Your last generator Maintenance Run

[bdhsfz6]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

 

[LouNY]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:

Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

I tried something like that for awhile by leaving one of the tractors connected up to the PTO generator but there always seemed to be another use for the machine.

I thought about getting a 3rd tractor for generator use. It would offer some flexibility, since it could be used for other jobs if necessary. I shopped around locally for something suitable, but the prices on decent used machines were so close to that of a stand alone generator, I decided to trade flexibility for convenience.

I can start the standalone genny without leaving the house and the wife can easily do it if I'm not around. At our age, she's not as able as she once was to brave the elements to start and refuel a tractor. To make it even more convenient, next year, I plan to add an automatic transfer switch. As much as I wanted that third tractor, this seemed to be the practical approach for us at this point.

The down side to this is, I can't tow the PTO genny to other buildings. I've only done it once in 25 years though so it didn't seem that important. I can use one of the portables in remote locations if necessary.

 

[JRH02]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

I like those tire chains. So how good does that PTO genset hold the Hz with loads vs no-loads?

 

[LouNY]

I like those tire chains. So how good does that PTO genset hold the Hz with loads vs no-loads?

That depends completely on the tractors governor. Most of the ones I've used have done fairly good. The IH 574 will hold better then 2 hertz from no load to over 80 Amps. Usually right around 1 hertz.
The Branson with hold very good on the 540 output, on the economy throttled down she will drift a bit sometimes. I may step out and trim it down just a bit for night running compared to normal day running with appliances and water pump kicking on and off.
My Oliver 1550 did a good job when I had her, and I borrowed a CIH 7220 one time when my Oliver was my only tractor and she gelled one night, using the 1000 rpm output with an adapter at half throttle that thing didn't care what the load did.
Over at the farm when they were still milking cows the 75Kw unit would require a bit of tweaking depending on the loads but even then I don't think we ever saw more then 4 Hz +-.

Yes those are good chains, I have several sets here for the tractors.

 

[chim]

We seldom have power outages here that last long enough to fire up a generator. There's the occasional exception. Several years ago our first (wet and heavy) snowfall came while most of the trees still had a lot of foliage. Our place is the last on a short utility run that has only 5 or 6 places past where a tree tor the line down. Outages were widespread. The power company concentrated on the work that brought the most customer back on line. They worked on lines that put 50 or 100 customers back in service. Our power was of from Saturday afternoon till some time on Wednesday. I borrowed a generator from work, then went and bought a 7500W Champion gasoline generator with electric start. That one gets run maybe twice a year.

More recently I got a generator from an Amida light stand. It's a 4000W diesel. Looks like a tow-behind air compressor. I often use the latter to run welders etc so it sees fairly regular use. It's handy to tow it offsite where needed.

 

[3930dave]

Noticed I had left the fuel shutoff open.

Your petcock story reminded me.... I hadn't run the winter fuel I wanted into my old street bike. Cracked open this morning the T4 I'd bought, got the bike warmed up a bit, then topped tank with T4 before running out to do some Saturday chores. (Bike petcock is a vacuum diaphragm type, so Off is less critical, but I still like it OFF for the Winter).

https://vpracingfuels.com/products/vp-t4-fuel

Will run it a bit more tomorrow, top up again, then do same with my KLX300..... been a bit mild here lately, so taking advantage of the temps (re. turning the bike over) before it drops again.

I plan to start using the T4 for my other small engines that I store.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

You are Welcome ! Lots of fun here, it's been great hanging out.....

TBN'ers.... always helping others Spend Money !

Maybe that's what it really stands for...... Too Broke Now !

Can't beat the convenience of a whole house generator. Last outage here, I started my portable at something like 4:00am.... definitely wouldn't want my wife having to deal with that ^....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

Tractor+gen ready to work..... nice having that dedicated, esp. in Winter !

That golf-cart cover looks way better than the tarp I use on mine..... I'll have to watch for a deal on those....

Another vote for those chains

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

We seldom have power outages here that last long enough to fire up a generator. There's the occasional exception. Several years ago our first (wet and heavy) snowfall came while most of the trees still had a lot of foliage. Our place is the last on a short utility run that has only 5 or 6 places past where a tree tor the line down. Outages were widespread. The power company concentrated on the work that brought the most customer back on line. They worked on lines that put 50 or 100 customers back in service. Our power was of from Saturday afternoon till some time on Wednesday. I borrowed a generator from work, then went and bought a 7500W Champion gasoline generator with electric start. That one gets run maybe twice a year.

More recently I got a generator from an Amida light stand. It's a 4000W diesel. Looks like a tow-behind air compressor. I often use the latter to run welders etc so it sees fairly regular use. It's handy to tow it offsite where needed.

You are well-prepped now...... so of course, the grid will then stay-up for 10 years straight

I'm not familiar with Amida..... who is the manufacturer of that diesel ? That would be handy, for a quick-tow somewhere...... though me being me..... I'd need those flourescent "cat-whisker" sticks out the sides of the trailer.... narrow enough, that I'd might forget it was behind my big truck !

Rgds, D.