On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:07:53 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:35:48 -0500, Jeff DeWitt wrote:

wrote:
I live near an Amish community. They are required to use lights on
their horse drawn buggies at night. They use 12V marine batteries
which last about 7 to 10 hours. Then they have the non-Amish
neighbors charge them, or use a gas generator. I was talking to one
of them and he said he would like to connect a car alternator to the
wheels. I told him that seems doable. That got me thinking. Wiring
a delco with built in regulator is easy. There are two problems.

1. Mounting it so a pulley can be connected to the wooden spoke wheel
hub. I can sort of see a means to attach a belt pulley, but the belt
would have to connect to a shaft or it would be outside too far.

2. Alternators will not charge until they reach a specific RPM. I
doubt the buggy wheels would reach that. This means a gear assembly
would be needed to increase the rpm. I also heard that some tractor
alternators charge at a lower RPM, so I have to check into that.

Anyone have any suggestions? What could I steal a simple gear unit
from? How do I attach a pulley to a wooden hub, spoke wheel? Has
anyone ever done anything like this?

I'm having fun with this project....

Alvin


The Amish are fascinating, and there is an excellent website about the
"Plain People".

http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml

Jeff DeWitt

Yeah, but don't overlook the really negative things about them. It's not at all
pretty and quaint. It's a cult. Women and children are "property" and the
accepted way to communicate with them is to beat them. Nice.



Like ALL religions, there are good and bad. There has been a big
thing on the news in the last year about one that beat and had sex
with relatives and the whole thing seems to give a bad image of all of
them. It's one bad apple...... I have never seen any beatings around
here. They have better marriages than most non-Amish from waht I see.
On the other hand, when there is a divorce, the woman can never marry
again, (unless the man dies). It's not all quaint or pretty. They
work hard and work most of the time. Yet, they seem to be happier
than most people and dont have all the problems and debt that many
others have. Their concepts of sharing the phone bill, the well, etc
saves money, and when they need a barn, all of of them work together,
which makes for closer families. There's a good and bad side to
everything and to all people. Whether it's a cult or not, I really
can not say. I think most if not all religions are a cult in some
manner. Even those so well accepted in our world, such as the
Catholics are cult-like. I am not here to judge anyone's beliefs. If
people are happy, then that's what matters. Some of them do leave the
Amish too. Either way, they are an interesting people and I enjoy
living near them. They are usually the first to help me when I have a
problem and that says something about them.