[camosoul]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Genset efficiency is CRITICAL to something like this being successfull.

My fathers Miles ZX40 kei van (which is electric and weighs 2400lbs) uses a whopping 75amps x 50 volts (on a bad day) to go 25mph

Slow-Turning 5 kW Yanmar Diesel Generator

Using THAT generator he would get 88mpg driving down the road off the genset.

Now compare that to the genset he actually owns

Amazon.com : Honeywell HW2000i 2, 100 Watt 125cc 4-Stroke Gas Powered Portable Inverter Generator (CARB Compliant) : Patio, Lawn & Garden

and you end up with about 25mpg.

If you go with his "old" generator it gets even worse (think low 20's) and this is on a van that with the big 660cc motor gets 25-40mpg stock anyway)

so be carefull, the generator must be very efficient or this simply won't work out very well.

You're absolutely right. I'm a huge fan of the slow-speed gen set. It's on my to-do list for off-grid stuff, after I finish building the shipping container house and workshop... Would love to find a DIY grid-tie inverter, but I doubt the guvthugs would allow it...

I've got some experience with the China Freight Generators. I wasn't expecting much out of them, but ended up being very impressed. It took almost a year for power to be installed at my place, and I ran off of one of them 8 to 12 hours a day for a year. It sipped fuel in spite of being a 3600rpm friction and noise machine. It still starts up on a single barely adequate pull of the cord. I gave it to my (very old) parents as a backup in case of a hurricane/power outage because I have that much confidence in it. As old immobile as they are, they can get this engine started without hurting themselves. I have total confidence in these generators.

But, your point is still well taken. They aren't really efficient compared to the ChangFa/Yanmar, and assorted knock-offs. I have only too much experience with Listeroids... ;-)

I will consider this project a success if I get 23mpg @ 55mph. I'm sure I can get quite a bit more at 45mph. The objective is, and I restate it again, to create a battery-ready electric drive-train, awaiting real batteries to be invented, and still be useful to me in the mean time. No matter how many times I say it, I just can't knock the "it has to be more efficient" fetish out of peoples' heads. Yes, I'd like that very much. But, until real batteries are invented, we're still just kidding ourselves about that, no mater how much money we blow on Lithiums. Lithium is the best thing going right now, but it costs too much, it still doesn't reach reasonable ranges or charge rates, and it's perceived green-ness is more than offset by the ecological nightmare of manufacture, logistics, and recycling consumption. They're actually worse than a gas car, you just don't have to look at it. It's not in your face so you pretend it isn't so... Flooded Pb/H2SO4 is greener, by far, tho sluggish and inefficient, as another respondent pointed out. But, there is a reason they're still used in off-grid applications for stationary energy storage. Every part of them can be re-used and re-cycled with virtually zero environmental impact int he associated processes. Plante Cells can be DIYed with next to no specialty tooling...

As I examine it fiscally, I may convince myself to go with a low AH Pb/H2SO4 bank and use just one gen to boost when I draw discharge depth to a point I don't like. It is absolutely un-useful to me if I can't go 50 miles with it. Lets call this Plan B. I need a way to monitor my DoD anyway.