Suggested Battery Options for a Converted Alternator Motor

[Squirrelly G]

I got an old adult trike thats begging me to motorize it somehow. I was thinking of trying my hand at converting a car alternator. I like to think things through before I begin the build process, but I havent come across any definitive information on what sort of battery setup would be okay to use. Can I use a 12v car battery? Maybe a couple motorcycle batteries? Any thoughts, ideas and criticisms are surely welcome!

 

[PaPaSteve]

Seems most alternator conversions are 36 to 48 volt battery packs.
Batteries . . .
For a while I had a neighbor doing building security installations.
Part of the business was changing exit sign batteries in businesses, medical offices once a year.
Most of the batteries checked out fine.
There are sealed lead.
At the time the recycle price was $5 so that's what he sold them for.

 

[amberwolf]

I got an old adult trike thats begging me to motorize it somehow. I was thinking of trying my hand at converting a car alternator. I like to think things through before I begin the build process, but I havent come across any definitive information on what sort of battery setup would be okay to use. Can I use a 12v car battery? Maybe a couple motorcycle batteries? Any thoughts, ideas and criticisms are surely welcome!

What specific job does the vehilce have to do for you, under what riding conditions? You'd have to define all that before building something or picking a battery, because the system has to provide all the power for whatever you're having it do. And the battery has to provide all the power to run that system, so it has to be more than capable of doing that.

Also if the trike is anything like the Schwinn in my thread here

Amberwolf's Schwinn Trike Rebuild / Conversion to Heavy Cargo Hauler

From here: https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/threads/the-sb-cruiser-amberwolfs-2wd-heavy-cargo-trike-dog-carrier.67833/post-1827806 I got an old Schwinn Tri-Wheeler Town and Country (probably the 1971 or 75 or 78 model, based on info from bikehistory.org) from someone I knew from the...

endless-sphere.com

you'll want to keep it under 15mph, maybe even under 10, unless you're doing radical changes to the design (like I am) o make it safe to go faster than that, or you'll end up on your head or face pretty quick.