Can I ask a question about an auction that ended earlier this evening

[Interceptor]

Here ya go.
Lot#-Hours-Price
5200-687-$670
5201-3582-$616
5202-14-$980
5203-8-$940
5204-3129-$502
5205-1631-$551
5206-352-$590
5207-241-$910
5208-19-$1532
5209-1962-$540
5210-2331-$600
5211-975-$840
5212-1007-$800
5213-1228-$572
5214-77-$1020

 

[ryanaubra]

I had some experience with this scenario lately. I bid on a bridge-builders boat and was not the winner of the auction, and the posted high bid did not meet the reserve price. Two days after the auction was over, GL contacted me and wanted to know if i wanted to purchase the boat at my highest bid, which was about 15% less than the high bid. The gentleman on the phone told me that a lot of times when there is a reserve, it is a private seller and they will usually offer to the high bidder at his highest bid or at the reserve price. I guess in this case they really wanted to sell it and the high bidder didnt even want it at his high price. I have been bidding on GL and GP items for only about a year, but was heavy into ebay starting in 1996. The reserve price has always turned me off to bids and it still does today. I have listed thousands of items on ebay and never with a reserve. Only a few of those times did i get the shaft. Like someone said above, an item is worth as much as someone will pay for it and by trying to force a value to an item, a lot of times you end up eliminating interest in the item. People (myself included) bid on some items they don't even want just because there is a chance to win it at a good price. I even find myself bidding an item up that i don't want, just because i want to win the bid......

 

[Grimm21]

If any of the units that you guys picked up are going to be parted out let me know I am looking for a fuel stop solenoid with the arm that goes to the fuel line.

 

[NEIOWA]

WHY is DOD getting rid of all these MEP802/803? Even if Obuma is intent on closing down the Army, these are late model (and many low hours). What idiot doesn't stick them in a warehouse until we need them (sooner than later). Or is SAM buying portable hydrogen power cells, solar panels and windmills (snarc) to replace things that work/

 

[Grimm21]

Knowing the government and the way they like to work the units are probably past there expiration date and will go bad.

 

[Interceptor]

These aren't really that new, they are averaging about 15 years old from what I've seen. Most people drive a car that's newer than that. Don't be fooled by the hours, lots of them have new hour meters, some new engines, but they're not low hour sets. Besides all that, it's your money they're spending.

Oh, they did sell two windmills yesterday too.

 

[Grimm21]

I can say the unit I bought a couple weeks ago in Chambersburg was a tier 2 reset with a rebuilt motor.I won't complain the motor has good compression and runs great there is signs of wet stacking and some small parts are missing but I am trying to get it back together and when it is all done I will have a diesel generator that will run for years

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Let me just add that anyone who purchases a generator, should plan on running it with a good load for a hour or two to clean it up. Mine had a little over 300 hours, and I think the last 50 hours were running with nothing loaded, or just a radio in a convenience outlet. Mine was showing signs of wet stacking with black tar goo running out of the exhaust, and exhaust connections, exhaust manifold etc..

But, after running it hard. It now runs much smoother and cleaner. At first the blacks specks were raining down when I started to load it up. It cleaned up after a while. And the load amount has increased. At first it would start bogging down at smaller loads, now it really takes a lot.

My MEP-803A on the load bank

 

[DieselAddict]

+1 on running it hard for a while. I bought a few 802s that were tier2 resets. Every one of them smoked after they warmed up with light load. I thought i had bought a bunch of problems but i figured that i would put the spurs to them and fix what broke. After a few minutes of pretty heavy smoke with 6500w of load on them they cleared up and ran great. None of them have smoked since.

 

[rustystud]

All good diesel engines like to be run hard. That is just the nature of the beast. A lot of people make the mistake of treating them like a gas engine and then wonder why they are not running well.

 

[Grimm21]

I don't have a load bank but figured I would buy a couple cheep space heaters and use them do any of you think that would make a good cheep way of running the unit under load?

 

[novaman]

I bought one from letterkeny on this last round and I was bidding on 3 only won 1 the other two never met reserve. One I was @ least 5 bids from being the highest bidder no one called me. The other I was the second highest bidder at $700 when I think the reserve was around $800. Some one else bid after me at about $740. I got a call asking if I still wanted it at $700 I declined because I did win another and couldn't afford the second one. I'm assuming the highest bidder also declined for the same reason and then they just went down the list

 

[DieselAddict]

That will work.

I'm using water heater elements in a bucket of water. I run the garden hose into the bucket to keep the water temp under control. Works great and the total cost was under $50.

For my MEP003a that backs up my home I do the monthly test. I switch over to generator power then click on the water heater and dry a load of clothes. My water heater is on a timer and it only heats once per day. Those two appliances together gives me a good varying 40% -70% load that gives the governor a bit of an exercise as well. If the heatpump kicks in during the couple hours of running that is even better.

 

[Grimm21]

Thanks that sounds good to. I have another question I tried to do my homework before spending money but I jumped and bought cable to hook up my generator and now I am second guessing myself I got 10/3 direct bury wire for my me 802 figuring 30 amps is this OK or should I have jumped up to 8/3 any thoughts? And does anyone know the correct way to hook the wire into the lugs?

 

[novaman]

I bought one of the letterkeny 802's and it was missing the fuel canister " cranked but does not run" it had the water seperator but someone drained it with a screwdriver by making a new drain hole instead of the petcock. So I bought a new water seperator off amazon for $15 and did the same thing to this one I did to my 002 I removed the fuel base and replaced it with the wix24770 base and filter. The trick I came up with for the banjo bolt was to get a 1/2npt to 1/4 npt reducing bushing and ran the 1/4npt tap all the way through it to remove the taper this way the banjo bolt would thread in all the way and seal against the surface of the bushing and not just tighten up on the tapered thread. I did lathe off the surface of the bushing to give it a super smooth surface to seal on but a pass on a belt sander probably would work the same. All in all the filters and base cost $50 the bushing and lathe I have at work ( freebie ) but I would assume no more then a few dollars at a hardware store. Mine had some signs of wet stacking also. Ifterbleeding the fuel syste. It fired right up and made power. Smoked a bit at firt with no load. I let it warm up applied 5000 watt heater smoked real good for about 10 mins and now its clean as could be ran it full load for about 2 hours. Any who the main thing I wanted to get at is I also bid on more then one unit and I also got a phone call about another unit I bid on that did not make the reserve but I was not the highest bidder my bid was like 900 and I assumed the reserve was 1000 but the high bidder was 980. I declined since I won another Unit @800. What I saw was if it was one of the few runners the reserve was $1000 if it had less then 60 hrs the reserve was $1000 if it had more then 60 hrs the reserve was $800 if it had over 200 hrs the reserve was $600 if it was older and in rough shape I saw a couple reserves come off $400-$500. What made me think was why would someone who bid $980 not just put out $20 more. Makes me think someone on the inside did that to puss me over. Or like me found a slightly lesser unit for $200 cheeper.

 

[novaman]

I bought one of the letterkeny 802's and it was missing the fuel canister and listed as "missing fuel canister cranks but does not run" it had the water separator but someone drained it with a screwdriver by making a new drain hole instead of using the petcock. So I bought a new wix 33472 water separator off amazon for $15 and did the same thing to this one I did to my 002 I removed the fuel canister base and replaced it with the wix 24770 fuel filter base and 33352 wix filter. The trick I came up with for the banjo bolt was to get a 1/2npt to 1/4 npt reducing bushing and ran the 1/4npt tap all the way through it to remove the heater this way the banjo bolt would thread in all the way and seal against the surface of the bushing and not just tighten up on the tapered thread. i found the banjo bolt to be 1/4 SPT (straight pipe thread) ive heard its metric but this worked for me. I did lathe off the surface of the bushing to give it a super smooth surface to seal on but a pass on a fine grit belt sander probably would work the same. All in all the filters and base cost $50 the bushing and lathe I have at work ( freebie ) but I would assume no more then a few dollars at a hardware store. Mine had some signs of wet stacking also. after bleeding the fuel system It fired right up and made power. Smoked a bit at first with no load. I let it warm up applied a 5000 watt heater, smoked real good for about 10 mins and now its clean as could be. ran it 80% load for about 2 hours (5000watt 1.0pf heater) The units there all looked pretty similar. Any who the main thing I wanted to get at is I also bid on more then one unit and I also got a phone call about another unit I bid on that did not make the reserve but I was not the highest bidder my bid was like $900 and I assumed the reserve was $1000 but the high bidder was $980. I declined since I won another Unit @ $800. What I saw was if it was one of the few runners the reserve was $1000 if it had less then 60 hrs the reserve was $1000 if it had more then 60 hrs the reserve was $800 if it had over 200 hrs the reserve was $600 if it was older and in rough shape I saw a couple reserves come off $400-$500. What made me think was why would someone who bid $980 not just put out $20 more. Makes me think someone on the inside did that to push me up to the reserve.... Or like me found a slightly lesser unit with 50 more hours on it for $200 cheaper. I also just bought some 240 water heater elements to make another load bank with but didn't think about keeping the hose running to keep temps at bay. I think the heater element where like $15 each or something like that and one is 4500 watts and the other is 1500 watts. id say this is the cheapest way to make a load bank. just make sure your bucket is sealed up tight inlet and outlet and don't let your electrical leads get wet. Electricity and water don't mix! In total from the letterkenny auction I think i have just around $1000 into this thing after fees, taxes and fuel to get to PA and back being i'm in south east MI. at least I got to see my brother in Pittsburgh on the way back.

 

[Rebel635]

Yes, they are 15 year old gennies, but where else are you going to get a 5kw, watercooler, quiet, 1800 2cyl diesel generator for less than a grand? You're approaching commercial single cyl screamer gennies at that price.
Overall i think these were a screaming deal even with reserves. Sold as "non-runners" when all they needed was filters and line bleeding.

 

[novaman]

The one I got is a 2006 the average might have been 15 but a lot where less then 10 years old. I just bought two more from lockbourne OH buth have under 100 hrs. one for a friend and one for myself to hopefully sell and put the money back twords the others I've bought. Ha-ha

 

[Interceptor]

I don't think anyone here disagrees that they are a good value for $800-1000. My previous post was in response to someone asking why they are selling the late model low hour units. If you see a 802 that was made 10-15 years ago and has 70 hours on it that just means it's been run for 70 hours since the meter was replaced. Anything else is just speculation. I have seen guys selling tier 2 resets with new meters and trying to pass them off as new.

 

[novaman]

How can you tell if it is tier2 Rebuild? doesn't the engine have a tag on it with the Rebuild date? The one I just got to me looks barely used very little corrosion On the manifold and none on the Gen head. That's mainly what I look for when purchasing one of these is corrosion. Lots of corrosion means improper storage and or ran hard IMO