Portable Wind Turbine as a power supplement?
First post here, so I apologize if this is the wrong area. I'm doing research and planning out a custom RV (cargo van/step van/box truck conversion...undecided), and looking to be as green and self...
Forum Discussion
I wanted to see if you could add an inline speed reducer gearbox, between the blades of the turbine, and the generator itself. So that its running speed can be increased to between 50 - 70 mph. Thus enabling you to mount a horizontal shaft turbine through the roof, to generate power while driving at freeway speeds.
There's really no reason to do that, it's just a very lossy way to capture power, you're better off tapping your alternator (possibly adding a second/bigger alternator). By the time the energy reaches your wind powered generator, the power has gone from the engine to the transmission to the wheels to the wind and finally to your turbine and generator. You're losing energy at each step so you're better off just tapping it off the engine directly.
Then if you still want a wind turbine, you can optimize it for ambient wind speed, which is going to be a lot less than 70mph unless you camp in hurricanes a lot.
