mep gen sets

[cbisson]

ok guys, i am in the country, running a well pump, have 2200 sq ft home a 3400 sq ft barn 3 freezers 2 refrigerators 2 water heaters, no ac but do have a hot tub. already got it figured out about load managment
thankyou all for all the input. looking to get a 803 fermont on 5/2 at an auction near me. 1500 hours on it..will see how it goes.

Good luck with the auction!

 

[America]

ok guys, i am in the country, running a well pump, have 2200 sq ft home a 3400 sq ft barn 3 freezers 2 refrigerators 2 water heaters, no ac but do have a hot tub. already got it figured out about load managment
thankyou all for all the input. looking to get a 803 fermont on 5/2 at an auction near me. 1500 hours on it..will see how it goes.

As long as you can get It up to 50% load for 4 or five hours of run time out of each day it’s used these units won’t wet stack.

 

[goat4hooves]

Good luck on the auction. Let us know how it goes. I think the 803 will do a fine job powering your set up.

 

[jamawieb]

Back to your original question. Only 1 803a. Fermont and Libby made the units to military specs. Onan bought the rights on the motor from Lister Petter to put them in the generators. That is why sometimes you see Onan stickers or lister petter stickers on the motor but Lister Petter is the real manufacture of the motor and Onan made the gen heads. Hope that helps.

 

[NY Tom]

Guys looking for some opinion and advice please.

Is a diesel military gen set really worth the extra cost over these gas consumer units?

I see you can pick up new gas units in the 6500w range for under a grand.

Considering a MEP002 likely but I have to ask this question of those in the know.

 

[Coug]

Guys looking for some opinion and advice please.

Is a diesel military gen set really worth the extra cost over these gas consumer units?

I see you can pick up new gas units in the 6500w range for under a grand.

Considering a MEP002 likely but I have to ask this question of those in the know.

Military gen sets are made specifically as "prime power" units.
What this means is they are made specifically to run for weeks or even months on end, with the only shut downs being for regular maintenance, which is a lot less frequent than one you can go down and pick up at the hardware store or small engine store.


If your area only gets occasional outages, and never more than a few days a year, then no, it isn't really worth it. For the money you spend on one of these you can buy multiple cheapie gens and get them serviced.


Now, if your area gets hit by storms on a regular basis, or you run equipment that either your household wiring won't support or are too far from power to be economically feasible to run power to, then yes, you aren't likely to find better units at anywhere near the price point of these. Big plus is all the manuals are available, so you really can work on these yourself and not pay hundreds of dollars just hoping a factory tech will show up when they get around to it.


These military generators will last thousands, or even tens of thousands of hours with basic maintenance.

That 6500 watt gen for less than a grand will likely last a few hundred, maybe 1k hours or so if you take good care of it.


It all comes down to what you need and what you expect. If you need something that can run your house for weeks or months on end during an outage, then yes, these are for you. If all you need is a few hours or a couple days here or there every few years, then no, its not for you.

 

[NY Tom]

Thank you for taking the time to respond completely. Very helpful.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Sometimes money spent is money saved. Determine how critical it is for you and yours to have power (and for instance, how important any frozen food, ability to run a well, etc) is to you in a long term outage, and make that determination. The world isn't getting any more secure.

 

[Coug]

Thank you for taking the time to respond completely. Very helpful.

Not a problem. I actually do civilian generators for a living, primarily home standby units. Everyone has different goals for generators, so I get asked a lot about what generator to buy. Some people I recommend things like the little Champion 2800 dual fuel generator (propane or gasoline) if they just need some lights, entertainment, and fridge/freezer, where others need full blown liquid cooled standby units with emergency standby operating ratings.
I'm more than happy to help out whenever I can. I'm nowhere near as up to speed on these military gens as some of the guys here, but I try.

 

[nextalcupfan]

This video sold me on MEP Generators.

 

[NY Tom]

Well in my case I do not typically keep a large amount of gasoline on hand. It doesn't last long even when treated and in my area I am not confident in being able to obtain more from gas stations in an emergency situation. I guess I might have 30 gallons around at any given time if I had to start siphoning from cars etc. Since we are talking emergency use generally I am leaning towards diesel.

Deuce holds 50 gallons plus I keep some on hand in cans.

But I do have a 1000 gallon heating oil tank and that gets me thinking sometimes. Will these units run on heating oil?

I have the option of using the wood stove for home heat in cold weather. Otherwise heating oil only supplies hot water in my case.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Yes you can run HHO in them (thats just diesel with kerosene blended in), but you really need to run additives for lubricity if doing so (for the injectors sake). But no issue.

Do you know how much power you actually need?

 

[NY Tom]

I am in the process of figuring that out. As a guess based on everything I am reading from you and others it would seem that 5KW will handle it. Going to look into it more tonight/tomorrow.

 

[NY Tom]

I wanted to ask about power quality of the older units MEP-002a and MEP-003a vs the newer 802 and 803 units.

I see the waveform in that video is pretty good. Do the older units have the same type of generator head?

Weighing all the options here and budget drives me towards an older unit. Just want to make the best choice possible.

 

[MrShawn305]

I wanted to ask about power quality of the older units MEP-002a and MEP-003a vs the newer 802 and 803 units.

I see the waveform in that video is pretty good. Do the older units have the same type of generator head?

Weighing all the options here and budget drives me towards an older unit. Just want to make the best choice possible.

This guy does/did ALOT with the old 00 series gensets. Here he has I believe a 002 or 003 hooked up to the scope and you can see the waveform is pretty clean, looks identical to grid. He is on this forum as well, not sure if he's still very active.

 

[Chainbreaker]

I wanted to ask about power quality of the older units MEP-002a and MEP-003a vs the newer 802 and 803 units.

I see the waveform in that video is pretty good. Do the older units have the same type of generator head?

Weighing all the options here and budget drives me towards an older unit. Just want to make the best choice possible.

The older MEP-002a/-003a power is excellent. The only issues with these units is parts are becoming somewhat scarce. If you find a good deal on one that is running & load tested I personally would not hesitate to buy it. If you find a good deal on a MEP-802/803 I would not hesitate to jump on it either.

To sum it up I would say the older MEP-002a/-003a are more simplistic and easier to troubleshoot/repair and the MEP-802a/-803a are more refined but somewhat more difficult to troubleshoot/repair IMO.

By the way, the video above is of SS member "Sewerzuk" aka Matt Verly who's videos I have watched a while back and talked with him directly which guided me in my search to buy my first MEP-002a. MrShawn305 is right though, have not seen him in the Generator forum in ages. I believe his business and life have kept him busy.

 

[NY Tom]

Thanks for the information and responses. Video was also good. I ended up getting a nice MEP-003A from member Light in the dark.

Looking forward to going thru it and getting it all set up.

 

[glcaines]

You will really like your MEP003A genset. Mine sees a lot of use as a backup for my whole house. I've been using it over eleven years with virtually no problems. I like the fact that it is air cooled. One caveat, don't idle the engine. Shut it down at full RPM / 60 Hz.

 

[NY Tom]

As indicated elsewhere the demand for generators in general is really high right now. But if you need it you need it and I can see that where I am the grid is not infallible. At least I can be prepared now.

Read so many threads here and all the opinions of the knowledgeable guys which is great. Old school simplicity I like and this unit seemed to be right sized to run the whole house but able to handle lighter loads without as much issue as the water cooled units. With any luck I can build up a parts stock of the likely failure parts and keep it going for a number of years. It is no small investment and I'll be happy to have it last.