Dual mounting a 802A and 803A on a M116A3 trailer

[pclausen]

I'm toying with the idea of mounting these 2 on a M116A3 trailer as follows:



The 803 would be in front mounted sideways since it is longer than the 802. The M116A3 is wider than the trailer pictured above and would not extend past the siderails even though it is longer than the 802. This way there would be plenty of access to re-fuel the 802.

I don't think payload would be a concern since the combined weight of both sets is around 1,900 lbs. M116A3 has a payload capacity of well above that.

I'd love to get my hands on a nosewheel like what is shown above. Any idea about where to source one and if it would mount right up to a M116A3?

Anyone here done something like this before?

Here's the M116A3 with the 803 on it that I plan to modify:



My main concern is the setup would be very nose heavy.

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Light in the Dark]

The power plant units like this are a PITA to me. The maintenance is more difficult, there are toolboxes in the way of easily moving around them, and past mobility... not really practical in the civilian world. Do you have a second machine besides photographed? I had the exact trailer you were looking for, for months in stock. Eventually sold it cheap a couple months ago... had (2) 803s on it like you are looking to do.

Edit... and yes, the nose would be very heavy. Why do you want two on 1?

 

[pclausen]

Yes, I have 5 802s taking up space. 2 are running and I'm working on the 3rd and 4th one. The 5th one is a parts machine. I plan to keep the 803 and one 802 and sell the rest. Consolidating both the 803 and 802 onto the trailer will free up a lot of floor space.

I recently had a 6 day power outage here in Central VA and my primary house backup (Kubota 20kW) gave up on day 2. I then had to scramble to get a 802 moved up there to power the house. It worked, but I had to be very careful about the loads I ran in the house.

After that episode is when I picked up the 803 on a trailer (that was last week). I have since gotten the Kubota running again and is now my primary backup, with the 803 on the trailer my secondary backup.

During the summer, I host pig roasts parties on my property with live music, etc. In the past I have been hauling a 802 down there to provide power. It seems to provide plenty of juice for the band, lights, etc. The 803 on the trailer is a lot more portable, but burns more fuel that I need for those events. So the 2nd reason for looking into consolidating a 803 and 802 on a single trailer, would be for flexibility hosting events and firing up just the one genset needed, plus give me a backup in case something was to go wrong with the generator running. It would be bad to have the music stop in the middle of a party...

Here's the 802 powering the house during the 6 day outage: (yes I forgot the remove the neutral bar)



I hooked it up to the input of the 400A transfer switch that is normally feed from the Kubota:



Here's the poor Kubota that let me down on day 2:



Ran low on oil and overheated. I had the fuel solenoid jerry rigged to always be in the run position because the DSE controller kept shutting it down due to a high voltage situation that didn't exist. I have since fixed all those issues and after an oil change and a new oil pan gasket (the old one was leaking), it fired back up and seems to be ok now, but I don't trust it as my primary backup without some sort of backup plan, which the 803 is to provide.

Sorry for the long reply, but the 6 day power outage taught me to always have a backup plan, and that now extends to hosting parties on my property.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Also the trailer used for the 2 gensets are significantly heavier duty than the one you have, in all regards. You can't just adapt the front swivel wheel assy to what you have.

 

[Ray70]

I've done what you are saying but not for operation, purely for shipping 2 machines on 1 trailer to Puerto Rico.
service would be impossible and yes, tongue weight was very heavy.
They fit way better on the bigger trailer LITD is talking about.
I have one here that came with 2 802's on it with tons of extra room, so an 802 and 803 would still work perfectly, since its the same trailer they use for 803 power plants.

 

[pclausen]

What is the model of the larger trailer? M103A31 1.5 ton? Like this one:



Looks like there are 3 different trailers. The 1 ton M116A3, the one pictured above (M103A31?) and the one with the dual nose wheel. The one above looks like it would be the biggest pain to service, where the nose wheel one would not be too bad.

 

[Ray70]

Dual nose wheel is the M103, that's what I have. It is way longer than the one pictured above.

 

[Ray70]

The one in your picture doesn't look like an M103, that's the newer HMMWV style trailer.

 

[pclausen]

Thanks! Ok, so if I want to mount the 802 and 803 on a single trailer, I should look to trade the M116A3 towards a 103A3 it sounds like.

 

[Guyfang]

M103 and M105 trailers. They have more room and are built much tougher. Look at the TM for PU/PP sets. Specifically the PP, Power Plant sets.

 

[Ray70]

Yup, m103 or M105 would be my suggestion too, only thing to be aware of is that the minimum lunette height is about 22-24", possibly even higher, depends on the current position of the lunette, and the landing gear is limited to how low it goes, so be prepared if you bring a pickup to recover one.
Bring the biggest hitch riser you can find ( I use a 10" rise with my F250 ) and bring a floor jack and wood blocks, plus all the normal recovery goodies.

 

[Coug]

The 103/105 trailers (I believe they are the same chassis, just different body on them) are larger trailers for towing behind an air brake equipped truck, and not the best choice if you don't have a big air brake truck to tow them. They are also pretty massive overkill, and weigh about 2700 lbs empty.

The 116A3 trailer is heavy enough, but small. Also the cross country rating is only 1 ton, so that 1900 lbs for the pair of generators on it is right at rated load. fitting the generators both on there would be a pain, and would make refueling the rear generator pretty difficult unless you mounted them both crossways.

Found some pictures of 2 MEP-802 gens on an M116A3 over on the auction site. Pretty tight fit for them on there.













It really depends on what you plan to do with them. If you have space, and don't really plan to move them around a whole lot, then my suggestion would be a couple trailer chassis from Harbor Freight (or one on the M116A3 and one HF chassis). They're rated for the weight, relatively small, low to the ground, and easy to get licensed. Sure, they're cheap, but if all you need it for is to be able to move it out of the way, then it's not a bad deal.


If you really want to fit them both onto a military trailer, then the newer LTT chassis (Light Tactical Trailer, same as the M1101/M1102).

Looks like for dual 803A gens they made a raised platform and fuel tanks between it and the regular chassis, and the platform goes back a little ways from the original chassis to reduce tongue weight a little. (nice to see mine isn't the only gen that spillls a little fuel when driving down the road)


or a single one

The single 803 gets mounted bretty far back, like right on the back edge of the trailer, which means you'd end up, once again, rather tongue heavy, but not impossibly so.
You can almost certainly fit an 802 sideways between the fenders, but you might have to raise it up a little bit in order to open the doors (I had to do that mounting one between the fenders of a DRASH trailer chassis)

Because those last 2 I took pictures from auctions that are ended, here are the links if you want more pictures of them
2 gen

2010 Fermont MEP-803A Trailer Mounted Power Plant

(2) MEP-803A 10kW Generators, 120/208 Volts 3 Phase, 120/240 Volts Single Phase, 120V Receptacles, Diesel Engines, Fuel Tanks, Surge Brakes, Single Axle Trailer Chassis, 37x12.50R16.5 Tires, Pintle Ring. ***Please see DLA supplied Tire Safety Warning document below.***

www.govplanet.com

1 gen

2008 Fermont MEP-803A 10kW Gen Set

10 kW, 120/240 Volts Single Phase, 120/208 Volts 3 Phase, 120V Receptacles, Diesel Engine, Fuel Tank, Surge Brakes, Single Axle Trailer Chassis, 37x12.50R16.5 Tires, Pintle Ring. ***Please see DLA supplied Tire Safety Warning document below.***

www.govplanet.com

 

[Coug]

What is the model of the larger trailer? M103A31 1.5 ton? Like this one:

View attachment 857095

Looks like there are 3 different trailers. The 1 ton M116A3, the one pictured above (M103A31?) and the one with the dual nose wheel. The one above looks like it would be the biggest pain to service, where the nose wheel one would not be too bad.

to me this looks like the Trailer Chassis ( as the nomenclature in the parts manual calls it) or Light Tactical Trailer chassis (same as the M1101/M1102 as I mentioned previously). The HMMWV towable trailer.
I think that is more likely to be a pair of 802 5KW gens than the 803 10KW, because the 10KW are too long to fit between the fenders.

EDIT: found a picture



As you can see, the rear generator is right at the edge. The forward generator would have to be moved a foot or so forward in order to clear the fender, or be raised up to above fender height. The extra couple hundred pounds that close to the axle wouldn't change the weight distribution much.

Looking at it though, if it were me I'd put the 10k in the rear and raise it above the fender height, which would let me move the front generator forward a few inches, giving more space between them to access the side doors.

 

[pclausen]

Wow, that M1101/M1102 with the raised platform and dual 803s and a built in fuel-tank looks like the ultimate setup for a pair of 80x gens.

With the 103/105 being 2,700 empty, that is way heavy for what I need I think.

Really appreciate all the links and pics!

I suppose I could add a 2nd set of rails to my M116A3 and mount them both sideways. The 803 at the rear and the 802 at the front. That should keep the tongue weight reasonable I think. If I get bored this weekend and the weather isn't too bad, maybe I'll grab a couple of 6x6s and try that setup just for grins.

 

[Light in the Dark]

The real killer of functionality are the raised wheel well fenders... if you could find a flat deck trailer and remove all obstacles, that would be the ideal mounting situation. The fenders and hard mounted toolboxes are such a PITA, and always right where you need to go.

 

[Guyfang]

Now, if I was going to do this the RIGHT way, this is the trailer I would find. Strip off everything on top, put two MEP-803A gen sets, (or for that matter, ANY other two gen sets I would like) on it, along with boxes for everything else I needed. This is the ultimate trailer for such a set up. I would let myself go wild. Flip down ladder. Flip down cable reel, or reels. Flip down D-Box and maybe even remote start controls, along with gen set monitor capability. Flip down tool box. Mount all this stuff around the sides. Then park, ground, flip the stuff down and fire it up. Lots of room up top to move around and work if need be. Welt a few short pieces of cammo poles on the corners and you could rig up a sun shade. Only thing missing would be a toilet.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Now, if I was going to do this the RIGHT way, this is the trailer I would find. Strip off everything on top, put two MEP-803A gen sets, (or for that matter, ANY other two gen sets I would like) on it, along with boxes for everything else I needed. This is the ultimate trailer for such a set up. I would let myself go wild. Flip down ladder. Flip down cable reel, or reels. Flip down D-Box and maybe even remote start controls, along with gen set monitor capability. Flip down tool box. Mount all this stuff around the sides. Then park, ground, flip the stuff down and fire it up. Lots of room up to to move around and work if need be. Welt a few short pieces of cammo poles on the corners and you could rig up a sun shade. Only thing missing would be a toilet.

Wonder if it will fit a 37"?

 

[Guyfang]

Now that's neat!! Never seen that, but great idea!!

 

[pclausen]

Man, that M1061A1 sure is nice looking!

Will DEFINITELY keep an eye out for one of those.

I'd be all over it for a price like the one below:

Utility Tool & Body M1061A1 T/A Flatbed Trailer

18’6” Overall Length x 96” Overall Width, Air Over Hydraulic Brakes, 12-16.5LT Tires, Pintle Ring

www.govplanet.com

 

[Guyfang]

If you can find one that has been modified like the one in the above attached TM, then is also a fuel tank, with two outlets for two gen sets and a fuel tank setup to allow you to monitor fuel level. The first time I worked on one, it was a very nice surprise how much room was up top to work on.