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DRASH Trailer Genset 20-ish kW

BlackIce000

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Greetings All,
I've been locating, purchasing, installing and maintaining 30-60kW Diesel Generators for my Town for a few years and have some experience with the MEP series 00's and 800's. I REALLY like the TQG's and have seen lots of aftermarket products to make them more useful in a building backup power situation. (Autostart, obviously!)

I have been offered a couple of 20 (23) kW ex-DRASH trailer diesel gensets. They both run and seem in decent shape. Buolt in the mid-late 2000's with between 200 and 500 hours. They were used to run trailer mounted ECUs (HVAC) for the military.

They seem to be in between the older Analog style and the newer Digital (IPT) LCD screen style. They have 3 LEDs for displaying Amps, Volts and Frequency and what looks like a bunch of buttons surrounding the display.

From the Video I was sent, they sound about as loud as our MEP-005A but from a Video shot with a phone it's hard to tell...I prefer the quieter TQG MUCH more.

Do these have Autostart built in (Like the IPT versions?) If not, can they be updated with the Upgrade kit...anyone know how much that is??

Lastly, they both appear to be 3 Phase, but have multiple outputs for distribution. Would you use the existing distro or hard wire into the head?

Thanks!

Rick
 

swbradley1

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Patracy just bought one at the rally and got it running, maybe he will chime in.
 

patracy

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There's a rep that's a member here on the board. He's helped me tremendously with my DRASH generator.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?146235-ECU-generator-HVAC

There's been several flavors of these units. Mine is a little loud, but much quieter now with all the sides back on. I think it'd be easy to add an additional muffler under the trailer to help as well.

I can't speak to the later models, but I don't believe there's a autostart feature on it?

Mine is still configured as 3 phase. Once I get around to testing the HVAC to see if it works or not, I'll either leave it 3 phase, or rewire it single phase. Over in my thread you'll see a link to a pdf from the generator head mfg. The gen head can be reconfigured to single phase. If my HVAC doesn't work, I'll be converting mine to single phase. I'll be using the existing distro setup. But leaving out the 3rd leg from the generator output. I have a distro box as well. I plan on taking the output side of the box to a shore power cable and placing a 50amp household/RV plug beside it (there's space in the box to add it) Then making some 3-lug twist lock to duplex gangbox pigtails for household 120v outlets. Course all of that is up to the owner to make whatever suits his needs best.
 

BlackIce000

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WOW! A wealth of knowledge!!!

It appears mine are built later on and have 3 numerical LED displays.

DRASH does make an upgrade kit to swap to v3 IPT which allegedly has autostart and some other features.

Rick
 

Poccur

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OK..quick bit of history on these systems..

Back in the day...PowerSystems INtl used to make the trailer for DHS (DRASH tents). They parted ways, DRASH made their own trailer and PowerSystems Intl joined up with another tent company (Base-X). It continued that way, DRASH made their own tent and trailer and it competed directly with PowerSystems and Base-X.
After time, PowerSystems generators and Base-X tents were both purchased by HDT and the HDT tent/trailer system continued to compete with the DRASH tent/trailer combo.
Now up to present day, HDT have recently purchased DRASH so now it is all under one company..

PATRACY..yours is a PowerSystems Intl generator.....
Blackice, I believe yours is a General Dynamics trailer that was designed to carry the DRASH tent, it would not be possible to modify the generator with a DRASH upgrade kit as DRASH did not build the generator portion..

Some folks get in the habit of calling them all DRASH units but that is not quite right....yes they have the same roots but.....

PowerSystems used to call them 'GETs', Generator ECU Trailers...
 
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BlackIce000

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Poccur,
I feel VERY glad you are on this forum! I am just about to purchase 2 more DRASH-style units. One of them is a dual axle trailer with a 60kW genset and (right now) unknown ECU size.

I am a bit concerned about the volume level of these. is it more like an older style MEP-005 or closer to a TQG in the 800 series. There are so many versions it is hard to figure out which one is best!

Fuel consumption is a big question. One has a John Deere 4045 (unknown which model) how many gal/hr? 2? 4? more at 50% load? the 20kW units look to be around 2 gal/hr...is that with the Isuzu or something else. Ideally, I'd like to find one I can work on, source spare parts and maintain. With a low fuel consumption.

Rick
 

jesusgatos

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on the road - in CA right now
OK..quick bit of history on these systems..

Back in the day...PowerSystems INtl used to make the trailer for DHS (DRASH tents). They parted ways, DRASH made their own trailer and PowerSystems Intl joined up with another tent company (Base-X). It continued that way, DRASH made their own tent and trailer and it competed directly with PowerSystems and Base-X.
After time, PowerSystems generators and Base-X tents were both purchased by HDT and the HDT tent/trailer system continued to compete with the DRASH tent/trailer combo.
Now up to present day, HDT have recently purchased DRASH so now it is all under one company..

PATRACY..yours is a PowerSystems Intl generator.....
Blackice, I believe yours is a General Dynamics trailer that was designed to carry the DRASH tent, it would not be possible to modify the generator with a DRASH upgrade kit as DRASH did not build the generator portion..

Some folks get in the habit of calling them all DRASH units but that is not quite right....yes they have the same roots but.....

PowerSystems used to call them 'GETs', Generator ECU Trailers...
So which version/s of these generators/trailers are upgradeable to auto-start?
 

ASSI

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Napa, CA
DRASH Transport Trailer Tire Size?

Wow. What a find. Thank you guys for sharing so much info.

I recently purchased a DRASH transport trailer with 25KW Isuzu diesel and large 4 port AC unit.

The problem is the tires are shot and I need to get new tires to go get the unit. Does any one happen to know what size and make the tires would be? Are there any good deals/suppliers out there in SoCal?

THANK YOU.

ASSI
 

oldman70

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New to this forum, was wondering if anyone could give me information on getting a repair manual for a Drash 35 kw genset with ac. HDT did send a booklet but repair information was slim. Any help appreciated
 

therooster2001

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Welcome to the forum, and if you have a specific question, start a new thread on your issue, the guys on here are gold. Let us know what shape it's in, the model numbers and pictures help. There isn't a lot of repair manuals out there for the MIL Gensets or the combination ones like you have. An Operations manual floats by every now and then, but from what I understand the DRASH ones are controlled, so a recent poster may contact you, or try to hit him up, he's "connected" :) I have a 20ish KW one and there will be differences on the motors in them, but we all sort of know what could be the cause as most of them we picked up surplus and are dealing with some sort of issue the other one has seen. I got some help from a now buddy member in FL to get mine running. The basics will be if it's surplus,drain the fuel tanks, inspect the heck out of it, potentially swap the hoses, and change the filters for start. Electrical stuff starts to get specific to a couple of members. There could be some trouble in the panels. I was pretty lucky and mine had minor issues. Inline fuel filter was the biggest issue, after that a couple of new set of air and fuel filters later it was running 100%. The AC was next, and I had my FL buddy help me through a recharge of the AC. I don't think anyone has been lucky to have refrigerant in the system. Will (Suprman on the forums) can be of help specifically with the DRASH units. He's sold several and got them running and in various states. Post a new thread and we'll jump into help. There are some TM's (technical manuals) on these guys around the net too, just maybe not your model, and definitely an Operations and Maintenance manual.
 

R1V3R4671

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My Drash gen does not produce power. It turns on fine; however, it does not show any readings of anything showing that it produces power. I checked the voltage regulator fuse there is continuity. The one thing I'm thinking of is the field flash circuit.
 
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