Road trippin' with an eBike

Joined
May 11, 2018
Messages
57
I want to bring my ebike on a road trip and am looking for a charging solution besides guerilla charging at coffee shops and restaurants. I was thinking of purchasing one of these chargers and running wire through my firewall directly to my battery (fused of course) so i can charge my battery while i drive. Any reason why this wouldn't work for a 36v battery?


iCharger 1010B+ 10s

https://www.progressiverc.com/icharger-1010b.html
Maximum Charge Power 300W (at >13.5V)
Charge Current Range 0.05-10.0A
Discharge Current Range 0.05-7.0A
Input Voltage 10-18V DC
Input Current 24A
Maximum Discharge 30W
Maximum Regenerative Discharge 300W
Maximum External Discharge 280W at 40V/7A
Current Drain For Balancing 300mA
Balance Accuracy <10mV
LiPo/LiIo/LiFe 1-10 series
NiCd/NiMh Cell Count 1-25 series
Pb Battery Cell Count 1-18 series (2-36V)
 
Look up the specs for your vehicle to see how many amps the alternator can produce. Your charger will draw 24A in addition to whatever your car needs when it's running.
 
Quite common for hobbists to use server power supplies that are plugged into the common ac wall outlet to power the iChargers, so a 12V battery from a car is no different. Just be careful to not drain your vehicle battery, perhaps have a digital volt meter on it, and a second backup meter, for redundancy, if your dash doesnt already have one. The best is to hook up two lead acid batteries into your vehicle, if you have the space.

Another quite common thing is for RC hobbists to use their vehicle battery to power a charger.
 
I live alone year around in a 34' "upstairs apartment on wheels"!!! Not something to run to store with, so I depend on my e-bike for a lot. And, I have some choices in power with alternatives and backups too! USUALLY,... I'm attached! A "shoreline" to get some AC power for fridge, microwave, etc., and that also charges up my battery bank (2-6v deep-cycle) thru a 60A converter.

Without shoreline power,... I'm dependent on my genny a lot, to do the same. On the road,... I've sometimes relied on the vehicles 65A alternator to charge up the bank to run the inverter.

But sometimes quietness is appreciated,.... I MIGHT use a 2000w inverter on that battery bank for the fridge and microwave, and occasionally to quietly charge my 14s4p 52v 11.5ah battery. Let me tell you,... it takes ALOT to charge that pack!!!! At 110V 10a, the charger can draw 1000w often for longer than my battery bank can hold up, jus tryin to charge my bike pack!!! Nott the best most efficient manner here,.. but it works.

So ya!!! Your gonna be depending on a GOOD vehicle alternator, and a pretty decent vehicle battery!!! And with todays cars,.... they are HIGHLY dependent on that battery voltage. So your gonna be monitoring pretty close,.... I mean A LOT closer than me, because your not gonna have the backups I do!!! I gots a heavy-duty marine 12V vehicle battery in addition to that battery bank. That's gonna start my engine or genny when I don't pay attention to that bank voltage that gets real low sometimes!!! If your vehicle battery gets down a bit,... well, my old big-block 460ci can probably get started with a bad cell. I don't think those new fuel-injected 4or6 or whatever, is gonna do anything with a bad cell OR a weak battery.
 
I am a Jeep fan, I love off roading but haven't in a long long time. I know in the off roading community, some people have hooked up a second high output alternator, and hence having to find a mounting spot and installing a longer belt, figuring out the looping pattern of the belt around all the pulleys. That is always an option for you as it gives you two alternators to work with, meaning more output power, shorter time in charging/topping up whatever you have. Sometimes they would have a alt welder, air compressor, second battery for the rig and trailer for high drain applications, also a big winch that will draw lots of amps. There are alternators that go to 150A. If you go to a junk yard you can pick one up for cheap, older models. Look for numbers around the bolt holes close to the alt fan. Alter Start makes inexpensive high amp alt rebuilt and new. You can also look at http://premierpowerwelder.com/shop/high-output-welding-alternators/

My battery pack for my ebike is 10S, but I split it into two sections of 5S and I use Dell laptop chargers which are open voltage of 20.50V which is good enough headroom for a 21.00V max. This in turn halves the charging time of that pack. I purchased the laptop chargers from the online classifieds for C$20 each, they are 20.50V and 7.5A there is another higher output charger that is 12 or 15A, of course have to pay attention to how much amps they draw from the wall. I dont know offhand, I think the label said 5A, I know the MW HRP-24-300 drew 4A and I had two in series. I cant remember if they added up to 4A or if each drew 4A.

I gotta get eriding here but one last thing I wanted to mention about the alternators, is if I remember correctly, the problem may be that at idle, alternators may not spit out enough amps. That maybe an issue. Do a google search.





DRMousseau said:
 
One option you might look into, is a second 12v battery in the car. Then when you start draining the battery as you drive, you at least start out with double the capacity. This is not hard to do, basically you run a big positive wire to the trunk , and a short ground to the frame near the second battery. Isolate it with a solenoid if you like, or do it manually with a big fat bullet plug. You only need to isolate the battery if you use it while stopped.


I used this method while van camping, combined with additional charging from a cheap harbor freight generator. Mostly I charged while stopped, and used the van battery to run 12v appliances while camped. But I could easily charge while driving if I wanted.
 
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