I had been thinking it was time for a generator for the house. Troy put me on to the idea of a surplus military generator and he even put me in contact with the a guy that sells them. A trip up to Palm Beach County and now I have one. The construction of the pad was a bit of a chore.....30 bags of concrete mixed by hand. I will not do that again. Getting the generator out of the truck was a little awkward since I ended up using my buddies front end loader. Since I had never used one before I was very "gentle" with the hydraulics and my almost new pick-up truck. I got it in place and the electrician got it wired up for me. I also managed to find and crush my water main with the front end loader. That thing is heavy.
Today I put it through the ringer with a load test. I ran both central air conditioners, 450lb a day ice machine, fridge, every light in the house, all the ceiling fans and the boat lift. It was loaded to 75% on the gauge. Needles to say I was happy with the results.
When we have an extended power loss I will be staying cool and have ice in my cocktail.
And then the early human discovered------- fire. Welcome Kevin, to the world of selling cold beer after the storm. You have to pay for that beast somehow :-)
Before you buy it, do they tell you how old they are and how much use they have had?
YOu ar eporbably going to really make the neighbors mad. You being the only one with lights and then keeping the neighbors up with the sound. It has to be noisy. I would suggest you jury rig a bigger muffler for that baby.
Tony,
I did not buy from government auction. Got it through Troy's buddy that had about 17 of them that he buys by the truck load at the military auctions. The Hobbs meters vary in hours ranging from low to high so I was able to pick the one I wanted. 15 hours or so on this one.
Beleive it or not I only have one neighbor to deal with despite being in a relatively crowded area. Been here 2.5 years and never met her! My geographic situation is very rare and I am very fortunate with the house location. Yeah it is loud though. My understanding of air cooled Onan is that adding additional muffler does nothing to reduce sound, but I have an extra pair of Magnaflows that I will try out. I may build enclosure around it.
It should burn about a gallon an hour. Expensive long term but still cheaper than hotel with comfort of home. I can easily have 225 gallons on hand with boat and jugs. I would likely not run 24/7, just what I need to be happy.
I do not have to worry about theft either, too damn heavy with out a fork lift or loader.
Kevin,
Years ago in the early 80's we broke a water main the same way.
However, this was on the Squire golf course at the PGA.
I was 17 and my work crew was about the same intelligence. Our job was to move small loads of sod in little Cushman carts around the sand traps of this new course. A flatbed of sod could take a full day to move by hand.
We had a bright idea to move a very tall pallet of sod with the front end loader and save time! As the large truck rolled across the fairway it crushed all sorts of water pipes.
The boss wasn't happy.
Charlie,
It is a 10kw but I guess they are severely under rated. I think the military uses a .8 load factor @ 6000 foot altitude. Sea level lots of reports of 14 to 15 kw. They are way overbuilt. 3 fuel pumps but it will run on one. Aux pump will fill the day tank automatically from a drum. They even put ball valve and hose on the oil pan for ease of maintenance.
I forget what series, but 4 cylinder Onan with 3.5 inch bore I think, around 18 hp. Still learning all about it........and electricity for that matter.
3700 but I spent 140 on a pair of batteries for the 24 volt system. MEP003a is the part number and you can see all the specs on them.
You can get them cheaper at auctions but they are as is. I saw this one run before I bought it and it had a fresh service with no parts missing. I can PM anyone that wants the sellers phone number.
