He mentions the fuel hose in the video, so I reckon that's the plan.
The AUX fuel port is next to the primary fuel tank filler, there's a threaded cap on it and should be labeled. The Start/Run switch also has a AUX position for running off an Auxilliary tank. The fuel system should make the switch between fuel sources automatically depending on the Run switch position. We have several of these gen units where I work and we set them up with a 100 gal. aux tank. We use the aux as the primary and save the 7-10 internal tank as an emergency backup if the 100 gal. tank runs dry. They'll run for about 4 days straight on 100 gal. at 25-35% load.
propane is the best fule because it can be stored in tanks indefinitely... gas, and diesel wont last long.
That trailer looks like it wants another installment in it's video series
I think you're right 😬
Clearing the rust and painting the trailer to start
😂
Expensive work bench
🤣
Great to see the many days of power, but the generator will use fuel fairly rapidly even while idling just to supply power to your hallway light. A battery backup paired with the generator would allow it to run very efficiently when you need power, and let the generator shut off completely during low power demand times.
Diesel-electric generator, expensive battery investment but more efficient than running the generator at max whenever you want power
@@jlofi000 a relatively small battery backup would allow the generator to turn off maybe the whole night.
@@jsbrads1 A deep cycle agm marine battery for $120 but those are 12 volt.. I think he'd have to change the lights to 12v like a camper. idk other ways to get to 120 volts efficiently throughout the night without linking 10 of them together for $1200 or if that's safe to do lol. Could just go without power overnight at that point
@@jlofi000 inverters exist for this purpose, but you'd need a battery with enough current throughput to supply the loads temporarily while the diesel kicks back on to take over.
@@james2042 yes idk if it's efficient to run a high wattage inverter all night tho especially with one small battery. I'm imagining a fridge which can range 300 to 800 watts, high startup amp draw, 5 amps while running, 120V, that's pretty decent juice for a single battery to put out.
At 1000W it seems you sort of decrease your battery capacity by 16.5% using an inverter. Inverting means efficiency of about 85% so your fridge overnight would use 115% the normal draw in addition to whatever else drawing, plus per search 10 to 20 watts idle use per 1000W inverted (1.5% assuming 15W). "A 1000W inverter connected to a 100Ah battery with a nominal voltage of 12V can deplete the battery in around 60 hours due to idle power consumption." 100 Ah in 2.5 days just from the inverter being powered. I guess the question is avoiding the inverter with 10x 100Ah batteries for $1200 to run at 100% efficiency with 1000Ah at 120V in series, vs at 83.5% efficiency with an inverter you're at 120V so maybe you don't need as many? I forget the formulas to figure. Seems it may depend how much juice overnight. You'd need 11.97 batteries to get 1000 Ah
I enjoyed watching this video very much. You see, I was a Power Generation Equipment Repairer in the U.S. Army for over 10 years and trained on these. These were called "TQG's" (tactical quiet generators). I would prefer the 10KW (4 cyl eng.) sets over the 5KW (2 cylinder eng.) because of the capacity... let's face it, 10,000 vs. 5000 watts, and it ran smoother than the 5KW. Both sets were tactically quiet and fairly reliable. Another thing we did to make it easier on the ears is surrounding the set with sandbags with a couple of open spots and an overhead cover. I was giggling a little when u had no output AC voltage when you measured between the load terminals and immediately said "close the AC circuit switch"... 😂
Great video. 👍🏽
I specifically bought the 5kw version (MEP802a) to avoid the wet stacking concern others have brought up. We had a severe ice storm in 2021 and I ran the household off the genset for 10days, half of which were sub-zero ambient temps. In practice I found our power consumption was even lower than I'd expected, I was usually around 20% rated load during the day. The fuel consumption of the 802a was also considerably lower. At under 25% load I was using 7-8gal of diesel per day. Great little units!
you used sandbags as acustic barrier? Now that's a nice idea valid maybe for all gasoline and diesel generators, as they are really loud.
I thought that was a TQG. I went to the reserve school at Ft. McCoy for those.
My thoughts exactly!
10 years doing Power Production in the Air force and seeing that AC circuit interrupter switch get you made me happy . Knew you’d get it though.
I have 6 years working on MEPS units in the Marine Corps, back in the 1980s. MOS 1142. It is really a pleasure to see a MEPS again (even in video). The fun we had sabotaging units and watching the newbies troubleshoot them. Good ole days.
Diesel fuel has one drawback - it can get a fungus growth in it that lines the tank and can clog the fuel filters, lines and injectors. This happened on my farm utility tractor, and took a lot of effort to get rid of. The engine would run for a bit, then stall out. Drained and cleaned the fuel tank, cleaned all fittings that the fuel went through, replacing the hoses and lines was easier than cleaning, and of course, the pumps and injectors. Ran like a charm after.
That's why if you have diesel that is going to be sitting for any long period of time you add a Biocide treatment to the fuel
Paulmoffattat9306: He can program the software to run the generator once a week for an hour, under load, that's how the generator at my fire station worked. It would also do an extensive diagnostic and leave a report for the technician. I know that Waldo can definitely do that!
all ways add biocide if storing, for long term storage we add water binder and biocide.
@@nssomedudeand? that doesn't solve the algae problem.
@@Refertech101 biocide treats diesel for everything algae, bacteria, yeast, moulds and fungi for example Penrite Biocide Fuel Treatment. I've left diesel in Jerry cans for up to 2 yrs with Biocide and it as need had any sign of growth in it. Do the research.
I bought one 10 years ago because I live in a remote area, and we often have power issues, it has a perkins diesel engine and a 550V 100Amp 3 phases with a 200Amp 120V / 220V transformer. I added another transformer for my neighbours house ( he paid for the transformer but I did the job ) I needed it a few times a year so far as we have electric pumps for our wells. We don't have electric heating, but water is essential as well as our freezer. It's a very reliable engine, old, but reliable. It's maybe a bit too big for our use but it's better to have more than not enough. I always made sure it doesn't run at less than 30% because it's not very good for the engine as it becomes coke up. A run at full power is required. Sorry for the bad English, it's not my language.
You know you're working above your pay grade when you keep discovering neat tricks like "oh, there's a pull string to cut the outer insulation" and "there's an interrupter switch for the power output". There's no shame in learning these things about industrial scale installations, and mad props for showing both the "doing it wrong" and the "oh, there's an obvious thing right there" shots in the video. There's a reason most people would have an installer or operator do this kind of thing, but you're an expert in most of the stuff.
Our worksite has a 25kva Shinwa Japanese gen running 24/7 for now nearly 3 years. They leave it running with no load most of the time. Diesel gens are the best. You got an amazing deal, even if it's been run for years, they keep on trucking. NEVER buy a Chinese made one.
As somebody in the military who doesn't work with these machines but has been forced to do a lot of work with these machines, I HATE THEM. Your generator is also the absolute cleanest and newest machine I have ever seen
What if you didn't have one to use at all? I think of all the stuff we provide to our people, and then have they don't give squat to the guys in the Russian military for example. expect them to Supply everything for themselves. EVERYTHING
@@ntvypr4820 I am not equipped to handle this question. I just don't like these generators because they break all the time HAHA
The stuff I never see
I bought a 50$ used kerosene moonlighter w cotton wick and a 180$ generator i can lift for1800 watt 120v an 12 volt charge. port at tractor supply and a 20$ new spare carb .didn't have to pour concrete or rent a crane 🎉
@@dondesnoo1771 and that should work great for 500 hours or so before it needs to be replaced
Current Seabee construction mechanic. We work on the digital screen 60K AMMPS generators and you troubleshooting the back of that gauge is the perfect way to explain it to my junior mechs. Great watch!
Your Presentation is by FAR, the best I've ever found in terms of Clarity, Organization, Efficiency, Completeness & 'Voice' on RUclips!!!!!! [You are a consummate teacher! (very few really are)] Thank You 👍 👏👏👏
New sub (and Army vet) here. Everyone has gifts, but yours transcends so many differing levels. Thank you for inspiring curiosity, while being entertaining and encouraging.
Thanks for the video, I absolutely love the MEP-803A generators!
With the brief glance inside your control box, it appears your unit needs both the "Fuse mod" and the "MOV mod". The Fuse Mod adds a fuse to protects the Quad winding in the generator head and the MOV mod protects the voltage regulator from voltage spikes protecting it from damage. The Metal Oxide Varister (MOV) is essentially a surge protector much like the device in surge protector power strips.
Also, it'd probably save you a lot of time to just work with Kurt Klopp who already makes a Wi-Fi and 2-wire start controller for these units to get the features that you're after.
All I heard in the opening was, “after doing a bunch of research, I didn’t finish the gooseneck trailer in yet another video” lol
I remember while on temporary duty overseas while in the military, that the generator mechanics/maintainers had one of the best, chill jobs in the Armed Forces…so long as they kept the generators running.
MEP mobile emergency power. I was a power production tech in the service. When a unit is no longer needed or parts are hard to acquire it was one of my task to make units we are retiring be operational at 100% for a short period. In short we did what we could to make the unit operational, however minimal work was performed as as you said the unit is going to salvage.
Very nice and well done project, thanks for sharing. I would install a fuel polishing system with a 3my #500 Racor filter & water separator and an algae x fuel treating device, all on a timer which runs like 3h x week, adding some fuel stabilizers well. Problem with stored modern diesel is that it tends to grow 'diesel bugs', collect condensation water and gum up your tank and fuel system over the years. This way, your fuel stays clean and useful over a very long period of time. Modern fuel is supposed to be recirculated around every 4 weeks to prevent component separation or stratification, due to the methanol and other additives
As a veteran I want you to keep in mind 1 thing, MILITARY SPEC, just means it was made by the CHEAPEST BIDDER.
Maybe so, but from what I've seen of all that they provide to our military, it beats the crap out of most the 'high end' stuff you can buy in the stores for civilian use.
@@ntvypr4820 you are correct, you don’t need the most expensive to be effective
@SykesFW Almost correct; the correct statement is "The Lowest bidder *that can meet the specification."*
It's the specification that makes the difference.
i, as a civilian who closest relation to the army is grandparents being conscripted 40 years before i was born, also imagine that for the standart equipment it means it can be fixed in the field
@@iplaygames8090Only if you can get the parts to fix it "in the field"?
Army vet here. I used to run missile maintenance units. We had 60KW and 45KW diesel generators to power our test equipment. In Germany, we ran them every work day 10 hours a day, and 24/7 in the field. They were insanely reliable as long as they were maintained properly. Loud, but efficient. I think ours were Stewart and Stevenson generators. That was over 30 years ago. I noticed someone wrote down the color of wires to connect to the output. Smart move, since they don't have standard power cables to those generators. Just bare pigtails! Another nice thing about diesel is that the engines are typically far more durable and reliable compared to gasoline engines.
Your little trick running the whole saw bit through the vinyl siding backwards was slick. It reminded me of my apprentice days; how the old dads have real tricks for faster and better outcomes, bravo.
What @brandon2076 said. Make sure that generator is ran hard and dont let it wet stack. I have to load bank those for hours after uses during training from them just running at like 10% load for weeks. That genset has issues with the magnetic shut off solenoid and deadman switches acting up alot. Otherwise they are pretty reliable.
The choice of diesel & a used military generator seems very good to me. It's clearly designed to make servicing easy & accessibility is good.
One day you may even want access to three phase for some machine tool & this could potentially provide it. In some European countries three-phase is already available in the home. Sadly Britain isn't one of them 🙁. Where you live a backup power option seems almost essential.
Sadly,😅 I don't get to work on something like this here in Austria, as the power never stops, esp. after the power company buried all outside wires in our village a few years back.
Here we get 3phase power at 400 volts coming into the house. Inside, it is split up to single phase 230 volts. I do have a 400 V outlet in the garage for power tools.
Everyone should have a backup power supply, even the bare minimum can make the difference between staying in your home or having to bug out. I live in hurricane country so it's even more important. I personally consider it a necessity rather than a luxury
@@mick-berry5331 It is the same in Germany. 3phase in every house. (Servus Nachbar).
@@guzziwheelersame in Russia, but not by default. We have to resign contract and pay extra to get 3 phase supply and 15kw instead of 5kw single phase.
Pros and cons of diesel vs propane for back up power. For infrequent use though, propane can be stored for very long times without going bad like diesel.
Reading almost all the comments here reminds me how devilishly complex some of these decisions (fuel, batteries and set up) can be. As an aside I live in a Chicago suburb and back in 2011 I can recall two weekends, two weeks apart when our power was out for over 24 hours at a time. Many in the area installed Generac automatic whole house netl gas units. Due to tough zoning requirements one of my neighbors and I backed off putting one in. Fast forward a few years (around 2015/16) ComEd installed smart meters and did other supply system upgrades and we haven't had a major outage (greater than 1 hr) since. I'm reminded of this every Saturday when my other neighbors generator fires up for 15 min to get its weekly exercise.
That said there are costs to living out in the sticks and power reliability is one of them.
Love the channel!!!
Earned a sub for truck stop lemonade 😂
This generator should be run under hard load once a month for a couple hours
- owner of a large solar/generator installation biz
Used to work for what sounds like a similar business. If he uses it to charge batteries and runs off of those, should work best right?
@@bl4643 if he has enough batteries for that generator to run for 2 hours under high load he has a lot of batteries but sure
Most diesel generators and high-end gas generators usually run at 1800 RPM instead of the typical less expensive gas, NG or propane generators that run at 3600 RPM. Much quieter and less maintenance than the 3600 RPM units.
Truck Stop Lemonade, It’s Magically Suspicious!
Hi Waldo, I would love to see you become a full-time RUclipsr. I think you would be surprised just how fast you would become a huge success. Everything you do is right on point. I learn so much from your videos. Keep up the great work.
I used to work on these generators when i was in the service (USMC 1142). Man, watching this video brought back so many memories. Especially when i deployed to Iraq in 05. These generators will run all the time just take care of it and it will take care of you.
French guy here (watching your vids from the south of France), leaving his first comment on your channel, which I've subscribed to probably 2 or 3 years ago. I really enjoy your content. You've got a lot of skills, which is impressive, and you always come up with great projects that are delightful to follow up on. And I love the way you explain things, in a thourough manner. I can't wait for part 2 to come out, which I'm sure is gonna be epic! Keep it up dude, you're really good!
Wow, thank you for the comment!
I was a 63 b in the army and my suggestion is get the same wattage generator but they come with trailers that also have a cooling system for the sumer. We used them on our tents
Really love watching your content. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to find ideas, plan the videos, actually do the work while filming, then edit and publish. So no complaints about the time involved. Also gotta love NH, where if you have the knowledge, you can do the work yourself whether it’s plumbing, electrical or structural.
I was a 16th CES Power Production Air Force Senior Airman... I worked on this EXACT generator when I was stationed at Hurlburt Field AFB... which is in Ft Walton Beach FL.
I am speechless... I didn't think i would ever see this generator ever again. You are correct... we used a 3 phase system... we always had to check phase rotation as well. Just brings back all those days of oil changes... cleaning... rebuilds... and more. JUST WOW! Can you track its history? Please tell me you can track its history? Are the log books still in the generator?
I might be old-school Army and I might be 20 years your senior, but I learned things watching your video and I look forward to the next one. I was in the Army for many years and seeing that generator brought me way back! Thanks for the journey! Also, I can't WAIT for PART 2 to come out! I just bought a 13000Peak/10500Running gasoline genny on Amazon for power outages here in TN. We've been hit by a few tornados and other adverse weather in the past few years but my gennies were never big enough to run my whole house. With this one, I can run everything, including the HVAC system as long as I don't run the Oven, Dryer and Microwave all at the same time (LOL). Thanks and keep them coming!
Hey Waldo, that diesel generator was a good investment! You may want to consider antigel additives in your diesel tank to prevent issues in colder weather! Looking forward to part 2!
And treat the fuel with some marvels mystery oil...that stuff is amazing for fuels both lubrication and stabilization for up to 2 years (and with the low sulfur junk now a days, it adds much needed pump/injector lubrication back to the fuel)
And a shot of biocide with the antigen. You don't need anything growing in the fuel tank or the storage tank. My car uses either Stanadyne performance formula or Power service white during the winter months.
Along these lines, think about cleaning your diesel fuel tank. With those low hours and age that thing must have been sitting around for years. I took an air conditioning brush set to an old JD tractor and flushed the tank with kerosene. The slime I dislodged was amazing….
All vets raised an eyebrow when dude said "reliable"
70’s and 80’s military equipment was extremely reliable. Especially the mechanical gear.
That's for sure
@@K1NGA-EM74 Some of it was, but something like this, as people have said, is prone to important issues. It's part of why military surplus is, well, put into military surplus. If the military can actually use it still, they will. I personally wouldn't buy one of these, nor any diesel generator, unless I lived in a remote area. If I need a generator here on the west coast, it's due to a power outage, which is almost always heat related. You know what has never gone out during a power outage? Water and natural gas. So I wouldn't mind the price of running a natural gas generator to keep my food edible and my AC running. Diesel makes more sense for those situations where you need an engine that can basically run on mud*. Even during the worst power outages, it took days for cell service to start having issues, and generally internet will still work if you have some sort of power backup, at least for about half a day to several, depending on the infrastructure.
*yes I know you literally can't power a diesel motor with mud, but that's really the only reason to run a diesel motor outside of a few scenarios, since it's capable of basically running on any fuel at such a wide range of compression, unlike basically any other motor.
@@metaleggman18 if the military can still use it, they scrap it after the designated life cycle and buy new stuff. Those are the facts and those are the regulations. Non-negotiable. No. They don’t use it past it’s use date. Far shorter than you may think. The truth is I don’t care much about the generator topic even though I’ve been outfitting data centers for two decades as a job. My comment was not about generators. It was about military equipment reliability within a certain time frame. I would put a 40 year old armed forces diesel generator against some brands bought yesterday with the beat warranties available… because they aren’t worth it. Military equipment in the 70’s and 80’s stilling running today, today’s engineers requesting the gear by nomenclature and limitless funded criminal enterprises using the foundational reliable gear is testament to its quality. Criminals don’t make money on contracts with infrastructure vendors. They use what works.
@@metaleggman18 military equipment is not used past its life cycle date. It is against regulations and sold or destroyed surplus even if it is brand new. Due to this standard, infrastructure military contracts are written so corporate vendors can get fat rich, unfortunately. I have been powering data centers for over two decades. I would rather have a well maintained diesel generator from 1983 before I would buy some new brands with their worthless warranty.
Really enjoyed your video. You explain everything in a way that regular folk like myself can understand. Thanks again!!
In NC and Virginia an aux genset MUST have its own ground rod installed to meet code. Inside the front hatch there is a rod provided for remote use in a canvas pouch. That one screws together and is not adequate. The Beede brand coolant temp gauge is the most common failure. Some units have VDO gauges, and they are more reliable. I have 4 of these, and have replaced the temp gauge in all of them. Second most common issue is the shut off solenoid. Expensive. Replace with a manual Bowden cable to actuate the shut off lever. I advise you set the unit on 4 compressor isolation pads, as that thing will dance off of the slab during start up and shut down. My 402A behind my house also doesn’t rattle the foundation when under load with isolater pads under it. These things are really amazing, and deliver super clean and stable current.
I am happy you figured out the AC interrupt switch and didn't get deep into tearing it apart 😅. We ran these style gennys for thousands of hours in field ops. Got a brand new 15k full LCD screen controls with the ability to self diagnose its own problems and send alerts to the screen for routine maintenance. We put somewhere around 120 hours a week on it for a month straight 😂😂.
Former 15W here (UAS Operator). We used those exact generators (mounted on trailers) for the Operator Shelters as well as the Datalink Transceivers. When I saw him meter the power output and get 0 my first thought was "INTERRUPT SWITCH! Hit the switch!" XD
Hey Waldo, former electrician here. I know you already ran your conduit, but you may want to consider redoing that run (if it's not to late) to add in some expansion couplings/fittings on each end above grade. They allow for ground movement without breaking the Schedule 40. Check out NEC 2023 Section 352 (specifically 352.44(B)) for the code requirements.
Well Simon , I guess Waldo didn't think of this , glad you mentioned it.
Why not run weatherproof flex? It's good for vibrating loads.
@@ctrlaltdebug I'm pretty sure you could run LFMC in this use case, see NEC 350 for code requirements when using LFMC. That being said, it would be a much higher cost overall, and it may be difficult to find the correct size for the use case.
Sealtite or Carflex!
Im electrician in Germany 😂😂 I’m confused
Is there a part 2 video of the wiring and connections? I’d love to see how you were able to get it to work with power outages.
I just got interested in military auction generators and this was the first video i found. Wow. Your delivery of the info was awesome. I will be watching part 2 for sure.
I always enjoyed the maintenance priorities in U.S. military hardware design. Cool generator.
What a great price! I got mine (30k) from a military surplus auction around 17 years ago and I think I paid almost 6k…. Mine is still on a manual transfer switch, as I converted to Solar/Wind/Battery (I live in a windy, rural part of Arizona) and went completely off-grid about 12 years ago. I’ve only had to used it a few dozen times over the years, mostly to charge my batteries when I’ve used my shop tools (Welders, plasma cutters, powder coating ovens, Air compressors, CNC Machine, etc.) to excessive amounts. I keep track of when I use it, and when it’s been more than 30 days, I disconnect my charge controller from my battery bank at around 10 AM, letting my battery bank run down (This is also good for my batteries, letting me check the health of each one.) then, once my battery state gets to about 15%, I start my generator up. Thing of beauty! Make sure you rotate out your fuel. I have two 500 gallon tanks, and I rotate them, using one to fuel my truck, while using my Auxiliary (90 gallon, with transfer pump) tank in my truck to refill the tank I just emptied. That way, the LEAST amount I have on hand is always at least 590 gallons.
I’m interested in seeing how you automate the thing! You got a new subscriber in me!
What's the point? Is it cheaper then being on the grid?
We got a used 350 gallon for under 1000. Have a 22kw Genrac ran for 6 days cut off at night had 1/2 a tank left.
Seeing the rest of your comments would probably put mine to shame: no army background, no extended electrical engineering knowledge, just a good ol' regular viewer from Europe over here.
I love 'home improvement' installation videos like these, it allows me to live vicariously through those videos and enjoy things I am unable to do myself. While I generally tend to not go through the whole video, let alone comment on one, yours was an exception and definitely stroke my curiosity. It has a sort of DIY but very professional kind of vibe, if that even makes sense. You've earned yourself a new sub and genuinely looking forward to part 2!
Your comment is so true for 75% of us . Interesting learning experience.
Waldo is fun to watch.
I was an Army generator mechanic too and had the privilege of working with Rick Tavares when I was at Ft. Bragg. Rick is a civilian contractor who worked with Fermont when they were developing these generators and Rick is a brilliant man.
To reinforce what the other generator mechanic said, these generators were designed to run with a minimum of 80% load hence the need for a load bank which is a dummy load so the motor won’t wet stack. I had a 5 kw come in my shop that was so stopped up it wouldn’t stay running and when it did finally run, it took all day running at 100% load to blow all the soot and carbon out. This cleaning put usually takes 2-3 hours but this one was the worst I’d ever seen.
Find you a load bank or your engine will eventually just quit from being stopped up with soot and carbon and then it’s engine replacement time= lots of $$$$.
The MEP 803A was a good gen, I only had to work on two of them while serving in the Marines. The engine in that gen is great!
Looks and sounds like a HATZ, or deutz diesel…?
@@neb4x4Don't know if Hatz makes them that big and i think Deutz usually Air-cooled... thinking Perkins or Lister 💁♂️
It is a Lister. English made
@@neb4x4
This video popped up in my feed and I'm going to enjoy watching MANY of your videos! It is easy to follow and you are very good at explaining what you do and how it should be done! I love when there is a lot of technical information!
I'm following your channel now and into the future!
Hello from Norway!
Just a note, as I haven’t seen it mentioned. Use off-road diesel from a reputable source for your generator. It’ll save you some money and is the exact same diesel as road diesel, but has dye added. Also, when you build your transfer switch set up, be sure to have the ability schedule an exercise for your generator, basically, run your generator once a month, until it reaches operating temperature, to maintain batteries, line the engine and cycle the cooling system. You may also want to run a diesel additive like Stanadyne or Howe’s for extra protection, just follow dosing instructions
14:19 this is the most important safety tip. Some good friends of ours house burned down, they were using a new commercial generator that name starts with a G
Ah yeah, those Generacs are rated to be installed 18" from the house. Sounds like a bad idea to me
You can pull single phase from a 3 phase panel. The load still needs to be spread evenly across the three phases for the generator to operate properly. 400htz generator is for aircraft only. This is cool!! Thank you for sharing
no one has a 3p panel in their home or 1/3 of your devices would only see power when the generator is on
You could use a 3 phase but it would have to run through a transformer first..about 500 bucks and you would be good
Brazilian here: you have two things that I wanna reach out sometime.
1. This equipament. I'm building a ranch during my plans for alternative power sources I was thiking in, almos, the exactly the same structure that you shown.
2. Your audience, with such good comments and tips you can improve anything you show here.
Thanks for the video and good luck.
pro tip on draining oil. open the filling cap this will allow air to flow in that will allow oil flow out faster.
Not these, it takes 15w40 oil. Run it to operating temp then drain. If not it's like honey. Same for the 3 KW gens
Being more "electro" orientated, I'd look at an inverter to run 10 - 20% of your load then control the generator to come on at 75+% power only as needed. An inverter will support your house in case of a power cut with an almost instant pick up, and an inverter is silent to support your house overnight when you and the neighbours want to sleep. Also no generator runs well and efficiently at long term low power so having a generator to cover that is a great idea.
You could go the solar inverter route and also install a small battery pack, so you don't have to run the generator, other than to recharge the batteries.
I was a generator tech in the USMC, and that is the exact one I would have for my house. Great choice. The thing will run forever with good maintenance!
As soon as you didn't have power at the studs, I knew exactly what happened. Lol
Marine 1142 here. Loved the MEP generators.