PTO Generator?

[EE_Bota]

I enjoyed reading the comments. Here are mine:
Everyones situation is different, and mine is really easy. Since I am single with no children, if I am comfortable, there are no complaints.
I do not recommend any of these solutions to any specific person, rather, peruse them to see if any can help out in your own particular
situation.

Tools at my disposal:
A Mr.Heater two-eyed radiant heater which will run a good while on one eye using a grill sized propane tank.
A 700w invertor bought cheap in case I only want to run my laptop, or something small.
A 4000w invertor in case I only want to do something briefly, such as run the water pump.
Also, the 4000W invertor is handy for running something midsized for a LONG TIME such as running the freezer and the fridge (two separate units.)
It is important to know how to defeat a defrost cycle, else I have to use the generator.
The generator: I bought it from Northern Hydraulics for around $900 just this year. It is rated 7200W. It runs off PTO. I mounted it on a stout modified pallet (made as small as possible, so it is a half pallet),
and use a carry all to back up to it. I do not have a disconnect, and I doubt I ever will since they are relatively expensive.
Instead, I will run drop cords through a slightly open window (stuffed with a blocker such as old cloth) and use them to run my fridge and freezer, and if winter, run the blower for my fireplace insert, and my laptop, etc. My main heat is a heatpump, so I dont really bother with it at all.

A shower or a bath is usually pretty far from my mind when it is freezing and I have no power. So, it is no real chore to heat a bit of water on the wood stove and wash up a bit.
But sooner or later, a shower is needed, so I use my portable hot water heater, which will run off of propane (any size bottle) and four "D" batteries.
The batteries power the pump, and the propane heats the water.

Mr. Heater I bought a few years back
Mr. Heater Double Propane Heater With Piezo Ignitor 8,000-28,000 BTU, Model MH24TS | Heaters | Northern Tool + Equipment

Camping hot water heater
Walmart.com: Zodi Instant Water Heater and Hot Shower: Camping

My PTO generator
NorthStar PTO Generator 7200 Watt, 14 HP Required | PTO Generators | Northern Tool + Equipment

PTO shaft
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

Carry all that is a perfect match for the pto generator / BX size and shape
King Kutter Carry All, Model CA | Scoops | Northern Tool + Equipment

I have a 30 gallon plastic barrel to hold diesel. I expect to be able to get more if needed, but I keep the BX full in the winter anyway,
and a 5 gallon container as well, so 40 gallons on hand. I use the leftover diesel in the spring and summer, and stock up in the fall.

Important: I did not pay shipping on anything except the PTO shaft. Northern will ship the PTO to the store and you pick it up.
I bought the carryall NOT at Northern, but off the lot at Tractor supply.

Situation: Duke power, rarely out. But a severe ice storm (horrible) caused me to lose power a few years back 10 days, then 6 days later on in the same winter. No power losses over a couple of minutes since, so I really could not afford to spend too much.

 

[brandoro]

Since you are in Quebec you should have access to the type of PTO generator that I have, a Drummond, made (assembled) in Quebec with some part local manufacture and some not. I have had it for 5-6 years now so that may have changed. It works well. I agree that having more generator than engine is a safe thing for the generator. The tractor I had when I bought the generator was WOT at about 7800 watts, the next tractor would run anything I could connect to the generator and the tractor I have now is yawning with everything I can connect. If you get a bigger generator than you can run right now it is a good thing.
I used to work for GE Hydro in Lachine so knew several people who lived through the ice storm, some had no power for weeks.
On construction sites you will often see light plants with Kubota engines that run rated speed all the time and have 5-6-7000 hours and still run very well.

 

[Soundguy]

essentially, yes.. having a 40kw gen and a tractor only capable of 10 is not a problem.. mind you if you start drawing more than the tractor can handle the load will pull it down, thus probably effecting frequency untill it drops enough that you aren't making useable power.

A 10kw head is all that tractor will ever touch.. at most.. I'd get a 12.5kw head and call it good.

northern usually sells those for 1100$ or so.. I have one.. love it.



soundguy

Lots of good information and feedback. So if I am understanding this correctly, my BX with 23 HP and 18 HP at the PTO, should run maybe 10 KW max. But, from comments by Iplayfarmer, Soundguy and brin, I can get a larger genset and it would work OK? That is to say if I get a 15 or 20 KW genset, I would never overload the genset, and as far as the tractor goes, if the genny was under heavy load and asking for more juice, my tractor would give it what it can, and possibly stall when it can稚 anymore? Does this make sense and is this a sound plan?

Raw Dodge, thanks for your comments. This is my first tractor and have had it about 5 months now. I did a lot of research before buying it have confidence in its capabilities. What you said kind of gives me the added confidence that this is a well built tractor and doesn稚 need to be babied, it was meant to work hard.

I am guessing that running a generator, and under heavy or close to max load, the fuel consumption must go up compared to my usual usage. Today痴 tractor diesel engines with their low sulphur requirements, would they run ok on home heating oil? I know many that did this years ago, but do not know if today痴 diesel are more finicky?

 

[bucmeister]

Have not read all of the posts, but want to offer this solution for consideration. We were out of power for awhile due to both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. At the time all I had available was the 4.5Kw gas unit that we bought after an ice storm back in '89. That little machine has served us well over the years with the only problem being the acquiring of gasoline when none of the stations had electricity to pump more gas into the 5 gallon cans. Earlier this year I bought a 6.5Kw Chinese made diesel unit that actually does very well and will burn about 7 gal per 24 hours under a bit more load than the older unit, which burned twice as much, since we can now run the water heater intermittently. Since my dad has undergone cancer treatment, heart valve transplant, and pacemaker surgery they decided they wanted an automatic standby and gave me their 13Kw Northstar PTO unit. The only time we will use it is if we go out during the summer and need A/C to sleep at night. Partly due to what others have said about cutting back to essentials during outages, which outside of A/C the 6.5Kw will handle just fine, and partly due to the unreasonable amount of fuel my JD5300 would consume over a week of running 24 hours per day. The small unit will go through 4 gal in 14 hours whereas the tractor will go through over a gallon per hour to keep us cool at night. As we found out in both of the hurricane outages not only does the fuel cost add up quick in 8 continuous days of running 24 hours, but so can the availability since we ended up only being allowed to buy 5 gallons at a time due to the shortages caused by the supply terminals in the Baton Rouge, LA area not having power to fill the tankers and that is the source refineries for the fuel in our area. It was a cascade of damage and systemic failures that really brought us face to face with these issues.

The bottom line to my tale is these hurricanes showed us that in wide spread outage situations fuel economy and conservation can quickly become the primary concern when faced with the possibility of no fuel.

 

[whistlepig]

I read a lot of TBN posts before I bought my portable generator. I was seriously considering a PTO generator. There are some tremendous advantages to a PTO generator. I just couldn't bring myself to dedicating the tractor to a generator. I only have one tractor. I envisioned ice storms and downed trees that would have to be cleared with the tractor and FEL. We have livestock and fences that may need mended. But because the tractor was dedicated to the PTO generator the house would have to go with out heat and electric while I used the tractor to clear the trees and mend the fences. That's why I went portable.

 

[windy acers]

EVERYONE NEEDS 2 OR MORE TRACTORS

 

[Duffster]

I'd not want to run my tractor at full load for hrs on end.

Why not?

 

[Soundguy]

I read a lot of TBN posts before I bought my portable generator. I was seriously considering a PTO generator. There are some tremendous advantages to a PTO generator. I just couldn't bring myself to dedicating the tractor to a generator. I only have one tractor. I envisioned ice storms and downed trees that would have to be cleared with the tractor and FEL. We have livestock and fences that may need mended. But because the tractor was dedicated to the PTO generator the house would have to go with out heat and electric while I used the tractor to clear the trees and mend the fences. That's why I went portable.

I'm sure the house wouldn't freeze up and blow away if you yanke dthe tractor away for a couple hours.

heck.. during extened outtages.. i ONLY ran the genny for a hour at a time to get the reffers cold and pump water up.. etc...

probably had it on 10% o fthe time.. and off 90.. and never had a problem.

no real need for 100% live power 24/7.. and if yuo do.. you need a dedicated auto start unit with auto xfer switch for seamless transfer if you can't stand to see a few seconds of no power..

soundguy

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I'm sure the house wouldn't freeze up and blow away if you yanke dthe tractor away for a couple hours.

heck.. during extened outtages.. i ONLY ran the genny for a hour at a time to get the reffers cold and pump water up.. etc...

probably had it on 10% o fthe time.. and off 90.. and never had a problem.

no real need for 100% live power 24/7.. and if yuo do.. you need a dedicated auto start unit with auto xfer switch for seamless transfer if you can't stand to see a few seconds of no power..

soundguy

I understand that your statements are based on sound principles, but you also have to admit that there are some very real differences between central Florida and central Canada. I agree that 100% coverage is likely unneccessary, but colder climates are going need quite a bit more than 10%.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I enjoyed reading the comments. Here are mine:
Everyones situation is different, and mine is really easy. Since I am single with no children, if I am comfortable, there are no complaints.
I do not recommend any of these solutions to any specific person, rather, peruse them to see if any can help out in your own particular
situation.

Tools at my disposal:
A Mr.Heater two-eyed radiant heater which will run a good while on one eye using a grill sized propane tank.
A 700w invertor bought cheap in case I only want to run my laptop, or something small.
A 4000w invertor in case I only want to do something briefly, such as run the water pump.
Also, the 4000W invertor is handy for running something midsized for a LONG TIME such as running the freezer and the fridge (two separate units.)
It is important to know how to defeat a defrost cycle, else I have to use the generator.
The generator: I bought it from Northern Hydraulics for around $900 just this year. It is rated 7200W. It runs off PTO. I mounted it on a stout modified pallet (made as small as possible, so it is a half pallet),
and use a carry all to back up to it. I do not have a disconnect, and I doubt I ever will since they are relatively expensive.
Instead, I will run drop cords through a slightly open window (stuffed with a blocker such as old cloth) and use them to run my fridge and freezer, and if winter, run the blower for my fireplace insert, and my laptop, etc. My main heat is a heatpump, so I dont really bother with it at all.

A shower or a bath is usually pretty far from my mind when it is freezing and I have no power. So, it is no real chore to heat a bit of water on the wood stove and wash up a bit.
But sooner or later, a shower is needed, so I use my portable hot water heater, which will run off of propane (any size bottle) and four "D" batteries.
The batteries power the pump, and the propane heats the water.

Mr. Heater I bought a few years back
Mr. Heater Double Propane Heater With Piezo Ignitor 8,000-28,000 BTU, Model MH24TS | Heaters | Northern Tool + Equipment

Camping hot water heater
Walmart.com: Zodi Instant Water Heater and Hot Shower: Camping

My PTO generator
NorthStar PTO Generator 7200 Watt, 14 HP Required | PTO Generators | Northern Tool + Equipment

PTO shaft
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

Carry all that is a perfect match for the pto generator / BX size and shape
King Kutter Carry All, Model CA | Scoops | Northern Tool + Equipment

I have a 30 gallon plastic barrel to hold diesel. I expect to be able to get more if needed, but I keep the BX full in the winter anyway,
and a 5 gallon container as well, so 40 gallons on hand. I use the leftover diesel in the spring and summer, and stock up in the fall.

Important: I did not pay shipping on anything except the PTO shaft. Northern will ship the PTO to the store and you pick it up.
I bought the carryall NOT at Northern, but off the lot at Tractor supply.

Situation: Duke power, rarely out. But a severe ice storm (horrible) caused me to lose power a few years back 10 days, then 6 days later on in the same winter. No power losses over a couple of minutes since, so I really could not afford to spend too much.

This seems so complicated. Just drop another $300 and get a 200 amp transfer switch like I have and posted and install it. Now hook up your pto gen and you are running the whole house. No running cords or monkeying around with inverters. Just my $.02

Chris