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240v generator


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Hi all,

This may sound crazy but you never know.....

Has anybody ever seen or even fitted, a 240 generator to a defender engine?

I was speaking to someone who had seen one retrofitted to a defender and worked off a pulley on the front of the engine so when the engine was running you had 240v

Has anybody seen this done, anybody done it and has anybody got any piccis if you have?

Thanks

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We picked one up from Sodbury a few years back, bolts to a 300TDi and has an in-car inverter unit (Electrolux) that provides power when the engine's off. Came from a camper conversion, cost squillions new.

You can make a normal alternator put out an (unregulated) 110v fairly easily. Or you could buy a 240V alternator (one half of a petrol powered generator) and graft it on. Most are 110/240 switchable.

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machine mart sell the alternator bit, at a hefty price.

Note you will want the 1500rpm models though unless you can maintain 3000rpm on the shaft of the alternator with pulley diameter or engine revs.

Most of the portable gensets run at 3000rpm though. :(

The southern electric landy's used to have pto generators which ran off transfer box, engaged on lever. This is much safer as you can turn the output off.

I'm not sure I would want to run a 240v alternator belt driven off the engine whilst wading, unless you wanted to get a shock and go fishing at the same time. :o

You would need to remove the belt when not required or find a way to stop the alternator rotating.

Pete

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The southern electric landy's used to have pto generators which ran off transfer box, engaged on lever.

I've got one of those setups - mine came with a hydro winch, the PTO pump powers the winch and then there's a generator with a hydraulic motor that plugs in to the AUX point on the front bumper. Pity it's 110v only, must find another alternator for it.

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I've got one of those setups - mine came with a hydro winch, the PTO pump powers the winch and then there's a generator with a hydraulic motor that plugs in to the AUX point on the front bumper. Pity it's 110v only, must find another alternator for it.

or see if you can reconfigure the windings on the secondary rotor? windings if possible to run in series rather than parallel. or increase the primary excitation field voltage read the following for info. v useful if you are into electrickery. :rolleyes:

http://www.utterpower.com/vreg.htm

Pete

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The obvious advantage to an alternator rectified to a DC output is it's lack of reliance on synchronous speed. To use a 240v alternators AC output would need the engine to be governed at a speed that will give 50hz (i.e. 3000rpm, 1500rpm, 750rpm and others in between requiring more complicated pole and less common pole arrangements)

The obvious place under the engine bay for this in place of the aircon pump. Some ex-utilities defenders have one, usually accompanied by a hand throttle to ensure the load does not stall the engine. I can only remember these on 300tdi though.

P

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  • 4 years later...
  • 1 year later...

I have just purhased a Defender 110 200Tdi 1991 for a project which has come with a 240V 5KvA 21 Amp Genie fitted.

I Cannot find any information on this but I am looking....

James

can we have 'under the hood' pictures as well :)

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Me!

I bought a 4.7kva 230v Alternator - sold as a spare part for a Generator. I mounted it on the same place as the AC compressor on a 200Tdi with some bracketry.

My reason was we had very frequent power cuts and the Land Rover running was quieter than my generator. With 4.7kva I could run the whole house without worrying too much.

It was driven from the crank idler pulley by a single 13mm V belt. Unfortunately this proved a problem! If you drew any more than 1kw from the generator - the drive belt started getting hot. At 3.5kw it would catch fire - which looked good but wasn't all that helpful! The only way I could run full power was to leave the hose pointing at it!

I added a 7V PolyVee pulley to each as a replacement. With this it would run OK up to about 3.5kw - but at 4.7, it was on fire! Still 3.5kw was enough to run the kettle OR the cooker which was OK.

I can't remember what I did with the Alternator - I have a feeling it and the mounting kit went to someone on LR4x4.

If you are going to do this, make sure the alternator is designed to run at 1800rpm, not 3000rpm (two common options).

When X-Eng came along, I needed a Generator & bought a super-silenced 3kva Kipor generator - which was althgether a better option. More protable, didn't catch fire and cost less to run. Sorry!

Si

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  • 4 weeks later...

Simon's alternator is in my garage :-)

Simon sold it to me with half the mounting bracket attached, but it would be easy to make the other half again.

I never got round to installing it on my 200Tdi - good job really as it rolled on the M20 at 65mph! The 300tdi has A/C, so options are limited, apart from a mighty power bulge in the bonnet and a sturdy frame to mount the alternator on top of the engine. I can't ditch the A/C as the WAF is borderline already. I occasionally wonder about powering it from a PTO hydraulic drive, but never get further than a thought.

I need to empty the garage so it can be rebuilt with bedrooms on top, so I guess it's for sale too.

Chris

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