Won my first MEP-803a

[indy76]

I won a MEP-803 and I am picking it up on Thursday. Had a few questions about picking one up. Does the front tounge have a crank on it to raise and lower it or is it all muscle work? Is it well balanced that one person can lift it or do I need to bring someone to help me lift or lower it onto my pintle hook? Thanks for the help.

I attached a photo. I am pick up with a 1500 pick up.

 

[tburk49760]

My first meo803a came without a trailer. Really difficult to pick up...

 

[cuad4u]

If it is like mine, there is a fixed length "leg" that folds down and folds up and locks in position. There is no adjustable tongue jack.

 

[rhurey]

Mine (2012 trailer) was adjustable.

 

[rosco]

You can't depend on having a crank type tongue jack. A High Lift jack (in my day, they were called a "Handyman"), would make life tolerable, and they take up little room. I doubt that two people can lift the tongue on a generator trailer, especially if your hitch is lower & you have to lift & then fold the leg too, then let it down.

 

[DieselAddict]

Go buy one at your local farm supply or northern tool store. I bought one for under $40 that clamps on the tongue. Works great. You can install it in 20 min and hook up with ease.

 

[Guyfang]

If you bought a gen set on a trailer, whats the PU, (Power Unit) model number? There are several different types of trailer that could possibly carry the MEP-803A.

And yes, if only one gen MEP-803A is mounted on the trailer, one person can lift it. Not a problem. There is a PU that mounts two MEP-803a's and yes, you might be able to lift it by yourself. But you will not do it often, and it could make you look like you just induced a massive hernia. Normally, one person can hook this set up also, as long as the front jack leg works. Not always a given. Do you have a picture?

What kind of truck are you taking?

 

[indy76]

I just added a picture. Using a 1500 pick up.

 

[indy76]

If you bought a gen set on a trailer, whats the PU, (Power Unit) model number? There are several different types of trailer that could possibly carry the MEP-803A.

And yes, if only one gen MEP-803A is mounted on the trailer, one person can lift it. Not a problem. There is a PU that mounts two MEP-803a's and yes, you might be able to lift it by yourself. But you will not do it often, and it could make you look like you just induced a massive hernia. Normally, one person can hook this set up also, as long as the front jack leg works. Not always a given. Do you have a picture?

What kind of truck are you taking?

I attached a picture to my original post. I am taking a 1500 pick up. Thanks for the info.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,

Here is a link to the thread with some helpful information for your generator

MEP-8xx Replacement Parts Thread

 

[Chrispyny]

My on site contact (govplanet employee) helped me lift the tongue of mine onto my pintle. It wasn't bad. If you and a buddy go, it's easier. If it's just you, and the onsite contact helps you place the trailer on your truck, have a $10-20 bill at the ready in your front pocket to thank him.

A 1500 pickup is plenty. I had my 2009 ram 4x4 hemi, i could barely tell it was there.

Bring a 6" 3/8" bolt and lock nut with you. If the surge brakes aren't adjusted properly or siezed from long term sitting, you may want to lock out the brakes with the bolt. There is a 3/8" hole to place the bolt in at the front of the trailer. You may have to pull or push the pintle back or out to make room for the bolt. You will get what i mean when you see it. Bring a hammer to lightly pursuade the bolt in. It can be a tight fit. If your pintle sits low on your truck, it will trick the surge brakes into locking up prematurely and you will have a slightly skidding/hopping trailer. This happened to me but not enough for me to pull over and grab the bolt to lock out the brakes.
I brought a jar of axle grease, compressor, tool set, and small generator to run the compressor if required, a jack and jack stand and a box of nitrile gloves from harbor freight. My drive was from fort drum to albany. About 3.5 hours.
I did have to stop at the 30 min mark and load the bearings with additional grease. They were getting close to the point of very hot. I couldn't hold my hand on the hub for more than 3 seconds. The grease inside was fresh but i don't think there was enough, and i think the previous mechanic put to much preload on the bearings. Needless to say, boy was i happy i had tools. I didn't mess with preload as there was weight on the trailer, but i did mash as much grease inside the hub as i could. It seemed to help as the heat slowly reduced down to acceptable temps.
I was able to comfortably cruise at 65-70 no problem.
Think ahead, bring everything and a friend if possible, take your time, and you will have a pleasant recovery trip home. I did.

 

[indy76]

My on site contact (govplanet employee) helped me lift the tongue of mine onto my pintle. It wasn't bad. If you and a buddy go, it's easier. If it's just you, and the onsite contact helps you place the trailer on your truck, have a $10-20 bill at the ready in your front pocket to thank him.

A 1500 pickup is plenty. I had my 2009 ram 4x4 hemi, i could barely tell it was there.

Bring a 6" 3/8" bolt and lock nut with you. If the surge brakes aren't adjusted properly or siezed from long term sitting, you may want to lock out the brakes with the bolt. There is a 3/8" hole to place the bolt in at the front of the trailer. You may have to pull or push the pintle back or out to make room for the bolt. You will get what i mean when you see it. Bring a hammer to lightly pursuade the bolt in. It can be a tight fit. If your pintle sits low on your truck, it will trick the surge brakes into locking up prematurely and you will have a slightly skidding/hopping trailer. This happened to me but not enough for me to pull over and grab the bolt to lock out the brakes.
I brought a jar of axle grease, compressor, tool set, and small generator to run the compressor if required, a jack and jack stand and a box of nitrile gloves from harbor freight. My drive was from fort drum to albany. About 3.5 hours.
I did have to stop at the 30 min mark and load the bearings with additional grease. They were getting close to the point of very hot. I couldn't hold my hand on the hub for more than 3 seconds. The grease inside was fresh but i don't think there was enough, and i think the previous mechanic put to much preload on the bearings. Needless to say, boy was i happy i had tools. I didn't mess with preload as there was weight on the trailer, but i did mash as much grease inside the hub as i could. It seemed to help as the heat slowly reduced down to acceptable temps.
I was able to comfortably cruise at 65-70 no problem.
Think ahead, bring everything and a friend if possible, take your time, and you will have a pleasant recovery trip home. I did.

Awesome info thanks!!!! I made a 12 pin to 4 flat adapter for the lights also. I am lucky on distance, only an hour drive for me.

 

[Chrispyny]

Awesome info thanks!!!! I made a 12 pin to 4 flat adapter for the lights also. I am lucky on distance, only an hour drive for me.

Your adaptor won't work. The trailer is 24v.

Go to harbor freight and get one of these. I did. They are awesome and cheap and work great.

http://t.harborfreight.com/automoti.../12-volt-magnetic-towing-light-kit-63100.html

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
The military uses a 24 volt lighting system. The military uses a special vehicle and trailer plug. There are threads here with information about making changes. I myself have cut off the military plug and throw on a cheapie RV 7way plug. Yes, you are only using 4 wires. ground, left and right turn, and running. All the bulbs will also need to be swapped out to 12 volt bulbs. Other have said, to get it home, harbor freight has a quickie trailer light set which you simply plug into your truck and zip tie the lights onto the end, and zip tie the wires down and be on you way. You need to go to the pickup prepared for the worse. Tires flat, safety tow chains do not reach, lighting, brakes, axles, bearings, can it be towed home? or on a trailer itself home?

Either way, by looking at what you got. The unit looks good with a recent reset. I do not think they swapped out the hour meter. By the looks and running of the engine, there is no way that engine has almost 6000 hours on it. At least your inspector knew what they were doing. Good all around pictures, even showing the unit starting, and changing the ammeter to show single phase. Be careful about the exhaust cover flap. We are having some good rains around here the last few days and short future before you pick it up. At least you know it starts and runs.

Trailer = It looks because of the reset, you have that unit on a newer trailer. The tag shows a 2010 trailer. incandescent or led bulbs? I do not know from the views.

Pintle , lunette height = If the height remained the same from M101A3 trailers to the M1102 type trailers, the height is around 25 inches. There are some forum threads about truck connections. Here is my thread about a 2007 LTT-TQG lunette and pintle height info

Engine = looks good, you will want to pick up some 3.5mm yellow stripe fuel return line. Your fuel return line is weeping. Fuel return line thread

good luck

 

[Guyfang]

The PU set looks good. Take a good look under it, because they tend to use a forklift to move them around. Sometimes the trailers get damaged.

The jack handle may or may not be there. Cant see the other side of the set.

Its light enough, that even a 60 year year old man like me can roll it around on a flat floor, so you dont need anyone to help you. But a shotgun is always nice to have with you!

Nice looking set!

 

[87Nassaublue]

My first meo803a came without a trailer. Really difficult to pick up...

The GL guys I've been dealing with have been loading me out with a forklift. I have a little low riding 4X8 trailer all of mine have been fitting on. The biggest I can carry is one of these 803a's

 

[Sodamo]

My first meo803a came without a trailer. Really difficult to pick up...

Mine either, had to use forks on my tractor. A trailer would be nice.

 

[JRM]

I jumped both feet in at once on these MEP units and had only a few days to learn everything as my manager submitted my bid for me. (long story as I had 4 I pads in his office refreshing every auction as 6 of them went up at the same time) You will be fine, just get a pintle and a set of mag lights as described plus a compressor is handy as the tires on my unit were flat. I won my bid, that was 1000 miles away and only had my days off to fetch it so I left after work, grabbed some power bars- a pintle- water- 4 way lug wrench- mag mount lights and hit the road. Arrived at 445pm the next day just before closing, they were great, helped me lock the pintle and were very pleasant to deal with (yarmo CA yard) I opted for my fathers 1500 chevy as it does better at 90mph on the way down I5 empty on cali freeways than my 20 year old lifted dodge diesel with mud tires as the dodge 12v stock pump springs Defuel at 75MPH with its 2900 RPM redline. His chevy 1500 pulled it perfectly, I kept forgetting it was back there. Don't be afraid to hammer down as I held the speeds around 65 when I could have easily kept up with the 80MPH traffic. I pulled the unit threw 1 dust storm, 2 wind storms, a crazy blizzard then pouring rain with inches of standing water- and a few drive threws that have tracks in the flower beds now These tires are tough and track (no pun) perfectly!
I only stopped for fuel and a few naps, arrived home and started working on the unit. Did the 12v bulb swap and put on a 7 blade flat waterproof connector. You will love these units! I then put the unit in the bed of my truck and mounted a huge 330 Gallon square tote onto the trailer and now that's my fuel trailer. 330 gallons of fuel for my Mobile electric power!

 

[indy76]

Howdy,
The military uses a 24 volt lighting system. The military uses a special vehicle and trailer plug. There are threads here with information about making changes. I myself have cut off the military plug and throw on a cheapie RV 7way plug. Yes, you are only using 4 wires. ground, left and right turn, and running. All the bulbs will also need to be swapped out to 12 volt bulbs. Other have said, to get it home, harbor freight has a quickie trailer light set which you simply plug into your truck and zip tie the lights onto the end, and zip tie the wires down and be on you way. You need to go to the pickup prepared for the worse. Tires flat, safety tow chains do not reach, lighting, brakes, axles, bearings, can it be towed home? or on a trailer itself home?

Either way, by looking at what you got. The unit looks good with a recent reset. I do not think they swapped out the hour meter. By the looks and running of the engine, there is no way that engine has almost 6000 hours on it. At least your inspector knew what they were doing. Good all around pictures, even showing the unit starting, and changing the ammeter to show single phase. Be careful about the exhaust cover flap. We are having some good rains around here the last few days and short future before you pick it up. At least you know it starts and runs.

Trailer = It looks because of the reset, you have that unit on a newer trailer. The tag shows a 2010 trailer. incandescent or led bulbs? I do not know from the views.

Pintle , lunette height = If the height remained the same from M101A3 trailers to the M1102 type trailers, the height is around 25 inches. There are some forum threads about truck connections. Here is my thread about a 2007 LTT-TQG lunette and pintle height info

Engine = looks good, you will want to pick up some 3.5mm yellow stripe fuel return line. Your fuel return line is weeping. Fuel return line thread

good luck

Thanks again. I just added to the thread I started. Check it out.

 

[indy76]

So I did my load out today. Everything went fine. Iron Planet employee brought it right out to me on a fork truck and perfectly put it right on the pintle hitch. I hook up my 12 pin to 4 flat and it worked fine. I swapped out for 2 1156 bulbs and 2 #67 bulbs and they looked good. The engine looks great. There is a 11/2010 tier 2 reset plate on door, but there is another plate on the motor that shows a 5/2012 engine rebuild.

Also found a cool sticker on the door. It is really worn and the dates are gone but it a military shipping sticker. Is shows Operation Enduring Freedom Camp Arifjan Kuwait City shipped to either GA or DE, they are both on there. With the condition the motor I assuming it was rebuilt when it came back. Also the tank is bone dry, and there are balled up paper shop towels in the tank. I guess they are in there to dry up any old diesel that was in there.

Over all it was a great day. Thanks for all your help.