Ford 1700 and PTO Generator?

[Soundguy]

Ruin the tractor engine? How... Tractors are made to run as stationary 'power' units for many operations.. feedmills.. sawmills.. water pumps.. power generation.. belt power.. etc.

Having more genny head that tractor helps protect the generator itself from having to run at max capacity... likewise.. having more tractor than generator capacity puts less stress on the tractor.. in EITHER case it is up to the operator to control the ELECTRICAL LOAD on the genny, thus the mechanical load on the tractor.

Soundguy

 

[daTeacha]

Very true. I was thinking in terms of a compact tractor running essentially unattended for many hours, possibly overheating or something with no one around to monitor what's going on. I don't think the smaller tractors are really meant for the kind of duty cycles a big farm tractor sees, but maybe they are.

 

[Soundguy]

IMHO.. they -SHOULD- be.

I know many people that strap on mowers to SCUT and hit the horse pasture for hours mowing at 'full steam'...

If a tractor can't make it's rated hp for other than intermittant use.. then it should be an automobile.. not a tractor...

Soundguy

Very true. I was thinking in terms of a compact tractor running essentially unattended for many hours, possibly overheating or something with no one around to monitor what's going on. I don't think the smaller tractors are really meant for the kind of duty cycles a big farm tractor sees, but maybe they are.

 

[w8ki]

I have had several jennies and (up to recently) because of furnace demands, have been forced to run them 24/7 during our (semi-routine) winter power outages. Last year I put in a vent free fireplace that did not require current. Because of that one single purchase during the winter, I now only have to run my generator 2-4 hrs at a time; basically just to re-charge the refridge & freezer and/or run the pump ditto for the wifeç—´ TV set, etc.
This past summer, I recently picked up a trailer mounted Winpower PTO generator. She is a 12 kw cont/20kw surge (four pole 1968) model. Although my tractor is not a Ford ;-), she still runs this unit effortlessly <figure apx 2 pto hp per kw> . Indeed, my Alice C only has enough pwr to run her at 12kw but, because the jenny is so oversized on surge capacity- she stays very cool. In order to justify this new purchase to my better half, I had to explain that this unit would run our entire home including our central air. No other jenny that I have/had would. Sure enough, a week later it was 100 degrees in the shade with 99% humidity and we lost power for the entire day. Neither the PTO jenny nor my wife ever complained. On a plus side, she also runs all of my welders without effort. I like the idea of only having one engine to maintain. This also gives my tractor something else to do during summer and winter off-season. With the new ç´*urnace in the home, the pto generator becomes affordable for part time use and quite respectful when you need (or want) all the luxuries.
I still see these show up used on some of the rural auctions. I got mine for $900. She was one of my better investments.
Russ

 

[inseeme]

Look for these things used. I bought a generac 25kw 50 kw surge for 1200 dollars had an electrician check it out he said appeared to be in excellent condition. Have a kubota m6800 that has no problem spinning it and it will run my whole house with ease. Been a great insurance policy though bought it last year had my house wired for it and have not lost power since, before we would lose power monthly. Take care.

 

[JB4310]

Follow up, well I finally got my 10 kw pto generator, it's an IMD, a small company from South Carolina. I've been learning alot on the few threads I've been following here on the subject and it's very interesting almost like a hobby.
I had a chance to test it out and it seems pretty good, I shut off utility power to my shop and and repowered with the genny, I have a 5kw electric heater in there so that was a good load to test it with and lights etc, probably had 8 kw drawn on the generator, the older Ford did not fully compensate ford the load, had to throttle it up a little to keep the 60hrtz, the newer JD did better.
You can really hear that thing make the juice, one thing I was a little surprised about was that my 5 hp compressor would not start up until I let the air almost completely out, even with mostly everything else off, I don't understand this as it is plugged into just a 20 amp circuit and has no problem on utility power, the gen is putting out 40 amps on each leg, I know that these motors draw alot more on start up but I would think that the gen should handle it or the shop circuit breaker wouldn't handle it???

some pics, I got it with this carrier but had to mod it to work with the i-match on the JD, also had to extend the 3 pt arms on the Ford by moving the attachment rearward so the shaft would be closer on both tractors, otherwise I would have to cut more off the shaft for it to work on the ford, does any one know why or what that option would be used for? it moves the 3 pt arms from under the axle to even with the axle, same as the sway stabilizer attachment point.

 

[Soundguy]

Check your voltage when you kick on that compressor motor. While a good comp motor can draw 2x startup.. I've seen poor designs that draw 3X!!

Also.. many are quite voltage intolerant. We had a water pump we ran ont he job from a portable genny. we normally used a 5kw genny to power it but the guys grabbed a 4250 and went out that day.. pump didn't even try to kick on.. voltage check showed genny was dropping to 208v and the pump didn't like it..

it's possible ont he extreme loads that your governor doesn't have enough adjustment to compensate for no load to max load throttle requirements...

don't feel bad.. my old 8n didn't handle 0-full load changes as gracefully either.. took one of my larger diesels to make it 'play nice'.

still.. nice looking setup you got there.. thanks for posting the pics.

soundguy

 

[JC-jetro]

Follow up, well I finally got my 10 kw pto generator, it's an IMD, a small company from South Carolina. I've been learning alot on the few threads I've been following here on the subject and it's very interesting almost like a hobby.

John,

It looks good. It seems you'll put that ole mule of yours (1700) to work to earn it's keep. Have you tried to tie your system back to the electric grid and make some money?

JC,

 

[JB4310]

I'm still fine tuning the set ups, I'll post some more pics next week with it hooked up and running, it could be off on the voltage a little as the needle style hertz meter is no good, it's stable with no load but jumps around even with a small load, I know it's the meter because the voltage output is very stable until I really load it up. The company is sending me a newer style led meter for the unit and a plug in ac outlet meter as well to keep me happy. The only other issue was some cheap fluorescent lights flickering,
This did take quite a lot of my time lately, with the order and replacement, along with some needed accessories as well as education, but this is my slow time and like I said it's been like a hobby, it's a good thing when hobbies can also have productive benefits on the side, as opposed to say stamp collecting (no offence).
Hey JC, how ya doing, no I'm not thinking of selling power back to the utility company but I have read a lot recently about people living off the grid, don't know if I could ever do that as it takes a great amount of commitment, but it's very interesting. I am seriously thinking about a good size inverter and a small pallet of batteries to start with, so who knows...

 

[harwill]

JB4310 asked for another generator source - How about Dayton from Grainger? Or is that a Winco rebadged? Has anybody used one of the standalone ST gen heads and fabbed your own gear-up from 540 to 1800? Given enough tractor horsepower I suppose you gear-up for a slower PTO RPM and still turn the gen at 1800. Just a thought.