Stackwood
Bronze Member
I dunno, gents, I can think of a some advantages the pto generator has. The first is high capacity at low initial cost. Roughly speaking a pto generator is about 1/4 the price of a comparable stand alone, plus it weighs half as much, plus you'll be using the tractor's muscle to move it around instead of your back. This is especially true at higher capacity: A 13kw pto generator weighs less than 200#, while a 10kw portable weighs close to 500#. Those little wheels it comes equipped with don't look so good at my age.
What's it going to be used for? Any internal combustion driven generator is going to use gobs of fuel if it's on continuously. Let's assume, then, that this sort of powerplant is for intermittent or emergency use. If it's for emergencies, then the vast majority of the time it's just going to sit there. Motors don't do well just sitting. They still take maintenance. My generator (yes it's a portable!) hasn't been run in two years. I need to drag it out and make sure it starts. A snow storm is not the time to find out it won't. Actually we're trying to pare down the number of indepent motors we have for this reason, for example we're going to convert to a pto log splitter.
Let's say you do have an emergency. In our household at least, there'd be no necessity to run the generator 24/7. Turn it on and get everything done, wash clothes, wash bodies, cook food, run the freezers, HVAC, pump water, etc. A large pto generator would have the capacity to do this. Then shut down the generator. You might do this twice a day, let's say 4 hours total. In two weeks you'd only have 56 hours on your beloved tractor. When the emergency is over you park your insurance policy in a clean dry place until next time, no maintenance required.
Let's say you do have to run that tractor 24/7 for a few days to keep the natives from getting restless. Most of the time the generator and therefore tractor will be lightly loaded, which translates into a lot less wear than plowing a field at its limits. No dust or mud, either.
I'm not saying portables don't have their advantages, too. The small ones are cheap to buy, very portable and adequate for most of our needs. We bought an 1800W Coleman to run power tools and provide house power in a pinch. Granted, not much power, but it would be a whole lot more than nothing. We could run our freezers, water pump, and water heater until the grid is back up. If I wanted something big, though, I'd take a hard look at a tractor driven unit.
What's it going to be used for? Any internal combustion driven generator is going to use gobs of fuel if it's on continuously. Let's assume, then, that this sort of powerplant is for intermittent or emergency use. If it's for emergencies, then the vast majority of the time it's just going to sit there. Motors don't do well just sitting. They still take maintenance. My generator (yes it's a portable!) hasn't been run in two years. I need to drag it out and make sure it starts. A snow storm is not the time to find out it won't. Actually we're trying to pare down the number of indepent motors we have for this reason, for example we're going to convert to a pto log splitter.
Let's say you do have an emergency. In our household at least, there'd be no necessity to run the generator 24/7. Turn it on and get everything done, wash clothes, wash bodies, cook food, run the freezers, HVAC, pump water, etc. A large pto generator would have the capacity to do this. Then shut down the generator. You might do this twice a day, let's say 4 hours total. In two weeks you'd only have 56 hours on your beloved tractor. When the emergency is over you park your insurance policy in a clean dry place until next time, no maintenance required.
Let's say you do have to run that tractor 24/7 for a few days to keep the natives from getting restless. Most of the time the generator and therefore tractor will be lightly loaded, which translates into a lot less wear than plowing a field at its limits. No dust or mud, either.
I'm not saying portables don't have their advantages, too. The small ones are cheap to buy, very portable and adequate for most of our needs. We bought an 1800W Coleman to run power tools and provide house power in a pinch. Granted, not much power, but it would be a whole lot more than nothing. We could run our freezers, water pump, and water heater until the grid is back up. If I wanted something big, though, I'd take a hard look at a tractor driven unit.
