> Drive down to woodburn was not as smooth as I might have hoped - first of > all, because of the way I built my trailer, it had so much aero drag that I > could only maintain 50mph on the power it put out. Second of all, both > PFC-20s cranking away could only draw about 32A because of the pack voltage > and my lack of a buck enhancer - and third of all, for the first twenty > miles of the trip they were doing more like 20A because I had the throttles > down. > > John very kindly loaned me his buck enhanced 20 (Thanks, John!), and I > refilled my batteries at 40 amps for a couple of hours. Then, feeling much > less drained, I continued on down the road, this time doing between 55 and > 65 with 40A being dumped into my pack nonstop. (Love that buck enhancer!) At > times I drafted trucks, which let me cruise at 65 for about 5kW. Otherwise > it took about 15. (Normally it takes about 6.5-7, so as you can see, the > aero effect of the trailer is not inconsequential) > > All in all, a pretty good 400 mile run. I think next year I may just do it > on the batteries, though. In the meantime, I'm going to try and get all the > bugs out of the trailer system - having a trailer _double_ your power usage > is just no good. > > [Part of the problem is that the generator, the way it's mounted right now, > sticks up _above_ the lip of the car, so it's like a giant parachute going > down the road]
After looking at your trailer, I thought the genset could be mounted ahead of and below the axle to get it down and out of the wind. It would create more tongue weight there but would be closer to the car to reduce the drag. If you send me a photo of the side of the car and trailer, I can modify it to show you what I mean. Joe Smalley Rural Kitsap County WA Fiesta 48 volts NEDRA 48 volt street conversion record holder [EMAIL PROTECTED]
