Automatically refill tractor diesel

[Charlesaf3]

Thinking about it a bit more, how about a cheap harbor freight style siphon? It would be cheap andsimple

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . I just bought a 20kw tiger pto generator from messicks as a result of the latest power outage. Been thinking of it for years, and taking a look at the local electrical infrastructure we are definitely going to lose power again.

Going to run it off the b3030' which sips fuel, even at pto speed. . .

I don't think that you're going to get 20kw out of that set-up.
I copied this from the Tiger website, under FAQ:

#4 What Horse Power (HP) tractor do I need?
The customer will need at least 2 (HP) per kW. For example, a customer needing a 10 kW PTO will need 20 PTO-HP.

According to that, your 23hp pto tractor will produce a maximum of 11.5kw. You will want to hook everything up and check your output before you really need it.

I've been considering one of these myself. Please let us know how it works.

 

[5030]

living in florida my entire life.. and thru dozens of hurricanes and such.. so far I've never found the need to run 'emergency power' 24-7

filling the tank when it gets low lets me check stuff out.. chek oil.. check temp.. etc.. etc.

if I had something that needed 24-7 power.. like life support.. etc... I'd get a dedicated stationary genset on a automatic switch with a dedicated tank.. etc. not a pto setup...

just my .02

i have seen neighbors that see the need to run power 24-7.. it gets annoying during a fuel crisis.. and no one around them can sleep at night.. especially since we have windows open for ventilation and air flow.. and don't want to listen toy their genny at 3am.. etc..



just sayin...

soundguy

I'm with you on that. I'm a light sleeper as it is and I could get up in the middle of the night and put a Federal Green Tip through the block of an
overly noisy genny......:laughing:

True standby genny's are sound attenuated in the first place. You can't hear ours running 75 feet away and it's 17KW.

 

[sandman2234]

Before I sold it, my Bobcat welder 8KW generator was about as noisey as they come, or at least it seemed like it. During one power outage that lasted 8 hours for me and 9 days for the people across the street, I kept it running almost day and night. I would run one neighbor's and then move to the next one. Gave them a chance to keep the freezer's from thawing, septic pumps doing there thing, etc. After a week I went back to work, and most of them lost their freezers in the two days that followed. I told them they could use the generator, but would have to supply their own fuel. (HELLO!!!). I guess a freezer full is worth less than a tank of gas, lol. Anyway, the loud generator would wake up people for several houses in both directions when I moved to where the houses were closer together. I finally rigged up a secondary muffler to help quiet it down, but it was still LOUD!
Some tractors come with aux tanks. My Ford 7710 has two tanks...
David from jax

 

[Duffster]

I have only had to run a genny one time in aboot the last 10 years and I run it 24 hours a day. It was running for my very elderly grandparents house to keep the AC going.

If a little tractor running keeps the neighbors from sleeping, oh well I guess they didn't need the sleep that bad.

Charle, instead of rigging extra fueling I think I would just put some murphy switches on it and plan on coming back to it often enough to fuel it. Set up a switch so that if it gets to low on fuel that it shuts itself down.

 

[downslope]

I have only had to run a genny one time in aboot the last 10 years and I run it 24 hours a day. It was running for my very elderly grandparents house to keep the AC going.

If a little tractor running keeps the neighbors from sleeping, oh well I guess they didn't need the sleep that bad.

Charle, instead of rigging extra fueling I think I would just put some murphy switches on it and plan on coming back to it often enough to fuel it. Set up a switch so that if it gets to low on fuel that it shuts itself down.

You really do need the safety/Murphy switches. I have seen a few disasters with lower hoses, fan belts, fan blades, etc. If a lower hose lets go, even a temp sensor may not save it; you really need a coolant level sensor as well, along with temp and oil pressure.

 

[Charlesaf3]

not knowing anyhting about safety/murphy switches, I guess I have to read up on them.

On the running 24/7 - not ideal, but how long does the fridge last without juice? My current garbage kenmore seems to start warming up almost immediately.

b3030 will get only 11.75kw out, but should handle high surges better. m59 can use full thing. And the upcharge from a 15kw wasn't that much.

Should be able to run the central AC off the b3030 - its a smallish one. And if juice is out in July, I'll want central AC. And the wife and baby will want it even more. No doubt generators are loud, but diesel tractors are a bit better. Still pretty loud, but frankly, it tends to be an annoying time all around if you have to pull out the generator.

 

[davygp38]

I got a chance to see my buddy use his 15 kw pto generator this past storm. I have to agree that although the ability to run longer on a tandem tank of fuel would be nice, it is important to check the oil,hoses ect. In his case if the tractor went down he would have lost all the meat in his butcher shop. So he was out there checking constantly. He pretty much ran it about 12 hours a day. The freezers are big, so once they shut off, he could let them go for 4-6 hours. The PTO generator is not ideal for long term outages. On the other hand they provide the most output for the least price. I was thinking of getting a PTO generator to run my place, but I think I might go with an all in one, with a tandem tank.

 

[SpringHollow]

Whatever you do, make sure the generator creates high quality power. I learned the hard way with a name brand portable. The equipment it took out cost more than the generator by a factor of 4.

Check that air conditioners LRA (locked rotor amps) rating. It is not the maximum number of amps to run (typical plate rating) but the number of amps required to start it that is important. If all your starting amps for conditioners, pumps, freezers etc that are turned on exceed the generator's capacity, you will be in trouble.

Ken

 

[Soundguy]

IMHO.. I've found that the output from most gennies, sized for their jobs, is far better (cleaner) than the utility.. at least for brushless designs.

think about it.

it's spinning copper.. it makes a sine wave. it's way cleaner than a really good inverter.

a graphing oscope meter with time hold showed my ptogenset had better freq regulation and overall cleaner power than my utility line did, iin a head to head test..

soundguy