Our neighborhood is comprised of 11 acre or larger lots. Of my neighbors that have generators, most have standby, bolted to the house, “Guardian” type units running on LP. Generally sized at 10KW or less, they really chew through today’s very expensive LP and they still cannot run their AC units. I was in Italy when we last lost power for an extended period, but that was five very long days for my house sitting daughter in 2005. I decided that I needed a substantial generator, but I was determined to take my time and find a large unit that could run my whole house without a lot of energy management interference. I have a tractor, in fact more than one, suitable for a PTO unit, I’m an old farm boy, so I’m comfortable around such things, all the tractors are capable, though different in size, of running the generator, and they always have full tanks, so I store a lot of fuel without a lot of notice.
In N. Florida, we seldom need to heat a house during an outage. We are on LP for hot water, oven, and range, though the oven needs 110 vac to fire up. Pumping water (1 hp submersible at 320'), refrigerator, lighting, ceiling fans, TV, computers, then air conditioning (5 and 1 ½ ton units), in that order are the priority. My goal was 10KW minimum, and if I could get to 15KW, I figured that I could run some AC if required.
I finally got all of the components gathered up over a year’s time, and recently finished the installation of my 25KW/50KW surge Dayton (Generac) PTO generator. I am what you might call "tractor rich", in that I have a JD 855, 4310 TLB, '56 70 Diesel, and a VAC Case gasser, so I have many choices in sizing, and can operate on either gas or diesel. Since I have an output for LP on the back patio for a gas grille, I guess I could even buy an LP carb for the Case and run it on propane if I have to.
I wanted to get a PTO model because I didn't want to maintain a small engine that if it failed, the whole generator system failed. I watched sales, priced new units, and put a programmed search on e-Bay, which eventually turned this Dayton unit up (IGrainger sold, Generac built), less than 30 miles from me.
It is brand new, never turned in anger (didn't even have oil in the gearbox), complete with tags unit. The guy had bought it for a hurricane that never came, and was moving back north where he did not expect to need it, and I won it for $1,125. I oiled it up, and gave it a spin and the power that came out and into my oscilloscope looked darned pure compared to the commercial power input on the other side.
The connectors for full output from the generator are of the “Anderson Power Pole” 180 amp type, so I decided to duplicate these connectors on my house panel side. After considering all manner of transfer switches, including installing a new Reliance panel that would include a transfer switch, I opted for the Square D HOM generator cut over/back-fed breaker method ($56). I also found a wall plate that mounts the Anderson connectors ($150), and it makes for a really clean installation. I mounted up hig on the wall where only those tall enough to reach it can access it. Since it is off power in normal operation, and can only have power when a generator is hooked to it, it's a pretty safe, at least for me, option. I could fabricate a lock for it if needed. I'm still thinking about that.
After shuttling around a couple of breakers to get the two upper right corner slots open for the back feed breaker, I snapped in a 125 amp Square D HOM breaker, and fed it from the wall plate with triple #6-4. I fabricated my own extension cord from 4-#2 600 V high-flex welding cable, 33’ long so that the tractor can run in the garage during the storm, and sit out in the grass when things calm down. With the same connectors on both ends, it doesn’t matter which end goes in the wall, since the wall plate and generator output jack are situated in identical order. Last thing you want to struggle with is the extension cord in the wet and the dark. The last thing I want to do is to figure out a decent looking exhaust port so that the tractor exhaust can be routed outside because the garage gets pretty rich with heat and diesel exhaust as it is.
I sacrificed my $80 TSC carry-all to use as a permanent mount, added some brackets for the cords, and installed an old retractable trouble light in case I needed lighting during set up. Sorry, I don’t have a photo of the finished product as the paint is still drying. I travel every week, and this time out for two weeks, so I’ll bolt it together in permanent fashion when I get home. Then I’ll test it all again.
I finally had the chance to run it for half a day on the 4310, and handled it just fine. All loads can be online at the same time, but it does drag pretty hard on the 4310 if you add the dryer while the well pump is running. I don’t want to cheat the well pump for power, so it looks like I’ll just keep the dryer breaker turned off until my wife says “Hey, I really need the dryer”. At that point I’ll just turn of the AC’s (5 ton and 2 1/2ton) until she’s done. I need to try it on all of the tractors so I have an idea of what they will handle. I know my 70D at 51hp on my dynamometer will handle it just fine, but I am concerned that I will get objectionable power pulses. The 4310 might be the biggest tractor that the genny sees, so I am in the process of installing a low oil pressure operated cut out in line with the fuel pump solenoid (sold by thermoengines.com) that is used to protect Yanmar engines in remote service. While it always makes good sense to monitor an engine at all times, it’s cheap insurance. Our neighbor tore up a 400 Farmall on the grain dryer when it developed a simple oil leak.
I have right at $1800 in everything at this point, including freight and transportation costs, so I’m pretty happy with it. I would like to add some load monitoring instruments, but that might take some time to find at a bargain.
