Thursday, Mar 02, 2006 at 21:52
Kesh
I am using a 3.5hp Honda with a belt drive to a 42 amp Bosch external regulated alternator and Bosch regulator. At full throttle the motor runs at 3600 rpm and the pulley sizes are 125mm on the motor and 100mm on the alternator. The Bosch regulator has a very small wire
bridge undeneath near the epoxy resin, if this wire is cut the regulator will control the voltage at 1 volt higher than the normal 13.8 volts, this is the same as running a charger on boost and will not damage any battery regardless of battery type. I dont have any trouble charging multiple batteries, I have had 4 different size batteries, 2 Engel fridges, and a Trailblazer fridge (all running as freezers) connected at the same time with no problems running like this for 10 days. I have an ammeter on
mine so that I can see when the current is reducing, I turn the motor speed down as the current reduces and can get the motor speed to a fast idle, this saves fuel and reduces noise. I carry a 250 watt invertor to charge batteries for the phone, camera, laptop, cordless drill, and torch. I have installed a LINK 10 battery monitor for the auxiliary battery which tells me how many amphours I have used out of the battery and it also tells me when the same number of amphours have been put back in by the generator so I can then switch the generator off instead of running the generator trying to charge a fully charged battery.
I have used 240 volt systems but have found this to be the safest and most efficient system for camping, no 240 volt leads running around the
camp waiting to bite someone and also safer when there is a bit of moisture around. Others on this
Forum seem to like the 240 volt systems and I guess each person has to find a system that suits their needs, but while they are running their 240 volt systems for a minimum of 8 hours or more per day I only run
mine for maybe 1.5 hours. I hope this
information is of some value to you.
Happy camping
Wayne
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