A guy across the street (back when I lived in Missouri) had a generator built into his pickup truck powered by the truck's engine. During a couple of power outages, he simply pulled his truck into the yard and ran two extension cords inside the house. He ran quite a bit of stuff off it, including the furnace. Anything worth exploring?
Built in Generator on Pickup
- Thread starter yeehaw1960
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Originally Posted By: yeehaw1960
A guy across the street (back when I lived in Missouri) had a generator built into his pickup truck powered by the truck's engine. During a couple of power outages, he simply pulled his truck into the yard and ran two extension cords inside the house. He ran quite a bit of stuff off it, including the furnace. Anything worth exploring?
If I understand, it was a generator under the hood.
It makes the vehicle unavailable while you are running the generator.
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Quieter than an air cooled generator and more portable than either a truck mounted unit or one in a fixed location.
We had 30kw generators to power gear when I was in the Army. We would tow them behind a 2.5 ton truck. These were diesel and had all sorts of sound deadening to make them quiet.
A guy across the street (back when I lived in Missouri) had a generator built into his pickup truck powered by the truck's engine. During a couple of power outages, he simply pulled his truck into the yard and ran two extension cords inside the house. He ran quite a bit of stuff off it, including the furnace. Anything worth exploring?
If I understand, it was a generator under the hood.
It makes the vehicle unavailable while you are running the generator.
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Quieter than an air cooled generator and more portable than either a truck mounted unit or one in a fixed location.
We had 30kw generators to power gear when I was in the Army. We would tow them behind a 2.5 ton truck. These were diesel and had all sorts of sound deadening to make them quiet.
You really wouldn't need much more than an appropriately sized inverter and some heavy gauge wire on the DC side to do that. Probably not the most fuel efficient way to do that though! Amazon sells a 2000W inverter for about $150. Comparably you could get a 4000W generator for about $300, I would get that.
Years ago GM made some variants of their light trucks with a built in engine powered generator with 120V AC output available. Saw the ads for it. Some sort of truck marketed to contractors who might need power at times. If I remember the alternator unit was mounted at the rear of the engine between the block and transmission, actually inside the bellhousing.
http://www.off-grid.net/truck-as-a-generator/
Here's an article on the subject and the trucks in question likely were the silverado or sierra hybrid which since were discontinued
Here's an article on the subject and the trucks in question likely were the silverado or sierra hybrid which since were discontinued
I run a 1500W inverter on my tractor with some regularity. It works properly. The battery provides surge power and the alternator keeps the battery charged.
Originally Posted By: EdwardC
You really wouldn't need much more than an appropriately sized inverter and some heavy gauge wire on the DC side to do that. Probably not the most fuel efficient way to do that though! Amazon sells a 2000W inverter for about $150. Comparably you could get a 4000W generator for about $300, I would get that.
You would require a much larger alternator on the vehicle.
You really wouldn't need much more than an appropriately sized inverter and some heavy gauge wire on the DC side to do that. Probably not the most fuel efficient way to do that though! Amazon sells a 2000W inverter for about $150. Comparably you could get a 4000W generator for about $300, I would get that.
You would require a much larger alternator on the vehicle.
Originally Posted By: javacontour
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Reminds me of something you would see on the Red Green show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR23H7ACnNY
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Reminds me of something you would see on the Red Green show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR23H7ACnNY
Originally Posted By: javacontour
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Quieter than an air cooled generator and more portable than either a truck mounted unit or one in a fixed location.
similar to what my brother in law was talking of doing a few years back(Never did it though)
he had just bought a PTO driven generator for the farm. he wanted to get a 4cyl diesel, like from an old rabbit or some such, and mount the whole thing on the trailer. much easier to move and set up, than towing it into place and then getting the tractor started and in place, etc.
If I were crafting something to run the house, I'd take a small 3 or 4 cylinder economy car engine put it and a generator on a trailer and park the trailer next to a hook up near where my utilities come in the home.
Quieter than an air cooled generator and more portable than either a truck mounted unit or one in a fixed location.
similar to what my brother in law was talking of doing a few years back(Never did it though)
he had just bought a PTO driven generator for the farm. he wanted to get a 4cyl diesel, like from an old rabbit or some such, and mount the whole thing on the trailer. much easier to move and set up, than towing it into place and then getting the tractor started and in place, etc.
Well, some alternatives with their pros and cons could be:
1. A farm pto genny but hooked to an old cheap small vehicle engine iso a tractor. would be a HD diy solution. Could support a small farm until the fuel is gone.
2. Get a high output alternator to your truck, put in a max size battery, a new HO charge controller adn engine rev control, new thumb-thick wiring and an inverter. Say your alternator will -net- out 100 amps at 14 volts, you would get continuous 1kw out including surge capacity from battery. You could also use it on work sites with engine off to say charge things, lights etc. True sine inverters are expensive but if you need them....
Or get a small diesel genny on wheels. Not as interesting but...
1. A farm pto genny but hooked to an old cheap small vehicle engine iso a tractor. would be a HD diy solution. Could support a small farm until the fuel is gone.
2. Get a high output alternator to your truck, put in a max size battery, a new HO charge controller adn engine rev control, new thumb-thick wiring and an inverter. Say your alternator will -net- out 100 amps at 14 volts, you would get continuous 1kw out including surge capacity from battery. You could also use it on work sites with engine off to say charge things, lights etc. True sine inverters are expensive but if you need them....
Or get a small diesel genny on wheels. Not as interesting but...
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