DRASH/TMSS Trailer w/ John Deere 35kW Gen Set

[GlacierRover]

Hey everyone, new to the site and my first post, I'm looking to get a backup generator for my house and my time with the Army has made me relatively familiar with military generator sets and their capabilities. Even though I'm primarily looking for a backup generator for the house, I like the idea of a trailer mobile generator that has fuel that is easy to get and store (diesel) and something that could be used on the move for various jobs (welding etc). My home isn't very large (1400 Sq ft), but everything is electric (heat, AC, water heater, range, etc) so the demand is pretty high (my calculations seem to indicate that I'd need at least a 25kW generator if I wanted to run everything as normal with zero load management).

I was originally looking at MEP-803As and thinking I would just do a decent amount of load management to make sure I didn't over tax the generator in the case of an outage, but then I found a DRASH/TMSS trailer setup with the A/C and heater as well as a John Deere 35kW generator for the same going rate as the MEP-803As. I've got a garage/shop currently that has no heating/cooling so I was thinking I might be able to put the heater and A/C unit to use. My main concern would be wet stacking with an oversized generator as well as the fact that this larger generator is a 3-phase, but I think if I ran everything in the house as normal it would put a healthy enough load on the generator and I have a friend who is an electrician that can help me work through the 3-phase single phase conversions. I'm also reasonably mechanically inclined with diesel engines, so I believe I can work my way through issues that might pop up with the generator itself.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I just wanted to see what everyone thought about my thought process and if anyone knew much about this unit itself. Reliability, longevity? I haven't been able to find much on these John Deere units. Appreciate any advice the forum can give!

 

[Mullaney]

Hey everyone, new to the site and my first post, I'm looking to get a backup generator for my house and my time with the Army has made me relatively familiar with military generator sets and their capabilities. Even though I'm primarily looking for a backup generator for the house, I like the idea of a trailer mobile generator that has fuel that is easy to get and store (diesel) and something that could be used on the move for various jobs (welding etc). My home isn't very large (1400 Sq ft), but everything is electric (heat, AC, water heater, range, etc) so the demand is pretty high (my calculations seem to indicate that I'd need at least a 25kW generator if I wanted to run everything as normal with zero load management).

I was originally looking at MEP-803As and thinking I would just do a decent amount of load management to make sure I didn't over tax the generator in the case of an outage, but then I found a DRASH/TMSS trailer setup with the A/C and heater as well as a John Deere 35kW generator for the same going rate as the MEP-803As. I've got a garage/shop currently that has no heating/cooling so I was thinking I might be able to put the heater and A/C unit to use. My main concern would be wet stacking with an oversized generator as well as the fact that this larger generator is a 3-phase, but I think if I ran everything in the house as normal it would put a healthy enough load on the generator and I have a friend who is an electrician that can help me work through the 3-phase single phase conversions. I'm also reasonably mechanically inclined with diesel engines, so I believe I can work my way through issues that might pop up with the generator itself.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I just wanted to see what everyone thought about my thought process and if anyone knew much about this unit itself. Reliability, longevity? I haven't been able to find much on these John Deere units. Appreciate any advice the forum can give!

.
Welcome to the Outfit!

 

[87cr250r]

We run 99 and 125kW John Deere generator sets at 10% load for 95% of their lifespan. We get 35k+ hours out of them and don't have wet stacking issues. Lube oil consumption was outrageous on the 8.1L 125kW units so we downsized to 99kW 4.5L units. If you have motor loads with high inrush make sure you upgrade to PMG excitation.

 

[Poccur]

Hey everyone, new to the site and my first post, I'm looking to get a backup generator for my house and my time with the Army has made me relatively familiar with military generator sets and their capabilities. Even though I'm primarily looking for a backup generator for the house, I like the idea of a trailer mobile generator that has fuel that is easy to get and store (diesel) and something that could be used on the move for various jobs (welding etc). My home isn't very large (1400 Sq ft), but everything is electric (heat, AC, water heater, range, etc) so the demand is pretty high (my calculations seem to indicate that I'd need at least a 25kW generator if I wanted to run everything as normal with zero load management).

I was originally looking at MEP-803As and thinking I would just do a decent amount of load management to make sure I didn't over tax the generator in the case of an outage, but then I found a DRASH/TMSS trailer setup with the A/C and heater as well as a John Deere 35kW generator for the same going rate as the MEP-803As. I've got a garage/shop currently that has no heating/cooling so I was thinking I might be able to put the heater and A/C unit to use. My main concern would be wet stacking with an oversized generator as well as the fact that this larger generator is a 3-phase, but I think if I ran everything in the house as normal it would put a healthy enough load on the generator and I have a friend who is an electrician that can help me work through the 3-phase single phase conversions. I'm also reasonably mechanically inclined with diesel engines, so I believe I can work my way through issues that might pop up with the generator itself.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I just wanted to see what everyone thought about my thought process and if anyone knew much about this unit itself. Reliability, longevity? I haven't been able to find much on these John Deere units. Appreciate any advice the forum can give!

If it is the HDT 35kW with the John Deere engine it has two built in dummy load banks (6kW and 4kW) with up to 10kW of dummy load available..10kW on that system is enough load to stop any wet stacking issues..

Secondary, if you ever did wet stack it you run the heat at Max (15kW), add the 10kW of dummy load and run it at 25kW for an hour or two and it burns clean...

Bigger issue is, if you calculated your house loads you likely are working 120/240V single phase (some say split phase), that generator is 120/208v three-phase so you might need your electrician friend to be a little creative how the loads are hooked up so it is not massively imbalanced.

Best of luck..

 

[tarster]

Hey everyone, new to the site and my first post, I'm looking to get a backup generator for my house and my time with the Army has made me relatively familiar with military generator sets and their capabilities. Even though I'm primarily looking for a backup generator for the house, I like the idea of a trailer mobile generator that has fuel that is easy to get and store (diesel) and something that could be used on the move for various jobs (welding etc). My home isn't very large (1400 Sq ft), but everything is electric (heat, AC, water heater, range, etc) so the demand is pretty high (my calculations seem to indicate that I'd need at least a 25kW generator if I wanted to run everything as normal with zero load management).!

I went through the same thing, If you or your friend wants to grab amp meter then you can get a really good idea on your usage and actual needs, Everything I was reading from generac and few other locations said I needed 20 - 25kw propane unit.. I ended up doing my homework and bought a 803a, Only thing I cant do is run my emergency heating elements, otherwise the 803a should be just fine.

I have a 50 gal electric water heater, 3k sq/ft house, 3.5ton heat pump - recently installed a micro-air 368 soft start, what a massive difference, down to 26amp start 10 amp running.

We are going through a cold snap right now so I have been out reading my mains every so often with different loads to figure out exactly what I am using where, I have not load tested the house with the gen, but I should be able to run the heat pump, water heater, all the lights computers etc and then should be able to use the stove top, Only things I would have to watch out for are the dryer and running more stove top elements or oven.

I also opted to not play with the load balancing 3 phase to 1 phase.. I do have commercial 3 phase but its 120,120,240 vs these gen sets are 120,120,120 so it makes things odd and I currently don't have enough load in barns to justify the need.

 

[2Pbfeet]

I went through the same thing, If you or your friend wants to grab amp meter then you can get a really good idea on your usage and actual needs, Everything I was reading from generac and few other locations said I needed 20 - 25kw propane unit.. I ended up doing my homework and bought a 803a, Only thing I cant do is run my emergency heating elements, otherwise the 803a should be just fine.

I have a 50 gal electric water heater, 3k sq/ft house, 3.5ton heat pump - recently installed a micro-air 368 soft start, what a massive difference, down to 26amp start 10 amp running.

We are going through a cold snap right now so I have been out reading my mains every so often with different loads to figure out exactly what I am using where, I have not load tested the house with the gen, but I should be able to run the heat pump, water heater, all the lights computers etc and then should be able to use the stove top, Only things I would have to watch out for are the dryer and running more stove top elements or oven.

I also opted to not play with the load balancing 3 phase to 1 phase.. I do have commercial 3 phase but its 120,120,240 vs these gen sets are 120,120,120 so it makes things odd and I currently don't have enough load in barns to justify the need.

FWIW: The 120 to neutral three phase is also 208V hot to hot, aka WYE or zig-zag. There are several varieties of WYE -Delta or zig-zag-Delta transformers available, if the need arises.

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[87cr250r]

Zig zag is single phase.

 

[GlacierRover]

Thanks everyone, this is all great information. I've attached a few pictures of the unit, any additional information that's worth noting based on the pictures?

Also the seller has a second unit that he indicated had the wires cut and needing some wiring work, but is selling it as a parts unit. I am wondering how difficult it is to source parts for this unit to possibly get the one back up and running?

 

[Poccur]

Thanks everyone, this is all great information. I've attached a few pictures of the unit, any additional information that's worth noting based on the pictures?

Also the seller has a second unit that he indicated had the wires cut and needing some wiring work, but is selling it as a parts unit. I am wondering how difficult it is to source parts for this unit to possibly get the one back up and running?

At 236 hours that is a baby of a unit...They leave the factory with 2 hours burn test and then the first oil change (to get rid of break in oil) is due at 100 hours, then changed every 250 hours after that...
Do you have any pics of the wires that are cut, be happy to give you an idea as to how much effort would be needed.

There is a schematic for that unit as well as a 'point to point' wiring diagram so if you have some wiring ability it is possible to wire the whole thing from scratch if needed

 

[2deuce]

Hello,
I just picked up what looks like the same unit. It is a 2009 PowerSystems unit with the John Deere 3 cyl engine. After adding coolant and oil, and batteries I want to see it run, hope it will. Quite a few hours on it, almost 3K. I'm sure there are do's and don'ts in the starting procedure for the unit. There are references, but not a procedure, like a flow chart. Operators manual would be ideal. How important is it to ground the unit? I've watched videos where it's not done. It will be grounded before I start it to be safe. The thing came without an air filter, so I need to rectify that, maybe with a K&N filter. I already have a projects galore, so what's one more?
This thing could be good for my offgrid cabin year round. Thanks for any advice!