Lots of generator threads, but starting a new one due to specificity...

Through the recent blackouts, is anyone successfully using a PTO generator to power their house? Pros/Cons you've seen over the last week? General thoughts?

Makes great sense to me as a tractor engine should be far more cared for and maintained than a dedicated, occasional-use generator engine. For those that already have tractors...why spend all that $$ on another engine to maintain? Plus...far more power than any portable, fuel is fresh, good oil, due to regular maintenance that I do anyways. I have lots of confidence that the tractor will start, and that it will run for days on end if necessary.

Concern really boils down to...do I put electronics and other household electrical items at risk due to unclean power? What do you use to clean up/regulate voltage, amps, etc on the other side of the power generation?

My setup is a Kubota 4-cyl diesel, 800 hrs on engine, 50 PTO hp.

I have a friend who has powered his house with a PTO generator through this whole mess. From my research the PTO generators almost all produce "clean power" so they're better on your electronics than a lot of portable ones. Harbor Freight has a 15kW PTO generator for $1500.00 and the reviews online are pretty good. I ordered one and already have a shipment confirmation. I figured for $1500.00 I'll give it a try.

As long as you have plenty of fuel for your tractor and can tolerate the noise of the tractor, no issue with it.

Fuel will be the big issue, but a current 35kw engine will burn about 3-3.5 gph. Even with a small load the larger engines will burn through a lot of gas.

I've been interested as well. Rule of thumb is 2hp/1kw. I don't have personal experience but read with bigger HP tractors about .25-.5 gal/hr burn. I would think have a diesel tower, fill diesel pickup to turn it over and keep it fresh, you'd have a pretty long term power system that can run about whatever you throw at it. They supposedly have very clean electric output.

FYI....if you have certain trucks, they are capable driving PTOs. I know the Chevy duramxax has had PTO capabilities for a while now. You can have this company install a PTO generator to your chassis under the truck. You'll never know it's there and for about the same cost of a 7000 watt Honda, you can have 15K-20K watts onboard your truck. Energy is clean energy and can be used to power just about anything you want. I have a cousin that has this on his welding truck. I'll be adding to my 2020 duramax. Why buy a portable or whole home that requires maintenance, etc., when you are already paying maintenance on your truck? Seems like a no brainer to me and I get the added awesomeness of having enough power to run a house wherever I go.

Edit: forgot the link

https://realacpower.com/

Central Georgia Generator sells a wide range of 1800 rpm generator heads (including PTO sets) that look fairly robust. They sell on ebay if you can arrange shipping by truck:

centralgagenerator.com

Dad: if you want that snow cleared out of the driveway I've got to shut the generator down and unhook the tractor from it to scoop the drive.

Mom: We REALLY NEED another tractor!

Dad: I like the way you think!

biggest issue you may face is being able to maintain 60hz. Some of the newer appliances are very sensitive to variability in cycles and can be damaged by as little as a 3-5% spread from 60hz.

Here's one for a 100 hp tractor.

https://www.absolutegenerators.com/winco-tractor-driven-pto-generator-50ptot4-03-40-kw-continuous-1000-rpm-single-phase-120-240-volt

They have a huge range, all the way up to over 150kw needing a 290 hp tractor.