Revisiting the PTO-generator question

[Trev]

Hoeman,

<font color=blue>I bought a Generac 20K 40K surge pto on trailer in fall
of 2000 for $1500 from a widow that had a dairy farm.
The BEST insurance I ever bought (power hasn't been
out since) also got 1500 gal. diesel fuel for the big
Y2K shut down.</font color=blue>

This gets complicated, doesn't it? Now that I've ordered my PTO generator, I wonder about how much fuel it's wise to store? Just doing normal work, I've just occassionally filled my two 5-gallon cans of diesel ... but if the tractor is running at PTO speed for hours powering a generator, I wonder how much fuel I'll go through?

Did your 1500 gallons go stale eventually? Can I just put a hand pump on my oil tank for the oil furnace, and run that in the tractor? Maybe add a supplemental tank, that hooks into the main tank, to increase the storage while still keeping the fuel fresh by burning it in the furnace if the tractor doesn't need it?

If the power goes out for an extended length of time, I doubt the gas stations will be able to pump fuel. OTOH, I don't want to buy 1500 gallons of fuel that will take 30 years to use. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Anybody got any good solutions to this [potential] problem?

Tks,
Bob

 

[Egon]

Trev:
When you get that diesel truck just put a 150 gallon slip tank on the back and refill the truck from that. But remember to always keep the tank full and you will always be running on fresh diesel fuel. Don't worry to much about old fuel. chances are it will do what is asked of it.

Egon

 

[MikePA]

I am making up the cord right now.

The outlet I will use to backfeed my house is the outlet our dryer is plugged into. The dryer outlet has 3 holes with the 'L' shaped hole at the 12 o'clock position, with a spade slot at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. The 'L' shaped hole is the ground, with the other two being hot.

The 220v outlet (there are 2 of them) on the generator (4000w) has two horizontal spade slots with a ground hole beneath them.

{see attached picture}

I made up the cable so that the green wire connects to the ground prong on the plug at each end of the cable.

My question is...does it matter how I connect the other two hot wires? In other words, Does one leg of the 220v outlet on the generator have to connect to a specific leg on the dryer outlet.

Does this make sense? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Von]

Mike, The ground is the only one that must be the same. The two hot ones don't matter. In other words there is no "left or right" to it! Good luck, and be careful of the spiders on that wall!!

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Mike, The ground is the only one that must be the same. The two hot ones don't matter. In other words there is no "left or right" to it! Good luck...</font color=blue>
Thanks!

<font color=blue>... and be careful of the spiders on that wall!!</font color=blue>
No problem with the spiders. The snakes scare 'em away! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Unless you're living next to an ocean, don't get concerned about storing fuel oil. If you have space, install all the tank capacity you can afford to fill, oil is much cheaper in July than it is in January. I buy an average of 1500 gal every July, and the savings paid for the tank in a couple years.
You can generally find used electric tank pumps cheap, the gas station collectors strip them out of old pumps and toss them. For fueling the tractor, you won't even need that much pump capacity, so a 12 volt automotive pump will serve your needs.

 

[Egon]

Franz:
You never miss a beat do you.

Egon

 

[Hoeman00]

I farm and run a excavating business
so I get that much fuel usually twice a
year,this is in 3 overhead tanks and one
550 gal. skid mount tank w/ 110v pump.
Usually one overhead has on road diesel
and rest off road then as I use fuel in
lower tank I let overhead tanks refill
it.
I have to pump my fuel because some
of the equipment is to high.
My fuel dealer puts conditioner in fuel and
I add more also.
Never gelled at -30*.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Egon, just an old fart with a lot of experience tryin to pass a bit of knowledge along to youngsters.
If they're smart enough to listen they might save some money and sore bones.
If they ain't, I did my best.

 

[John_Mc]

<font color=blue>The outlet I will use to backfeed my house is the outlet our dryer is plugged into.</font color=blue>

Remember to check what size circuit breaker you have on this circuit. Most modern electric dryers I've seen have a 30 Amp breaker (6,600 watts @ 220 volts). which should be plenty to handle the 4000 watt generator output you mentioned.

An electric oven/stove typically has 40 Amps (sometimes 50?). If you ever need more capacity, but those outlets are usually a pain in the neck to get to.

John Mc