Generator PTO generator feedback

[Soundguy]

I bought my tractors to work.. and I'm not afraid to work them.

Not much differenc ein brush hogging for 8 hrs or running a pto load for a genny for 8 hours... work is work.. That's like buying a nice shiney strong shovel and setting it on the porch so you don't get it too dirty, and then buying a cheaper plain shovel to actually dig with ??

soundguy

Personally I would never run my tractor to power a generator. Last power outage for me was three days. I paid $300 for a brand new 6K, 13HP generator. I change the oil every 25 hours and I'm good to go. It blows up, I buy another, my neighbor ran his for 8 days straight with no issues what so ever. I could not imagine putting that kind of hours on my tractor when there are inexpensive alternative purpose built machines.

A couple hundred dollar generator motor is a lot easier to replace than a $3K tractor motor.

In the end, my purpose built generator was less money than a 3 point would cost.

Joel

 

[brandoro]

I can tell you from experience that my 12kW Northstar pto gen runs a very hot gearbox at just medium output - - the whole area in contact with the gearbox runs hot [front of gen and pto coupling] ... even after I broke it in and then switched to Mobil 1 gearoil.

I have a 10kw PTO generator and after running a constant 7800 watt load (4800 watt construction heater and two 1500 watt heaters, all fan forced) for about an hour the gearbox and generator were only a bit warmer than my hand. This was with the original oil in the gearbox. One day I will switch it to synthetic and will expect it to run cooler yet.
As for piling up hours on my tractor, that is what I bought it for, to run any piece of equipment I can connect to it. None of the tractors I have owned has used enough oil between changes to be worth mention and I don't know anyone who has ever suffered a loss of oil pressure on their tractor. As a child I remember seeing one of my Grandfather's tractors tied to an irrigation pump for days at a time out in the blazing sun with no one within sight most of the time. I'm not very concerned about the tractor running the generator unattended. I run the tractor with the chipper often enough, if it lost oil pressure unexpectedly I doubt I would get it shut off quickly enough to keep it from spinning a bearing.
Each person has to do what they are comfortable with and buy the generator that they feel will suit their particular circumstance the best.

 

[dex3361]

There are differing circumstances which dictate what will be best for each individual. If I had frequent outages and it was imperative that I have the entire House supplied with electricity I would choose a PTO generator because a portable/stand alone of the same KW capacity would be to expensive for me to justify/purchase. I on the other hand, got by OK on a 4KW Coleman Powermate for 18 years, the only real inconvenience was not having the ability to heat water(All Electric). The new Aurora 6.5KW generator will allow me to heat water so it will be better. The other issue on my older generator was the 1 gallon gas tank that required refilling every 2 hours (moderate load of +-2KW). The new diesel generator should run about 11-12 hours on a 3 gallon fuel tank. I must admit I didn't want to buy a Chinese made unit but the price was about 1/3 of what the same design Yanmar unit. The Chinese generator is a clone of the Yanmar and it appears to be good quality.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I have a 10kw PTO generator and after running a constant 7800 watt load (4800 watt construction heater and two 1500 watt heaters, all fan forced) for about an hour the gearbox and generator were only a bit warmer than my hand. This was with the original oil in the gearbox. One day I will switch it to synthetic and will expect it to run cooler yet.
As for piling up hours on my tractor, that is what I bought it for, to run any piece of equipment I can connect to it. None of the tractors I have owned has used enough oil between changes to be worth mention and I don't know anyone who has ever suffered a loss of oil pressure on their tractor. As a child I remember seeing one of my Grandfather's tractors tied to an irrigation pump for days at a time out in the blazing sun with no one within sight most of the time. I'm not very concerned about the tractor running the generator unattended. I run the tractor with the chipper often enough, if it lost oil pressure unexpectedly I doubt I would get it shut off quickly enough to keep it from spinning a bearing.
Each person has to do what they are comfortable with and buy the generator that they feel will suit their particular circumstance the best.

Interesting... Extremely different from mine. Is yours an 1800 rpm alternator or 3600? Is it designed for 540 or 1000 pto? Approximately what was the air temperature.?
Thanks!,
larry

 

[brandoro]

Interesting... Extremely different from mine. Is yours an 1800 rpm alternator or 3600? Is it designed for 540 or 1000 pto? Approximately what was the air temperature.?
Thanks!,
larry

It's for a 540RPM PTO. Since I had the tractor running in the shop with the exhaust piped outside the temperature would have been 50-60F. I can't tell you off hand what RPM the generator runs at and I won't be home for a while to check the nameplate. In the photos I had two 1500 watt heaters plugged in to see how well the tractor did (B7610) at the higher RPM PTO at lower throttle. It carried it okay but seemed like it was lugging a bit. The current tractor has only 540 RPM so couldn't do that with it.

 

[Soundguy]

lower priced gen heads are usually 3600 rpm units.. etc..

soundguy

 

[Arkhermit]

I sure have enjoyed reading all these posts, BUT I can't see any consenseus on which is the best. Has anyone changed their mind after reading all this ? During the ice storm last year here in North Arkansas I was without power 14 days I started out with 10KW standalone and then switched to 15 KW pto run by 3600 ford only thing was I could run all day on diesel. One thing I found out is be ready ahead of time. I couldn't get the tractor up the hill to house so had to use standalone but had enough gas for it.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Wiht all this power outage talk, I consider myself lucky. 4 years rural power one outage for 30 minutes faulted primary. We have had three blizzards this year and the power stayed on. I think I will drop off some rolls for the lineman. I hope I did'nt jinx myself.

I know a dairy farmer who got got mad at the power company over cost issue. He ran the entire farm off a PTO gen for 30 days. He said the pwer company was,nt geting his money that month. He would never tell me how much fuel he used.

 

[Soundguy]

I sure have enjoyed reading all these posts, BUT I can't see any consenseus on which is the best. Has anyone changed their mind after reading all this ? During the ice storm last year here in North Arkansas I was without power 14 days I started out with 10KW standalone and then switched to 15 KW pto run by 3600 ford only thing was I could run all day on diesel. One thing I found out is be ready ahead of time. I couldn't get the tractor up the hill to house so had to use standalone but had enough gas for it.

I think it's pretty much a chevy vs ford thing. by the time you buy a pto gen, or a large stand alone.. you've spent your money... I know very few who owned one, and then went and got the other. ( I do know a few.. though not many.. )

soundguy

 

[JB4310]

I sure have enjoyed reading all these posts, BUT I can't see any consenseus on which is the best. Has anyone changed their mind after reading all this ?

That's the beauty of this debate, there is no consensus

There has been great stories of anecdotal evidence supporting both sides.

If you only need 5-6 kw to survive then you probably don't need a tractor powered genny. If you need 12-15 kw and you already have a 30+ HP tractor, then your not gonna find a lesser expensive, or most importantly, a more reliable way to make those higher KWs.

I would like to learn about and hear more discussion on alternative power sources, that would be part of the back up electrical plan. Like a simple bank of deep cell batteries and an inverter, so you wouldn't need to be burning fuel for just a few lights and a TV or computer.
Charge the batteries when you fire up the gen to do the heavier tasks. along the line of better power management.

There was one poster in this thread that said, I'm paraphrasing, "he found the power out so he fired up the generator and went to bed, when he woke in the morning he found the utility power back on so he shut down the genny." He needed to go to work in the morning and needed the power for well or HW, not sure.

That struck me as odd, I don't need electricity at night, I mean I like to watch TV and be on the net. but from 10pm to 6 am our heating system is programmed off, I don't need to make hot water at that time as it stays hot for a long time. sure the house cools down over night but not bad enough to even make 3 kids or wife complain, and that's with temps down to single digits (outside that is).

So for sure I would never be running any type of generator overnight.
Might be harder to resist when it's wicked hot, that could get miserable w/o ac I realize, not like putting on an extra blanket if it's cold.

As far as changing my mind goes, I've got both stand alone and PTO so no regrets, except I wish I got a 15kw pto instead of the of 10kw. All this talk does make me think about ways to make their use as efficient as possible.

JB