What should a MEP-002a / MEP-003a be worth?

[Isaac-1]

I know we are always saying how shocked we are at the selling prices of these generators lately. After watching a GL auction bidding open, and bids go to over $500 for MEP-002's and over $1,200 MEP-003's across the board in the first few hours of bidding on a 4 day auction. I thought this was the perfect time to ask, given the limited parts availability, unknown maintenance histories, etc. What do you think is a reasonable price to pay for the typical GL dice roll generator that is in fair to good cosmetic condition? (for those that pay attention to such things this group in question are mostly sand color with a few green units mixed in, plain generators, no trailers, only 1 with ASK, all with low hour meters and many with new screws)

Ike

p.s. I have no intention of bidding on any of these, I am saving my money for a couple of poorly listed items coming up, which I will brag about on here if I win.

 

[Speddmon]

Ike,

I wonder about this all the time!!!

I guess you could change the old saying around some and say that "Beauty (worth) is in the eye of the beholder (buyer)" Personally, for a GL, unknown condition generator even with a preview in fair to good condition for the 003 I would not pay more than about $800 or so, for an 002 I always stop bidding at $500. Several reasons for this. First and foremost, as you mentioned, is the limited availability of parts. Just because it's cosmetically in decent shape, until you run it you're rolling the dice about it's operating condition. Another is just that I'm a cheapskate (poor if you want to call it that) and if I'm going to pay for something in condition unknown, I'm not paying more than what I think is a fair price for it, and they just aren't worth any more than that to me in their current state from GL. If they were running, tested and known good, and thuroughly gone over from a private seller; then they would be worth considerably more, in my book anyway.

 

[KsM715]

If you've been thru an ice storm recently and ever been without power for up to a week then any gen. is worth its weight in gold.

2 years ago we had a bad one (ice storm) and after the second day you couldnt find any gen. within a 300 mile radius of here.

 

[glcaines]

I suspect we will see the price of these GenSets coming down in the future. DRMS has been letting a lot of GenSets go to GL lately. I don't know what the overall market is for these military GenSets, but eventually if enough are released, the price will drop. On the other hand most of the GenSets being auctioned are 3 phase only, so the fact that the MEP-002A and MEP-003A GenSets are either 1 or 3 phase will help them. There have been some fantastic deals on virtually new 3 phase GenSets recently, if one has a need for 3 phase.

 

[mkcoen]

The prices I'm seeing right now are about the same for a MEP003A without a trailer as they were last year for one WITH a trailer. The big difference now seems to be they're releasing ones that have been rebuilt (very low hours, like 0-5hrs). I wouldn't mind getting a low mileage one to replace mine that has 3k hours on it and then sell the one I have. Recovery on the retail market should be close to what I would have paid for both.

 

[ARYankee]

I've been wondering the same thing about the prices. I've been wanting a military genset but I've been seeing how high they are going for and I can get a brand new civy one for the same price.

 

[steelandcanvas]

I've been wondering the same thing about the prices. I've been wanting a military genset but I've been seeing how high they are going for and I can get a brand new civy one for the same price.

IMO, the civvie unit won't be nearly as well built as the Gubment model.

 

[Speddmon]

You're right about that....the civi generator will not be anywhere near as heavy duty. Nor will it be rated to run "continuously" like the MEP's are. Try to run a civi set 24/7 for a week or two and you'll soon see the difference.

I guess taking all of that into consideration, the MEP's are worth quite a bit more than anything in the civi market, but I'm still a cheap a$$ and don't want to pay that much.

 

[EO2NMCB]

A lot has to do with how many are up for auction at a given location. Was out bid on a sale where only 3 were at that location. Won mine for about half of what I had bid in the first sale. Different location with 20 or so in the sale got lucky with a mep002 w/ask, runs great I was a little kid on christmas.

 

[rat4spd]

I paid......I mistakenly thought I was bidding on a deuce, so I paid. But I got a nice 003 with ASK enclosure out of the deal with 8XX hours.

 

[Isaac-1]

A lot has to do with how many are up for auction at a given location. Was out bid on a sale where only 3 were at that location. Won mine for about half of what I had bid in the first sale. Different location with 20 or so in the sale got lucky with a mep002 w/ask, runs great I was a little kid on christmas.

I found the opposite to be true when I bought my MEP-701a, I was outbid on several occasions when generators were selling in larger lots. I won mine on a day where it was the only generator up for auction at the local GL location.

Ike

 

[Grove]

I found the opposite to be true when I bought my MEP-701a, I was outbid on several occasions when generators were selling in larger lots. I won mine on a day where it was the only generator up for auction at the local GL location.

Ike

I agree it seems the resellers like to make their trip worthwhile and pickup several at the same time. When bidding on single units you are only up against other people buying for personal use.

Grove

 

[LanceRobson]

Parts are available, you may need to work to find them but they are out there.

The diesel MEP generators were all built for durability and to be able to run for a long period without being strained. They a very conservatively rated. Anything you can do to mount them securely and cut down on vibration will go a long way to helping with durability.

We do a lot of back-up generator, prime power and peak shaving installations. Here's some other food for thought:

The MEP002A and 003A sets are switchable form single to three phase, an important consideration for many users, particularly businesses or folks with three phase machinery.

They have full instrumentation including features like voltage and frequency adjustment. If you are running your load on the end of 200 feet of cable you can dial the voltage up to get the desired voltage at the load and overcome the resistance drop from the long cable. Most sets of similar capacity have an hour meter and voltage meter but don't have a way of adjusting voltage.

They have industrial engines and are made for extended run times. One good way to determine what a generator is designed to handle is to look at the amount of time it can be run at full load without refueling. Many sets have only a 2-3 hour fuel supply, some have a 6-8 hour supply, the MEP sets have auxiliary fuel systems to hook up to external fuel supplies. That or a big honking fuel base a sure indicators of equipment designed for the long haul.

About 10 years ago we had a major windstorm and a lot of folks lost power for 1-4 days. Afterwards we had a lot of crap generators folks wanted repaired because they croaked. We found brand name sets with plastic brush holders melted out of them, cheap undersized bearings pressed into plastic housings, splash lubrication on "industrial" machines, lawnmower engines-not purpose designed engines, and burned out starters, control panels and wiring harnesses.

We used to mount MEP002A and 003A machines in 3/4 or 1 ton cargo trailers (for some reason the Army thought that infantry battalions needed generators but not generator trailers) and install deuce or 5-ton fuel tanks with them. We would run the sets for weeks at a time with a 2 minute shutdown every 12 hours for an oil check and to check the cable connections for tightness. These are seriously tough sets.

Lance

 

[Isaac-1]

I just have to wonder where is the resell market for these units, the lots I am watching end today, and the MEP-003a's are already starting to top $2,000 ($2,200 once you add the fees), which might not be bad for a known running uint, but for an unknown it seems very high to me. It gets even worse if your not local, which I suspect most resellers are not, since while this is not the middle of nowhere, it is at least the edge of nowhere, so lets be optimistic, say one reseller gets the whole lot or close to it, an freight breaks down to $250 per unit. They will have $2,500 tied up in an as-is, although fairly sturdy generator that was likely built 30-40 years ago. Now sure you can say, these are built better than anything else you can buy for $2,500, but the kicker is if you want to spend $2,500 on a MEP-003a, you can go to ebay and pay that as a buy it now price for a unit advertised as running, perhaps with a few more hours than most of this lot, but not enough to worry about.

Ike

p.s. to add to the insanity the one MEP-002a with ASK out of the couple of dozen listed, is the one with the lowest bid

 

[atankersdad]

Lance is 100% right. These are built, Ford tough!! I found that when buying these that the best chance for a reasonable deal, is when GL has 100+ in one auction, at one site. Lone units, ay 1 site with low hours means big bucks. I picked up 6 last year at one auction (100+ at that auction)and all had less that 600 hours. I watched a unit go for over 3000 2 months ago. It seems the price is creaping up verses going down. Two years ago I got a like new 003 ,with under 800 hours for $650. I suspect more people are becoming aware of how good these unit are and when you compare to what is out there on the civy market you will be paying 4-5 times the price for a comparable deisel unit. The only down side is that starting must be done manually.

 

[mkcoen]

And the ones you're looking at Isaac are all rebuilds (the reason they have 1-10hrs on them) so resellers are going to be pretty confident that these units will be in "as new" condition. For folks that aren't resellers then it just looks like an almost new genset.

These are going for over twice what I paid for a MEP0003A mounted on a trailer last year. One big difference is mine has 3k hours on it (still runs just fine but lower hrs are more peace of mind). Another big factor is you have more folks looking at the economy and thinking TSHTF might be sooner than later so want something to give them civilized comfort in case the lights go out.

 

[DieselBob]

I suspect more people are becoming aware of how good these unit are and when you compare to what is out there on the civy market you will be paying 4-5 times the price for a comparable deisel unit.

I think you hit the nail on the head right there. I would like to pickup another 003a but with the current prices $1200+ it won't be anytime soon. I'm just thrifty (read cheap).

 

[Isaac-1]

You may be right about buying when the very large lots come up, the problem is around here (within a reasonable days drive anyway, it seems all the large lots are always on the east coast, VA, PA, NY), the lots tend to be either the odd one off's or batches of 20-30, and it seems the 20-30 lots are perfect sizes for one reseller to buy up all at once. Given these generators weigh between 950 - 1250 pounds and full truck load freight rates start around 23,000 pounds and go up to about 45,000 pounds for drygoods trailers (I am not sure about flatbed rates), these size lots seem prime targets for resellers wanting to maximize their freight value.

Ike

 

[Speddmon]

If I remember correctly, the military did have an auto start kit for these ( I think I saw it in a TM one time, could be wrong though). But working in industrial controls I can tell you that you can make these units auto start, although it would be cost prohibitive for most people. I am going to build an auto start kit for mine since I am going back to work and have access to tons of various used relays and timers to build the kit with.

A also agree with Lance, these units are build for the very long haul. You must remember that these things are a low RPM diesel engine, that is so over build that it never really sees a heavy load. We all know how conservative the military is with their horsepower ratings. These engines are rated at 18 Brake HP for the 4 cylinder models. The general rule of thumb is to have 2 HP per KW of generated power. So this tells you right off that the engines are conservatively rated, as buy using the rule of thumb, you should have a 20 HP engine on it. Judging by what I've seen with smaller diesels, I have a compact tractor that is only a 3 cylinder which is only about 60 CID. It puts out about 17 1/2 horses (rated by the manufacturer). The 4 cylinder Onan's on these generators are close to 120 CID using the specs from the engine....you do the math, how much HP do you think these engines really put out. Since the civilian generators with the civilian version of this engine is a 15 KW, I would think they are good for close to 30 HP or more (2:1 rule of thumb).

Also, look at construction equipment and other industrial diesel equipment...10,000, 20,000 even 40 and 50,000 hours or more is not out of the question for a diesel engine that is taken care of.

 

[Isaac-1]

And the ones you're looking at Isaac are all rebuilds (the reason they have 1-10hrs on them) so resellers are going to be pretty confident that these units will be in "as new" condition. For folks that aren't resellers then it just looks like an almost new genset.

I will give you that the hours do make them look attractive, while the majority of this lot is single digit hours, there are a few oddballs, with 500-950 hours, and their current bids are right there in line with the low hour units. Of course this could be due to bidders not paying attention to the fine print of the individual line item. It should be interesting to see how high will they go.

Ike