Electric bike charging on the go

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We currently have a 160amp solar panel powered to a 130amph gel battery through an MPTT controller. We use only a low volt compressor fridge and some LED lighting but that’s about it. We are looking at buying a couple of electric bikes , has anyone already gone down this route and offer any useful tips on how to charge the bikes. We don’t have an investor and like to wildcamp when possible. Are these only able to be charged by mains and if so do you trip out when on hook up?
 
I have a 150 Watt modified sine wave inverter and use it to charge our bikes with no problems. I don't know what type of battery you have but a Lead acid 130 Amp battery will actually only give you 70 to 80 Amp hours and a 150 Watt inverter can draw 13 Amps so if you are charging when not driving it will drain your battery quite easily in 6 hours or so.
 
I charge on the move and on campsites, I use a 600w pure sine wave inverter straight off the leisure battery when driving and I used to turn the fridge off. I dont now as I have a B2B charger, the fridge takes too much current and the battery will drain if you dont.
Pure sine wave inverters are best as some chargers may buzz on a modified sine wave inverter.
On sunny days my 160w of solar will quite happily keep up with battery charging but only 1 battery at a time.
 
FWIW, I suspect it also depends on the capacity of your eBike batteries. Ours are 17Ah @ 36V. These allegedly fully recharge in 8 hours, which equates to 76.5W + losses each. So it would take 16 hours at 80W+ for one battery at a time or 8 hours at 160W+ for both together. However, our bikes have a (terrain-dependent) range of about 50 miles and so we rarely need to recharge every time we go for a ride.

Note that my two eBike batteries have a combined capacity of 1224Wh, which is more than the total capacity of a 100Ah 12V leisure battery and would probably take down the OP's 130Ah battery to well below half capacity (even with 160W of solar) on all but the sunniest of days. Hence, personally, I'd be looking for mains power even though I have an inverter. Maybe a friendly pub stop would oblige for a reasonable consideration; perhaps I'd spend a day on a campsite with EHU...

...YMMV (both figuratively and literally) as eBike charging would not be so demanding if you had lower capacity batteries.
 
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trevskoda said:
You can use a inverter but they do eat van batteries unless you driving which should be ok.
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what is possible varies depending on the size of the battery bank but it is generally a good idea to go along with trev's comment above and try to make it a habit to charge up stuff (eBike batteries, power tool batteries, laptop batteries, etc) when you are driving for maximum benefit from the alternator
 
Hi, we have tried in the past to charge our bike from onboard invertor with mixed success so looked for alternative. We have recently bought a small 'suitcase' petrol generator and this fits in the boot of our campervan. We used it for the first time this weekend. Have a lead that connects from generator to external hook up connection so can then use mains supply inside. Bike battery had 2 lights out of 4 lit after our ride and took just under 2 hrs to charge 2 bike batteries. We wild camped but we're only van so noise not an issue. Got a quiet generator and ran in eco mode and not that annoying when sat in the van.Can give you more info if interested.
 
We have a 150w solar panel with 2x100ah batteries, but even on a sunny day it's not possible to charge both bike batteries fully as has been said.
One of our favourite places is Lyndon Top as there are great rides around Rutland Water and surrounding area - but of course there is no electric hookup there so we can't ride every day. I did consider a small generator but the van is too small even for a suitcase type as we only have under-seat storage, no "garage". Even if it would fit I suspect there would be an unwanted smell of petrol inside.
So we now subscribe to the CCC (I won't use the other lot!) and try ro stay at reasonably a priced CS with hookup. We can then recharge the bike batteries overnight ready for the next day.
 
I charge 2 x Ebikes by:
  1. EHU when possible overnight.
  2. Whilst driving, using inverter, fridge on gas power
  3. Solar Panel 280w, keeping a close eye on available battery power left ( 3* 120AH batts)
  4. Suitcase genny, last resort.
  5. or Walk ! But normally OK with one of above.
 
Agree generator was last resort but if needed to would only require it every 2 rides and will not use if others near by. Can also park in layby for couple of hours as last resort. Means we can still wild camp and on eco mode it is quiet quiet
 
I had a look here to ask a question about inverters, and have found much useful info above about charging my e-bike battery. As with @GeoffL , the bike battery (only one of them in my case) is over 600Wh. I have 200Ah of leisure battery and 160W of solar, so should be OK if I'm careful ( perhaps need to charge as often as every 2 days).
Anyway, which inverter would anyone recommend? I have a cheap one from Halfords, rated at 150W which should be enough in theory but it has trouble charging even my laptop unless the screen is switched off. It's also extremely noisy - I'd like a quiet one if possible.
 
If it is just for the Bike and also you would use for the Laptop, I would recommend the Victron 12/250 (which is a 200W inverter, not 250W, BTW).
Pure Sine Wave so will be good for the Laptop. 200W should be good enough for the eBike Charger I imagine and these run virtually silent.
More info here - https://wildebus.com/product/victron-phoenix-inverter/. Available from other sellers as well of course :)
 
mrdon said:
Hi, is it safe to have your fridge on gas while driving?
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Providing you have a gas regulator with crash protection shut off, so yo can use the heating etc. you're Ok. note may be different in other EU countries. If my hab batteries are a bit low I'll leave fridge on gas so more off the electric generated can help charge the batteries
 
Yeoblade said:
Providing you have a gas regulator with crash protection shut off, so yo can use the heating etc. you're Ok. note may be different in other EU countries. If my hab batteries are a bit low I'll leave fridge on gas so more off the electric generated can help charge the batteries
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I'd be a little wary. FWIW, a friend has a fridge with auto-changeover. It switches to mains, 12V or gas in that order of preference. So, if he stops the van and turns of the engine, and gas is available to the fridge, it'll fire up on gas. Unless he turns off gas at the bottle, this happens every time he stops to refuel...
 
GeoffL said:
I'd be a little wary. FWIW, a friend has a fridge with auto-changeover. It switches to mains, 12V or gas in that order of preference. So, if he stops the van and turns of the engine, and gas is available to the fridge, it'll fire up on gas. Unless he turns off gas at the bottle, this happens every time he stops to refuel...
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There is meant to be a 15 minute delay before the switchover to gas after the 12V supply is removed, based on the assumption that the driver may have stopepd for fuel (and would be done and dusted within 15 minutes if refueling).
This is how the Thetford AES is setup and I think is the standard?
 
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