Hypothetically, if your vehicle could make 5000 amps continuously.... ???

[Fish Chris]

....how would you use this power ? I ask, because I'm constantly thinking about how this could be achieved. I don't often go into details, because 1) I kind of dream about being the first guy to do it (although Im currently somewhat poor) and 2) so many guys just don't even want to consider ideas that have not already been tried. 

 

I've just seen so many show systems with 4 big alternators under the hood... which is cool and all, but where do you go from there ? I just feel like this approach is kind of a dead end. Four big alts, and now your stacking batteries, because you can't increase your power production any more, with alts under your hood

 

Id just love to see one of the Big Boys in car audio do this, just to show that it can be done.

[Arthur79]

It's an interesting thought experiment.  I would probably go with 1 or 2 of these:

 

 

 

I've never really thought about how many alternators you could actually fit under a hood.  Like you, I've seen 4, not sure if I've ever seen more than 4.

 

I think, as amplifier power output has continued to grow to obscenely (in a good/fun way) high levels, people have opted to use SuperCaps and high output lithium batteries.  That works great for short runs (like competitions), but after your burps or a few demo runs you then have the recovery period where your alternators replenish the caps/batteries.

 

You could hair trick the car next to you at a light with 52kws of bass 

 

 

[Arthur79]

Have you seen the crazy Brazilian demo semis.  They tout crazy numbers like 1.5 million watts RMS:

 

 

I assume they are equipped with big a$$ diesel generators you use to power hospitals and computer datacenters during a power outage.

 

There is an idea.  Where I live, it's pretty common to see people who've set up their trucks with a flat bed and an independent generator to power their welder.  I'm sure with time and copious amounts of disposable income, you could trick an audio build out with independent generator(s) to supplement the 4 alternators under the hood.  I haven't seen that before.

[Fish Chris]

Hey Arthur, that is a pretty bad ass amp  Never seen those.

 

Well, put it this way, when you said those 1.5 million wt systems probably use a big diesel generator, your on the right track.... but consider this, that rig "already has" a big diesel motor right there  It wouldn't "have to have" a seperate diesel motor. Now whether or not they do, I don't know. 

 

But can't you guess what I'm thinking about ? ......in a 3/4 ton truck with a strong diesel motor and a "big bed" ? 

 

I just don't think it would be too terribly hard to get the power (shaft driven) to the bed of a truck to turn a whole bunch of big strong alternators, or, to gear them so that the motor works the easiest to turn them, and the alts get the required RPM's to make full juice. So how about a dozen 500 amp alts ? Sounds completely doable to me. A big name in the game needs to hurry up and do this, to prove me right !  Some rough calculations tells me this would take about 150 hp. Should be easy peasy for a strong diesel that can make 500-600 hp, right ?

[Arthur79]

My guess is the "hard part" would be figuring out where to put the alternators and how to drive them.  Figuring out how to shaft-drive the alts located in the bed area independent of the rear axel drive shaft would definitely be a challenge...

[boom50cal]

demobus did like 6-8 mechmans on a custom chain drive bracket, running from a PTO hydraulic setup. this was several years ago.

[Dafaseles]

The extra alternators not under the hood would have to be turned by something continuously. Like @boom50calmentioned, done kind of power take off (PTO) switch to a constant belt or chain. All would have to be externally regulated, but that's not a big deal. but if you didn't use a PTO hydraulic setup, what would you use to continuously turn those alternators and how? 

Then there's the question of how much can you send through a battery at once? I get you want to find someday to get nutty power without batteries and I'm always down for a good think outside the box problem. But you do concede that you do need something to store some electrical while the vehicle is off. No matter how many alternators you have, lets say a dozen 500 amp alts, that's, let's just say for the sake of argument, 6000 amps. If you have enough equipment to need 6000 amps, can you send the whole 6000 through a battery (or other type of electrical storage device) at once without damaging it or blowing it up? 

Also, it's a vehicle electrically sound enough to be able to ground 6000 amps? Would a closed loop system be enough? 

Just some things to think about

[Arthur79]

2 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

The extra alternators not under the hood would have to be turned by something continuously. Like @boom50calmentioned, done kind of power take off (PTO) switch to a constant belt or chain. All would have to be externally regulated, but that's not a big deal. but if you didn't use a PTO hydraulic setup, what would you use to continuously turn those alternators and how? 

Then there's the question of how much can you send through a battery at once? I get you want to find someday to get nutty power without batteries and I'm always down for a good think outside the box problem. But you do concede that you do need something to store some electrical while the vehicle is off. No matter how many alternators you have, lets say a dozen 500 amp alts, that's, let's just say for the sake of argument, 6000 amps. If you have enough equipment to need 6000 amps, can you send the whole 6000 through a battery (or other type of electrical storage device) at once without damaging it or blowing it up? 

Good point, you would need a farm of batteries that could handle that kind of inrush current.  Not even sure how many/what chemistry you could use to spread that out safely.   

 

Lets say we were looking at something like the XS Power Li-D1600XR batteries (almost certainly not the best choice, but it's a starting point)

 

It's rated for a continuous charge current of 30A, max continuous current of 90A and can take 180A of charge current during a short 10 second pulse.

 

Let's assume that our 6000A best setup is tightly regulated and not running full tilts all the time (a pretty safe assumption I think), you would need 34 Li-D1600XRs in parallel to safely buffer the full 6k amps.  On the upside, a bank that large could certainly supply the needed current as the alternators dynamically ebbed and flowed.  You would need a big truck to cart all the batteries and 4/0 copper needed to build the power delivery side.