Generator pto generator

[jordanh]

Anyone have experience with these? Good/bad/ugly?

Brands....which are good...which are not?

I have a 30hp Kioti gear that puts out 23hp at the pto......looking into acquiring one of these units since my house is all electric and I hate to be without power for very long.

Thanks!

J

 

[Doc_Bob]

Do a search on generators on TBN, you will find many good answers, Bob

 

[jordanh]

I do that before posting stupid questions. Then when I feel I still have the stupid question I post it hoping for more information specific to my question.

i.e. brand recommendations for and against as well as experiences.

Thanks

J

 

[Doc_Bob]

I do that before posting stupid questions. Then when I feel I still have the stupid question I post it hoping for more information specific to my question.

I do the same.
Bob
PS Sounds like you posted a good question.
Bob

 

[jordanh]

LOL.....I doubt it. But its important to my beginning inquiry into buying a generator of some type. I shop hard. Like for my tractor.....it was 4-5 years of shopping before I decided on a brand and model.

Anywho.....don't want to be without heat if a big ice storm comes and knocks out power for days on end.....which happened in St. Louis recently. Same storm passed over us with mostly sleet and snow so no outages...but I was sweatin' it.

Have considered a stand alone tied to the house as well as wind/solar/battery system. But now that I have the tractor seems to make since to look at pto powered gen sets. Course that would preclude use of the tractor for plowing/moving snow....hmmmm.....

 

[Fredex]

Being w/o commercial power is inconvenient even if you have some sort of backup. 23 pto hp will handle 10KW for certain and probably do OK at 12.5KW. Some of the other postings mentioned can give you some ideas about brands, mountings, etc. I've not done much research there.

Question: Wouldn't you want your tractor available for snow/ice removal, cleaning up downed limbs, etc during a storm outage? Many folks go with the portables with engine for that reason - keeps the tractor free for other needs.

We also have all electric home - except for a gas furnace. We do well with a 5.5KW portable. We can run lights in a room or two, TV, 2 refrigerators, furnace, and water heater. The water heater is wired so that only one element can be on at a time-that's an option in wiring the thermostats for the upper & lower elements. When cooking we kill the water heater and limit ourselves to 2 cooking elements in use. A/C is a no go at 5.5KW.

 

[Highbeam]

I didn't believe it so I looked in my owner's manual and sure enough... only 23 PTO HP for gear and 22 for HST out of the 30 HP engine. To get that power and the 540 rpm means the engine will be screaming along at 2600 RPM. My Kioti came with the 1000 rpm PTO lever so maybe you can cut down the RPMs a ton (power too?) and let the engine rev down for generator duty. I have heard 2 input HP for every KW of generator power.

I know you're not asking about whether or not a PTO generator is a good choice so I'll stop typing now. Thanks

 

[Doc_Bob]

LOL.....I doubt it. But its important to my beginning inquiry into buying a generator of some type. I shop hard. Like for my tractor.....it was 4-5 years of shopping before I decided on a brand and model.

WOW! Talk about delayed gratification.
Bob

 

[Tom_Veatch]

...
To get that power and the 540 rpm means the engine will be screaming along at 2600 RPM. My Kioti came with the 1000 rpm PTO lever so maybe you can cut down the RPMs a ton (power too?) and let the engine rev down for generator duty. I have heard 2 input HP for every KW of generator power.
...

Depends on the power curve of the engine. Your engine will only develop it's maximum power at the engine's max power rpm. Gearing up the PTO so you can lower the engine rpm for the same PTO rpm means the engine develops less than max power.

If the power curve were linear (it's not) cutting rpm by half would also cut power by half. If the power curve were perfectly flat (it's not), cutting the rpm by half would double torque and give you the same power. You'll have something in between. You'll lose some power, but not half, and that means less output from the generator.

The 2HP/KW rule of thumb should be applied to the actual power developed at the engine rpm used - rated power at max power rpm, or some reduced power at an engine rpm other than max power rpm.