pycoed 12 #1 Posted June 26 I have recently extended my little pole barn (well away from any electricity) to provide firewood storage. A couple of weeks ago scored a nice 12v crane which I've used to lift firewood bags to a mezzanine store level. I used an old but good pickup battery & thought to press into service a couple of old car driving lamps to provide some winter lights. How to keep battery charged is an obvious problem. I have a little Yanmar as well as a Wheelhorse C121 plus 48"deck & a Wheelhorse A800 that I usea as a tug & general runabout. This has a Honda clone 11hp electric start engine that replaced the old 8hp Kohler with pull start (sacrilege, but Im well into my 70's & pull starts have lost their attraction!) None of these have much onboard generation capacity to charge an external largeish battery. So - a PTO driven car alternator seemed to be a plan. I had a Delco 10Si lying about & a 55Amp alternator from an old Lada Niva, both bench tested OK & the Niva seemed to be the better choice (mounting was easier & more robust). I used some 20mm bar with a couple of stop washers welded to fit the mid Attacha-matic of the Wheelhorse A800. Couple of bits of flat bar to suit the alternator mount welded outboard & the adjustment post replaced the floor footguard mounting bolt of the W/H. Fitted a small panel from sheet steel to hold the excitation switch & panel light, plus an Andersen connector to plug the slave battery into & job was done. Of course none of the several thousand vee belts I seem to have fitted so I am awaiting some suitable candidates to arrive, but in the mean time I cut a few elastic bands from old inner tubes to try it out - worked fine down in the garage on a virtually fully charged battery, but as soon as i tried it on a slightly lower one , the "belt" snapped with the meter showing 13.5v, so it looks like I need a proper belt to test in earnest. Quite an easy job to do really & instanly removeable via the Attacha-Matic & PTO yoke to remove belt. 2 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SylvanLakeWH 28,311 #2 Posted June 26 I'd consider dropping a small solar panel charger on the roof / wall... used one for years on a boat hoist... worked like a charm. Harbor Freight has some very inexpensive ones... 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pycoed 12 #3 Posted June 26 (edited) Solar would be ideal, but this shed is under trees (see below) & even the 10w solar charged LED I had on the side wouldn't keep charged in the autumn & winter (it's damp & grey here for lots of the year in Wales). I do have 4Kw of panels on a shed next to the house, but that has open skies. Edited June 26 by pycoed 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
