On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:13:22 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Does anyone know if this was ever taken to a commercial product and
have any references to it?

Sounds like an extremly simple & practical idea - along the lines of the
wind up radio. Possibilities are endless, hook up a hydralic pump
instead of an alternator & the world is your lobster.

Still cheaper to use an inverter with most vehicles. You then have the
choice of cheap mass produced mains devices.

How well do they cope with big inductive loads such as motors though,
where the start-up surge can be quite big? (i.e. the well pump that the OP
refers to)

I agree it seems like a good solution if running everyday electronics out
in the wilds, I just don't know how well it'd stand up to running the
'bigger stuff'.

It sounds like a horribly inefficient way of using fuel and resources.
In a 'third world' country a vehicle with a power take off would make
more sense.

On the negative side, there are inefficiencies in running a generator via
rollers from a car wheel I suppose - but on the plus side, any vehicle can
be used rather than needing one with a PTO (and in any kind of harsh
environment, the less single points of failure the better)

cheers

Jules