[davidbr13]

Ben, when I got my first EV back in 2000, it had a K & W charger. They are long since out of business. Mine was corroded, and I had to send it to the factory for repair. They were barely in business then, but did good work if you could get hold of them.

I have long since lost the contact information, but Brian Klosterman is the name of the guy I contacted. He is one of the founders from what I understand, and also runs (ran) the engineering portion.

The K & W is fairly inefficient. It uses phase shifting of the AC waveform to vary voltage, like a light dimmer. It is one of the smallest and lightest available, though.

Running it from a generator may burn it out, like permanently. I'd look at putting together a big bridge recitfier (size by the peak voltage and current - but at 120 VAC and 30A, that still isn't too hard to come by) and a box of capacitors to connect the genny to, and connect the output of that to the battery pack. The ev discussion list (specifically Lee Hart) would have the details on exactly how to size and select everything. They might even have better ideas on something small and light to use to get the most efficiency possible out of the setup.

There are a couple entries in the ev photo album where an AC motor and a box of capcitors is used to function as a range extender for an EV. I forget the guy's name, but he is in Canada, and has a webpage on the setup.