information needed on IH truck mounted Electrall generator

Greetings,

in addition to trucks, I am also interested in (and has a small collection of) IH tractors and Electrall generators. For those who are not familiar with the Electrall generator, it was a joint venture between International Harvester and General Electric in the mid 1950's. The generator was a 10 KW, 3-phase unit that could power up to a 15 horsepower electric motor. The intent was to have a system that could:

• replace the need for a PTO shaft to implements requiring power, such as balers and combines.
• provide backup power to the farm during utility outages
• to have a remote power source available for maintenance and other work away from the farm buildings
• provide a power source for future developments like electric bug control, grow lights, etc.

IH sold electrall as direct mount on the SMTA and 400 tractors. The electrall was an expensive option that did not sell well. IH later adapted a trailer version and a fast hitch version that connected to the PTO of a tractor and provided backup power only.

IH also gave some electrall generators to the motor truck division to be sold as an option, mounted in the bed of a S-100, S-120 or S-130 pickup truck. according to the info I've been able to find, the electrall generator could be installed at the factory or a deal installed option.

The Electrall generator was an unsuccessful, but very interesting chapter in IH history. The generators themselves are somewhat rare and very collectible.

Coming up June 26-28, is the IH collectors national show, The Red Power Roundup (RPRU). The show is sponsered by a different state chapter each year, and for 2014, it is sponsored by South Dakota chapter 21. A fellow collector and myself are putting together a display area at this years RPRU, of IH Electrall generators, tractors, accessories, implements, etc. We have examples of the tractor mounted, fast hitch and trailer electralls, but don't have a electrall installed in a truck to display. I believe this was the rarest type of electrall installation and it would be great to have one to complete the display.

Sooo, does anyone have a truck mounted electrall or know of a truck mounted electrall that could be available for the RPRU?

The other option is to create a reproduction (tribute??) truck mounted electrall. The generator unit was pretty much the same in all four versions, so a trailer mounted (most common type) could be used as a start. I have access to a S-100 truck that could be a good platform to start the project. The challenge will be to recreate the mounting brackets, the truck PTO and the belts and pulley system for the drive. I do have one manual that has a couple of pictures, but I could use more information like parts or service manual data.

Any information on this subject would be a big help on this project!

By the way, the RPRU is not just for the IH tractor collectors! They try to get a good collection of all the equipment and products amde by IH, including trucks. There is always a good number of trucks on display, so even hard core truck guys will have a great time at this show!

Thanks for any and all help!
DonO

About a year ago someone had one of these units for sale on CRAIGSLIST VANCOUVER BC, Canada. This unit was an engine driven unit that was attached to a chicken barn as back-up power. If I remember correctly. it looked like it was mounted on a frame that may have been a trailer, or could be a trailer. I think it was Rod from SCOUT PLUSS scoutpluss@telus.net that called me about it being in CL. I do not know how long this stuff stays on the internet after the CL ad has expired, but I will have a quick look before I go out for the rest of the day.
Best of luck and Season's Greetings.

EDIT: Here is what I have done. I posted a wanted advertisement on the local Craigslist with the hope that the original seller will contact me. If and when he does, I will let you know and pass the information along to you so that you can deal with it. Since I am retired and have time for this stuff, I don't mind doing some of the "look and see" for you on this end.
Another person that you could try is Mike aka MAGIHC VINTAGE TRUCK PARTS. magihc1@telus.net. Mike has a way of knowing where the most unusual bits and pieces are and how to get them. I will call a few of the local old machinery collectors today and see if they might have something of know of something. I bought an IH LB engine air-filter from a local collector about a year ago and he had about 1000 interesting pieces that included trucks, tractors, stationary engines and other farm and home appliances that were made by the machinery companies. In a three hour visit my son and I were not able to see everything.

RPRU is great show to attend. I went to the show in Illinois 2012, over 1100 tractors! There was a few trucks, but I went for the tractors. Already have room booked for South Dakota show, I will make sure to keep my eye open for your display.

I found a 1957 A-174 old flat bed truck with a 4 speed (I think) transmission and a 2-speed rear end with duals. The transmission has a PTO shaft running to back on the drivers side, serving a hydraulic pump. Anybody have any guesses on what type of transmission this is? How/where would I look to determine the model transmission. Any chance this transmission would work in the S-100, using the PTO to drive the electrall.

I do have some pictures of how the PTO drive and the belt/pulley system works to drive the Electrall. I sent them home to the wife's computer, but her email system has quit working. I will post them as soon as I can get it working again (I hope). Jim H, maybe you could post a copy for me??

DonO

How fast does the Electral need to turn? Different PTOs have different speeds and it's possible the pump isn't turning as fast as you might think. My L-160 PTO doesn't turn terribly fast, maybe a few hundred RPMs at idle and it shoves the box right up. Might need to step the speed up a bit with V-belts or something to get 1800 rpm. The other thing is how much power can the PTO handle? If the generator is at full load will it break the PTO? I would think that it should handle 15-20 hp, but I don't know. I'll leave that to someone else.

I have only seen one truck with this generator setup. It was at a tractor show in Sublette Illinois about three years ago. The truck was bought new by the current owners grandfather. The original owner was a welder and this was his field service truck. I do not have a name or contact information.

Search on Google images. 1957 IHC welding truck

PTO's are assembled from a choice of many gears, to match the transmsission and the device to be driven. The chances that PTO made for one application will work for another is less then 100 to 1, the chances that the PTO will fit another transmission, is closer to 500 to 1.

Guys, Thanks for all the feedback! That 1957 IHC welding truck is really cool. After more research it looks like the transmission from the A-174 is likely a five speed and not a true fit for the S-100. My wife arrived home from her Holiday trip and got her email working so I could get a copy of the two pictures I wanted to post. These two pics came from IH Sales-Engineering Bulletin number 143, dated September 1955 and show the electrall mounting bracket, the pulley system and the PTO connection. If I end up having to reduce this setup (good possibility) it would be good to have more pictures and more information. The bulletin does mention the size of all three pulleys and I know the size for the pulley on the electrall generator, so I just need to sit down and calculate the PTO speed needed to turn the generator at the desired 3600 rpms.