I was looking at some old books today that I forgot that had. In one of these books was a series of pictures that showed all the different ways that farmers used to use tractors for. They were basically a mobile power plant used to do all kinds of things. In some of the pictures you could see a drive belt hooked to a pully that was used in place of a wheel.
The pictures showed buzz saws, threshers and pumps being hooked up to the tractor. This got me to thinking about it. Then I thought about my truck that I rarely use. I have a little Chevy S-10 that sits most of the time and about 3 or 4 times a year it gets used to haul something.
I could use this for a power plant.
It would be real easy to hook a jack shaft up to the rear axle and lock the opposite side and run a generator to generate power in emergencies. A generator that runs off a PTO shaft and produces 1600 watts can be had for $1300. You could easily hook water pumps up to a PTO, hydraulic pumps and so on. If one was careful you could even build a system to use the exhaust as a heat source. The really cool part is that you have a transmission for setting up the perfect RPM and still keeping the engine running as fuel efficient as possible. You will need to install a throttle lock for setting the RPM while idling.
You could use almost any vehicle you wanted and it is already set up. Now you do not have to buy expensive add ons. You could just adapt items you already have and just hook them up to jack shafts.
The pictures showed buzz saws, threshers and pumps being hooked up to the tractor. This got me to thinking about it. Then I thought about my truck that I rarely use. I have a little Chevy S-10 that sits most of the time and about 3 or 4 times a year it gets used to haul something.
I could use this for a power plant.
It would be real easy to hook a jack shaft up to the rear axle and lock the opposite side and run a generator to generate power in emergencies. A generator that runs off a PTO shaft and produces 1600 watts can be had for $1300. You could easily hook water pumps up to a PTO, hydraulic pumps and so on. If one was careful you could even build a system to use the exhaust as a heat source. The really cool part is that you have a transmission for setting up the perfect RPM and still keeping the engine running as fuel efficient as possible. You will need to install a throttle lock for setting the RPM while idling.
You could use almost any vehicle you wanted and it is already set up. Now you do not have to buy expensive add ons. You could just adapt items you already have and just hook them up to jack shafts.
