Generator Pto generator for BX

[Anonymous Poster]

Does anyone know of a company that makes a small pto driven generator that can be powered by a subcompact tractor such as a Kubota BX2200? All and any advice would be appreciated.....

 

[RPM]

Dan in Green Bay,

If you do a search on "PTO Generator" you will find a number of lengthy discussion on the subject - and also the merits of a PTO Gen vs a stand-alone.

Hope this helps!

Patrick

 

[Steve_in_Ont]

There was a discussion on PTO - driven generators last year that brought up a good point the I had never really thought of... For times that you need the generator running, your tractor will be dedicated to doing only that... However, many times that you have the generator running you might want to be able to use your tractor for other things (ie snow removal). Additionally, it seems that with the large number of smaller complete (engine and generator) generator sets available, that competition has driven the price of these complete units down (relative to the PTO sets)...

As a result... well you know where this is leading...

 

[John_Mc]

Re: Genreator pricing

A bit off topic here, but I've got a question on stand-alone generators:

Why is it that two seemingly identical generators (same HP, same continuous and surge ratings, etc) can have such a HUGE price difference? I'm looking for something in the 4 - 5 KW range. I've seen prices from around $600 to as much as $1700. Why the big swing in prices? Are there specific things I should be looking for?

Main uses are for the occasional jobs away from the house & barn, and emergency backup in event of power failure ('fridge and furnace).

 

[Egon]

Re: Genreator pricing

Just some guesses here on the pricing differences.
Quality of Motor, Type of generator and quality, ie bearings, brushless, windings.
Accuracy of voltage control and a no load idle feature.

I have a Homelite LR4300 for which I paid $450.00 Canadian. It does what I need it for but many times I think better voltage control and and a idle feature would be nice. The manual also states that after 1000 hours of use the motor requires replacement. It does not impress me as a quality unit but the price was right.

Egon

 

[GlueGuy]

I've thought about that too.

In our particular case, the amount that we use te genny is very small. We have power outages here maybe 2, 3 or 4 times per year. Sometimes the outages are relatively short (a few minutes to an couple of hours). We don't break out the genny unless it looks like a several hour or more outage.

The amount of time that we use the tractor is not small, but it's also not large (as much fun as the tractor is, there are other things happening)...

The maintenance of a single-use engine (one that's dedicated to the genny), seems out of line with the usage profile. It would be much more economical to use the tractor to power the genny on those few occasions when it's needed. I can easily justify that. Especially when I know it reduces the number of engines to maintain.

 

[JonSpinosa]

Dan, I just sold my new Kubota ARX6500 watt generator and purchased a new 12KW Tiger Power PTO generator to use with my BX2200. I had the generator for 2 years and used it only once for a power outage of 1 hour.

I could not see maintaining the generator for the useage it received. It only made sense to utilize the BX2200 to provide emergency standby power. Also, it is much safer to keep some extra diesel fuel for emergencies than gasoline.

I did alot of research on various PTO generators and found the best two choices to be either the Tiger Power or the Windpower generator. I hope this helps!

Jon

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Genreator pricing

I've heard that voltage regulation is a big concern, especially if you are
putting well pump motors and other expensive appliances at risk.

Honda generators are much more expensive than the prices mentioned
above -- the 6500 watt/6000 continuous load commercial generator
(EB6500 ?) costs around $3,000 -- but Honda claims that they produce
better current than what you get from the pole.

As a matter of fact I'd be interested in any tales people might have of
a generator ruining an electric motor.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Re: Genreator pricing

Don,

Harmonic content is the figure of merit with respect to generators driving electric motors. Odd harmonics that are divisible by 3, the 3rd, 9th, 15th, 21st (called triplens), produce counter rotating torques in rotating machinery. Total harmonic content is usually expressed as a %. I have not seen any of the small generators quantify the harmonic content of the output. My generator (Generac) output voltage looks more like a triangular wave than a sine wave, but it runs everything I hook to it just fine.
Al

 

[MChalkley]

Re: Genreator pricing

Al,

My generator, also a Generac, puts out an almost triangular wave, too, and everything works fine except one UPS which immediately barfs and goes into backup mode. I had to relegate it to conditioning for my shortwave receivers, because I couldn't use the computer longer than an hour or so when we had a power outage, even though I'd fired the generator up. Why that's the only thing that doesn't like it, I don't know. I've got two other UPS systems and neither of them complains at all.