Tow Along Generators

[clemsonfor]

The last one is hilarious! Free headland with deisel generator purchase. I was like what do those have to do with each other and who is spending $600 to get a free $15 headlamp free. Then it came to me power out, you need light to try and start up you china made genset.

 

[California]

http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/tls/1929859401.html

Love the ad title

NEW Quite Generator

Must be quite a generator. I wonder if it is quiet, too?

I wonder what else is incorrect in the description?

 

[rinms]

Has anyone tried a PTO driven generator?, I have seen them for sale but normally too large for a tractor my size (YMG1800D) but I am sure they make smaller PTO driven units, it would be nice to have one at our house in the country when the power goes out, now I just have a 6500 watt to power emergency items but I would think a 20hp diesel would turn a 5k?

A few things to consider:

It takes about 1 HP to produce 750 watts of 120, so a roughly 20HP (PTO) could produce around 15,000 watts. That is about what most residential "standby" units produce (in the 12-20K range). The real problem is the consistency of the RPMs _AND_ the "clean-ness" of the power produced. To produce effective power, the genset must spin at more-or-less precise, exact and constant RPMs - that's why gensets have set speed governors, not throttles. Then, the power produced must be usable, through a transformer, an inverter, etc. If you look at the power output of many inexpensive "homeowner/contractor" type gensets, they are spiky and not uniform. They'll happily run "simple" electrical devices like circular saws, incandescent lamps, space heaters, etc. But you'd not want to connect your sophisticated battery charger, your computer, your ham radio, etc. to them. OTOH, the more sophisticated "consumer/contractor" gensets, like the Honda EU series, produce "sine wave" power via an inverter.

The bottom line is that, yes, from a horsepower standpoint, your tractor can and will supply a fair number of watts, but what you can do with them will depend on the genset's construction. For me, a tractor-powered genset is not really suited to emergency-power to a modern home _unless_ the system is very well thought out and constructed. And that costs money, esp. so since the market for such is much smaller than for stand-alone gensets that do the same thing. My advice would be, if you need/want more than 6500 watts for your home, buy one of the home standby units and if you need more for use at construction sites, etc., buy one of the larger roll-around style portables.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mudfarmer]

Has anyone tried a PTO driven generator?, I have seen them for sale but normally too large for a tractor my size (YMG1800D) but I am sure they make smaller PTO driven units, it would be nice to have one at our house in the country when the power goes out, now I just have a 6500 watt to power emergency items but I would think a 20hp diesel would turn a 5k?

Take a look at this link - I like the one I have from Harbor Freight. Most others are made for BIG tractors _ expensive, designed to keep dairy farms running.
Mf
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/161731-harbor-freight-power-take-off.html

 

[Neat 1500]

the"quite" generators we can also buy here and have. they are blue but it is the same unit. 1 cyl diesel, will run for about 8 hours on 5 odd litres. we payed about $1100 AUD for them. the only problem with them is they dont recharge their own battery so after a few starts it wont turn over fast enough to fire up. apart from that for the price they were good and so thought the thieves that stole 3 of them from signal sites

 

[John47]

Not quite, 1 hp=746 watts BUT 10 hp will not drive a generator to produce 7.46KW!!
Losses, mechanical and electrical. You'd be lucky for 1HP to produce 500 watts in the real world!!
The best rough guide for PTO gennies is 2HP for every KW, BUT, thats a rough guide. Remember in the real world nothing is 100% efficient. The most efficient machine in the world is the bicycle!! Next is a well designed transformer with up to 98% efficiency.
PTO generators have a gearbox, your tractor has a gearbox, friction, electrical losses given off as heat.

 

[California]

I agree there are substantial losses between burning diesel and creating watts. But the tractor's hp is rated at the output of the pto, so you can ignore the tractor's internal losses in estimating what size generator it can power.

I think the practical limitation on powering a generator with these elderly Yanmars is that the cooling system needs to be brought up to like-new before you could run continuous at full rated horsepower output.

And another thought from prior threads: When your grid power is down is when you are likely to need the tractor to move fallen trees etc. A standalone generator might make more sense if that is when you will use it.

 

[Neat 1500]

I took one in for service today and had a good chat with the agent and he says they are japanese built yanmar engines not chinese. he has sold many of them around australia and new zealand and had no major issues with the engines. typical yanmar :thumbsup: