Windmill atop RV

Even if you could put one on the roof and drive with it operating, it wouldn't be free power. It would take more HP to operate.

Heish:
What do you have for an RV?
Take a good look at it and see where you would put a wind gen.
Think about the extra maintenance , weight, noise and vibration in the wind.

Solar is the way to go for back up electrical power. Works well as long as the sun sun shines.
The more panel on your roof the more power you can make.
But they also could cut down on MPG. With drag over the roof.

ScottG wrote:
Even if you could put one on the roof and drive with it operating, it wouldn't be free power. It would take more HP to operate.

Ain't no free lunch!

Have seen photos but....

It is far more efficient to put in a bigger alternator.

I sometimes type the difference between gas and electric cooktops

With electric you burn, usually a fossil fuel, to heat water, to make steam, to turn a turbine, to make electricity, which is sent over wires and transformers and which finally heats a resistive wire to boil water.

There is loss at every step.

With gas, You burn a fossil fuel to heat water.

Same applies here

You burn fuel to turn the engine, to turn the transmission, drive shaft, rear exle and wheels to move the RV through air, Air passes over the windmill/turbine blades and turns it turning an alternator to make electricity.

Or you burn fossle fuel to turn the engine which turns the alternator.

NOTE again there is loss at every step.

KISS applies. (Keep It Super Simple) Which is the simpler explanation.

The plus side of the wind system is when you are parked, on a windy site. THEN the wind is moving past the RV on it's own charging your batteries.

Heish wrote:
Just out of curiosity has anyone tried the idea of several windmills on top of the RV to generate power to recharge batteries as you are driving? They could be raised and lowered as the situation called for. Or does the generator recharge house batteries while driving? If so does it charge them enough or would the extra from wind power help? As you can tell I know nothing about this - so simple answer with simple words is imperative.

Where did you get this crazy idea? :)

Noise and difficulties of attaching it properly are the first things that cross my mind. Besides, wind turbine, working or not, will increase the wind resistance because you are messing with the air flow by placing those blades in the way. Also, - most of us don't drive that long, unless going to a far-away long-term camp and then we stay there for long time, so there is no "highway wind". And you DON'T want this thing working and making noise on top of you when you are on the camp.

No, "generator" - which in a motor vehicle is called an "alternator" - won't charge even the vehicle battery well enough, not to mention the house battery. You might try and get a better alternator if you think your starter battery needs it. Or you can do what many people do - buy a $50 charger and charge the starter battery off 120V couple times a year.

The house battery you charge at home before going out and then either run a gas generator or a solar panel, if you camp longer than a day or two and there are no hookups. Solar is silent and easier to install than wind turbines. It won't, however, recharge the depleted house battery same well as a generator - for most people - because most people have solar too small and/or energy needs too high, so they have to run a generator.

OK...I can see you boys are not going to be thinking outside the box. Almot, why not?! I did mistake generator for alternator...ooops. I have other exceptional ideas that I just have not patented yet. The best of them being the " Booger Buddy". I am going to give this more thought, I have not given up. The idea came because of a missing alternator belt this week-end that left the MH stranded. Thinking that with the Heishfan attached the MH would have made it all the way home.

Heish wrote:
OK...I can see you boys are not going to be thinking outside the box. Almot, why not?! I did mistake generator for alternator...ooops. I have other exceptional ideas that I just have not patented yet. The best of them being the " Booger Buddy". I am going to give this more thought, I have not given up. The idea came because of a missing alternator belt this week-end that left the MH stranded. Thinking that with the Heishfan attached the MH would have made it all the way home.

I have seen two RVs with wind generators mounted to their roof ladders but used while parked boon docking. I have also seen them on lot of sail boats.

Hi Heish,

It would be far cheaper to install an auxiliary alternator than to put a turbine on an RV.

A vawt would be possible but still noisy. They start at about 5 grand.

Most of the energy to operate such a turbine would come directly from the engine.

Heish wrote:
I was wondering about effect on MPG but couldn't visualize that they would have that much effect. My thought was the three thin blade ones that are use to produce large power grids. So if not on top how about in front? How about a wind tunnel design, wind goes in turns fan and exits.

Heish wrote:
OK...I can see you boys are not going to be thinking outside the box. Almot, why not?! I did mistake generator for alternator...ooops. I have other exceptional ideas that I just have not patented yet. The best of them being the " Booger Buddy". I am going to give this more thought, I have not given up. The idea came because of a missing alternator belt this week-end that left the MH stranded. Thinking that with the Heishfan attached the MH would have made it all the way home.

I drove my Mustang 300 miles back from Vegas once on just battery power. Disconnected all but one headlight and one tail light as it was 2am.

Do you have a generator? You could run the generator to provide 12v power to the chassis systems. No generator? You can still jump the house battery to the chassis and run for a long time. Keep 12v accessories off such as dash air conditioner.

This reminds me of an episode on Last Man Standing. It had to do with the grandson and his dad building a pinewood derby car with a pinwheel on top. Tim kept telling them that it would slow the car down. It did, slowed to point of stopping but kid was just happy that it spun!