US army generators

[honda lee]

I am looking at getting an old 5 or 10kw  diesel genset. Tell me what you know!
I.E. Pluses or minuses, fuel consumption and so on. Thanks

[dieselgman]

What maker/s did you have in mind?

dieselgman

[oliveone]

For most people old army generators would be MEP 002 5 KW or MEP 003 10 KW. Do a google search mep 002 or mep 003. These are build like a tank and can pull at least 25 over rating with no issue all day long. There are a lot of parts available as most of them are at least 20 years old. They are for sale all the time on government auction sites. Only issue that I know of is that the glow plugs are hard to find new or used!! 5KW is about .55 GPH at full load, an 10KW about 1.0 GPH at full load.

The next newer generators are MEP 802 5KW, an MEP 803 10KW. These are call tactical quite generators. Engines are marked as an Onan but they are Lister Petter. These are great engines. These newer ones have a sound enclose and lots of new hardware. I have seen these run for over 10,000 in the army without any big issues. Yes change the oil at least every 500 hours.  These generators can only pull up to their rated power. If you over load them they will shut down for over load safety. I have a MEP 803 and it runs great. MEP 803 can power my whole house to include Lights, Microwave, stove, oven, hot water boiler, well pump, septic pump, dishwasher, AC. I do not use the dryer when on Gen backup.

Garry do you see any of these when you are working up north?

For more info on these generators check out the steel soldier forum
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/forumdisplay.php?55-Auxiliary-Equipment

hope this will help you out.

Oliveone

[dieselgman]

I am familiar with the Cummins/Onan branded Lister. Yes, they are quite tidy and sophisticated little packages! As far as the Lister LPW engine goes - we consider it only good for emergency standby and never a prime-power set. 10,000 hours would be pushing its limits without a lot of maintenance work as far as I have seen. The same engines are common in construction generators and welders as well as the DitchWitch line of horizontal drilling rigs. About 6,000 hours is time to start watching them very closely... they are not built like the old antiques commonly touted on this site that will run out 40,000 hours or more. I will have to look up who the manufacturer is for the MEP 002 and 003.

dieselgman

[dieselgman]

The older designations MEP002 MEP003 appear to be Onan air-cooled units... I have seen quite a few of them around but never did a whole lot of work on any of them. They are an aged and outdated model but I believe they had a very good track record and reputation. Parts could be challenging these days as far as I know.

I have some slightly newer Teledyne 4-cylinder military sets that are just magnificent in their design... Continental air-cooled engines that look like mini-aircraft engines - horizontally opposed. Extremely complex control and configuration electronics, all in a lightweight aluminum self-contained package. Our military clearly spared no expense on these!

dieselgman

[honda lee]

Thanks for the info. I was looking at the government auctions and they are very cheap. I was thinking about buying for my son in law for our homestead. What about running on veggie?

[Thob]

Be sure that you can inspect the generator before you buy it.  I've seen people selling stuff they bought at gov auctions only to find out that it had a thrown rod or burned out gen head.  In my case, the auction sites are too far away to justify two trips, one to inspect then one to pick up if I buy.  That would eat up all I would save on the generator.

And yes, the gov generators really are bullet proof.  Quite literally!

Some of the MEP-002 and 003 units come with an Acoustic Suppression Kit - or ASK.  You'll probably want one with that to cut down on the noise.  Those air cooled engines can rattle like barrel full of hammers!

[bandmiller2]

I have several gov. gennys  all gasoline the big one is four cyl. 110/220v single or three phase runs nice but goes through fuel like an old big block dragster. The small ones are rated for 12 amp and are handy for remoate tool use. You must be carefull with the small ones some were 28v. ,pulled the engine off one of those for my log splitter. The shielded spark plugs are expensive and hard to find unless your near the military. Be aware big diesel gensets can be found reasonable ,in fact, cheaper than small units from hospitals and municipal buildings. When they build a new facility they rarely use the old genny and their too big for joe homeowner. Frank C.