True.

Back in mid 90's we had snow/ice storm go thru upsate South Carolina, the power was off for 7 - 8 days in our little area.  And cold as all get out, snow stayed on ground through the entire week.  I wired mom & Dad house and several aunt/uncle houses for transfer switch/generators.  The power has not been off an hour but once since then and only maybe 4-5 hours that one time.  Great investment.

It was cool though that one time to drive several miles in total darkness across the country side to Mom & Dad's, round the curve and see every light in the house on as well as outside on the poles.  I have to confess a right prideful moment in seeing that.


ETA:  Great buy OP.  You'll enjoy having it.

I purchased MEP-1040 which is a 10KW Cummins military genset.
It is a beast.
I paid 4k for it with 5 hours on the clock. it was brand new sans the test run time.
It runs the entire all electric house and well.
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Nice!

Nice! You fancy!  Now you need a 2nd one for parts.

Where would I start looking to buy one in Tennessee area? Seems we have the pro's here.

I love that.

This is SORT of what I ad in mind for my generator set up. It’s a 100 gallon generator base / fuel tank. This one is very well built, made from heavy guage  stainless steel, and super heavy, weighs approx 700lbs .

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However… it’s not what I’m looking for and this one’s not big enough for my generator to sit on, or tall enough to raise the generator to the height I want. I want to raise the bottom of my generator approx 24” - 30” off the floor, to help make maintenance easier, which will also give the fuel tank a approx capacity of 200 - 264 gallons, which will power this generator approx 200 - 264 hours / 12 hours / 12 gallons a day for approx 16 - 22 days. Or running 8 hours a day for 25 - 33 days.

Realistically, after a week of no power, with long term outages expected of weeks / months, we would cut the big generator use to maybe 2 hours a day, for laundry, and hot showers, and run a 2000 watt inverter for constant power needs, for fridges / freezers / a few lights / internet, which burns approx 1 gallon of gasoline  every 8-10 hours. 7 gallons a week / 28 gallons for a month of necessities, and the big generator will run 2 hours a day providing hot water, clean laundry, power, etc for 100 - 132 days  / up to 4 months  at that level of long term / minimal usage.  

Iv seen several commercial style generator bases of 200-500 gallons, but cheapest used one Iv seen was approx $1000.00. Simply too expensive. I have a full 4x10 sheet of 1/4” diamond plate steel left over from my gun safe uparmor project, I will probably just custom build my own fuel tank base out of that diamond plate, that way I can build it EXACTLY to my own needs, capacity, height, width, length, etc. have a fuel guage built into it, anchors to bolt the fuel tank base to the conex  floor,  bolt generator to the fuel tank base, etc. weld it out of 1/4” diamondplate , and I can pour a gallon f that plastic / polymer chemical fuel tank liner / coat inside to coat the steel to prevent rust.


Another thing I’m planning, is installing a few vents in the conex, one vent in each door, for air intake and one in the rear wall for exhaust, and a ventilation fan that runs off generator power for air flow / cooling, blowing air out the back wall. The generator starts, fan kicks on and circulates air across generator as long as it’s running.  I’ll wire the generator for 110 house power, install a few outlets ( to power a trickle charger, ) and 4’ led lighting, then run a 110 line off the generator to run the fan upon start up. Then I can back feed generator produced power from the garage circuit breaker back to the conex for those outlets / lighting during outages.

You can try to buy one via DRMO, but that’s a online auction type event , can take a while, require a long drive to recover, and still be questionable as you might not be able to run it / test it.

Facebook marketplace / eBay are probably your best bets,  search for military generator, 5kw, 10kw, 15kw, whole house generator, commercial generator, etc. it will pull up those closest to you, usually out to 250 miles and less. Same for eBay, try to find a close sell or who will let you pick it up / inspect it. Both will show individuals with a single unit, up to dealers with dozens.  Facebook is probably the cheaper / easier option though vs eBay.

Id hunt for only low hour units, which should really cut down on possible issues, ask questions , inspect it for signs of abuse, damage, rodent damage, test run it, test it with a load to make sure it’s producing electricity, etc.

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I just looked at most of those listings.

Make sure to look at the data plate for two items:  Single phase-operable (most will be 3ph or 1ph capable) and 60 hz; there are a number of 3 phase-only and/or 400 Hz generators on that page.  Be very wary if no data plate is shown in the pics; there is a reason the genset is so cheap.

Why not 3 phase?

My buddy has a mep-004a , 3 phase unit and runs his house on 120/208. He just uses 2 legs . He said he's going to utilize the other leg for lighting to balance it out.

I know my A/C has a 240 or 208 name plate on it.

Also if you for some reason bought a large 3 phase machine you could run it too.

My dad has an older Detroit Diesel model, it is three phase capable and he uses it at the shop  for ancient 3 phase equipment,  because 3 phase in not provided in our area? Common on the west coast, rarer past the meridian I guess?

Maybe its one of those WWII, things that in industrious areas improvements to infrastructure were made and the general population bennifits, and less industrial areas just made due with what was needed. However it is a thirsty bitch, but it will power half a block in an emergency but being a DD, she needs a load and wants to scream!

I don’t have enough 1/4” diamondplate for the base fuel tank build.


Local guy has 5.5x8.5 sheets of 1/4” diamond plate for $100.00 !  $100.00 is what I paid for my 4x10 sheets of 1/4” diamond plate 3 years ago, but this guys only 30 miles away, where last time I had to drive to Louisville to get them.  Yes, 1/4” steel is way overkill, but for $100 I can build a tank from 1/4” and buying enough 3/16 , etc to build one would cost 2-3x more at a minimum, around $400.00 for 2 full sheets of it, ( yup it’s $200 a 4x8 sheet, vs $100 counting the sheet I already have.

I’m Trying to buy a sheet of this guys 1/4” steel but  dude hasn’t answered any messages yet, come on dude, answer ! I just need one sheet, and I can build a 68” L x 33” W x 24” tall fuel tank base, which should hold 250 gallons. The rear will extend out 6”-10” past the general where I can put the gas cap / fill nozzle and fuel guage. Prefer a 12 vt electric guage set up I can mount a guage on the panel, or tie the existing guage into the 250 gallon base tank for easy viewing of fuel capacity.

Also considered just using the 250 gallon base as a storage tank and not connected to the big tank. Reason being, you should check these generators on a regular basis, check fuel, coolant, etc, and being forced to refuel it every 8 hours when the interior 8 gallon tank runs dry is a good time to check oil, coolant, etc.

Hmm.  

Probably tie generator into the big tank, so I can run it for extended periods if need be,  but generally only use interior 8 gallon and refuel it every 8 hours for maintenance.

It will get old refueling in rain/snow. Even air cooled I run for 16-24 hours, shutdown for oil / fuel, etc. The air cooled standby generators run for more than 8 hours safely.

Completely not a problem with an 803a generator.  They have an external fuel draw point with internal automatic transfer pump system.  With a 50-100 gallon aux take, you could run 100% output for 2-4 days or 50% output for 4-8 days.

Really, you are only limited by the oil service intervals.

Ordered an operator manual today, that covers basic items, operations, maintenance, etc.  I tracked down a hard copy as didn’t want a pdf, next month I’ll get a hard copy repair / rebuild manual too to have a full set of books for this thing, to keep it operational. Probably look for common repair parts / deals and pick up a few extras, as well as some spare filters, hoses, etc.

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Trying to work a deal on this commercial generator fuel tank base,

Approx size is 9’L x 3’ W x 20” tall.   The length is a little long, but the width is perfect at 36” as my generator is only 32” wide. I’d rather this thing be 2.5’ shorter and 6” taller, but over all I think it would work nicely for this.

I’m guessing around 400 gallons? Maybe 500 ?

Wants $300.00.   Which is pretty cheap, only seen two so far, one was $1500.00 and one was $600.00 and both were 4 hour drives each way. hell,  just buying the steel to build one the size I want 6’6” L x 36” W x 24” tall 1/8 or 3/16 would cost me at least $500-$600.00, so yes, this is very attractive for this project, as long as it doesn’t have any rust issues, etc.

9’ is a little long for my 10’ conex, but looks like I could chop a foot off of this pretty easily to save space.


@Rock_Ranger.    Thoughts ?

I could add a couple pieces of channel iron to the top of this tank, and slide my generator directly onto them / secure with cross pins / bolts , run a fuel line into it and have a stand by generator with 400-500 gallons of diesel in a base tank .

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This.

Slept next to three MEP-806b (60kw 3PH) 50ft away powering our 10-man compound 24/7.  One always running to power the compound (208/200A), one on digital standby for firing up our mission equipment  (480v/100A), and one off for service… every 7-9 days you rotated one out for service.  Gen swap was seamless with phase-aligning automatic transfer switches on our power distribution setup.  

Thirsty MFr’s … we had a 500gal tank and each had its own 40gal internal tank and we had the tank topped off every 3-5 days, but running max rated load they could drink all 580gal in about 2-1/2 days.

In the rare rare instance they all turned off, especially at night, the silence was deafening and disconcerting after you’ve been living and sleeping with RRRRRRRRRR for months.  The dead silence of no generators and no tent EVUs would wake you up.

That tank would be perfect.

I’d be worried how well those tanks seal.

Just buy a pair of sealed 55gal drums.  The diesel will stay good for a LONG time.  Diesel is not like gas, as long as you keep diesel dry and sealed off from the elements, it will keep.

The MEP have pumps built into them to transfer fuel from plain external tanks/bladders, so your fuel storage doesn’t have to get fancy.

It’s not exactly what I was planning on building / having, but the savings in money, time and effort would make it “ good enough “ by a large margin.  

My original design was 3/16 steel, 6’6” long x 36” WIde x 24” tall. Approx 250 gallons and would raise the generator high enough to make maintenance much easier.

This ones much longer ( although I can probably cut it down to approx 7-8’  ( for more room inside the conex ) if the guys 9’ long description is accurate, width is good, height a little short at 18” but not bad, and I think a 400 gallon capacity.   CORRECTION….. I calculated it, guessing 8’ tank x 18” x 36” = 269 gallons approx, so this is very similar in capacity to what my home made version would be, this one’s just a bit shorter and longer than my design, but this one’s approx $400 cheaper right off the bat. So that’s a huge +

Very close to this one… which is 500 gallons. But I think this one’s a bit bigger.

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We worked out a deal, I’m heading out to his house in about a hour.

Of course it’s a two hour fifteen minute drive, and I will have to cross a time zone and drive thru Louisville up into Indiana, which sucks ass. EVERY single damn thing I find on Facebook is almost ALWAYS 2 hours away. Fuck.

The guy says no leaks, pump works fine, the tank has some old fuel in it, which is good as it will help show leaks he has a loader to load it onto my arfcom buddies @Godzookie borrowed 12’ trailer so that’s helpful, and he’s already marked it sold, I should arrive a few minutes after he gets home from work too.

His only actual measurement is 9’ length, the width / height is a guess, so this tank could be wider / taller than the current guess of 260 gallons, ir could be a 500 gallon tank like I posted above, I really won’t know until I get there, but either size is fine, if it’s 36” wide and 260 gallons it works, and if it’s 48” wide and 500 gallons that works too. Just makes putting it inside a 8’x10’ conex a little more snug and reduces the walking room to 24” on each side, but that should be fine.

Got it !  

3/16 steel,  heavy sucker, id guess about 700- 800lbs minimum  as i cant pick up a end at all.

measurements are 92"L x 32" W x 16" deep,  holds 203 gallons. Perfect size really as the fuel tanks 32" wide and generator is 32" wide as well, so no wasted space and no extra space taking up extra room.

Manual pump on it with about 20' of hose and a nozzle.

Needs to be cleaned up and painted, and ill need to figure out the in tank fuel guage / float, planning on mounting a fuel guage of some kind on the generator for the base tank. Maybe possible to put a switch on it to use generator oem guage and switch between tanks to show fuel levels on tank in use, etc. Hmm.

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Awesome score.

Thanks OP, now I'm looking at auctions for a generator for me!

Thanks for sharing!

Thx !

I measured it earlier, generators 3’ tall, and base is 18”, so once generator is mounted onto the base it will put the top of the generator at approx eyeball level to me ( 5’8”).

Puts control panel about chest high, and will make maintenance / operation much easier.  I’ll run the exhaust out the ceiling of the conex and add some ventilation fans and 4’ led  lights and have a nice little generator shed.

I probably don’t have too but..

This tank is approx 30 years old, so right now I’m  planning on cutting it open, inspecting it, grinding / sanding out any rust, moving any openings / spouts / fuel hook up spots / fuel guage etc if need be, then  closing it back up and pouring in a gallon or so of gas tank liner epoxy, and turn it as needed to fully coat the insides with epoxy.

After which it should basically be a new fuel tank and last another 40 years easily.

Take me a few days of work, and cost of the epoxy, but I think it’s worth the effort to remove any chances of future leaks or rust in the fuel system.  I was already planning on adding a couple large fuel filters and a big water separator to the system, and treat fuel with additives, algicide, etc, this just starts me off with a clean tank and helps reduce future problems.

I want to see video of you spinning that tank in three dimensions.

That’s what tractors with loaders are for.

Be a good excuse for me to buy myself a bore light / endoscope so I can peek inside and make sure everything gets coated completely.

In a hurricane situation that solar will more than likely be destroyed. Ego has nothing to do with back up power. Either you have enough to do what is needed or you do not.  Bigger 1800 rpm water cooled generators naturally handle start up loads and continue operation much better than air cooled 3600 rpm.  Military generators tend to run rated kw for long term with less problems becase they are built for that with your money and not designed to be cheap.

@jaqufrost

I think we're going to do the same. Have a 7.5kw or 10kw Generac installed when the buried LP tank is put in and we'll use that to run some stuff in the house if we lose power, but it wouldn't be expected to provide a "whole house, act like nothing's wrong" power solution. We'd like to get 1-2 Powerwalls (or similar amount of non-Tesla batteries) and roof mounted solar panels in the year or two after. That way the generator is only running to charge the batteries vice burning LP just waiting for a load. Figure if we can feed to the grid under normal operation, even better.

How big of a solar/battery system did you go with and what did it cost, if you don't mind sharing?

I currently have 30kwh of batteries, 15.4kwh of panels and two 50 amp (100 amp peak) inverters. With elevated racking for the panels (I can park my vehicles under them) I spent about $22k. Should come to ~$15,400 after the tax rebate.

I still use some electricty from the grid as the inverters default to grid power as soon as they reach 100 amps of draw. I'll probably add a third inverter ($1500) to bump it to 150 amps before it starts borrowing from the grid.

I'm producing enough to cover my regular power needs in spring and summer, but if I want to cover winter electric heating I'll need to increase my battery bank size and add some more panels. I'll probably slowly expand to 20kwh of panels and 60kwh of batteries. Batteries have been coming down steadily over the last two years, so I'm hopeing that trend will continue.

Most my panels are Huyandai 305w models (I bought a pallet from Signature Solar). My inverters and batteries are EG4.

@sleepercaprice1

Which generator did you go with?

Just researched the pump.

Pump $250.00 on Amazon.

Filter.....$58.00 Amazon.

Nozzle ...$25.00 Amazon,

So total for pump / filter / nozzle approx $333.00 not counting hose.

Only paid $300 for everything,  so, id say I came out great on this deal !

Ill keep a pump on thos tank, probably a electric one for draining fuel out, to make rotating fuel easier. I'll get a 100 gallon transfer tank and harbor freight trailer kit and build myself a fuel trailer for refueling,  a truck mounted one won't work as I cant get my truck to the generator spot, but I can hook the trailer to my small kubota tractor and get to it that way.

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Little clean up.

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The local dealer I bought mine from reps Briggs and Stratton, Generac, Kohler and Champion. He strongly recommended Champion. That's the one I went with. He's a local guy in a small town so his reputation is on the line. While not the cheapest, Champion has the best warantee and best parts availability, according to the dealer. He's a one man shop and installs everything he sells. We've had a couple power outages since installation and the unit worked flawlessly.

The local dealer I bought mine from reps Briggs and Stratton, Generac, Kohler and Champion. He strongly recommended Champion. That's the one I went with. He's a local guy in a small town so his reputation is on the line. While not the cheapest, Champion has the best warantee and best parts availability, according to the dealer. He's a one man shop and installs everything he sells. We've had a couple power outages since installation and the unit worked flawlessly.

Thanks. Looks like the generator sells online for ~$4500. Presume labor and supporting parts are pricey for an install after your house is already built? Hoping to save a little by having one installed when the buried LP tank goes in and using the same company for both.

That is exactly how I end up doing things. I guess you can't say nothing went to plan if you have no plan, so there's that.

My Well is on a 20A@240V Breaker and about 300ft deep.  That little 10Hp Yanmar Diesel grunted, but started it.  If I can get water and run a Window AC after a Tornado, I'm good with cold showers and cooking on a fire/grill outside.  Ice Storm duty we have a wood stove that we heat with 95% of the time.

question since we are down the rabbit hole a ways now and i have not seen any mention of it.... what are you guys doing about polishing the diesel fuel?

Not sure what you mean…. But I’m guessing you mean rotate old fuel / stabilize the fuel.

But I’ll be adding additives , algicide, etc to help keep it fresh, keep the tank full to limit air space, put together a REALLY good fuel filter set up, and rotating the older fuel thru my two kubota tractors and replacing it with fresh diesel. Even replacing 1/2 the fuel ( 100 gallons ) with fresh fuel should help a lot. Maybe even get myself a diesel truck , diesel side by side or little vw diesel car as well to help rotate fuel, in addition to the benefits of a diesel truck / car / side by side.

I’ll probably pick up a 300 gallon tank for the farm, and build myself a little fuel trailer with a 100-300 gallon fuel tank. I’ll use that to haul fuel from gas station to the house / generator to fuel it. Use it to drain the generator tank , haul it to the farm tank, and to refill the generator tank.  A normal truck transfer tank won’t work, because I can’t get my truck to the generator spot easily, but I can hook the trailer to my kubota 4x4 lawn tractor and pull it right to the generator shed easily.

Most of this project is getting the infrastructure laid, shed, fuel tank, cables hooked into the buildings, etc. so don the road, if the 10kw isn’t enough, I can get a 15kw generator and slide it into where the 10kw used to be. But I think the 10kw will be plenty, especially if I swap the heat, water heater, etc from electric to propane.

Got my reproduction military generator manual.

Was a little hesitant to order this, as often reproduction are not very good quality,  blurry, hard to read, etc.

However, this one's as good as I saw in the military, great quality, his is a basic operators manual, covering moving, towing, sling loading, setting it up properly, grounding it, hooking up power cables,  operation of it / how everything works, controls, dos, donts, as well as routine maintenance,  filters, fuel, things to watch for, and trouble shooting of basic problems.

I will be ordering the next manual today which is more depot level maintenance,  trouble shooting for repairs, finding bad components,  replacing them and even covers full rebuild as well.

Operator manual.

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Just ordered the rebuild manual.

That's what's REALLY nice about military equipment,  full manuals are pretty easy to get and cheap as well. Vs commercial equipment,  which seems to hide access to their manuals, impossible or very expensive to get as they try and force you to use their repair techs for all servicing of said equipment.

Be here next week.  Www. Portrayalpress.com is GTG...

Manuals have PMCS charts in the back, so I can have grandkids learn about PMCS of generators, lawn mowers, their bicycles, etc

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Think my next item on the list will be to put together a fuel trailer, for hauling fuel for fueling the generator and general farm use.  I can put this together via trading a few items, where as the conex / electrician / generator set up will require actual cash which I won’t have until around october. Unless I find a electrician willing to work in exchange for guns )

This popped up locally, 3’x4’, looks to be a cut down 8’ trailer. The 3’x4’ looks ridiculous, however.. it’s just the right size to put a 100 gallon transfer tank on. ( 45”x24”. ).

Going to see if I can trade a ruger 10/22 for it.

Also found a 100 gallon tank with electric pump I might try and trade for too.

I might not end up with these EXACT items, trailer / fuel tank, but I’ll have something similar by the time I’m done, as well as a fuel tank / tool box combo mounted in my truck for hauling gasoline.

Trailer.

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100 gallon Fuel tank.  ( should fit perfectly on that trailer )

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Buck, are you in Western Kentucky?

My MEP 803-A , I've got a 100 gallon Freightliner diesel tank on wheels for whatever happens!

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Yup !  

Wheels definitely help, these suckers are heavy !

Don’t pay an electrician, I can drive up from Camden TN.and help you if electrical is going to be pricey.

Hey thanks !