Can I ask a question about an auction that ended earlier this evening

[Rebel635]

Why would they replace just the meter on all these units? If they went though a rebuild and that warranted a new meter, im ok with that. In fact a rebuilt unit imo is better than a 15 year old unit that sat around collecting dust. Dry rot would render most rubber lines useless.

 

[Interceptor]

How can you tell if it is tier2 Rebuild? doesn't the engine have a tag on it with the Rebuild date? The one I just got to me looks barely used very little corrosion On the manifold and none on the Gen head. That's mainly what I look for when purchasing one of these is corrosion. Lots of corrosion means improper storage and or ran hard IMO

A tier 2 reset should have a tag on the enclosure next to the original data plate. It doesn't necessarily mean the engine was rebuilt or replaced. It doesn't really mean anything except that it had a lot of hours on it and has been overhauled in some capacity.

Why would they replace just the meter on all these units? If they went though a rebuild and that warranted a new meter, im ok with that. In fact a rebuilt unit imo is better than a 15 year old unit that sat around collecting dust. Dry rot would render most rubber lines useless.

Meters get replaced because they stop working. They also get replaced during various repairs, because it's easier to swap out the whole control panel instead of individual components. All I'm saying is that the meter readings are almost meaningless on these, and there are probably very few that are showing the true hours and even fewer that actually have low run time. I have one with 2500 hours on the meter and it still has the green paint on the exhaust manifold, and I have seen some with 2 hours on the meter yet the manifold is covered in rust.

I don't get hung up on the meter reading. I have a civilian Onan 10kw diesel with over 7000 actual hours on it.

 

[DieselAddict]

Thanks that sounds good to. I have another question I tried to do my homework before spending money but I jumped and bought cable to hook up my generator and now I am second guessing myself I got 10/3 direct bury wire for my me 802 figuring 30 amps is this OK or should I have jumped up to 8/3 any thoughts? And does anyone know the correct way to hook the wire into the lugs?

The best answer is.. It depends..

It depends on the length and how unbalanced the load is in your house. My main fear with home backup generators is how many 120v loads are there which increases neutral current. Most cables have neutrals the same size as the load conductors and some have undersized neutrals. I try to avoid those cables for generators if I can and I pull THHN-2 wire in conduit. That will reduce voltage drop when you have a lot of 120v load on the generator. In my case I'm using a #6 SOOW cable and I manage my loads to minimize the neutral current.

#10 is fine for balanced loads if you keep it under 50-75'. For runs over 75' I go up one wire size to minimize voltage drop when you are running higher loads.

Then there is the issue of grounding.. I do hope that is a 10/3 with ground. If not I would recommend returning that cable and buying one with a ground. You will need a ground wire to correctly connect a generator to a home.

More than anything be sure to talk to someone local regarding any special codes for connecting a generator.

 

[DieselAddict]

The ones I recently bought have a tier2 reset tag on the outside and a sticker on the right side of the engine indicating it was rebuilt. You could clearly see they had not been run much. They were very clean with new wiring harnesses. I feel that I got very lucky.

 

[rhurey]

The best answer is.. It depends..

It depends on the length and how unbalanced the load is in your house. My main fear with home backup generators is how many 120v loads are there which increases neutral current. Most cables have neutrals the same size as the load conductors and some have undersized neutrals. I try to avoid those cables for generators if I can and I pull THHN-2 wire in conduit. That will reduce voltage drop when you have a lot of 120v load on the generator. In my case I'm using a #6 SOOW cable and I manage my loads to minimize the neutral current.

The amount of 120V loads doesn't matter as much as the distribution between the legs. There's rules for when you can shrink neutrals.

More than anything be sure to talk to someone local regarding any special codes for connecting a generator.

Yeah, rules... Vary...