Our first real outage with the 803A

So a little over a year ago I picked up an 803A, Since then I only had to use it for one actual outage and that was only for an hour. But now this time it is no rehearsal. This is the real deal. Sunday night into Monday we had a storm come through. Heavy winds and rain. We lost power around 5AM Monday. No problem I roll the set out of the garage and plug it into my inlet. Just a week ago I installed a plug and sleeve receptacle and plug. Before I was wiring each wire into the terminal block and having to leave the connection box open.

Have not fired the set up since I was load banking it back in the spring. Fired right up no problem and we were back in business. The rest of the morning watched local news with the HDTV antenna since our cable,phone.. internet etc is down. I only got the antenna because I cancelled my cable tv service but kept the phone and internet. Well the cable co never came and installed a filter on my feed so I still get basic cable for free. At least until that went out. So that antenna is coming in really handy to get local broadcast in HD.

Ran the generator from 5am to 9pm Monday. Again on Tuesday. This morning I topped my AUX tank back up with my 5 gallon cans and only put 15 gallons in and it is more full than it was previously so I would say I used a little less than 15 gallons in 2 days.

Going on day 3 now. Some roads closed around me due to downed poles and lines down all over the place. But plenty of detours available to get where you need to go. No utility trucks in my area yet. Probably be at least another day or two I would expect. But not a problem.. I have been prepared for an extended outage just like this and it honestly has not even been much of a hassle. The generator has been starting right up in the morning no problem. I hit the preheat for 15 seconds or so since it is getting down into the 30's. My biggest problem is I am turning on as many things as possible to keep at least a light load on the set. I can get it to about 25% with every light going..small electric heater. dehumidifier.. etc. Up to 75% with the dryer running. No problems with the dryer running and my well pump kicking in. It bumps to 125%+ for a second then comes right back down.

At one point over 400,000 without power. The most outages from one storm in Maine history. I would hate to see it if the trees had not already shed most of their foliage or if we had an actual hurricane. Lost 3 pine trees that I can see just out back on my property. They just snapped right over. Luckily nothing near the house or vehicles. Some were not as fortunate.

Moral of the story. Be prepared! Lots of people do not even have a basic generator. Some people I work with have no power. no water (most folks are on well's) and I can imagine it really sucks. Very happy I made the investment to my backup power setup. I was not sure I would ever see an outage this long but here it is. Everyone else around me who has a generator has a little gasser screamer. One neighbor who is probably 250 yards away drowns out the 803 when they are running their little screamer. One other neighbor installed a built in setup running propane. I hear it running 24/7 when I shut mine down. I am sure that is going to get expensive real quick and very wasteful.

And of course.. worthless without pics right? Parked one of the vehicles sideways in front of the set so it cannot easily be seen from the road.. And blocks it in so it cannot be easily towed off when I am not home.

Very nice setup !!! money well spent !

Did great planing! Great job. Hope all your power comes on soon.

I wish I had a setup like that back in 1998 when we were hit by the ice storm that paralysed parts of Quebec for almost 4 weeks. My neighbourhood had no electricity for 20 days. We were located in what was called by the media, ``the black Triangle`` just south of Montreal.

oboyjohn said:

I wish I had a setup like that back in 1998 when we were hit by the ice storm that paralysed parts of Quebec for almost 4 weeks. My neighbourhood had no electricity for 20 days. We were located in what was called by the media, ``the black Triangle`` just south of Montreal.

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Yes that is the storm they are comparing it to here as well as Maine was hard hit in that storm. There are more outages this time but not as bad since its not as cold and no ice.

Some takeaways so far for me...

I need to install my TV antenna permanently so I can easily switch over from the grid to antenna. Helpful to know what is going on locally when you can't get out and have no other communication. Our cell service is marginal for even text messages at my home so internet browsing is almost a no go. I think that an OTA antenna is a good cheap item to have on hand for such a situation which I would have never thought to have before.

Large pine tree that could fall on my house if it comes down.. need to look into getting that taken down. I have a lot of other maple trees around but they are not nearly as big and not too worried about them coming down.

Might look into building a sort of automatic load bank that would utilize a current transformer into some kind of switch that will switch a load on and off automatically depending on overall current usage.

The 803 burns less fuel than I anticipated. That is welcome news!

Haoleb, what are you doing for your transfer switch, any pics?

Awesome job!

I've got a guy coming down tomorrow from Wiscasset to grab my PU-797.

Good job! It's nice to be prepared for an emergency - much less stress. I'm curious to see how mine holds up once I finish wiring it in. I'm pretty sure it is going to get overloaded with electric heat, hot water and a well pump going. I'll probably have to cycle between the central heat and hot water.

Nice job Haoleb, money well spent....

Once you go through an event like yours it certainly puts a whole new perspective on being prepared. I know it did for us during a week long ice storm outage. I, and my wife, now better appreciate our generators and keep them well maintained and always looking for ways to have more spare parts and fuel on hand just in case.

Glad to see you have a nice aux tank on it. That makes all the difference in the world during a long outage. Nice setup all the way around!

Just as a mention, we have satellite TV and were always able to maintain our connection during our outage. The Satellite doesn't know or care if you are having a area wide power outage, the signal is always there as long as the Satellite and its uplink are active. Although, having a HDTV antenna on house for terrestrial broadcast of local channels is a good backup to satellite as well as it certainly can go down at times due to equipment failure, etc.

Glad to hear your set is running and producing power as it should. Thats quite a good burn rate for a 803a.

That's a really nice set you have! Glad it is working out for you.

I joined and began my search shortly after Hermine left us without power for a week. I didn't fair too bad because I found a PTO generator in a nearby town. I thought that would be the way to go but turns out my little tractor didn't like running it. I had to spin the engine above regular PTO speed to make 60 hz which was wide azz open on my JD855. Also the noisy PTO gear box on the generator and my tractor screaming at full throttle made more noise than I cared to listen to. One of my neighbors also ran one of the cheap Chinese PTO generators and blew the engine in his tractor doing so. The one I bought was also puking oil out the vent so I was able to return it.

I was lucky and won my 803 in December that year. I figured I would never need a generator again since I had one but boy was I wrong. We have logged over 40 hours on it from various short term outages to 3 days straight after Hurricane Irma. I cringe when I read some of the stories on here. My unit had 2600 hours on it and I had a feeling that might be a good sign that it had run well and would not be worn out. Seems I was right and it took very little sorting to get it going.

Now don't you feel good? Time to set back and open a cool one, and just smile. I do believe I remember your first post. You have come a long ways, and done good! You might just be able to go into business selling the neighbors Haoleb's Back Up Power Systems!

Howdy,
Yep, I have a friend up there in Penobscot. He is on generator as well. No quick time planned for fixes. He said lots of pines down on the lines all over.

Which pin & sleeve unit did you go with?

Not a fan of the PTO generators. Ties up your tractor if you need it for snow removal, trees down etc....

robson1015 said:

Not a fan of the PTO generators. Ties up your tractor if you need it for snow removal, trees down etc....

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They also put hours and alot of wear on what could be a very expensive tractor.
I have a 60hp tractor with a PTO. Never will it run a pto generator.

Bmxenbrett said:

They also put hours and alot of wear on what could be a very expensive tractor.
I have a 60hp tractor with a PTO. Never will it run a pto generator.

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Howdy,
I don't know about that.
I have 5 tractors that are made to work. I have no problem running any tractor powering my PTO generator.

The again, the PTO generator is a 30KW and spins at 1800rpm.

Well power back up and running as of sometime around midnight last night. Shut off the gen and flipped the transfer switch back to the grid just in case it came back on and sure enough. Is it bad that I have slight disappointment it only lasted 3 days? It was a good trial run to be off grid. I think I might start looking for just a small generator to keep as a backup to the 803. Something that will run my well pump that is about all I need. Ideally diesel. Might have to look into the little(ish) MEP701a or 831. Or someone getting rid of their generator from this storm that did not work and is easily fixed!

A lot of out of state line crews out working hard to get us all back and running. We were not scheduled to be back until tomorrow afternoon. These pics were just down the road from me on what is a normally well traveled road





Seen a lot of these portable generators plugged into utility boxes. I am kind of surprised to see they were still there on day 3 and had not grown legs during the night.




The pin and sleeve setup I got is a Hubbell HBL460P12W Plug and HBL460R12W. Been watching the auction site and some good deals can be had if you are patient. I found this set for a decent price. It is not a "reversed service" set but before I bought it I looeked at the Hubbell data sheets the actual inner parts were the same between the normal and reversed service.. In other words I could take the male insert and put it into the receptacle and take the female side and put it into the plug body. Once I got the parts I found that it was not as easy. In the plug and receptacle body there was a molded plastic tab I had to file off to get the inserts to be able to swap but after that I was able to swap them no problem and I got it setup as reverse service so it is safe. It is basically the pics below but I swapped the inner parts.






Here is a link to another thread from when I first got the set that shows the transfer switches I have. They are just basic mechanical but I have one between my meter and the main panel I use to switch between the grid and generator power. Then I have a second one that I use to switch between my 60a hookup for the MEP and just a standard 30a hookup that was existing which I wanted to keep just as a backup to be able to plug in a small generator and standard cord.

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...wed-me-Home!&p=1940478&viewfull=1#post1940478

Nice setup! I'm working on my 803A setup now. I really like your auxiliary fuel tank. How many gallons is it? Im still working on a plan for my auxiliary tank.