I think Northern also sells a generator alone, intended to be driven from a belt or PTO. It is about 6500 watts and a few hundred dollars. Another source would be a farm backup generator. These are typically 10000+ watts and designed for 540 pto tractors to drive them. they have a gearbox on them to gear up the speed to drive the armature at 1200 or 1800 rpm depending how they're wound, they produce 110 and 220 single phase, and there are three phase versions. The amount of HP you need to drive them depends mostly on the current you will be using, not as much on their maximum capacity. These could be found on auction. I would guess the 3ph ones would be the best buys, 'cause people are generally uninformed about 3 phase. Maybe someone on this TBN can assert their opinion concerning operating the 3-phase generator and only using single phase power from the output. These generators are usually on little 2-wheel trailers, were originally purchased by farmers to enable them to operate their water wells, and milking equipment, silo unloaders, etc, to keep the chores done when the grid goes down in winter. Typically they have very little time on them. The greatest part is they do not have an engine to service or fuel to go bad or keep full, etc. You just plug in the PTO shaft and hook them to your electrical distribution system through the proper approved service disconnect switch. In your case, you dont even have service to disconn from.
