Chris_VA
Bronze Member
Good morning,
A quick question. Is anyone running a PTO generator on their x700 series, particularly the diesel? I'd like to know your comments on performance. Does it hold the loads fairly well. How does the throttle respond to load changes (holding frequency). How much resistive load can I expect it to handle? What is the largest motor you've successfully started (if you know the LRA of something you've started, that would be great).
Just a little background so you know my level of knowledge and experience. Years back (mid 90's), I had a 425 and ran a Winpower 10kw PTO gen with it. It worked pretty well. Was a little hard to get started with the electric clutch but once rolling, it handled loads pretty well. Did have some flickering in the lights but not sure if that was the brushed head of the gen or the uneven firing of the 2 cylinder gas engine.
Due to the high level of power outages and the length of them, I later moved to a propane 20kw generac standby set. Of course that was awesome but fairly expensive and to be honest, i was never really impressed with the quality of that air-cooled set. Handled loads pretty well and even my 3 ton A/C with hard-start capacitor didn't give it too much grief. But over the course of 5 years, I had to replace a lot of parts on it (throttle servo, RPM sensor, etc) and it got very difficult to start. Seemed there was always something that needed attention. Only had about 400 hours on it when we moved.
So now we've moved. I have 2- 200 amp panels so a whole-house automatic solution will be more expensive and difficult. I do have natural gas available now, so operating costs will be less than propane but still more than diesel. I am somewhat concerned about the flow of natural gas in certain events that will take out my power (should I be concerned? I don't know). Plus the fact we only loose power for maybe 10-18 hours total per year, spread over 3 or 4 events. But we haven't had any extreme weather since we moved 5 years ago. That is what I'm wanting to protect against. An event we haven't experienced yet.
So all of this has led me BACK to a PTO gen for the x758. Less cost, easier to wire up a 10 circuit transfer switch for the crucial needs, 30 gallon diesel caddy sitting by that should run the x758 for a few days, always know the state of the engine on the tractor, so no stale fuel issues. A liquid-cooled, natgas or diesel standby gen set for 400 amp service is going to be expensive, more so than I want to spend for infrequent power outages. However, spending $900 on a PTO for the x758 and then another $2000 on a 10kw gen isn't cheap either. Plus I'll have to be home to run any PTO solution, as I can't expect anyone else in the family to get this setup running and monitor it like it should be. But I'm willing to make that commitment given I just don't think we will need it very often.
However, all of this hinges on the question of, WILL THE X758 RUN A 10KW PTO GEN SATISFACTORILY? That is my question to you all.
Thank you for listening to my very long-winded single question
Chris
Edit: I've searched some on this and found a few threads but not exactly what I'm looking for as far as performance and quality of power supplied. Given this is a garden tractor, I'm concerned about the torque curve and how the throttle responds to load changes. Voltage isn't as big of a concern to me as frequency.
A quick question. Is anyone running a PTO generator on their x700 series, particularly the diesel? I'd like to know your comments on performance. Does it hold the loads fairly well. How does the throttle respond to load changes (holding frequency). How much resistive load can I expect it to handle? What is the largest motor you've successfully started (if you know the LRA of something you've started, that would be great).
Just a little background so you know my level of knowledge and experience. Years back (mid 90's), I had a 425 and ran a Winpower 10kw PTO gen with it. It worked pretty well. Was a little hard to get started with the electric clutch but once rolling, it handled loads pretty well. Did have some flickering in the lights but not sure if that was the brushed head of the gen or the uneven firing of the 2 cylinder gas engine.
Due to the high level of power outages and the length of them, I later moved to a propane 20kw generac standby set. Of course that was awesome but fairly expensive and to be honest, i was never really impressed with the quality of that air-cooled set. Handled loads pretty well and even my 3 ton A/C with hard-start capacitor didn't give it too much grief. But over the course of 5 years, I had to replace a lot of parts on it (throttle servo, RPM sensor, etc) and it got very difficult to start. Seemed there was always something that needed attention. Only had about 400 hours on it when we moved.
So now we've moved. I have 2- 200 amp panels so a whole-house automatic solution will be more expensive and difficult. I do have natural gas available now, so operating costs will be less than propane but still more than diesel. I am somewhat concerned about the flow of natural gas in certain events that will take out my power (should I be concerned? I don't know). Plus the fact we only loose power for maybe 10-18 hours total per year, spread over 3 or 4 events. But we haven't had any extreme weather since we moved 5 years ago. That is what I'm wanting to protect against. An event we haven't experienced yet.
So all of this has led me BACK to a PTO gen for the x758. Less cost, easier to wire up a 10 circuit transfer switch for the crucial needs, 30 gallon diesel caddy sitting by that should run the x758 for a few days, always know the state of the engine on the tractor, so no stale fuel issues. A liquid-cooled, natgas or diesel standby gen set for 400 amp service is going to be expensive, more so than I want to spend for infrequent power outages. However, spending $900 on a PTO for the x758 and then another $2000 on a 10kw gen isn't cheap either. Plus I'll have to be home to run any PTO solution, as I can't expect anyone else in the family to get this setup running and monitor it like it should be. But I'm willing to make that commitment given I just don't think we will need it very often.
However, all of this hinges on the question of, WILL THE X758 RUN A 10KW PTO GEN SATISFACTORILY? That is my question to you all.
Thank you for listening to my very long-winded single question
Chris
Edit: I've searched some on this and found a few threads but not exactly what I'm looking for as far as performance and quality of power supplied. Given this is a garden tractor, I'm concerned about the torque curve and how the throttle responds to load changes. Voltage isn't as big of a concern to me as frequency.
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