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.