Lots of good and experienced reports posted here, so i will add one more and its a recent as today, albeit a MEP-1040 this build date is 2015 and has the 3cyl TURBO Yanmar something like a 91CID ..Vibrations ? Way less than an 802 but more than an 804 UNLOADED, loaded it smooths right out pretty darn well.. Fuel burn rate, do you really care, for me i dont and will not let that be an influence of any consideration, sorta like when people ask me about my Chevy Tahoe with Corvette engine package I dont know, i have never checked and worse don't care.. The 1040 series is trick ass, no mistaking that, love the color screen and the host of operating parameters that can be established and monitored, The electronic gov is OK its not fast on block loading pick-up or recovery on drop out, but that the result of a 3 cyl TURBO engine trying to catch up V. a DI [direct injection] 4 cyl NA {naturally aspirated] engine .
That the MEP-10xx series can be operated in parallel has no value for me, if you need that much ability, get a bigger set. I have cleaned up more than my share of paralleling gone bad. in these smaller sizes i just don't see it of value. Back to the electronic GOV, its good and holds steady state freq very well, but again with me in the smaller KW sets, I'm just fine with the 802/3 manual control adjust cable . That both series produce a very good sine wave is all im expecting, i can deal with the load drag down and adjust on the 802/3 V. the 1030/1040 electronic gov.
The 1040 is very well built Cummins did a good job and availed themselves of a lot of newer Technology and manufacturing process's. it is more crowded in the interior with less immediate access, unless or until you take off the 20 some odd Stainless Steel top cover bolts and remove the top cover, then ease of access improves pretty dramatically ..Course Cummins didn't factor the SS bolts galling factor, but applying some small amounts of Anti Seize compound onto the nut certs and bolts i expect to help, 1 was broken when i got the set and i added one more, ended up just drilling out the broken bolts and over drilling the nut cert and all is well.. It's here i found the all aluminum base skid to be a weak point, clearly my concrete work area was not level to when the top cover was last or first put on, some paint lines just didn't match up as well the bolts and i had to use 3 differant tappered drift pins to really align the top cover..
The color controller/starting is nice, where we are used to holding the crank lever till oil PSI builds up, the 10xx just touch the start position and let the start selector lever roll back the starting relay holds the started in till engine speed catches up, my set will idle for 15-30 seconds then very very smoothly ramp up to 60hz, it is very quiet and without the aid of foam inserts typical of the 802/3 series .. you will enjoy the clock the run clock and its pretty darn accurate, best i can tell within about 2 seconds per week, compared to my Iphone that i keep running and reviewing against the 1040 controller.
The 1040 has my guess 30 or more WARNING conditions, that will appear with a short description and a 4 digit number code and if not corrected then turn into FAILURE and shutdown incidents and are recorded with condition and time/date readily for operator review and corrective action or information knowledge. Shutdown and cooling are programmable for time duration you want or factory default. Then once the set is OFF the screen stays full on and displayed for 10 minutes and that is being counted down and always on display then as time runs out, off goes the screen ... I love the battery and charging schemes, no more of the ZERO +30 -20 Amp meter reading nonsense and battery/charging alternator voltage is always shown and very accurate i will add, likewise the KW display reading, dead nuts on.. very low error difference from actual load being drawn.. if you want what we typically see and can get at 30% or so overload from the 802/3 series, you have to go in and monkey with the set up parameters, 10% load is a given, but it stops there without digging in and changing those parameters. The radiator is different pretty much totally, the cooling fan motor is all DC electric PWM controlled and please remember these newer sets run a good bit hotter to get a better burn rate and way less slobber/wet stacking, so the electric fan does not even come on till 199-200 degrees F the actual radiator is remoted a fair distance from the actual engine and in it own compartment with the muffler and the hot air being exhausted up the top of the top cover as well exhaust piping. but again its a nice job and layout.
Back again to the color display the display is very accurate and not general in its graduations like the 802/3 and higher, fuel is shown in 1% display temp is in one degree indications same for oil and voltage and load applied in both amps and kw display, its just trick no getting around it.. The Radiator filler neck is finally made by a smart man, not this insane literal horizontal filling fiasco we see on the smaller 803 and such...
They don't make it one bit easy for voltage change switch, or for the main DC breaker, it was a clear trade for the access to the oil and fuel filters being readily accessible where on the 802/3 its a joke relative to ease and accessibility. the dead crank switch is a clear after thought in its location..
I was critical of the wiring diagrams and the teflon wire, i have softened some on those positions, teflon is hard to mark but they did a very good job, as good or better than any i have experienced..
Supportability ?? is gonna be a female dog, the TM's are free to tell us to move and contact the next higher command, well the next higher command im afraid of 2 things, i wont be recognized as a valid user, and even if i were, pricing is gonna be where Cummins recovers and makes a reasonable profit margin but one i wont like or likely be able to support for quite some time... its at this point Peter at Inovotech and Klopp will be our best bet to come in and reverse engineer a parts support network for those that just have to have one of these 10XX series sets.. Cause otherwise your looking at a pretty damn expensive door stop in my view when your set pukes up. Because very little is just off the so called shelf, I didn't care for the sole source TRC had on my guess 50-65% of older MEP electronics, well not to fear Cummins has it all on these sets, I think and hope the saving grace here is reliability and i will add as what seems originally supplied are all good parts and the fabricated parts seem very well made as well. Cummins went to great lengths to keep it all inhouse and did us well. Best i recall the DOD purchase price is less for these new sets than what the 803 price was from Fermont
But to put this in a summary, for the foreseeable future, i would strongly recommend sticking with the MEP-80X series. Where i read so many of us as users these sets are serious equity buys and service life is dependent on repairs and parts availability the 80x series in my view is the only way to go long term.
THanx for the time and bandwidth: mac/mc
