Generator 15KW PTO Generator Harbor Freight

[Soundguy]

I personally don't see the need to generate power 24/7 during an outtage. even in balmy florida, at night, I can do without power while it is dark. then when light out and hot, run the genny every fewhhours for an hour to pump up water and cool down reefers.

that eliminates night noise AND 24/7 hooking to the genny so you can use your tractor for something else.

as for heating in cold areas. if power was that bad that I had to rely upon electrical generation for full time heating. I'd have an emergency alternative.. like a wood or pellet or corn burning stove...

soundguy

 

[Reg]

Ya know the thing that I have never understood..
Is why do they make these 15KW generators for 3PH and not have one that has an output for all 100 AMPs on a single connector...

J

100 Amp rated plug/sockets would be VERY expen$ive.
GENERALLY... If you have that sort of current that needs to go through ONE circuit it is best to hard wire it.

Paralleling up 20 and/or 50 amp circuits needs to be done with quite a bit of care, since corrosion on one leg that leads to high resistance will cause more of the load to be drawn through the other leg(s). If/when those become overloaded their connectors are also likely to develop high resistance.
If not SEPARATELY protected with breakers,,, I guess electrical fire is a real possibility.
If properly separately protected with breakers and those start popping there is at least a CHANCE that someone might resort to by-passing the breakers in a power outage.
IOW, It could get bad.

 

[Charlesaf3]

so the hurricane looks like it might be headed my way. Anyone actually used the harbor freight to review it?

Tractor based makes more sense for me, for all the reasons stated above. The b3030 is incredibly fuel efficient at PTO speeds. And a 100 extra hours at my usage? No biggie.

 

[brin]

I personally don't see the need to generate power 24/7 during an outtage. even in balmy florida, at night, I can do without power while it is dark. then when light out and hot, run the genny every fewhhours for an hour to pump up water and cool down reefers.

that eliminates night noise AND 24/7 hooking to the genny so you can use your tractor for something else.

as for heating in cold areas. if power was that bad that I had to rely upon electrical generation for full time heating. I'd have an emergency alternative.. like a wood or pellet or corn burning stove...

soundguy

I agree with you soundguy...I have a 20KW PTO generator and only run it during the day...when we go to bed it gets turned off..If it's cold we cover up and if it's hot outside we open windows...the Mrs. and I both grew up without air conditioning so we can take it for a few hours...It is a waste to run a genny 24/7. If the power ever went off for extended periods ..like weeks or months we would ration its use even further...just on long enough to pump water , flush toilets, shower and warm the house and then turn it off - so in an extended period of power outage we would run it maybe 1 hour at a time several times a day..Remember in extreme power outages that last weeks or months ...fuel for the tractor or generator will be either hard to get, real expensive or not available at all so it would be wise to ration not only the use of the genny but the fuel as well.

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. and in an extended outage.. eat all the food out of the freezer and reefer first. that way you only need the genny to pump up the water and perhaps emergency pre-heating .. probably get away with a single hour per day of run time IE..5 minutes for water in the morning.. 5 minutes at lunch then 50 minutes at night for a shower and some heat/cool right before bed... etc..

soundguy

 

[brin]

yep.. and in an extended outage.. eat all the food out of the freezer and reefer first. that way you only need the genny to pump up the water and perhaps emergency pre-heating .. probably get away with a single hour per day of run time IE..5 minutes for water in the morning.. 5 minutes at lunch then 50 minutes at night for a shower and some heat/cool right before bed... etc..

soundguy

That's the plan...I agree.

 

[beppington]

Funny ... everything can be taken to an extreme: In the old days nobody had any electricity & lived just fine

That said, I'd like a 12 or 15 kW PTO gen for my L3940. I trust my regularly-used tractor to start before a little single-purpose generator's motor that I might use once every fews years, if we happen to get a hurrakin. It'd be just another thing to have to think about, start once in a while to check, maintain, etc etc etc.

 

[Mudfarmer]

so the hurricane looks like it might be headed my way. Anyone actually used the harbor freight to review it?

Tractor based makes more sense for me, for all the reasons stated above. The b3030 is incredibly fuel efficient at PTO speeds. And a 100 extra hours at my usage? No biggie.

Just got one - see this parrallel thread.
Mf
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/161731-harbor-freight-power-take-off.html

 

[Charlesaf3]

Just got one - see this parrallel thread.
Mf
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/161731-harbor-freight-power-take-off.html

Thanks Mudfarmer, will check it out.

Agree with the above on usage. Only thing I NEED it for is running the well pump. And the fridge would be nice. Maybe even key.

I have a lot of wood, and a stream. But I don't really want to go back to colonial days... I have old fashioned kerosene lanterns I got off the web for light, a fireplace, a BIG wood grill, a wood oven. And lots of wood. So that's all good. But I'm really partial to running water and refrigerated food.

I actually looked into running the well off inverters, but it seems as expensive and less generally useful then getting a pto generator. Best of all would be no generator... it just doesn't seem like a "fun" attachment

 

[Skyco]

100 Amp rated plug/sockets would be VERY expen$ive.

Thats the truth. The portable gensets we have at work, usually 40-50kW, the connectors are around $500 EACH, $1000 for the pair:shocked: