How to recharge ebike battery

[user 29315]

I hope to be able to travel with an ebike. The motor is 750w, the battery is 52v, 20ah. What kind of setup would I need to be able to recharge? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Freelander]

What is the output on the charger?

 

[frater secessus]

the battery is 52v, 20ah

Hard experience tells me that 1-post members often don't come back to read the answers (or answer questions like the one @Freelander posed) but I am feeling lucky today. And it might benefit onlookers.

We are talking about charging 1,040Wh (52v x 20Ah). That's more charging than many/most vandwellers here will need to run their normal camper lives. It's a serious undertaking, but doable with enough desire and/or investment.

Since we are going to either charge off the existing wall charging (using PSW inverter) or use a boost converter to get the required voltage there will be losses, let's stipulate 10%. So we really need 1,144Wh to get from empty to full.

If you drive a lot I'd think about charging the bike while driving; the alternator makes a lot of power. If you don't drive a lot I'd consider a generator. The genny could also charge your house bank at the same time.

We do like solar here on the forum, but it would take a lot of panel. Example: annual solar harvest in Arizona in January is ~3.25 hours of Full Sun Equivalent (FSE), so in theory we'd need 352w of panel to get the job done. Rounding up to cover MPPT, wiring, and cell temp losses I'd say 400w of panels just to charge the bike. Plus however much is required to keep your camper running.

 

[SierraVanCampers]

Frater did a great job explaining things. There are quite a few variables here.

We have two ebikes with 20ah 48v batteries. We like to keep things fairly simple. Charging is easiest if you occasionally have shore power. Having two ebikes, it is best for us to have shore power as we might drain our ebike batteries over two days of riding offroad. You would really need to explain to everyone what your setup currently is.

$$$ Budget
Your travel vehicle make/model
Current solar setup
Current battery setup
AC ebike battery charger input watts (like Freelander asked)
How often you will need to charge based on miles per day
What your current amperage usage per day is before charging the ebike. (your fridge, lights, fans, phone chargers, TV....etc)

Let us know!

 

[SierraVanCampers]

Hey Frater,

Guess you were right. No response from author. LOL