Bell housing generator

[Saltyhog]

Why does this concept not seem to gain any traction. Yanmar has something that they only seem to sell to the European market and only generates 220/50Hz. Nani has what would seem to be a perfect genset solution in their bell housing generator . With multiple battery technologies (AGM, LiFePO4, etc.) permitting very high acceptance rates, standard belt driven alternators are not going to keep up. The bearing side-loads are too high. A bell housing alternator seems the most logical thing to do. No side-loads, could be liquid cooled, with the proper control electronics could provide either very high current for battery charging, or AC power via inverter. I'm just wondering why the idea isn't used. Perhaps there are problems I'm not familiar with. As an alternative, it seems to me that a wide toothed belt drive off a modified damper plate with modifications to the bell housing could allow driving something like Generator. It would require some form of governor, but I don't think it would be too difficult. Anyone ever see anything like this? Just thinking out loud (of course you can't hear it this being the inter-web and all )

[Blue Stocking]

I once did some work on a steel ketch that had the engine mounted above, and parallel to the prop shaft, connected by a toothed belt off the gearbox.
The front end, which was aft-facing, drove the alternator off the crankshaft with an over-centre cone clutch.
The owner was on his 2nd RTW, IIRC

[Saltyhog]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

I once did some work on a steel ketch that had the engine mounted above, and parallel to the prop shaft, connected by a toothed belt off the gearbox.
The front end, which was aft-facing, drove the alternator off the crankshaft with an over-centre cone clutch.
The owner was on his 2nd RTW, IIRC

Interesting approach but only really doable when designing or building the boat from scratch. I guess the prop shaft can be absolutely parallel to the WL giving the best mechanical advantage and propeller efficiency. I'm not sure that a clutch would be needed to the alternator. If you leave the field unexcited, I'd think the mechanical load would be minimal. The more I think about it the more I like it. Could probably run a really huge alternator. There are some large units for tour buses that might be appropriate.