Generator 15KW PTO Generator Harbor Freight

[Larry St Pierre]

I live on an Island in Panama. The island is growing and the local electric company cannot and will not keep up with the demand. I have the tractor, and my friends have had a lot of problems with the gen sets sold here. We all believe that most items sold in this country are the rejects, not able to be sold in the US and Europe. At least if I start with a US sold China product, it will last longer than a few days. I will be shipping a container from the US, so why not? If it is too big, I will be able to sell it and get my money back, if customs dosen't whack me off the planet.

 

[Reg]

Hmmm, I'm thinking that the ability to maintain frequency (engine speed) during sudden load switching might be as much about the tractor's flywheel as anything else.
Within some reasonable range of course, I wouldn't expect a 16 HP mower with a heavy flywheel to keep up better than an 85 HP diesel with a relatively light flywheel (-:

There is probably some math somewhere about moment of inertia, stored energy in flywheels and motor starting current loads.

The other thing I was pondering is how well a tractor mounted PTO gen would stand up to a 240 volt welder.
Now THAT is a very SUDDEN load and it stays a lot longer than most motors take to spin up.

Anyone here run a welder off a PTO gen ?
I'm thinking something about a 15 KVA unit,,, 12 at least.

 

[Soundguy]

I've run my 235AC hobart off my pto gen. Mind you I burn rods mostly in the 90-110a range.. so not a huge load on the genny.. but it handles it fine.. at least it did with the ford 5000 powering it... It's a 12.5kw head so that means it wants about 24 pto hp to run at full potential.. and I cheated of course by using a 67 pto hp tractor.. so it was rock solid..

soundguy

 

[Reg]

Thanks for the info.
I really doubt that I would be doing much 300 amp tig work while also trying to run the house during a power outage (-:
Not much is very frequency sensitive these days anyway, sure motors are, but most of them can take a brief dip to say 55 Hz
My "sensitive electronic equipment" runs off wall wart transformers.

100 amps weld current would be much more common, sometimes a 40 amp plasma cutter with a small compressor and a couple of lights.

EDIT:
In looking around I think I have convinced myself that the HF 15 Kw unit is in fact the Torq unit at a lower price than most on-line retailers offer it at.
IOW, web order ain't always the cheapest (-:
{although sales tax would take up some of the "savings" of buying at a local HF}

:END EDIT

 

[chiefchicken]

Reg, I picked up a 10kw unit from IMD IMD, LLC PTO Generator Accessories a little over a year ago. Their website is not all that great, but the product is excellent. It's best to call them and talk in person. My 10kw unit including 3 point hitch frame and PTO shaft was around $1,100 delivered. I've used it to power my entire house (refrigerator, stove, well pump, furnace) during several extended power outages. I cannot say enough good things about the quality of this unit. They make single phase PTO generators from 10kw all the way up to 60kw. If the link above doesn't work, just do a google search for "IMD generators". Good luck finding what you need!

 

[Soundguy]

too bad the northern tools 12.5's still aren't on sale.. I got mine for 999$ a few years a go.. a surely good deal...

soundguy

 

[Reg]

Thanks for the PTO gen links, will follow.

Further thoughts on the welding aspect.
Miller and Lincoln use 23 HP twin cylinder air cooled gas engines by Kohler and Subaru/Robbins or 19 HP Kubota diesel for their 300 Amp welders, e.g. Miller 302 Trailblazer.
With a compressor mounted on the back of the same shaft they use a 30 HP Kohler, not clear that they offer a diesel version of the 302 airpak.
Anyway, point was to get an idea of what it takes to power a mid size welder and the answer seems to be ~20 to 25 HP.

OK, so "Mid size" means different things to different people, to me it means 300 Amps, of which I would most likely use about 100 most of the time.
For that I could probably put a mid size tractor on the 1,000 RPM output shaft and take the engine revs down to 54%, or for through the night operation of back-up power.
~quiet~

Yeah, mid size tractor is also undefined (-:

 

[Soundguy]

remember.. half tractor rpm likely does not mean half pto hp.. the pto setting on your tractor is placed in it's power band. You may need quite a powerfull tractor to run at half rpm and still get 30 pto hp.

soundguy

 

[Reg]

remember.. half tractor rpm likely does not mean half pto hp.. the pto setting on your tractor is placed in it's power band. You may need quite a powerfull tractor to run at half rpm and still get 30 pto hp.

soundguy

Right, but if I'm only using ~1/3 max weld current it could/should work out.
Same for through_the_night attempts at quiet power, I wouldn't need full house max load.
The other thing with noise level is probably position and direction of the tractor, a straight up exhaust right under the bedroom window would be the FIRST candidate to be eliminated.
Other end of the house, perhaps with an old van between the tractor and house ?
Yeah, some experimenting with that, or a big ***** horse trailer as a sound buffer (-:

 

[Soundguy]

There will be a surge and lag when yuo go to strike the arc that will be a bit more of a draw than the regular duty cycle weld current.. not to mention that outside the power band, the tractors governor may be less responsive to making up rpm differences quickly.. that will result in browns and problems welding. BTDT using insuficient gennies on welders.. not fun.

if your machine is simply big enough HP wise to do it at lower rpm.. go for it.

good luck

soundguy