PTO Generator

[wh]

In 1993 we got hit in late march with storm of century. Went to 5 - 8 below. Got 15 inches of snow with sheet of ice to kick things off. Power lines down everywhere. Had a welder generator for here. Neighbor bought a 25 kw pto generator day it hit. Had no idea how to use it. After burning up 2 feeder motors called me. Got there and tractor was running 1/2 throttle. Saw he had a large cable running in to main box from generator. Told him had to open tractor up. Volt meter on generator. Opened it up and had 240. All good. Came home and 1 hour or so later calls again. 2 more motors failed. Got my stuff and back I went. Stepped in and saw problem. The large cable From generator liked about 4 feet reaching main box. He had connected some #12 wire to reach. Told him problem. Told him it was same as trying to push a 3 inch water supply thru a 1/2 line. The volume was not there. He said he had a longer large cable but it was in his barn and he did not want to get it. He went and got it and had no more trouble.

 

[TractorDad3]

Folks thank you VERY much for your thoughts here.
Considering “clean” power for devices
Adding up the larger loads we see on a regular basis with refrigerators/freezers/washer/dryer and trying to understand what electrical updates need to be made to existing system
Glad I have a couple of smooth fuel sipping diesels that need work even if it’s modest
Really, thank you very much for your thoughts/comments, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge
I think power management is very important without medical devices but considering future needs
Merry Christmas and hope you’re all set for a nice New Year

 

[61-4010]

We have a Winco 12kw that we run on our 24HP tractor and does it just fine. We're all electric and we cannot run the heat pump as the secondary circuit for that alone in 90A (we did that one time....and learned....when it burned out the HVAC circuit board) but it will handle the water pump, water heater, fridge, freezer, TVs and other stuff concurrently w/o us having to play circuit jockey. So when we do have to use the generator, we shut off the house HVAC and use portable heaters in the winter. We have line interactive UPSs on our computers, TVs and the like in the house and I do have to tweak the throttle on the tractor so the UPSs don't sense under (brownout) or over current situations.

 

[Tx Jim]

My 9500 watt inverter generator operates my HVAC heat pump just fine the few times I've used it. If you can't operate heat pump in Winter can you also not operate AC in the Summer?

 

[61-4010]

You are correct @TC Jim.....we cannot operate AC in the summer either. Our HVAC is old....circa 1992 and hence not very efficient but it still works like a champ. I used to joke that before they switched our meter to one of those smart digital meters, it would torque off the side of the house when the secondaries kicked in. If we replaced with a modern system I suspect that the gen would handle it easily.....but that's a lot of coins so for now, in winter we use the fireplace with portable heaters. In the summer, we use fans and have a window AC unit that cools my office that we push air volume into the main living space.