Now you are setting back in your travel trailer on your own paid for piece of land. What will you do for power? A Solar set-up would be just the trick only if you had the money and the sun would shine bright everyday of the year. You looked into buying a commercial generator, only to find a good one costs more than your trailer. But you need power, need it now and it must be on the cheap, really cheap. What to do?
Get to work converting that old lawn mower into a generator for your new dirt cheap trailer homestead, that's what. In it's simplest form this is a high current DC charging system. With the addition of a DC to AC power converter, it also becomes an AC generator system with battery back up.
In essence, this charging system can be used to either directly power a DC to AC inverter, or it can recharge a battery bank which can be used later to power a DC to AC inverter for your household AC power needs like the 21" TV as shown. Imagine being able to charge your batteries during the day, and then to be able to silently extract power at night for entertainment, lighting or cooking needs. This system can also be used in conjunction with other alternative energy system components like solar panels or wind generators as back up power for when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing!
The addition of a DC to AC power converter allows 120 Volt AC devices to be powered either from the lawn mower DC generator or by the batteries the system can charge.
This is a great idea thanks a bunch. That is why I like this blog so much good practical survival skills, things I can aford and not just dream about, unlike that yuppie survivalblog. He would have told me to go buy a new generator power plan to provide power for a small city or somthing like that. Thanks again for the good useful advice.
I did something like this in the early 90s with a 130amp GM alternator i pulled at the junk yard, and mounted the whole thing on a litte red ridder wagon. It was great for 'jump starting' cars and tractors but the think i used it most for was light welding. These things have a ton of missions they will fill. The longer you have it the more you will use it for.
Now for the people that don't know to much about engines, how do you convert it to be a generator?
Thanks
Working on the moat...
Rook
well i also did this in 90's my lawn mover got burned though
rook. I just saw your post, did you click on the link where they talk about attaching a alternator to the drive shaft (output) of the lawnmower? what i did was remove the blade from an old lawnmower, and removed the motor from the frame, and drilled a few holes in a 'little red ridder' wagon and then mount a GM Self regulating alternator also with the drive shaft through the wagon, and then mounted a sprocket on both shafts, sorry dont recall tooth count, and then strung a chain between them. and poof you now have a lawnmower powered 14.4v power source. hope this helps.
wow i didnt know we can do this.
get some pulleys and use a fanbelt instead of the chain.
I've dealt with the chain / toothed cog setup before, and it always develops slack and has to be adjusted.
the pulley setup is waaaaaay more durable.
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=530894
Now, run that generator on wood (gas).
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=vedbil&view=videos
http://vedbil.se/indexe.shtml
http://ush2.com/
http://www.knowledgepublications.com/