Portable Diesel Generator Recommendations?

[Sawyer Rob]

Made me wonder what harm wet stacking actually does? Fowl up the Turbo which none of my gennies have, or the muffler?

I have a lot of diesels around here, and I've NEVER seem even one of them wet stack, even when run lightly loaded for many hours on end. The only wet stacking I've ever seen was on OLD diesels, never once on anything newer...

I'll bet the wet stacking "myth" will carry on just like the "diesels don't start in the cold" myth!!

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have a 3000 Watt Telecom Inverter all wired in with a manual transfer switch behind my automatic switch. But the 48 volt battery bank died and I have been "MEANING" to make an Anderson connector off of my 48 volt E-Gator. In the back of my mind, is the thought that by many days end, the Gator is 1/2 discharged. Not a good place to start for back-up. ALSO, I think the Telecom inverter is not very efficient. Idling, it probably uses a good amount of power. I do like it though. It's BIG, Heavy and transformer based, right up my alley! It runs my fridge/freezers all night, and the water pump no problem. ONE major issue. It has never liked the power from a generator as the frequency has to be spot on or it won't accept it. SO I have never been able to charge my battery bank off a generator with this unit. I tried to go in there to defeat the frequncy monitoring but can't get a proper schematic.



I just wish that the lighting circuits in the house were not mixed in with everything else. Then put a small UPS at the panel. With modern LED lighting that wouldn't take much of a battery. It would also be nice, because on an outage, you wouldn't be in the dark.

 

[LittleBill21]

I have a lot of diesels around here, and I've NEVER seem even one of them wet stack, even when run lightly loaded for many hours on end. The only wet stacking I've ever seen was on OLD diesels, never once on anything newer...

I'll bet the wet stacking "myth" will carry on just like the "diesels don't start in the cold" myth!!

SR

might want to talk the MEP guys, almost every single unit they get in has the "myth" wet stack. they show pictures of them blowing out all the carbon a lot on steel soldiers.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I wish someone would take apart MEP generators and reveal how unique or different they are and what one might have to be a-scared (lol) of. I love the concept and no-expense-spared designs, but have little interest in having anything with hard to find (or non existent) parts and components.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Made me wonder what harm wet stacking actually does? Fowl up the Turbo which none of my gennies have, or the muffler?

Really, I wish I had a house with a totally seperate Emergency lighting system. Probably run on an inverter. Because, a the end of the day, no matter how many generators I may have, when I decide to shut them off, I am in the dark.

I have wall hung oil lamps and candle sconces for navigation lights. I also have two Aladdin lamps and four LED camp lanterns. We don't leave the Aladdins untended, because we have dogs in the house, but wall hung stuff is above animal height and pretty safe. We have a little wall hung oil candle in the hallway that lights the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

One of the Aladdin lamps has a glass shade that diffuses the light nicely. The LED lanterns are obnoxious to look at on high. I'm puzzling over how to put a shade on or around them. I suppose I could just set a lamp shade over them. Batteries are not a problem, because alkalines have such a long shelf life. I keep a large shoebox full of batteries, which will keep a house lit for weeks. Plus, I have a dozen of the Hardly Fraught $2 mini flashlights scattered all over, in vehicles, night stands, junk drawers, etc.

My objection to generators is the freaking noise. Most of the time at my house the only sound is water in the creek and wind in the trees. I'm thinking about cobbling together a battery inverter system charged by a lawnmower engine running an automotive alternator. With a couple deep cycle batteries it would run the house for hours with no engine noise. I just bought an LED 4k smart TV that only pulls 60 watts.

 

[radios1]

I've seen very good military surplus generators go for cheap!. talk about quality.. U.S. G.I. 3kW Diesel Generator MEP-831A

 

[Industrial Toys]

My main genny sits in the corner of my garage/shop. A bit noisy to work in there with it going.



Outside, it's just a gentle purrrr.

My almost finished Onan 7.5 Inverter Quiet Diesel is so quiet, you can have a quiet conversation at the gnerator!

 

[ponytug]

I wish someone would take apart MEP generators and reveal how unique or different they are and what one might have to be a-scared (lol) of. I love the concept and no-expense-spared designs, but have little interest in having anything with hard to find (or non existent) parts and components.

Well, yes, it is one of those spare no expense designs, and the parts are mostly mil-surplus. So, yes, not trivial to get, but not impossible, either. The basic generator is Onan, but the wiring...well let's just say they are wired entirely with white wires, and the master switch is custom.

But, they are well built, quiet diesel generators.

Yes the Army wet-stacked a bunch of them, but then stripped them down and rebuilt many them, so you can get very low hour units, some post rebuild, some just plain never used.

Wet stacking isn't a myth, and it can do quite a bit of damage to the exhaust, and valves due to carbon deposits.

You have to want to do your own service, and be willing to spend time on Steel Soldiers and other websites hunting down advice and parts.

YMMV....

All the best,

Peter

 

[Industrial Toys]

All Onan Generators are wired with white wire and have printed numbers the entire length of the wire. Nice for troubleshooting. That's where the niceness ends though. Onan always seemed to wire things in very odd fashion if you ask me. Like wiring relays in series.

 

[TractorGuy]

I've been running a MEP803A for a few years. Bought it with 2600 hours on the clock for just under $1200 after fees. I did have to make a 500 mile trip to pick it up.

The year after I bought it Purto Rico got hit and auction prices went through the ceiling. I saw a low hour unit sell for $5700 today.

I run mine on a resistive load bank at 40 amps for an hour every month. I am told the wet stacking problem only happens after many hours of low load use. Mine had no signs of it and hasn't been a problem even when run for 5 days straight. During an extended outage we will pick a day to bake cookies to load it for a while. My house is popular during outages.