Tier 2 reset questions

[springbok]

I was out at Chambersburg yesterday to pick up my 803 and was looking over what they had there. I saw many that had the tier 2 reset tag on them. One thing I did not understand and was hoping someone here knew. They would say, hours reset to and it would have something like 2.2 or 2.5 yet most had 2k or 3k hours on them yet looked brand new.

Anyone have a breakdown of how to decipher that, others had the same yet had new hour meters in them with say 400 hours or 600 hours.


Thanks for any help...

 

[DieselAddict]

I've learned that hour meters aren't a good indication of anything. They get swapped around. Its best to use your own inspection to determine if its in a condition you find useful.

Never trust the hour meter.

 

[springbok]

I call them government hours/miles. I have read that the hour meter is not always replaced during a reset. Not sure if that is the case for sure.
Would be nice to know if a gen set that reads say 4000 hours with a tier 2 reset stating Gen Set Hour Reading means it was reset at the 3500 hour mark thus only having 500 hours on it as they did not replace the hour meter.
I set off a few emails, I will update as soon as I get any answers...

 

[springbok]

I spoke to the people at Letterkenny and got some good info. The Tier 2 was done for various reasons, hours, failures and many coming back from Iraq.
The hour meter can mean nothing, sometimes they replace them, sometimes they don't
The "Gen Set Hour Reading" is how long they ran it to test it.
Other work done on the generator is not documented in any data plate so you can have a 2006 Tier 2 reset with a Gen Set Hour Reading of say 2.1 (They tested it for 2.1 hours) with 2.1 hours on it and that means they replaced the hour meter.
You can also have one, all the same but an hour meter with 4000 hours on it yet they did not replace the hour meter.
Last, you can have one that did go through a Tier 2, had the hour meter reset and now shows 4000 hours but sure to failures the motor was replaced, the gen head was replaced etc. The Tier 2 was a program to refresh, it is in no way an accurate way to know how many hours are on the generator in the case of one with say 4000 hours.
In the end, like stated above, when it comes to any generator with the higher hours, the best thing to do if you can is go look at it. A motor with 4000 hours sure will not look like a motor with 40 hours on it.
He also stated that they will never pull a motor to just paint it, no reason so look at the paint. Look at the wiring, look at hoses and other things that would be replaced during a motor swap..

 

[Interceptor]

I've been looking for an 803a for a while and one thing is for sure, there is no definite correlation between tier 2 resets, hour meter readings, and condition. You see all combinations including ones that don't seem to make any sense.

I picked one up this week, a 2000 manufacture with just under 2500 hours. It has "Code B" hand written on the side, I assume that means condition code B (issuable with qualification), but there's no way to know if that was the current status. On top I can barely make out "Blown Head Gasket". The engine has obviously been replaced and if I had to guess it only has a few test hours on it. Good clues to it's history, and says more than the hour meter ever could. Unfortunately the exhaust wasn't covered and the engine was full of water. I was able to get it running after a few hours work and it's good to go.

 

[springbok]

When I got mine home I was happy to find a few things. First, it started right up. (After checking all the fluids and such)
Second, when talking to the people at Letterkenny they stated that my generator had not been set anywhere after the tier 2 reset so the meter reading of 4540 hours was "probably" not correct.
The best news, I think, was when I started it and let it run the hour meter bounced around, now it is reading 3892 so with everything running well, even under load, I am not even going to worry about the hour meter.
It runs, no smoke under load, happy me...