

| Subject: | Re: 120v generator set up |
| From: | Douglas L. Urner |
| Date: | Sun, 22 Jun 2003 10:26:10 -0700 |
You might do better finding an inverter and battery bank with enough capacity. The generator is going to require you to be able to maintain quite precise control over the speed of the engine -- you might be able to use a cruise control to make this happen (sensing the speed of the generator pulley instead of the wheels), but I'm sure there would be other issues .. If you do decide to go with an inverter, you could also install a bigger alternator if you need more power. One really nice thing about using an inverter is that you won't have the sound and smell of your engine. (Until you have to recharge the battery, at which point you'll either need to drive or find a way to speed up the engine while the car is standing still. The alternator will need to be spinning faster than idle to put out a significant amount of power -- though if you could steal the clutch from your AC, I suppose you could put a small pulley on a second alternator and get it up to operating speed while the engine idled. Though I don't know if the ECU would supply extra fuel to keep up idle speed, of if you'd end up stalling the engine with the alternator load.) Depending on the amount of power that you need adding some deep cycle batteries (and you want deep cycles if you'll be drawing them down signifcantly, and care about their life) to supply the alternator. You could either mount the batteries semi-permanatly or in a removable box. Just make sure that you've got it really securely attached. A loose battery in a car is a really unpleasant thing, especially in a crash. Doug -- Douglas L. Urner <dlu@canishe.com> Port Orchard, WA +1 360 769 5565
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