Smithsonite
Member
- 23
- 52
- 13
- Location
- Central MA
First off I want to publicly thank Light in the Dark, and kloppk for their help in getting me up to speed here. Light in the Dark sold me the unit - he's right up the road from me here in MA.
For the newbies out there, or anyone thinking of a military surplus gen set for standby use, kloppk's ingenious electronic creation is a friggin MASTERPIECE! Works as described, quality components, and has THE BEST instructions I've ever seen, and I've been turning wrenches and assembling everything from household furniture to motorcycles for decades. BIG thanks for all his hard work in designing, engineering, and building this amazing creation! Quality like this is tough to come by in the 21st century - a big part of the reason I quit the auto repair biz. When I see quality these days, after I get over my jaw dropping, I like to point out publicly where such things exist.
One huge bonus of kloppk's system is the ability to run the MUCH CHEAPER Generac transfer switch. When I did my dad's Kubota GL7000 install, I used an ASCO 185 unit. Very well built, great quality piece, but VERY expensive - almost 3x the cost of the Generac unit. For the longest time I though the only option for 2-wire auto start was the ASCO unit. I didn't understand how the Generac unit worked - seemed to me like you needed a Generac generator to have it work right. That's not the case with kloppk's system! He's designed a "card" - a circuit board that allows these MEP generators to work with Generac transfer switches. More wires (Besides the 4 for power) to hook up for the Generac auto start unit instead of just 2, but it works!
So, I used a Generac RXSC100A3 transfer switch, an Eaton BR2B100BRP 100A breaker between the utility & transfer switch (Bought both at Menards online), got 8/3 (Plus a 10 AWG ground), 18/6 wire from nassaunationalcable.com , found a flex pipe G4157202 at Zoro.com, and got a through-wall double-walled exhaust at genexhaust.com. The exhaust will be a work in progress until all the components come in for that. I found some cheap exhaust pipe at Summit Racing - got 15 feet for less than $50 shipped. Black iron pipe at Home Depot or Lowe's is $50 for 10', and I'd have to drive out there (Over a half hour one way). Also another work in progress is the auxiliary fuel line. Waiting for the hose to come in, then I'll decide on where I'm going to get the fuel from. The smart way would be up high, out of the sludge, but the cheap way would be from the bottom, through a filter and some adaptors. We'll see on that.
I had the week off, so I got this all done over the course of 6 days, taking my time. Fought a few battles. Getting the wire through my barn, and then through the fieldstone foundation took a LOT of time. Used no drills on either side! I found some rotted wood in the sill of the barn that looked like it was made for this cable run. Then I discovered a mouse hole in the fieldstone on the house side, and just followed that in. Took some major effort snaking that thick cable in through these small holes, but after at least 140 trips in and out of the house, I wrestled it through. My battle with 4/0 aluminum wire coming into the house was also LONG! Ended up sweaty, bloody, and tired, but I won! That stuff doesn't like to move much! After getting it where I needed it, I used Polaris connectors to step down that gigantic 4/0 wire to 4 AWG copper, so they'd fit into the 100A breaker. A note on that: I upgraded the house to 200A service back in '04. This was dumb! This house will never pull close to 100A at any given time. Besides, the 4/0 wires connect to 6 AWG wire off the utility pole! Useless. Was a waste of money. Didn't know a whole lot about electrical back then. The final battle was the 26 year old screws on some of the electrical connections in the generator. They were TOUGH! Thankfully none of them rounded off, probably thanks to my quality screwdrivers from my auto / small engine repair days.
Anyway, the MEP-802A generator is IMPRESSIVE!! I've been using a Yamaha EF6300iSDE inverter generator for the past 14 years. Only time I could run my dryer with that setup is if I shut EVERYTHING else off in the house, lights included. The 802A ran the dryer on the highest setting, with the kitchen light, basement lights, and 400 Watts of fluorescents out in my barn all on, and the gauge was only at 85% load! I couldn't believe it. This thing is BUILT!
During that load test my oil boiler attempted to kick on, which severely overloaded the unit and browned out the lights. I had to run back in the house and kill the dryer. This would've fried a box store generator to a cinder! Thought I could've done some damage with that, but it didn't miss a beat! Ran it for almost 45 minutes trying various loads out. Shut the main breaker off that I just installed (Simulating an outage), and in 1m:25s, the lights came back on under gen power. Flipping the breaker back to line was instantaneous, hardly a flicker in the lights, but the generator ran another 7 minutest to cool down.
VERY happy with this setup! This thing should outlast ME, lol. Plus with 3 heating oil tanks, I've got plenty to keep this thing fed for very extended outages. If you're thinking about getting one of these units, JUST DO IT!
Also just want to say how GREAT this forum is! Great group of guys on here! Super knowledgeable and super helpful! Thanks to everyone who answered my questions!
For the newbies out there, or anyone thinking of a military surplus gen set for standby use, kloppk's ingenious electronic creation is a friggin MASTERPIECE! Works as described, quality components, and has THE BEST instructions I've ever seen, and I've been turning wrenches and assembling everything from household furniture to motorcycles for decades. BIG thanks for all his hard work in designing, engineering, and building this amazing creation! Quality like this is tough to come by in the 21st century - a big part of the reason I quit the auto repair biz. When I see quality these days, after I get over my jaw dropping, I like to point out publicly where such things exist.
One huge bonus of kloppk's system is the ability to run the MUCH CHEAPER Generac transfer switch. When I did my dad's Kubota GL7000 install, I used an ASCO 185 unit. Very well built, great quality piece, but VERY expensive - almost 3x the cost of the Generac unit. For the longest time I though the only option for 2-wire auto start was the ASCO unit. I didn't understand how the Generac unit worked - seemed to me like you needed a Generac generator to have it work right. That's not the case with kloppk's system! He's designed a "card" - a circuit board that allows these MEP generators to work with Generac transfer switches. More wires (Besides the 4 for power) to hook up for the Generac auto start unit instead of just 2, but it works!
So, I used a Generac RXSC100A3 transfer switch, an Eaton BR2B100BRP 100A breaker between the utility & transfer switch (Bought both at Menards online), got 8/3 (Plus a 10 AWG ground), 18/6 wire from nassaunationalcable.com , found a flex pipe G4157202 at Zoro.com, and got a through-wall double-walled exhaust at genexhaust.com. The exhaust will be a work in progress until all the components come in for that. I found some cheap exhaust pipe at Summit Racing - got 15 feet for less than $50 shipped. Black iron pipe at Home Depot or Lowe's is $50 for 10', and I'd have to drive out there (Over a half hour one way). Also another work in progress is the auxiliary fuel line. Waiting for the hose to come in, then I'll decide on where I'm going to get the fuel from. The smart way would be up high, out of the sludge, but the cheap way would be from the bottom, through a filter and some adaptors. We'll see on that.
I had the week off, so I got this all done over the course of 6 days, taking my time. Fought a few battles. Getting the wire through my barn, and then through the fieldstone foundation took a LOT of time. Used no drills on either side! I found some rotted wood in the sill of the barn that looked like it was made for this cable run. Then I discovered a mouse hole in the fieldstone on the house side, and just followed that in. Took some major effort snaking that thick cable in through these small holes, but after at least 140 trips in and out of the house, I wrestled it through. My battle with 4/0 aluminum wire coming into the house was also LONG! Ended up sweaty, bloody, and tired, but I won! That stuff doesn't like to move much! After getting it where I needed it, I used Polaris connectors to step down that gigantic 4/0 wire to 4 AWG copper, so they'd fit into the 100A breaker. A note on that: I upgraded the house to 200A service back in '04. This was dumb! This house will never pull close to 100A at any given time. Besides, the 4/0 wires connect to 6 AWG wire off the utility pole! Useless. Was a waste of money. Didn't know a whole lot about electrical back then. The final battle was the 26 year old screws on some of the electrical connections in the generator. They were TOUGH! Thankfully none of them rounded off, probably thanks to my quality screwdrivers from my auto / small engine repair days.
Anyway, the MEP-802A generator is IMPRESSIVE!! I've been using a Yamaha EF6300iSDE inverter generator for the past 14 years. Only time I could run my dryer with that setup is if I shut EVERYTHING else off in the house, lights included. The 802A ran the dryer on the highest setting, with the kitchen light, basement lights, and 400 Watts of fluorescents out in my barn all on, and the gauge was only at 85% load! I couldn't believe it. This thing is BUILT!
During that load test my oil boiler attempted to kick on, which severely overloaded the unit and browned out the lights. I had to run back in the house and kill the dryer. This would've fried a box store generator to a cinder! Thought I could've done some damage with that, but it didn't miss a beat! Ran it for almost 45 minutes trying various loads out. Shut the main breaker off that I just installed (Simulating an outage), and in 1m:25s, the lights came back on under gen power. Flipping the breaker back to line was instantaneous, hardly a flicker in the lights, but the generator ran another 7 minutest to cool down.
VERY happy with this setup! This thing should outlast ME, lol. Plus with 3 heating oil tanks, I've got plenty to keep this thing fed for very extended outages. If you're thinking about getting one of these units, JUST DO IT!
Also just want to say how GREAT this forum is! Great group of guys on here! Super knowledgeable and super helpful! Thanks to everyone who answered my questions!
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