John61CT said:
Great info here. The limiting factor is everything needs to be portable, if not up on the roof rack then on a hitch cargo carrier.
And then... well you need compact. That will come at the cost of noise. My post suggests the largish engine pretty much because of noise. If you can get say your 40 amps at just off idle because the engine has enough power, you will have a much quieter end product without any doubt. Yes, more complicated regards exhaust management, but then you can not deny the advantage of it also being electric start with it's own separate charging system.
With the right exhaust system and a tuned in load, one could also scavenge heat like they do with class 8 frame mounted APU's.
Footprint using a vertical shaft could perhaps be smaller yet if you explored having an alternator rewound to deliver the higher amperage at lower RPM. Then you could direct couple the alternator right on top of the flywheel. Cut the original output crank to an inch.
Finally, regards the actual proper charging of the batteries, I would put the output thru a traditional Solar charge controller as that can monitor battery temp and alter the output requirements properly. With all of what is available these days, one could even alter the engines rpm accordingly if up wanted.
I had the room for a vertical shaft DIY system under the hood of my truck, but opted for fitting the Honda for one final concluded reason..... If you go all DC, and your inverter croaks.... then you have nothing. If you carry along a decent battery charger, you can use the Honda to charge OR provide AC when your not using the Inverter.
