Extended Range Trailer Project

I went to pick up my AC motor today. I decided on a different motor than pictured in the other post. The motor is pretty much the same but in my opinion better. It is a 7 1/2" Diameter AC Induction Motor and from end to end 14" in length. It is a dual shaft motor and does included the encoder bearing. I did find out that these AC forklifts use Curtis AC controllers as well as a few others. So these motors will work just fine with the Curtis Line of AC controllers. With that out of the way, it is time to get things moving along. The motor is only a 36 volt 6.3kW motor. I am quite sure that this would pump out way more than 6.3 kW at a higher voltage and amperage. So this motor has a good chance to be not only a generator but with other projects it could be a killer motorcycle motor and even an outboard motor. So without wasting too much more time lets get started.

I have bitten off more than I can chew but think this is going to work well. Jehu Garcia did a video where he had his friend tow his Electric Samba while in Regen Mode. With that he was able to charge the pack just by towing in regen mode. So, lets take that a step further. Lets connect an AC Induction motor to a gas engine and drive the motor in regen mode or generator mode to provide power to charge a pack of batteries. Now if I had a pack that was like 72 volts and my controller for this project was a 72 volt controller I could just connect to the pack and charge directly using the controller to stop the charge.

Now the issue for my situation. I will have a pack voltage of 192 volts nominal. The Curtis controllers don't go higher than 144 volts nominal. So I would be even with the highest possible controller unable to charge my 192 volt pack. Well, not so fast there. Since my controller for my car is a Synkromotive controller it is also a charger. All I need is a voltage of 120 volts and as much amperage as possible for an output voltage and amperage while the motor is being driven in generator mode. Take that output DC and instead of running directly into the pack I can run it through my controller and run that through an inductor first then into the controller to boost the voltage to the required charging voltage and as high of amperage possible. With the controller taking care of the generator functions I don't need any complex setup. It is not designed to be used while driving.

Many conversions are quite limited in space for batteries but the person may want or need to drive an extended distance. So without having to purchase a crap load of expensive batteries to put into a trailer to get a bit further down the road I figured I'd make a range extender so you don't have to worry about the excess batteries and so I don't have to worry about finding a charge station. It is the intent to build a fast charge setup so I can charge at a level above level 2.

So if there is any other things I may need for this project to work please let me know. Any ideas would be good and no, I don't want to make this a complex affair. I don't believe it needs to be complex.

I need advice on getting the motor connected to a VW engine. I need a controller for the motor. Hoping for one that is updated by HPEVS so I can plug in special parameters. I think a 96 volt 650 amp controller would be just fine. We will set it up for lower power settings at first then slowly ramp it up.

Pete :)