Will this $300 PTO generator Power the House? Was it worth fixing up?

Buy T-Shirts and Hoodies on Our Website:
www.countryviewacreshomestead...
Our Amazon Shop full of great Homesteading items:
www.amazon.com/shop/countryvi...
TYM Tractors: tym.world/en-us/
The Tractors we use are the
TYM 2515 - 24 Horsepower compact tractor
TYM T654 - 67 horsepower compact utility Tractor
J.I. Case 730 (1961)
Allis Chalmers D17 Series 1 (1959)
E-mail us at: [e-mail]
Send Letters to:
Country View Acres
P.O. Box 469
Robinson, IL 62454
Our KZbin Channel: / countryviewacres
Our Facebook page: / countryviewacreshomestead
Our Instagram Page: / country_view_acres
We live in southeastern Illinois on a 41 acre homestead. We just finished building our log cabin in 2018. Now we are focused on trying to grow our own food and raise livestock. Follow us on our journey we continue to develop our homestead and farm, while becoming more self sufficient.
Any links provided above may be affiliate links which earn us a small commission.
#generator #tractor #emergencypower

[@FarrelAmongus]

Impressive… If it saves even one freezer full of meat from an outage, it will have paid for itself many times over. Well done sir.

[@oldcarpenter2372]

Clean power has to do with the sine wave form. To prevent damage to circuit boards on appliances, computers, and equipment, prior to using it you should check that generator for sine wave distortion.

[@Falney]

Glad I checked before commenting. Even if there is a problem, it is very repairable. Generators are pretty simple.

[@JohnSmith-qd8po]

Total harmonic distortion can be measured. Old generators are notorious for high THD.

[@2wwwilly]

Get a big wattage power station would be better..suggest trade in ..😅😅😂😂❤❤

[@Sev_Auk]

Totally agree oldcarpenter. From Evan's first video on the generator, you can see on the info tag that it wants a constant 520 RPM on the PTO to maintain 60 Hz. I'm guessing neither tractor can supply a governed PTO speed that adjusts to load variations. I'd use it to power lights and space heaters, but not much else. The welder is probably okay too. Basically, I wouldn't plug anything into that cost more than about $300 and even then, one at at time. I think Evan got lucky that he didn't fry any expensive electronics/appliances :)

[@joecummings1260]

@@Sev_AukThe big tractor was holding 59.6 HZ under load that's fine to run anything. And all your electronics run on DC, There is rectification, filtering, and voltage regulation before the power goes to anything sensitive. If I was worried about anything on that Winco generator it would be the voltage regulation, but you can retrofit new voltage regulators in them if that is a problem

[@alan-jt7ts]

Probably not the size of the small tractor but the quality of the governor to be able to hold the revs constant.

[@johnrodgers9877]

Wow Evan , that is way complicated ! When my power goes off I just go back to bed and wait til it comes back on !!!!

[@Traci_S_Aaron]

Something to consider about the way you've got that set up With my experience, there's another possibility to think about And that is use your generator exclusively to replenish the batteries. That way you get the maximum energy and non-wasted from the generator as it will store the energy in the batteries Now I'm not sure if your battery chargers can handle that, but if they can accept 240 input 50 amp to replenish the batteries, that would be the ticket

[@toooldforgaming]

Was thinking the same thing, hooking it up to a high power capacitor to smooth the amperage pulses and have it output with a charging controller to a battery bank

[@Traci_S_Aaron]

@@toooldforgaming Yes, that would depend on the charging regulating circuitry and the inverters and what kind of quality was designed into them to handle that

[@colint]

@@toooldforgaming He tried that first! The generator output was not stable enough for the EPCube, but not sure he tried it with the big tractor - might have been okay

[@dropshot1967]

maybe also test if the battery system will take the generator input from the bigger tractor as that seemed to have stabilized the frequency compared to the smaller tractor.

[@DanKlein_1]

you caught that too.. that was going to be my question. 👍

[@thetazva]

I would have checked to make sure the output frequency is correct so that it doesn't damage the electronics in the newer appliances as well as any electronics in the house. Like computers, TV, sound systems, etc.

[@l337pwnage]

I'm impressed you can run all that on only 50 amps. It's probably a good thing that solar system has built in protection. Modern electronics require pretty clean power. Those fragile electronics are also a great way to make sure people keep buying new appliances instead of keeping their old ones.

[@rongray4118]

Time to find one for us to install on the 406 Unimog and charge the Battery bank and supply house power. Thank you!

[@av1204]

I have the same system with pto generator. Use a dedicated battery charger. Works perfectly

[@JR-xw5dk]

The eg4 Chargeverter 100amp chargers may be a good investment. We have one of those generators and used to milk cows in 1979. I am glad my dad bought it a few years earlier. It also cooled many hanging beef.

[@stephenbulingame8631]

Dang you are smart!!!

[@TomBiggerstaff-gn1ws]

Ran the same generator with a 109 hp pto rated for 3 weeks to run milk barnand silo unloaders + reed conveyors at 1500 rph pto 540 pto was rated at 2400 its all about hp and rpm

[@randybird9979]

humm, we had a PTO generator and it worked perfect, it ran an entire slaughter plant, with 4 big walk in freezers and all other things in the house, it was great

[@julianlavergne]

All you need is a few lights and the freezer. Make some coffee. Although you have to think about the animals too.

[@rt3box6tx74]

Water is #1.

[@marymigliore3396]

I LOVE YOU GUYS !!!!!

[@loulauer5853]

I bet you're tired of having to reset all those clocks on appliances after all those power changeovers. Also, beware of the hidden costs of unstable power freq and voltages. I lived in a foreign country for a while and the power fluctuated pretty much all the time. Had many pieces of stereo, tv's, and appliances that had problems and needed repair or replacement.

[@puirYorick]

Ditto ^THIS^

[@namzat000]

I have a 80 amp baumalight pto generator. Lucked into to one by chance and got it brand new for 1/2 price. Definitely nice having one around

[@djohnsto2]

Wow I love your place. I wish I could live in a place like that.

[@tireddad6541]

I remember a farmer who had one of those. After a hurricane had knocked a lot of trees down, he came by and ran it to run freezers for a bit, so they would not defrost. As long as you don't open they can last a certain amount, but it was a help for us

[@Xmilker-zb8ig]

I have one of these. They are a life saver. I ran mine one week straight, 24 hours a day after an ice storm. I ran my whole dairy farm which included a 5 hp silo unloader and a 7 1/2 hp feed grinder, cooled the milk plus all the household apliances including electric range and electric dryer.

[@joerodrigues3816]

As always mate thanks for a great video hope you all are well and god bless you and your family

[@leol1682]

Like the video Evan and it ran good with the biger tractor .

[@workhardlivefree3818]

You need a Country View Acres sticker on the housing of the generator

[@CountryViewAcres]

Yea, or need a stencil to paint it on.

[@jdschini]

Congrats on the successful restoration and testing of your “Little Red” generator! It is always a nice bonus when you purchase a low priced item, and it turns out to be a good investment for your farm.

[@bay9876]

The idea of the smaller tractor was to save on fuel. Wonder how much the larger tractor burns per hour of energy generation for whole house activation?

[@J-1410]

That's not how engines work. General Motors found that out with their Chevrolet pickup line a few years ago. A smaller engine at full load will use more fuel than a larger engine at an insignificant load. Their smaller engines in the same pickup at the same load got worse mileage than their larger engines in the same pickup at the same load.

[@simplesouthernhomesteading2714]

I’ve been looking for one of these for years.

[@ourv9603]

It sounds like you need the gen to charge your battery pack And use power thru a power inverter. I'm learning from you because I need to put in a whole hose genset too. !

[@J-1410]

Your frequency and voltage is directly related to your PTO RPM. The North American standards are roughly 105 to 125 volts (the standard states something like 110 to 120 +/- something like 10%, 105 to 125 is conservative by a few volts )and then the 50 to 60 cycles. When we had a power outage a decade ago, we ran a gasoline tractor that was 10 HP more than the PTO generator called for, and at 15 gallons an hour, $5 gas, for two weeks, that was never going to happen again, especially since we had two of them going for the farm. Recently, we had a similar event, a week without power during calving. Right after that last event a decade ago, one meter got converted to a automatic LPG(propane) generator, so we only had to have one PTO generator going. This time we put a 160 HP Diesel on the PTO generator, a 1000 to 540 PTO Adapter, and then ran the PTO at the necessary speed, usually about 520 RPM. Since everything is electric heat, we put full load on it, got the volt and cycle reading, then went to "No load/base load" and adjusted so we did not go over 125/60. It worked, as long as everything did not kick on at the same time and was more efficient than the old way, but the LPG generator paid for itself on efficiency alone(dollar per kwh wise) compared to the Diesel and the gasoline tractor. So, we found another LPG auto standby. It may take a decade for it to pay for itself, but it inevitably will, and each one has a few thousand gallons of LPG sitting by it. Also, isn't this the channel that condemned generators for a big battery?

[@brettstock7734]

You need to try it on the old A.C. Tractor. If you get an ice storm or snow storm you are going to want the cab tractor to move snow and brush

[@dougdobbs]

Nice back up to your back up! Now you'll need to have a large supply of diesel on hand to make sure you can power the tractor. :) Of course, in a grid down situation, you'd probably only run the tractor for a few hours a day to keep your freezers cold, etc.

[@Falney]

If they put everything in chest freezers, they would only need to turn it on once per week or every few days if you live in a hot climate.

[@Dan-qy1rg]

Your test was a great one. Like what you did there, that generator was well worth the price you paid for it. Thanks for keeping us informed, have a goodnight and rest of week.

[@bernardjones6162]

Nothing like an “OLD GENERATOR “ to be a back up! From an Old Man!

[@jamessanders4310]

I am not an knowledged electrician , but you amaze me with this kind of video....

[@alisciamarotta3888]

He is an electrical engineer....full time 😊

[@charlesperry1051]

After reading comments I will say, don't fret the frequency. Most, if not all, household loads will be fine +/-2 or even 3 Hz. I also would not worry about the sine wave from the generator. It is an old school unit without power electronics. The sine wave will be fine. Most household loads are electronic now and they don't care much about frequency. They do care about power, which is why the little tractor did not work. It could not make the power. I only have 30 years of experience doing research and testing in this field, including running a power lab. I like the generator. Looks like a nice solid unit.

[@CountryViewAcres]

I think it will work with the bigger tractor. I will have to test it out when I get a chance.

[@Critical-Thinker895]

Glad to see this comment. There's no regulator on that generator except maybe a couple of capacitors. High end electronics in the house use switching supplies to protect your computers etc. His tractor is just underpowered and that's why the freq dips. The house doesn't really notice small changes.

[@hayfork100]

Must be a good feeling to know you can get power in an emergency as long as you have tractor fuel available.

[@larrybourne4176]

The point has been made about "dirty power," and it's a very valid one. Some years ago, I came into a deal on a gas generator - small one - that I figured would be great to run a few lights, refer....and computer in the event of a power outage. In monsoon season here, thunderstorms make outages a regular thing. Point about the sine wave was made on a forum, so I called the generator mfr and asked. The technician told me the sine wave config was wrong for sensitive electronics and "DON'T" use it. It's very worth checking out. Also previously stated - in a real life power outage, you'd be running minimal appliances/lights/etc. and the little tractor would likely be plenty. Very nice work. I'm enjoying your videos, but have a lot of catching up to do.

[@franciscojaviertrev]

Many thanks this s something I want to do in Mexico....

[@SteveE6126]

Very interesting! God bless you all. Thank you for sharing.

[@squirrellyacres]

Very successful test of another power source.

[@olddawgdreaming5715]

Well Evan that swing turned into a GRAND SLAM with the new old generator. So glad your work paid off and lets hope you never need to use it for a long time. Stay safe around there and keep up the great videos and fun you both have around there. Fred.

[@allenferry9632]

Can you use the tractor to just recharge the batteries. After all in an emergency you wouldn't necessarily need to wash and dry your clothes while cooking a roast and heating or cooling your house. When we loose power which is usually in the winter, we lite the fire places and turn on a fan to move the heat around. If its off for a while I'll fire up the generator to cool the refrigerator and freezers and charge the phone so I can watch your older videos. Life's good.

[@CountryViewAcres]

I will have to test the solar again with the big tractor on the generator and see if it charges the batteries.

[@Poorehouse]

@@CountryViewAcresthe trick to the mechanically governed generators is to set the unloaded RPM at about 61.5 or so, so when you switch the load over, including battery charging, the load pulls the generator down to 60hz - so the frequency is correct enough that the inverter can use the power for recharging the batteries. You also might be able to widen the input tolerance on the inverter stack to accept a bit more frequency drift. My Outback Radian lets me set one of the inputs to a wider frequency range for generator use - without kicking off the input if the frequency wanders a bit. If your setup doesn’t offer than, ask their support team for a feature enhancement. Many home generator setups won’t be too terribly stable as the loads vary.

[@dpgoodall]

Sure helps to be a professional electrician for a project like this! Great job Evan!!!

[@houstonfirefox]

Evan, consider that during a power outage you really wouldn't be ramping up everything in the house, you'd go the opposite into conservation mode. One thing not checked is if the larger tractor would charge the batteries. If so, I'd go that route to protect the sensitive electronics in the house from being fried by the extremely dirty power from the generator (although the dirty power might eventually damage the inverter). It is important to consider that if the tractor runs out of fuel or is otherwise disturbed while powering the house directly then you could brownout/burnout or otherwise destroy a lot of sensitive electronics in the house (computers are in everything and they are notoriously intolerant of dirty power). Just a FYI - love your channel.

[@jeffreythomas7499]

Great job, don't forget to turn the mains back on at the electric meter.

[@chaunceypullman3380]

Glad it worked out fine. That would be your last lines of defense. All the generators are good as long as you are there to plug them up, start them up or switch them over. Your solar will do what it is suppose to do. Me , I put my faith in my 7hp whole house and some generator connected to gas itself. Automatically cuts on when power shuts off. Then turns off once power comes back on again. I do not have to do a thing. Older than you, so I have been through more than you. I am your Dad's age. So my knowledge comes from time itself. No building on my place depends on any other building to operate. You and Rebecca will get there in your own time. Good start, and props on all that you 2 have achieved and accomplished thus far. Looking forward to you alls next year of achievements.

[@theElderberryFarmer]

Nice - put another mark in the 'WIN' column! Take care and God Bless.

[@craigwiest772]

Nice job. Curiousity and hard work win the day.

[@albarrie4423]

Awesome. Huge success. Much appreciated that you shared.

[@outdoorstudios2022]

Good morning! Good morning!

[@Wheelloader__]

Cool video. Keep lots of fuel on hand. I have a TYM T494. That thing sucks down fuel like nobody’s business.

[@JWTX]

Very impressive. Especially from a $300 generator. Now you have an extra layer of redundancy . Great, thanks for sharing......Jeff

[@MichaelHerringValdosta]

You amaze me! I so love what y'all have going on!

[@MichaelHerringValdosta]

Been watching a long time. I sure do appreciate seeing the mistakes. Lessons learned are precious.

[@dickdavidson3616]

Congrats on your test run!

[@jamesmorrison1884]

Looks great Evan

[@elainedegoede6276]

Great stuff, Evan.👍

[@charlesletterman6245]

Jolly good show

[@ChicagoDoItYourself]

What a great setup you have there !!! : ))

[@beefitter]

I didn't read all the comments so apology if there is duplication. Have you considered using a separate battery charger to charge the solar batteries without going through your solar inverter. Like an EG4 Chargverter 48v charger. If your batteries are 48v. or, the proper charger that the battery company recommends.

[@bobkanno6797]

It takes the extra hp available at the speed that you are running the tractor to stabilize your frequency and the typical governor in the fuel pump the tractor engine has is in the 5 to 10% range for droop under load.

[@mfletch392]

Good test to the limit; Thanks.

[@skitzochik]

believe it or not but toasters are a huge load on the power.

[@robertschroeder1978]

Great video and the restore on the generator looks great. Thanks for the video and channel content. Your skills as an electrician certainly has saved you a lot of money along this journey.

[@TomSmith-me7ph]

Good video Evan.

[@bryanlloyd1099]

That generator done a great job!

[@None-xk7by]

Very very cool. That should come in so handy. Nicely done

[@stevenbenavente1229]

Good job

[@miguelavelasquez8056]

Glad to see the generator working for you nice job on putting that together Evan thank you for sharing blessings to you and your family

[@ronaldclemons5520]

Very good test, and investment Evan. Blessings

[@Roxyboarder419]

That works great. It may be a good idea to add a 50amp rv surge protector to protect your solar and other electronics.

[@mrclaus859]

Thanks Evan

[@johnbichell8023]

Always thinking and experimenting.

[@TheBockCast]

Great video

[@WeSRT4]

It's not the generator! It's the fact that the RPMs vary on the smaller tractor. The larger tractor probably has electronic throttle control that ensures the RPMs stay consistent. Either way I would much rather put wear and tear on a portable generator.

[@stevenbradford6824]

Another great video.

[@jamesharless5357]

Great video Evan!👍🏻

[@DLRPyro1]

The B-52s I worked on in the USAF had a constant speed drive (CSD) between the jet engine output shaft and input shaft of the AC generator to maintain a constant frequency output from the generator regardless of the power setting of the engine. It was basically a transmission that a hydraulic pump powering a hydraulic motor and pressure regulators to keep the hydraulic motor at a constant speed.

[@TimHavens]

This is really helpful, I've wondering if my 24hp tractor could do this. Thanks for this content!

[@ronaldsnell1503]

You are AMAZING 😮

[@glennstatham960]

I'm guessing there ain't gonna be too many 'experts' commenting...but I'd trust you with my life with electricity!

[@Critical-Thinker895]

The generator is not changing the freq. Your load is bogging down that tractor because the engine is too small for that generator. Freq is determined by the speed provided by the engine. A little too heavy load on an underpowered engine will dip the freq. The solar power panel won't like that but don't worry, your house doesn't care about a few hertz difference.

[@stevenichols4639]

You forgot to retry, feeding the PTO generator into the battery bank to see if the frequency was stable enough to match and stay connected. Sadly my system is to take a nap and hope.

[@CountryViewAcres]

While I was testing the generator, the batteries charged up, since I wasn't using the solar. So I will have to test it again another day.

[@markpriddy1]

Nice

[@billyhaddock5540]

Great Job Evan on setting-up ur PTO Generator to see if it will work for ur home. small tractor-no bigger tractor-yes.

[@donb1082]

As I recall, frequency shifting is part of the A/C coupling scheme for grid-connected solar systems; the inverter may have stopped by design. A popular way to clean up noisy generator power is to use the EG4 Chargeverter; it takes generator power and provides a clean signal to the inverter.

[@jakeschisler7525]

The small tym tractor may have 24 horsepower but at the PTO it much lower.

[@CountryViewAcres]

yes, it's 19 to 20 HP at the PTO

[@athloneduke]

Evan, great video, $400 for a backup generator is great value

[@BryanPAllen]

Great job and video Evan! It’s amazing how far you guys have come. Question - how big is your main shop?

[@susancarter9862]

In the UK we would have to put a wheel clamp, chain with padlock and security alarm on the tractor to stop our undesirables stealing it when leaving it running. Nice job with that generator Evan, it's very useful now. Thanks for the video.

[@OldJohnT102347]

ELECTRICAL FYI Nice job on the Generator Evan, I watch and enjoy all your videos, keep up the good work... Just FYI in case you're NOT already aware of or haven't addressed.....1) It appears from the way you're plugging the Genset in you are connecting the Gensets Neutral and Ground to the Utilitys Neutral and Ground IE Its NOT configured as a Separate Derived Source, you are NOT switching the Neutrals.. In this case and since there can be ONLY ONE NEUTRAL GROUND BOND which is already established at your main, THE GENSET SHOULD BE CONFIGURED WITH A FLOATING NEUTRAL !!!! (maybe it already is which I doubt ?) 2) Assuming the 50 Amp Circuit breaker being used to backfeed your panel with genset power is THERMAL MAGNETIC, if you were to pull that 46 Amps for an extended period of time IT COULD ?? EVENTUALLY TRIP OUT VIA THE THERMAL. If you were to pull say 80% of the 50 Amp Thermal Magnetic Circuit Breakers rating or around 40 Amps, it should then hold in indefinitely. 3) If there is a way of connecting and configuring your genset and solar system Charger and Inverter such that the genset ONLY works (by raw energy) to charge your batteries while all else is powered strictly by your Pure Sine Wave Inverter THE LIGHTS WONT BLINK as they are fed NOT direct from the genset but instead your Inverter !!!!!!!!!!! Not sure if your system has that ability or not??? If you could ONLY use the gensets raw non perfect energy to charge your batteries and they in turn power your Inverter to feed the home PROBLEM SOLVED. Also such might allow use of the smaller tractor ?? Hope this helps John T in Indiana BSEE,JD Electrical Power Distribution Design Engineer, retired and rusty but believe this is still accurate, consult the NEC, don't take my word for it.

[@xavierkost9264]

You should have a manual bypass on the solar system.

[@pedrobatista4439]

A 20kW generator needs about 40HP to power it at full capacity. Even at 10kW, it would need about 20HP, so the 2515 was just on the limit for that, probably a bit lower. You should be able to use the T654 at 540E easily and still get full capacity.

[@kimculver1038]

Back in the day We ran 3days on a win power 12kw pto ran the whole barn to milk and also the house all was fine until the sister in law turned on the vacuum cleaner tripped the 50 amp on the generator. Learned what it would do. Powered 5 homes of the neighbors to keep water and cool the refrigerators and freezers. Since 1977 only used it a handful of times. But now most everyone has there own stand by power . Glad to learn that more HP WAS NEEDED to work properly. Thanks for the info

[@SeattlePioneer]

> ???

[@J-1410]

@@SeattlePioneer One of Winco's generator line names. Winco has been around forever making generators.

[@subagon]

Fluctuating frequencies can damage electronics, computers, etc.

[@gophersk]

Now you need a refueling unit on your property to refuel the tractor. Keep a weeks worth of tractor running and you are in. Good job Evan.

[@gurubhat6680]

You can use a Dynamic Frequency Regulator (DFR) to regulate the Unstable Power Conditions (low or high or unstable) frequency to a constant 50 or 60 Hertz cycles.

[@NightyNite94]

Im actually amazed in how good that generator works to get get a modern generator to power a house today would cost alot more

[@douglasjackson1998]

My LS tractor has a feature which would be handy in this application. It has electronic engine speed control. Click it on and it will hold a given engine speed regardless of a varying load. There should be no engine speed (hence frequency) dips when big loads like the A/C or oven switches on or off..

[@terrycastor8299]

Maybe either the Allis or the Case will handle the load as well if you don't want to tie up the TYM

[@--_DJ_--]

I wonder if those would handle the varying load on the generator like the new one does.

[@InquisitiveSearcher]

YES!! the Allis D17 would definitely carry the load of that generator! * BACK TO WORK ON THE ALLIS!! * * BACK TO WORK ON THE ALLIS!! * * BACK TO WORK ON THE ALLIS!! * * BACK TO WORK ON THE ALLIS!! * 😁 Can you tell that I'd love to see the Allis worked on?

[@InquisitiveSearcher]

@@--_DJ_-- : Interesting question. But the Allis D17 is a 63HP tractor so that may give it an edge in maintaining a steady RPM.

[@terrypomatto907]

If you had a power loss would you have everything operating at maximum. It is nice to know that you wouldn't have a shorting of power supply for total use of power. Well done and good investment in the long run.

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

I wonder if this would work if you had an EG4 Chargeverter. It's designed to let dirty generators charge a 48v off grid battery.