Connected my MEP-803A the proper way as my home standby generator... Install pics...

[jimbo913]

I think the key is switching to synthetic AFTER it is broken in. For the cost of conventional 15/40, I still feel more comfortable changing oil yearly to remove acids. You never know when you may need to run it for 200+ hrs in an emergency and I want it to be ready. Every diesel I own calls for minimum 1 year oil changes.
People will "polish" fuel which can keep for years but not change oil, and that seems kind of crazy to me.

 

[AOR]

Glockfan and others what amperage rating for the circuit breaker are you running? I know the data plate reads 57 amps which would place a 60 amp breaker properly sized but I have watched some Youtube videos where people are getting 67 amps out of these machines at full load to about 130%
I have read that 125% is safe to run these machines all day long weather this is true or not I am not sure. I would assume that 125% would be tripping a 60 amp breaker?

 

[rustystud]

I think the key is switching to synthetic AFTER it is broken in. For the cost of conventional 15/40, I still feel more comfortable changing oil yearly to remove acids. You never know when you may need to run it for 200+ hrs in an emergency and I want it to be ready. Every diesel I own calls for minimum 1 year oil changes.
People will "polish" fuel which can keep for years but not change oil, and that seems kind of crazy to me.

Actually I drain my oil every year also. Just knowing that with synthetic oils I don't need too is just extra insurance for me.

 

[Hard Head]

When I worked for DuPont we had a high pressure pump seize in a matter of minutes after being serviced incorrectly with standard oil. They required full synthetic. After that, I did a test on my car and I averaged 1 mile per gallon more with full synthetic than I did with the standard 10w40 oil I was using. I converted all of my gasoline vehicles to synthetic after that. As for my generators, I still have break-in oil in my spare MEP-803A's and my primary has around 400 hours on it. I changed the oil in it in October since I wanted new oil and filters before the winter hit. So far I have used Rotella 15-40W in all of the gensets I have owned or sold. I switched to Delvac in my 923A2 last year when the great coupon deal came out. No problems so far!!! I may give try Delvac 1 synthetic a try in my 803's when I do an oil change this Spring.

 

[Glockfan]

You guys have me convinced that I need to change my oil now. I was going to wait on the 100 hour mark but just test running it, I have only accumulated about 20 hours on my 803 since the install. It has been in place for a little more than a year (I think) and I have not changed the oil in it. The oil is nice and clean still but it is standard 15/40 Rotella and not synthetic. Maybe I will switch to synthetic and not look back. I was lucky to have found a 2011 unit that was nearly brand new. Mine never went through reset. I just got lucky I guess. My set has 48 hours on it now... She's getting old...

 

[Hard Head]

Not very old I bought a 2009 with 200 hours and they did a PM on it in Feb 2015 where they installed new batteries and a new solar charger!!! I was pleased. I still put in a battery maintainer since my unit doesn't get a lot of sun on it.

I just had an issue during the global warming ice age we experienced in the upstate. I had freezing rain, sleet, then 8 inches of snow. The radiator exhaust area filled with snow and ice. Nice!! Also the exhaust cap stuck open! So I have enlisted a industrial hood company that is in working with me to design out these flaws. I am also sound deadening the prototype with a visceolastic sound deadener. I will take db readings as I change things to see what is good and what is not worth it. I also installed anti dirt dauber armor Probably do a thread on it.

 

[jimbo913]

@Hard Head - I would like to see a thread on that. My 803 is so quite I could not spend money on making it any quiter.

In regards to the ice and snow accumulation, was that with it running or stored? I am curious if they run warm enough to melt off snow and ice during operation? I keep mine covered with a canvas tarp so as long as it can burn off ice and snow while running I am not concerned. I also do not have an issue yet with bees nests since the cover blocks all vents but the bottom.

I have two ideas to fix the radiator if the snow and ice would be an issue during use, so hoping someone can chime in with 100% certianty either way.

 

[Another Ahab]

I am also sound deadening the prototype with a visceolastic sound deadener. I will take db readings as I change things to see what is good and what is not worth it. I also installed anti dirt dauber armor Probably do a thread on it.

I'm figuring that must be some kind of gel membrane or something, can you tell us what it is exactly, please?

And that's funny you call them "dirt" daubers, because up here we call them "mud" daubers. I met somebody from North Carolina who grew up calling them dirt daubers also. It's a drift, but I wonder where the line is drawn (likely inside Virginia somewhere), where they change from being dirt daubers to mud daubers; who knows?

 

[Chrispyny]

@Hard Head - I would like to see a thread on that.

Uh, yeah! Hard Head. Lets see a new thread on that buddy. Definately need a fix for mud daubers and snow accumilation for sure!

 

[Hard Head]

I will start one as soon as I get my db meter to get the before and after. I also require the db level to drop. I want to kill 3 birds with one stone! We have the technology!

 

[Korgoth1]

I checked one in a insulated room with my radioshack meter. It dropped from the rated 70db to 60-62db. Outside the room sounded like an ac unit running maybe a large fan...

 

[tim292stro]

There was a thread a while back on building an enclosure for a 003, not quite the same thing, but the principals are the same. Isolate mechanical vibration of the generator from the enclosure/structure, then absorb the heck out of the airborne sound.

For Dirt/Mud Dauber Wasps, you'll need to plug/seal every hole, crack, or gap. Injecta-foam, or a metal door over an opening that has no gaps would do this. Problem is that eventually you'll want to run the generator - so make air flow paths doors with seals/gaskets, and put cables in conduit to close it up. Vents that don't flow appreciable air volume can be passed through an air-stone like they use in a fish tank or a pond... or you can use a sintered compressed air silencer (or the "plug" style to make it flush).

If you don't want to go through the effort plugging all the holes on the generator and want the bonus of a quiet enclosure, you can have the enclosure be gap-free and use large air filters under swinging doors to keep the crud out. Rain flaps for the exhaust will keep all but the most determined critters out of the pipe.

 

[Guyfang]

We have the Mud Dauber problem here in Germany. it was the greatest cause of stopped up fuel systems I ever saw in my life. The soldiers would forget/lose the AUX fuel fitting cap. The mud daubers filled it up. Someone hooked up an AUX fuel line and the rest was history. Even worse, (for me anyway) was the wasp nests. The favored place was behind the control panel door. The critters would slip in past the rubber seals at the bottom of the control panel door. I would come along to T.I., (Technical Inspection) the sets, or repair them as needed. Open the door, and all the sudden, ten million mad as **** wasps were flying around, with the sole intention of driving stingers into my face. This old man learned to move out smartly, when it happened. I discovered that WD-40 works charms on the critters. Use the fog nozzle and its even better. Within seconds they croak. To add insult to injury, the wasp is a protected insect here in Bayern. A young soldier in Ansbach, opened a MEP-804, i5 KW set one day without looking inside first. He was talking to someone behind him, and stuck in his hand. They had to take him to the local hospital. The nest was the size of a volleyball. I found it best to open things up in the summer, before it got warm. When its cold, or at least cool, the critters stayed in the nest longer.

Tim292stro's idea sounds good. the AIRSTONE thing was used on another strange piece of Army equipment, the AMG, (Antenna Mast Group) used in PATRIOT missile system. Worked good.

 

[Hard Head]

I would be in jail if I lived in Germany since I kill dirt daubers and yellow jackets on a regular basis! This is what I am doing. I measured the airflow of the unit and compensated for sound reduction materials. Using a spray in material you can mask off any important items you don't want sealed such as diagrams. Then you apply 1 to 2 mm of spray coating at a time up to 4 mm inside the enclosure. We are upgrading the door seals since they barely seal. To reduce intake issues we are building a slide in filtration mat / screen to allow for better sealing of the intakes (outdoor air filter). My other issue is fire ants. We commonly used water isolation or quite simply a can in a bigger can of water with an elevated platform to save our fish bait from ants and other critters that would crawl in and kill them. I just keep the area sprayed right now, but that was my grandmothers way of protecting her fish bait and porch washing machine from pests. We have a real fire ant problem down here!

My wife did a talk one day about using Teatree oil on kids to get rid of lice and keep lice off people that use it. So after thinking about that, I looked at what causes dirt daubers to come around in the first place and found it is primarily spiders. So after looking at ants, spiders, and mice in the chart below I am decided to give peppermint oil a go and wipe the rubber gaskets on the control panel and spray around the doors and see if that repels my pest issue ( I will do a control test in the shop with some of these creatures to see if they go the other way). I am putting a screen / fiberglass filter housing around the intakes and exhaust to keep flying insects out. I was thinking about putting a couple of ultrasonic pest units inside the generator that could be powered with the internal batteries / solar panel. I wish I had a pint of Chlordane and I would never have a pest problem again but that was banned years ago!

I will spray the whole thing with the mixture below and use a more concentrated mixture on the seals. Not sure what a diesel / peppermint smell will be like but I will know soon!

• Keep bugs and rodents away: Mixing 10 to 15 drops of peppermint oil with water creates a homemade bug repellent. Spray any cracks where bugs can get into your home, and it will keep them out. Placing peppermint soaked cotton balls also works great to keep pesky mice and raccoons out of your home. Should smell better than moth balls! Don't have a raccoon issue but I would hate to wake up with a raccoon in my house! If you have a hole big enough for them, well snakes would be the first thing I would worry about since they like mice! Control the food source and you rid yourself of the pest!

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Common Pests and some Essential Oils that Repel them: Mosquitoes: Basil, Catnip, Citronella, Clove, Cedarwood, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Lemongrass Peppermint, Teatree Ants: Catnip, Citronella, Cinnamon, Peppermint, Pennyroyal, Spearmint, Teatree Moths: Cedarwood, Citronella, Hyssop, Lavender, Patchouli, Peppermint, Spearmint Flies: Basil, Citronella, Clove Bud, Citronella, Eucalyptus, Hyssop, Lavender, Pennyroyal, Peppermint Head Lice: Citronella, Eucalyptus, Geranium, Lemongrass, Lavender, Pine Needle, Peppermint, Spearmint, Teatree Ticks: Lemongrass, Lavender, Peppermint, Thyme, Sage Cockroaches: Catnip, Citronella, Cypress, Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Pennyroyal, Teatree Dust Mites: Citronella, Eucalyptus, Teatree Spider Mites and other common garden Mites: Citronella, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Wintergreen Fleas: Citronella, Fennel, Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint Mice: Eucalyptus, Lavender, Peppermint, Spearmint Rats: Cedarwood [/FONT]

 

[Glockfan]

I guess if it will ever cool off enough in Georgia, I will switch over to the generator and let the heat pump run through a defrost cycle when the strip heat kicks on. I think a few of us are interested to know if the 803 is up to the task... It's about time for another load bank test as well. Maybe a YouTube video will be in order. Any of you guys interested?

 

[Hard Head]

Sure, fire that puppy up. The more information we have, the better!

 

[Guyfang]

Do you know anyone with an amp meter, that has a function to record? We have an amp meter that we can hook up to all three phases, and it records amps, volt fluctuations and frequency fluctuations, during a load test. We leave it hooked up for a day or two when we get done with a photoelectric power setup. That often shows us some strange happenings over a long time period.

 

[Another Ahab]

A young soldier in Ansbach, opened a MEP-804, i5 KW set one day without looking inside first. He was talking to someone behind him, and stuck in his hand. They had to take him to the local hospital. The nest was the size of a volleyball.

That sounds like hornets. Paper wasps have nests that are flat (not "volleyball" spherical); theirs resemble a sunflower sort of (but without the petals). I don't know why but hornets just put on a hurting more than other stinging insects, might be the poison's different; or the fact that they're just plain more aggressive. Stinging insects and peoples just don't mix real well.

I was bush-hogging a field once and clipped over a nest of bumblebees that I never saw. They were on me in a heartbeat, the size of ping-pong balls; bouncing off me like hailstones. I jumped. And I RAN; no looking back. I was out of there. No one there to record it, but I bet you I broke some track-and-field records that day.

It was an old Ford tractor, no dead-man switch; and that tractor just kept on mowing, straight as an arrow. I caught up with the tractor later (I was mowing a BIG field, close to 30 acres). But for sure, getting stung is no fun. It happens. But it's no fun.

 

[jimbo913]

That is why I now have an enclosed cab. Plus, I can't sprint like when I was 20 anymore, and plowing snow in a T-shirt and jeans is nice too!

 

[robson1015]

Mice and insects that nest can put a man out of business.....Whatever you can do to keep them out - DO IT.....