My "perky\cat/volvo" DC bat charger

[Lloyd]

Some 10 years ago I set out to build a diesel powered dc battery charger for my boat. I had ideas, and concepts...this site allowed me to fulfill that goal.

9 years later here I sit on anchor with my little diesel/dc charger...charging my batteries as I sit on anchor in BC, Canada.

I have to say it is one of the most successful things I have accomplished in my life. I had a vision, I had the tenacity, I had the help of this forum, MOST of all I had the help of MobileBob. This site rocks....My co-gen has provided all the hot water, and battery charging My family has needed while on anchor for the past 9 years, on average 6 weeks of day in and day out at a time.

lloyd

[mobile_bob]

Lloyd

i will be going bank to reread this thread/topic, as my memory of what your system was based on is foggy
having slept since we last talked hasn't helped in the recall area either.

in your "hi from Lloyd" post i related about having the trigen sitting on blocks
what i didn't mention, but will here is its baby brother i put together about 6-7 years ago now.

i have a pair of r-175 changfa's, and used one as the prime mover
i used it to drive a 6 groove microgroove belt, back side over the flywheel, and running over
a leece neville jb series (j-180 mount to use for prototyping, but will be refitted with a 555jho), a sanden compressor
and over a liftgate motor with an a/c clutch adapted to it for use as a starter motor.

i made up a smaller version of my helixjet exhaust gas heat exchanger, fitted a couple more bosch aux heater 12volt pumps
a block off plate and tstat. 

all in all building on what i learned from the trigen in testing, just about 1/3 the output or so.

the liftgate motor converted to starter motor, works like a dream, it is so quite on startup, no gear train noise, or banging of the solenoid and starter drive. just a sweet whirring sound, with no need for compression release either.

i built it with the idea of it being more closely matching the needs of a tiny home, with perhaps 2 occupants. i think it would produce maybe 30 gallons of hot water per hour, do the battery charging needs of a 24volt system, (i  might be able to squeeze 48v nominal, not tested yet, but i think it will do so) and provide the air conditioning needs of a highly insulated tiny home and provide refrigeration too, all in a package that is about 2ft on each side of a cube.

it too is sitting under a layer of dust!

anyway, as for the next election here locally,  i figure a win/win scenario

if i win the election,   well ok, i won!  and i will demand getting my life back to some extent.
if i lose the election,   well?  i win my life back! 

so either way i win!

and i will be getting back to the trigen and its baby brother.

i digress (hey i am still good at that!)

i find it really fascinating that your perk/cat/volvo has served its designed purpose for all these years
if you could post a picture of two of it, and maybe do an update report on how it has done, what issues it has had
and anything else about it, i  for one will be looking forward to reading all about it!

bob g

[Henry W]

Lloyd,
Been spending a good amount of time reading about your DC charger. You documented the project very well and it's got me thinking about a future project.
I remember some discussions about the side loading of the crank with the Cat Perky engines on this thread. It turns out Cat got it right. It is documented proof how rugged these engines are.
It was one great project from the start and it's been great going back to read how it all happened.
It would be great to see how the generator looks like after all these years.


Henry