fractal
Gold Member
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How come there is no discussion about tractor PTO Generators ?? Everyone is talking stand-alone units & no one is talking PTO Driven. Is the general consensus that the stand-alone units are the way to go ??
Eric )</font>
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but when I looked at generators I came to a few conclusions.
First, for us city slicker types with wives and familes less enamored with "country life", the thought of going out in the middle of a storm to back the tractor up to the genset and hooking up the pto shaft in the rain is less than enamoring. Next, a quick evaluation of our needs show that we really can get by with 4-6kw portable generator, and the pricing on "disposable" generators that we buy for "insurance" makes them very difficult to ignore. I can get a week of keeping the freezer frozen, food cooked and media monitored from 10 galons of gas stored in the shed 100 ft from the house along with the gas out of one of the vehicles and a small portable generator.
Natural gas generators (propane for those who otherwise get it delivered) with automatic transfer switches and automatic weekly run are NOT that expensive and are a good choice for low hassle power where electricity fails often. I have a friend in upstate NY who looses power for hours to days at a time, several times every winter who has one and he has never lost gas. The real test was when he was out of country one storm. He came back and the generator was running. His wife said "oh yes, it has been making noise for the past couple of days ... is that ok?". She never even noticed that the neighbors did not have power. He spends more every year on the service contract on his generator than I spent on my box store generator.
After hearing all of that, I wondered "why do they even make PTO gensets". And then heard. PTO gensets are a godsend to dairy farmers who stand to loose thousands if they don't get them cows milked on time and the milk cooled, and to chicken farmers who can loose a whole barn full of birds if the fans aren't on during the heat of the day. A standalone generator capable of operating a milking machine and the coolers is many times the price of a PTO genset and they often have more than one tractor on the facility. To them, hooking up the genset to do the milking or loosing thousands is easy. To a city girl who has to ask "do I go out in the rain, figure out how to back the tractor up to the generator and hook it up, or do I let the food spoil and complain about how bad my husband is", the answer is equally obvious /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
So, I have a coleman 2 kw portable generator with a 5hp motor that I bought after loma prieta (1989). I have used it in a storm once. I run it for 5 minutes then change the oil once a year (or so) just to be safe.
The one thing I will say about portable gasoline generators is ... many / most are loud, very loud. I still have some concerns that operating one in a period of extended power outage might attract unwanted attention.
Eric )</font>
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but when I looked at generators I came to a few conclusions.
First, for us city slicker types with wives and familes less enamored with "country life", the thought of going out in the middle of a storm to back the tractor up to the genset and hooking up the pto shaft in the rain is less than enamoring. Next, a quick evaluation of our needs show that we really can get by with 4-6kw portable generator, and the pricing on "disposable" generators that we buy for "insurance" makes them very difficult to ignore. I can get a week of keeping the freezer frozen, food cooked and media monitored from 10 galons of gas stored in the shed 100 ft from the house along with the gas out of one of the vehicles and a small portable generator.
Natural gas generators (propane for those who otherwise get it delivered) with automatic transfer switches and automatic weekly run are NOT that expensive and are a good choice for low hassle power where electricity fails often. I have a friend in upstate NY who looses power for hours to days at a time, several times every winter who has one and he has never lost gas. The real test was when he was out of country one storm. He came back and the generator was running. His wife said "oh yes, it has been making noise for the past couple of days ... is that ok?". She never even noticed that the neighbors did not have power. He spends more every year on the service contract on his generator than I spent on my box store generator.
After hearing all of that, I wondered "why do they even make PTO gensets". And then heard. PTO gensets are a godsend to dairy farmers who stand to loose thousands if they don't get them cows milked on time and the milk cooled, and to chicken farmers who can loose a whole barn full of birds if the fans aren't on during the heat of the day. A standalone generator capable of operating a milking machine and the coolers is many times the price of a PTO genset and they often have more than one tractor on the facility. To them, hooking up the genset to do the milking or loosing thousands is easy. To a city girl who has to ask "do I go out in the rain, figure out how to back the tractor up to the generator and hook it up, or do I let the food spoil and complain about how bad my husband is", the answer is equally obvious /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
So, I have a coleman 2 kw portable generator with a 5hp motor that I bought after loma prieta (1989). I have used it in a storm once. I run it for 5 minutes then change the oil once a year (or so) just to be safe.
The one thing I will say about portable gasoline generators is ... many / most are loud, very loud. I still have some concerns that operating one in a period of extended power outage might attract unwanted attention.
