Just spoke to a rep at Volt Master re powering their gen by a two cylinder
diesel. While he wasn't terribly helpful and in fact seemed annoyed at my
questions, I did find out that the concern with running a one or two
cylinder diesel at less than rated RPM is vibration transmission to the gen
(he says they get then back on warranty and find they have been "shaken
apart" in some instances). Now, apart from whatever that says about their
construction quality, he said the engine and gen should be mounted solidly
to the *same* platform to prevent belt slippage caused by vibration. You
then must install the platform on vibration absorbing mounts to keep the
thing from shaking. How then you power the thing from a tractor remains the
question and all he had to say about that was to use their tractor rear PTO
mount units.

I'm thinking then I could possibly mount the gen on the floor (not attached
to the tractor frame), connected only by the drive belt with maybe an idler
to maintain belt tension and smooth out any belt flopping around. I wonder
however how much belt slippage would actually occur in any case if the
proper tension is maintained and maybe belt dressing is used.

As to vibration, I once had an aircraft generator bolted to the front end of
the same tractor (using it as a welding gen) using a direct shaft drive
(with a Lovejoy coupling) and did not have or notice any particular
vibration problems. I wonder if these Volt Masters are of crappy
construction and won't stand up to much or if they simply are making their
recommendations out of an abundance of caution.

Any further advice appreciated...........

Laurie Forbes