# Converting a car engine into a generator



## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Has anyone ever heard of this? The power's out here in my neighborhood. There's a guy who is using a car to generate power in his home. The car is in his backyard and was kept running all night. Pretty cool.

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## jimcosta (Jun 11, 2017)

The only thoughts I can add is first you can charge a 12 Volt battery (not the car battery) while driving the car in normal use. The car generator creates more power than is needed to recharge the car battery. Just requires a cable to run from the car battery to a battery on the floor of the car.

My biggest concern is that cars are not designed to idle forever and will consume an awful lot of gas. Better to purchase a generator.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

They have been doing from the days cars were first invented and using them to pump water also. The also take 6 or 8 cly engine and use half the cyl to made a compressor out of them.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

He was probably running an inverter with it, a waste of gas!

The storm here three days ago took out the power for 11 hours.

I ran the propane genset for 10 of that time, used hardly any fuel at all, gauge hardly moved.

Ran it to keep the freezers cold nothing else, was a good time to get some rest, which I did.

Did listen to Rush in the afternoon.:tango_face_smile:


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Yep, he was running an inverter. You can buy one at Harbor Freight cheap. But as Socom said..... a huge waster of fuel. These car inverters produce little output and that car engine is sucking down a lot of gas.


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## Steve40th (Aug 17, 2016)

Until he gets a proper generator, it will work fine. Some cars idle pretty well and can get fairly decent fuel consumption.. Just depends on vehicle.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

After Irma roared through, wife was home alone with the animals and no electricity.
I was in Kansas City. 
She parked her diesel Silverado right outside the dining room window, plugged an inverter into the cigarette lighter, ran a power cord thru the window. She ran a small fan, a light, and the WiFi modem.

She didn’t have to leave the truck running to do this. Remember, diesel trucks have two batteries.
2 days later I was back home and got the generator in service.

She asked, and I showed her, how to get the generator started, how to fuel it, how to run extension cords to the house, etc.


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

It also depends on the size of the alternator he has in that vehicle.

If he moseyed down to the local truck parts store . . . he could have gotten a huge one for tractor trailers . . . built a bracket . . . and be pumping out almost 400 amps . . . 

If he hooked up 2 . . . he could be knocking down almost 7000 watts at 120 volts . . . and his car engine would hardly be above an idle.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

There are some pretty economical tractor PTO driven generators but its my understanding that the power generated is not "clean" power and can damage some appliances/equipment. But Diesel Engines are great "idlers".

If someone could verify this I'd appreciate it but I looked into a PTO generator a few years back and decided against it for home use.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Apparently you can find some PTO generators that have brushless alternators that provide clean energy that sensitive equipment can use safely.

For about 2 grand you can get a pretty powerful setup for your tractor. I'll need to do more research but it my be worth it to look into this method.

https://www.powerequipmentdirect.com/Winco-W10PTOS/p12098.html


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Typical alternators in todays cars are only 100 to maybe 140 amps. If you have one thats rated 135 amps you are only generating about 1600 to 1700 watts. Running a 1.6 or 1.8 liter engine to produce only 1600 watts isn’t very efficient. If it’s all you got, then fine. I definitely wouldn’t use this arrangement unless I had no other choices.

On the other hand you can get a 2000 watt, 12 volt inverter for less than $200. So for small money you could have a small source of backup power. But you’re not going to draw 1600 watts thru your cigarette lighter. You are going to have to hard wire this into your cars electrical system.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Regardless, you're going to want some deep cycle batteries for your car/truck, or other battery bank. An inverter that does pure sine if you don't want to fry electronics/motors.

You could make a hillbilly set up using a truck generator and small salvaged lawn mower engine, that would use lots less gas than a car. People have even done that using water power from a stream.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I’ve seen a sort of universal adaptor plate advertised somewhere here on the web. It’s designed for you to mount a lawn mower engine and a car alternator on the same plate. Add two pulleys and a vee-belt and you are in business.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Slippy said:


> There are some pretty economical tractor PTO driven generators but its my understanding that the power generated is not "clean" power and can damage some appliances/equipment. But Diesel Engines are great "idlers".
> 
> If someone could verify this I'd appreciate it but I looked into a PTO generator a few years back and decided against it for home use.


IT depends on who made it, you can ask for a printout of the sine wave it puts out.

I have 2, 24V DC to 110 AC inverters that put out a perfect sine wave right @ 60 cycles.

Many advertise theirs as a true sine wave, some are saw tooth and some cheap gensets are square wave including a lot of cheap inverters.

A lot of quality electronice have diode bridges to protect their circuits from this crap..


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

The way it was done on the farms years ago they just jacked the car up and used a drive wheel to run a pulley more efficient at least at the time . Efficient generators made it a waste of time. At one time we had one here that would run off a large farm tractor PTO.
It could run bother in laws milk parlor, cooler for the milk and then some. Saved his and out butts a few times in Winter power outages.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Yeah, thanks guys. And from the looks of it they're going through a lot of gas. They just headed out with their red containers to go get more. 

I need to go can 56 lbs of freezer meat today while it's still light. Ugh.

Hubs has decided We're getting a generator. Who am I to argue?

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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Having an inverter permanently installed in a vehicle isn't necessarily a bad idea. I have had one in my war wagon for years now and I'm not sorry I have it. Granted, I use it 99.9% of the time for work, when I'm out in the sticks and there's no utility power available. But I have used it for short-term power outages, generally to keep certain things running until I can either switch over to solar or a genset.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Having an inverter permanently installed in a vehicle isn't necessarily a bad idea. I have had one in my war wagon for years now and I'm not sorry I have it. Granted, I use it 99.9% of the time for work, when I'm out in the sticks and there's no utility power available. But I have used it for short-term power outages, generally to keep certain things running until I can either switch over to solar or a genset.


 Every car I have had sense 2013 has a 110 outlet in the car.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Smitty901 said:


> Every car I have had sense 2013 has a 110 outlet in the car.


I'm assuming 2 battery truck?

What sort of amps will it do running? And is power clean?


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Smart neighbor (maybe, but wasteful) and definiately unprepared.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Mad Trapper said:


> I'm assuming 2 battery truck?
> 
> What sort of amps will it do running? And is power clean?


 No Ford Cmax, Edge SEl I have never tried to run much with it . Real small compressor chargers the charger faster with it than assy port.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> I'm assuming 2 battery truck?
> 
> What sort of amps will it do running? And is power clean?


2 batteries isn't required for an inverter. Yeah, one's nice, especially when it's on an isolator, but not necessary.


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