MilSpecThree
New member
- 18
- 0
- 0
- Location
- Madison FL
It started with a storm....
As we wander through life, we often are influenced by many things outside our control, and this hurricane season got me thinking... do I have the right generator that will carry me through an extended power outage? As I considered the answer to that question, I took inventory of my current back up power assets.. solar panels on the roof, large battery bank, noisy 3,600 rpm big box 5,500 watt gasoline generator, big bulk tank of diesel for farm tractors, not bad, but could be better.
Then Irma hit. 4 days without grid power. Our solar needs sunshine to generate power (as if you didn’t know this already) and we had overcast days during the storm and the day after requiring that the gas generator run. We keep a good stock of full five gallon gas cans on hand for mowers, golf carts, chain saws, etc. but at a one gallon burn per hour we need to be judicious in our generator run times. So about 12 hours of runtime, divided up in a few hour segments throughout the day to charge the battery bank and run the well pump. Once we got sun, that runtime dropped to about 3 hours after dark to fully top off battery bank, and another few hours in the morning before the sun came up to keep all the refrigeration running. In 4 days we used 38 gallons of gasoline, and sure got tired of hearing that noisy thing run.
I had always planned on a generator shed with a diesel genset, this now was the prompt I needed to get that plan in action. I started searching online for diesel gens, and eventually stumbled onto Steel Soldiers.. oh man, here comes another storm! Green, Tan, and Camo! I devoured page after page of information, marveling at the incredible knowledge based on SS. Wow, y’all are some smart folks! I settled on a MEP-002A and started shopping! After a few week search, I found a SS member that had an immaculate 002 with M116A2 trailer and only 4 hours on the clock! I have no way of knowing if the hours are 100% accurate, but looking at the unit, it’s clean enough to eat off of. It had the spin on fuel and oil filter upgrades, and came with aux tank accessories. The SS member I purchased it from was a true gentleman and shared the history of the unit along with several great lessons on how to start and how maintain the unit. Lots of compelling reasons to purchase from a SS member for sure!
So a 13 hour round trip went smoothly (I know, I know.. it would have made a more interesting read if we had flat tires, locusts, hail, and pestilence) and the MEP-002A was at its new home on the farm. It’s still in my workshop, and I’m exercising and breaking it in based on the recommendations I’ve gained from everyone here! Next up, building a generator shed and permanently wiring into the system (our solar system use a Xantrex inverter/controller that has, auto-switching, generator input and anti islanding, along with an auto start, but for now, I think I’ll just start the gen manually). I’ll try and post a thread on construction of gen shed as it happens.
I’m planning on attending Georgia Rally, hope to meet some of you in person there.
Thanks for reading and for sharing all of your knowledge so willingly!
p.s. now I want a deuce, here comes another storm! (Anyone got a nice late model AF M35A2C they want to sell at a reasonable price?)
As we wander through life, we often are influenced by many things outside our control, and this hurricane season got me thinking... do I have the right generator that will carry me through an extended power outage? As I considered the answer to that question, I took inventory of my current back up power assets.. solar panels on the roof, large battery bank, noisy 3,600 rpm big box 5,500 watt gasoline generator, big bulk tank of diesel for farm tractors, not bad, but could be better.
Then Irma hit. 4 days without grid power. Our solar needs sunshine to generate power (as if you didn’t know this already) and we had overcast days during the storm and the day after requiring that the gas generator run. We keep a good stock of full five gallon gas cans on hand for mowers, golf carts, chain saws, etc. but at a one gallon burn per hour we need to be judicious in our generator run times. So about 12 hours of runtime, divided up in a few hour segments throughout the day to charge the battery bank and run the well pump. Once we got sun, that runtime dropped to about 3 hours after dark to fully top off battery bank, and another few hours in the morning before the sun came up to keep all the refrigeration running. In 4 days we used 38 gallons of gasoline, and sure got tired of hearing that noisy thing run.
I had always planned on a generator shed with a diesel genset, this now was the prompt I needed to get that plan in action. I started searching online for diesel gens, and eventually stumbled onto Steel Soldiers.. oh man, here comes another storm! Green, Tan, and Camo! I devoured page after page of information, marveling at the incredible knowledge based on SS. Wow, y’all are some smart folks! I settled on a MEP-002A and started shopping! After a few week search, I found a SS member that had an immaculate 002 with M116A2 trailer and only 4 hours on the clock! I have no way of knowing if the hours are 100% accurate, but looking at the unit, it’s clean enough to eat off of. It had the spin on fuel and oil filter upgrades, and came with aux tank accessories. The SS member I purchased it from was a true gentleman and shared the history of the unit along with several great lessons on how to start and how maintain the unit. Lots of compelling reasons to purchase from a SS member for sure!
So a 13 hour round trip went smoothly (I know, I know.. it would have made a more interesting read if we had flat tires, locusts, hail, and pestilence) and the MEP-002A was at its new home on the farm. It’s still in my workshop, and I’m exercising and breaking it in based on the recommendations I’ve gained from everyone here! Next up, building a generator shed and permanently wiring into the system (our solar system use a Xantrex inverter/controller that has, auto-switching, generator input and anti islanding, along with an auto start, but for now, I think I’ll just start the gen manually). I’ll try and post a thread on construction of gen shed as it happens.
I’m planning on attending Georgia Rally, hope to meet some of you in person there.
Thanks for reading and for sharing all of your knowledge so willingly!
p.s. now I want a deuce, here comes another storm! (Anyone got a nice late model AF M35A2C they want to sell at a reasonable price?)
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