PTO or self contained generator

[Farmer Jack]

Looking at either a pto 15kw size or a stand alone generator with minimum 7000 watt capacity continuous. about the same price and price is an issue. Need as backup for loss of electicity we seem to get every couple of years and for a couple days at a time. Need to hear the pro's and con's of each to help make the best decision of how to spend my money.

Thanks for your advice

 

[RayP(MI)]

Well, the stand alone doesn't tie up a tractor, motor will be sized to load, therefore probably more efficient. But then you have another motor to maintain. I have a stand alone, threw it on a haywagon took to the field last fall, spent the whole afternoon trimming fence rows with electric chainsaw. Very convenient. A good quality generator should last a long time, if maintained, housed cleanly and out of weather. You don't use them that much, unless you're a contractor building buildings with no electrical service.

 

[Fordfarmer]

Will the 7000 be enough power? Or will you forced to run only a few things at a time? The 7000 watt will probably be cheaper per hour in fuel (although a good, appropriatly sized diesel tractor can run a 15 KW pretty cheaply!), but a (good)PTO generator will outlast a 7000watt self-contained, hands down. And you can run whatever you want on a 15 KW... no having to think about what combinations of appliances might overload it. You would probably have to refuel a tractor LESS often than the stand alone for long run periods.

 

[JMS/.MN]

You need to list all equipment that you NEED to run as a minimum. Add up the wattage, convert to KW- then buy accordingly, allowing for start-up wattage of the biggest load. 7kw is not all that much, and the 15 kw generator is likely built heavier for continuous operation, depending on brand. WD Allis, M Farmall, etc. is big enough to run a 15kw. Gas engines start easier in winter cold. I can run my 25/45 Winpower with the D17gas, but the 3020 diesel handles a big load better.

 

[gregk]

Never had a pto unit, but I just bought a 6500 continuous from Harbor Freight because our power was out and going to be out for several days. It would run my propane furnace, 40 gallon hot water heater, and the well pump(size unknown) without tripping out. However when I had the living room lights and tv on it did trip it. Seemed to be o.k. as it was only a couple of days and alot better than nothing but it is another motor to keep running. If you have electric heat the pto unit is the way to go in my mind(small and narrow).

 

[johns48jdb]

Just curious about how you will handle refueling. If you need to be able to get out and go get gas and can't what would you do then. Maybe you have on farm storage for either the gas or diesel fuel and neither way would be a porblem. Refueling a hot gas engine is a no no. Most portble gens i know of will do good to run 4 to 5 hours. If they are on much of a load they will probably run less. This would mean geting up during the night and refueling. The gens would need to be in a water proof place ie, not be where rain or snow would get on them. If you decide to use a pto gen from a tractor you might could include a roof built onto the generator, but then most tractors need to be parked in out of the rain too. Sorry, not much help, but food for thought i hope will help you decide what to do.

 

[cd1]

both have their place. for emergency I would choose PTO. if that little engine dies you are done, if your tractor dies you logically just hook up another.

 

[buickanddeere]

http://www.reliancecontrols.com/ProductDetail.aspx?TWB2012DR

You will also need this instead of fooling around with extension cords. "farmer fix" connections can energize the ground system and/or cause hazardous back feeds into other systems.

 

[lha]

I have a coleman gen. 11hp,runs good,powers good.Bought it for 1 job that had to be done from sat.noon-mon.8:00a.m.no elect.told cust.,he said fine&i am proud owner of free unit.Had a power outage,used it,worked well,been stored full of sta-bil 5yrs.No dought it would start &run fine if needed,however i have thought many times if it might be better to have one run off pto[much quieter,run on pto,sherman on high doubles pto speed}I would think it would be easy to regulate throttle to voltage.9n will idle all day without heating.Just a thought from an old coot---lha

 

[kyhayman]

I've got bot and both have their place. For temporary power, keeping the freezer running, lights on, and clean electricity for computers and such I use a Coleman 7.5 KW. 8-9 hours on 10 gallons of gas.

If I need to juice the whole place old 20 KW PTO generator gets hauled out. It came with the place in 1967, and it ran the milk barn for 67 days straight in the winter of 77-78. 5600 Ford runs it for 12 hours on the nose on a tank of fuel.

 

[Michael Price]

Every few years we used to have power outages. One time in a ice storm the power goes out and the sump pump was getting full. It was almost midnight and I got the generator out. The flywheel had stopped with the magnet on the coil. Condesation made it rust up so I was out in a ice storm with a flashlight trying to rip apart the engine and find out what was wrong.

A pto generator will give you more power and less trouble. The engine driven generator will take more work to keep it in good working order but you wont have to dink around with a tractor when you need it.

 

[Out plowing]

3 years ago when we had our bad ice storm and lost power for days to weeks most here used there compact tractors, 540rpm generators, but hooking them with an adapter to the 1000rpm PTO. Then by keeping the tractor at 1/2 rpm able to make fuel tanks last much longer and have less wear on the engine by not having to run the tractor at full throttle for hours on end.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 10:30:17 02/15/10) 3 years ago when we had our bad ice storm and lost power for days to weeks most here used there compact tractors, 540rpm generators, but hooking them with an adapter to the 1000rpm PTO. Then by keeping the tractor at 1/2 rpm able to make fuel tanks last much longer and have less wear on the engine by not having to run the tractor at full throttle for hours on end.

Careful doing that. I doubt 1 in 100 farmers own a frequency meter or tach AND used them to verify 540rpm/60hertz. Some equipment can fail in a costly plume of electrical smoke if the frequency and voltage is off spec.Some generators use only a basic rectifier to supply the fields rather than a voltage regulator.
If you do an actual laboratory test. The perceived fuel saving are not as much as imagined. Takes a long time to payback the pto adapter when saving maybe a dollar an hour in an extreme case.Over a few hours of power outage. To risk thousands of $$$ in electrical equipment failure.
A 150HP tractor running a generator for 3wks is an extreme and rare case.