[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Nerys

how much surface area do you have for panels? you only get full power in direct perpendicular arrays.

I have the back of a old suburban. The area I want to use will let me put down long 1 cell wide panels. I still need to be able to put other stuff on top of the suburban.

Originally Posted by Nerys

if your panel is big enough you might not even need it for long drives. how are you handling charging that battery? what charge controller you using?

I have not figured that part out yet. I have a few ideas and found some adjustable charge controlers but haven't found anything made specially for LiFePO4.

Originally Posted by Nerys

what battery pack capacity and price are you looking at? always interested in new cheap sources of lifepo4 goodness.

Just going to use A123 cells like I did for my car.
I will likely use at least 7 rows of 4 cells plus the 20 (5x4) cell battery my car uses.

Originally Posted by Nerys

do you know what the "draw" is of your car management system. I think the metro is only 7 amps or so ie a slightly larger panel might get you real time power capacity!

I have not figured that out yet. I know the amp draw of all the stuff I added(electric fans, electric fuel pump, electric coolant pump), plus real common items like the head lights. It would be easy to put an amp meter in line with the alt and find out.

Originally Posted by Nerys

what I would love to do is mount an AC clutch pulley to the alternator so it "free wheels" and automate it such that when the power is too low the clutch is triggered and bingo you have alternator power again.

I don't know how long that set up would last. I thought about that but when I need the alternator I need it to be driven at full speed, 3x that of the crank, I might be able to "under drive" it at 2x crank speed.
I think the removeable belt will give the best mpg gains.