Micro CoGen.

Visiting with folks living on the front range of the Rockies beyond the electric grid I've heard first hand stories of Eu3000 units going 3500-5000 hours run time, and the Eu2000's making 2000 hours before the bottom end cranks loosened up and let go.

Amazing.

A bunch of years ago I went with Kipor Inverter generators to have as emergency units, I got a 3000 and a 2600 unit shipped for less than the cost of one Eu3000. The deal then was Kipors were made under license from Honda with 98% interchangeable parts; just cruder moldings and controls, etc. They are big in Europe and Australia-asia but there is a Nort American division, never needed to know if these were grey-market units.  Anyhow, they've worked the once or twice a year they were need for the last 12 years. Prices have crept up about 50% from what I paid.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=kipor&mfe=search

The dense single-ply EPDM roofing material attenuates sound well, a lot of hobbyist 'adventure van' conversions are sneaking in layers of it for both in-motion and while-camped sound damping. The downside is given enough heat and fresh airflow it will burn until consumed, getting true fire-rated products is expensive....

Is the tote carrier, the wire cage that lets it be hauled by forklift, included?

The limits suggested may be to keep the molded plastic from deforming and bulging beyond the cage mesh.

How about cutting the top(s) off and lining with foam board and the membrane, make a nice double-walled safety container...

http://www.anotherpower.com

could be filled with gell/fluid and much smaller airspace...

The Ford 1600cc was an off-shoot from European road racing IIRC, their finish two laps with oil drained-out build. The 2000cc evolution of it lost that magic.

I nabbed a neighbors '99 Chevrolet Metro (for trade-in value) with the 1000cc Suzuki 3-cylinder in it & was impressed with the simplicity & repair friendly underhood layout. After two years and 12k miles, with a total of $900 invested, it had paid for itself almost 2x in fuel not burned in the F150. Then I sold it for $500. I had better offers from a guy wanting it for a generator engine but I would've had to walk home from Northern California...

Some years ago and now lost in time on the internet I followed a project thread of a fellow who skipped using batteries all together on his camping-toy Golf Car. He started with one and then went with two Honda Eu2000 inverter generators through some serious battery chargers. The reduction in weight literally had the Golf Car flying near 50mph with its stiff suspension.

Forwarding the same idea to a Polaris ATV with engine replaced by the 36V motor could be a remarkable project - have the drive train perfected and swap in some battery weight for short trips w/ fuel assisted 'get-it-home' back up. As cheap as some of the little suitcase generators have become it sounds cheaper to accomplish than purchasing and installing batteries.

Regenerative braking is not easy to accomplish safely - normal friction braking has to occur and then be released when the electrics are proven active, then reapplied once speed has been slowed to where the electrics are no longer efficient. Releasing perfectly good friction brakes at high speed is a huge liability.

Surely there is an off the shelf electric-car controller out there that has the interlocks and logic designed in?

Keeping the friction brakes and the regenerative braking separate but full time on - as in anytime in throttle idle the motor is throwing charge to a resistor grid or charging batteries - would mean no coasting downhill, on flats etc. Having a separate 'new' control pushbutton or lever to feather in electric brakes when coasting might be worth the effort.

'N' Grade Rare Earth magnets begin to lose strength when heated above their maximum operating temperature - around 165-170°F (75°C). Yes sure, those may be H or SH, EH or UH blah blah grade and good to higher temperatures before they begin to fade, but without knowing the OEM specs you're stuck using the lowest absolute maximum temperatures. If I remember correctly from looking at the original set up, they isolated the PMG pretty far away from the engine. Having the casing danger close to the oil sump and the short stub drive shaft wholly encased in PMG housing seems to be asking for trouble... And that's BEFORE the losses in the windings begin to self-heat the unit.

I've asked the same question six or eight times and have never gotten the same answer twice; spoofing a grid-tie inverter using a pilot signal.

Two or so years ago Home Power Magazine had a featured system of an off-grid system showing a slaved 4000 watt 240VAC PV grid tie inverter working as a booster for high dedicated 240V loads. If memory serves me correctly they had it fed with one of their step-up transformers off of a paralleled set of 4000w inverters (8000w) so it was picking up loads on the 120V side also but with delays of wire length and transformer may not have been called on much. With that system the 240 kicking in sagged line voltage enough it was discernible so they spent more money!

I know I should have scanned the article and saved the hard-copy but I just had to laugh I'd finally seen it in print. I have a battery-less Trace 4048PV 240V grid-tie inverter I want to dedicate to a well pump...

Modine and Bergstom make truck and bus heating booster pumps in 12 & 24V that come up used and surplus often..

Quote...Automotive alternator efficiency is approaching 80%...

Just for future readers... If true, in the best case,  that would be 50 to 80% of output harvested from the 12% to 16% efficiency internal combustion engine providing input, then less 20-40 watts field exciting power required at full output, then line and battery chemistry losses...

My vote is for solar photovoltaic maintainer panels and an excellent smart charge minder!

Wind-borne debris batters down 'stronger' structures; just debris lodging momentarily against it increases the surface area to spike loading beyond breaking points.

For the storms that strip up two feet of top soil, pavement and sidewalks I'll be prairie dogging somewhere where hopefully a chimney can't block the exit.

It's been erased from the internet, but a guy at woodalls.com a long ago had a Golf Cart with twin Honda Eu2000 Inverter Generators fed through a huge battery charger core..  Without the battery weight they had problems keeping the wheels on the ground, top speed over 40mph!

"Next time I'm gonna try water, water won't compress".....   Frozen? 

QuoteIt was quite popular and many cars were permanently taken off the road

The clear major beneficiary of the whole program was Ford Motors as people swapped their old F-150 pickup trucks for new one.

At the time I was sentimental about keeping my 1999 4x4 shortbed step-side and did not pursue upgrading. Major mistake!