In article . com,
Jules wrote:
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)

In the same way as your generator driven off the car wheel would - it
needs to be butch enough to cope with a starting load.

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'.

You need one rated for the job.

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)

Friction drives are horribly inefficient - as well as the safety issues.

--
*There's no place like www.home.com *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.