4th day with no power

[bdhsfz6]

It's not hard to hook up, the hardest part is backing up the generator trailer.
My wife can do the transfer if needed. When a winter storm is forecast I will often back it up and connect it, then plug in the tractor and let her set ready to go.

I mounted a large caster wheel on the tongue of my genny trailer. I store it in the barn behind the tractor. Instead of backing the tractor, I just roll the trailer up and connect the PTO shaft. That way, I don't have to move the tractor at all.

 

[bigtiller]

Last Thursday afternoon we got hit with 80 mph straight line winds here in Central Illinois. Power went out about 1:30 pm. Reports claim over 1200 poles damaged or destroyed. Power is still out for over 50,000 as of today. This is the first time in 23 years of living here that power has been off for more than 12 hours. We've been given false estimates of restoration twice now. Power was supposed to be restored yesterday at 12:15 pm. That came and went. Then an estimate of 12:15 am for this morning didn't happen as well. Apologies were issued after both failures. Luckily we have a small generator for phone charging, freezer, and fridge. We have no water other than bottled, pool, and rain collected. Fun times! Now it's just a waiting game.

I feel your pain. A derecho is best explained with a few cuss words fore and aft.

Ours was August 10, 2020. No power for 5.5 days. The nights were the roughest. Heat, humidity, no breeze, AUGH.

 

[MossRoad]

Last Thursday afternoon we got hit with 80 mph straight line winds here in Central Illinois. Power went out about 1:30 pm. Reports claim over 1200 poles damaged or destroyed. Power is still out for over 50,000 as of today. This is the first time in 23 years of living here that power has been off for more than 12 hours. We've been given false estimates of restoration twice now. Power was supposed to be restored yesterday at 12:15 pm. That came and went. Then an estimate of 12:15 am for this morning didn't happen as well. Apologies were issued after both failures. Luckily we have a small generator for phone charging, freezer, and fridge. We have no water other than bottled, pool, and rain collected. Fun times! Now it's just a waiting game.

Hope you get power restored soon.

Mother in-law told me yesterday her air conditioning hasn't worked all spring. I looked around and the air conditioner circuit breaker was OFF. Not tripped. OFF. My guess is that when she had a power outage for a few days last fall, the neighbor came over and hooked up her generator for her. I think he turned off all of the circuits in the panel before flipping the transfer switch, and then must have forgotten to turn that one back on when he put everything back to normal. It would have been easy to do, as it's the top breaker in the panel right next to the manual lockout for the main and generator feeds.

Anyway, don't forget to turn things back on after your power outage.

 

[5030]

Cord from the generator transfer breaker to the generator.
It's not hard to hook up, the hardest part is backing up the generator trailer.
My wife can do the transfer if needed. When a winter storm is forecast I will often back it up and connect it, then plug in the tractor and let her set ready to go.
It does not have an auto start, which would be nice but when I got the generator I paid less then $2000 for the 25KW unit.
I can get dressed and go outside for the difference in that and an auto standby unit. I have considered a standby unit but $$$$$
makes me decide to keep the pto unit.
Plus, there have been a couple of times that I loaned out the generator when I didn't need it. And it is a portable 25KW unit.

Least you have a transfer switch. Most people rely on extension cords. Kind of figured you did, you aren't a fly by night person. Way back when I considered a large pto Winco but my wife is really incapable of hooking one up, let alone even starting a tractor so the diesel standby eliminates all of that and gives me peace of mind if I'm not home.

Out here when the power goes out, it's out for days, possibly weeks, depending on the severity of the outage.

We have went in the past over 2 weeks on standby.

 

[dodge man]

The same storm hit here, I live near Macomb Illinois. It was a very long storm in the north south direction. We were driving home at the time and it hit us in Hannibal Missouri and I know it did damage all the way up to Burlington Iowa. We got lucky our power was off about 5 hours. My wife’s nephew lives about 6 miles north of us and he had a lot of tree damage, maybe 20 trees topped out.

The first picture is the only damage I had. The second and third picture are before and after pictures at the nephews. The nephew and his wife are gone on vacation so the wife and I cleaned the place up for them with the help of a neighbor with a skid steer.

 

[workinonit]

I'm a huge proponent of PTO gens as well. I've had mine for 20 or so years. I have a 100 amp Appleton welding receptacle in my shop and on my gen trailer and an extension cable to connect the two. The tractor and gen are both under roof with the 600 gallon fuel tank. In my case I simply open the mains on my 2 - 200 amp panels on the house and I can back feed from my shop where the generator is located. I think I paid $1200 for my 30 KW generator and a couple hundred went into building the trailer. My tractor is always in tip top running condition so I don't have another high dollar diesel to maintain.

 

[dodge man]

A couple more pictures of damage in the area my son took pictures of while out working.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I got myself one of them Generlink power meter connected transfer switches. And a Duramax XP1200EH movable generator, you turn off main breaker and turn on circuits as you deem essential. But it powers my 1000Sq feet home just fine, and you know what? Since getting prepared, not a single outtage the last two years that has lasted more than 4 h since I got it.

 

[grsthegreat]

We had a major wind event here in north idaho back in 2014 and again in 2015. Took out around 3500 power poles due to utilities not keeping treelines cleared. I sold and installed many, many generators those years and again the following years. I ordered so many, i ended up getting my 22 kw for free thru the rebates and special deals they offered. If it wasnt for getting it for free, id have kept my manual onan 5000 watt unit that i had used to back up part of my house since 1996.

but i wanted to make it easy on the wife if i was away. Now you dont do anything except wait 15 seconds for power to be restored. Have 1000 gal propane tank so can last a long time.

its not always during the summer when power is lost here. It usually happens in dead of winter. Snow and -20f plays havoc on animals in barn and people in house. Im always thankful i have the generator back up available. I also have a redundant gas powered 6500 watt portable i can fall back on if necessary… and shelves and truck full of spare generac air cooled parts.

 

[NoTrespassing]

The saga has ended for now. We have power! A lineman from Virginia dropped by and checked out our incoming line about 2 hours ago. He claimed no one have even inspected our circuit yet. He said if his crew didn't find any other major damage we would be up today and 2 hours later we were. I've heard there are about 2000 out of state linemen in Illinois right now. He thought it was closer to 3000.