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Old 01-30-2010, 10:42 AM   #21 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw View Post
Batteries have a max current for charging, above that you're either wasting energy or destroying the battery. It's better to charge longer with less current. (I hope I'm not lying, any EV owners help if I am.)
the current that charges the batteries is controlled by your charger.
the selection of the generator would be based on the current-draw of the charger.
ideally, this setup will hopefully allow the car to drive off of the generator current as well as charge the batteries. then you can eventually turn off the generator and continue driving.

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Old 02-03-2010, 02:27 AM   #22 (permalink)
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The smallest automotive diesel I know of is in the Smart ForTwo. It's a 0.8 liter, direct injection, commonrail turbodiesel (=very new and high-tech). Its 54hp is more than enough to serve as a gennie, plus it weighs less than 200lbs. Here's more info. I don't think the ForTwo had that engine as an option in North America
Actually, it looks like there were a few diesel Smarts sold in Canada. See
smart cdi (diesel) owner from BC, Canada
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[Old] Piwoslaw's Peugeot 307sw modding thread
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Old 02-03-2010, 08:18 AM   #23 (permalink)
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I'd love to get my hands on one of these...even just to drive without converting it. The heck with the 96ft motorhome, I could see my wife and I retiring to a Smart diesel pulling a lightweight teardrop camper.

As it is, some of these little diesels sound rather interesting. Even a constant-speed diesel would work for this as long as it had glow plugs for ease of starting. I mention that as the industrial version of my Isuzu engine has none.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/foru...3/m/3361040812

Now THAT would be interesting...electrify my Trooper with traction motors on all 4 wheels and move the engine to a trailer. Just not sure how it would handle submersion and other muddy conditions....I can see the fireworks now LOL

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Old 02-03-2010, 09:49 AM   #24 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by alohaspirit View Post
why have a charging trailer in the first place

just use those small portable Honda generators

I have a lot of experience with these generators.

They run very quiet and would be a great option for extending range on any EV that can utilize a hitch.

Noel Perrin used one with Solo to try going over the mountains of California. Ultimately, he could not generate enough power to go over the steep grades though.
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Old 02-03-2010, 10:26 AM   #25 (permalink)
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And therein lies the rub. To start with, a big part of the idea here was to re-use as much of the original vehicles as possible, neither of which came with Honda generators. At the same time, while a small generator might produce enough current for charging over time, it will not put out enough for sustained highway travel, especially not if any substantial climbing is involved. That doesn't mean that a larger gen-set might not work, but those aren't cheap.
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Old 02-03-2010, 11:22 AM   #26 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by ai4kk View Post
And therein lies the rub. To start with, a big part of the idea here was to re-use as much of the original vehicles as possible, neither of which came with Honda generators. At the same time, while a small generator might produce enough current for charging over time, it will not put out enough for sustained highway travel, especially not if any substantial climbing is involved. That doesn't mean that a larger gen-set might not work, but those aren't cheap.
If I had an EV pickup with only 50 mile range and wanted to go 75 miles...

I see no problem with putting this in the back and plugging in the juice. The gradual charge should keep my batteries topped enough.

Oh and these generators can be paired together for double the output!
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Old 02-03-2010, 11:45 AM   #27 (permalink)
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And double the cost!

If I'm going to add on anything to extend my range (beyond what I need around town), it's not going to be limited to a mere 75 miles....there's nothing worth visiting within 35 miles of Tallahassee (look at the map and see). It would have to be indefinite...or at least capable of extending the range to a full day's worth of travel so I can get a recharge overnight.

To me, this is what would make an EV feasible as a primary/only car...the ability to function around town or on a trip to Ocala or North Georgia for a weekend of primitive camping.
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Old 02-03-2010, 01:07 PM   #28 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by ai4kk View Post
And double the cost!

If I'm going to add on anything to extend my range (beyond what I need around town), it's not going to be limited to a mere 75 miles....there's nothing worth visiting within 35 miles of Tallahassee (look at the map and see). It would have to be indefinite...or at least capable of extending the range to a full day's worth of travel so I can get a recharge overnight.

To me, this is what would make an EV feasible as a primary/only car...the ability to function around town or on a trip to Ocala or North Georgia for a weekend of primitive camping.
No solution is going to replace what gasoline gave us because of its high BTU per gallon. At 40 Mpg many cars can now go 500+ miles without a fill up. No pure EV built today is going to offer that with the convenience of a "quick fill up" at the local charging station.

Sorry, but the "it has to be easy argument" is why we are so dependent on foreign oil in the first place.

The topic here is discussing popular opinion of the EV charging trailer. I think that it works and will be a solution that you see many weekend travelers using 20 years from now.
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Old 02-03-2010, 01:28 PM   #29 (permalink)
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Not sure if you realize it, but you and I are reading from the same hymnal so to speak.

Maybe 4K worth of generators can put out enough juice to keep my car charged up at highway speed....at that speed, the car would mostly be running off the output of the generator anyway, not the batteries; anything extra would go to keeping the batteries topped off. For those without pickups, maybe the generators could go on a hitch-mounted cargo rack, although that could easily exceed the weight rating of the car, hence a small trailer being a reasonable answer...with the advantge of being unhooked once you're back home and commuting, thus converting the car back into a pure EV. This is the only way I see EVs replacing ICEs as primary transport.

Refilling a generator or trailer on the road is as convenient as topping off your car at a gas station, the tank is simply in a different location

I think we all agree that the ideas have potential, the only thing is how much power should we budget for the generator? Do we use the bare minimum and let it run all the time on a road trip, or use what came with the car (in my case, a diesel running on WVO), possibly putting out more power than needed, and then compensate for the surplus of power by reducing the duty cycle of the ICE?

Of course, in a recent post, I did mention some other small diesels that may have potential, so we're not necessarily stuck with the car's original ICE any more. I may look at some of the powerplants from some of the bigger mowers and off-road vehicles (John Deere Gators etc), I'll just have to see. For my project, I do want to stay with diesel since they are more efficient, my other cars burn that, and I like to use alt fuels in them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rgathright View Post
No solution is going to replace what gasoline gave us because of its high BTU per gallon. At 40 Mpg many cars can now go 500+ miles without a fill up. No pure EV built today is going to offer that with the convenience of a "quick fill up" at the local charging station.

Sorry, but the "it has to be easy argument" is why we are so dependent on foreign oil in the first place.

The topic here is discussing popular opinion of the EV charging trailer. I think that it works and will be a solution that you see many weekend travelers using 20 years from now.
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Old 02-03-2010, 01:59 PM   #30 (permalink)
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My father (Dangerous_Dan here) and I have done our own research on a switching power supply that powers my 2009 Honda Accord which runs without an alternator (another subject please).

We discovered that a PROPERLY TUNED battery charger will not pull the maximum wattage from the 120VAC source, instead the drain is proportional to both the temperature of the battery and the remaining capacity.

If you put two Honda generators on your EV while driving and monitored their RPMs (yes, they have ECU monitors for that), you will see they increase in load as you drive. The result would be that the generators can sit at low RPM's and conserve your ethanol until the batteries become severely drained.

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