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Wire it through an official transfer switch. Anything else could kill a lineman trying to fix the downed wires. It takes only a couple KW to run refrigerator, freezer and furnace, 5 KW to start them. Electric range and electric clothes dryer take a lot more. My Onan 5 KW gets along with a 21 hp engine, but then it was intended to run on producer or coal gas that was relatively low quality and it couldn't produce that amount of power without the extra displacement. Which means on gas its kind of thirsty, though I put in an adjustable main jet and weaned it down to about a half gallon an hour. Likely your tractor won't do so well. Most 5 KW generators these days run with a 10 hp gas engine. Don't leave out the transfer switch. Hypoid oil (80W90) has a distinctive odor especially when heated. Take a sample out of the gear box and warm it up to see if it has that odor. If it does then you need that for replacement, otherwise I'd be more tempted to go with 50 weight engine oil or maybe 15 w40 diesel oil. No use using lots of power to stir stiff oil. My latest truck manual transmission uses automatic (Mercon) transmission oil. The one before that used SAE 50 engine oil. If those are good enough truck transmissions, they are probably good enough for a generator gear box. Gerald J.
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