Largest Alternator on a VW Cabrio 2000

If you don't mind making your own custom brackets and possibly modifying the drive belt system to handle extra load there is no reason you cant refit a commercial truck or industrial machine alternator to replace the stock one if you can get it to fit of course.

Many of those come in sizes up into the several hundreds of amps capacity's at 12, 24, and higher voltages!

Look up Leese Neville alternators if you are curious as to just some of whats available.

I have some 400 amp Neihoff brushless alternators on fire equipment and rescue vehicles. I would encourage you to go a different route. Multiple alternators that are available locally. I will guess that you have a Bosch alternator on the VW. Try to find an alternator re-builder in your area, and stop by for a visit. Might want to bring some coffee and donuts. Find out from him haw powerfull the alternator size you have comes in. Then see if you can add a double pulley to it, and stack a second one just like it right next to it. Do you have air conditioning on the VW? If not, fabricate mounting brackets to add another alternator there. Is there room for double anternators there?

There are some very small 150 amp Delco alternators out there if you are stuck for space. Look into some custom auto audio shops. Those folks are looking for all of the power they can find to power those big amplifiers. Good luck.

Thanks Bob, Yes i have air conditionning, the idea behind the hovercar loaded into the large catamaran (60 ft long x 37 ft wide ) is that it is the navigational station of the big cat as well. The very structure of the car serves and all the components that are in the car will not be duplicated in the large cat. The hovercraft is very wide for stability and access laterally, if you are old enough, you may remember the thunderbirds #2, it will look like that but the motors will be high up (adjustable heights) that is one of the advantages of emotors pods. You can check out the Donar hovercraft on youtube it is not from there that i got the idea, but it is fun to watch and see the possibilities of a clean look hovercraft. In fact i got the idea in Cayo Guillermo in Cuba, surfkiting, there was a guy giving rides on an inflated dingy that had a deltaplan above it , he was bugging us a little bit with our 85 ft strings in the air and he was landing all over the place, i heard he killed himself on a back wind gust crash. This is a typical surfkite spot, with very shallow waters, there are some youtubes done by canucks , humm who are these crazy canucks air riding in such shallow waters ? but you can notice the very shallows. So the hovercraft really makes sence for what we want to accomplish with our dingy. Yes i already have normal dingies, we rescue kiters with those but they are not fast and in shallows, not the best thing, forget the seadoos for now. The main goal of my endeavour was that hovercrafts that come next door here on the lake make too much noise and exhaust smells, most are 2 strokes. So with the new lighter lithium batteries, i can take off and land (one day it could lowfly but not with this 115 hp) not bugging everybody, the noise starts 2000 ft away. The props noise will be much less than what we are used to , i have a friend in that domain... in a marina, props inwater will be used on the same shaft as the air props , the air props are at the front of the shaft and the water props are at the back end of the shaft, the epod is between. The water and air props fold. I am working on the design of the long water shaft i have salvaged a windsurf 2 part carbon mast, if you want to see similar, check out boats in southeast asia, they mount a long shaft behind a car engine. I hope i am not boring you with my datas, i just want people to understand the whys. Thank you for your advises. Mike

Converting a VWCabrio into a hovercar or hoverdingy that can safely exit a catamaran, go to shore, remain roadworthy enough drive, then return and safely land aboard a catamaran....sounds like an expensive undertaking. Probably more expensive than buying a hovercraft of floating car... .

. Starting with a 2700 lb car, then adding batteries, copper, motors, and the skirting or whatever you plan to make it hover safely, creates quite a heavy and probably not particularly stable load to maneuver with the care it takes to land on a floating vessle. .

How about a nice traditional dingy, large enough to ferry a motorcycle (and perhaps a trailer the motorcycle can haul goods back with).

I appreciate all the comments i get. Reading a comment i posted to Bob, it will answer a little to your worthy worries. Those worrries were at the top of my list in my criteria design. This is for a specific need, but people could go from that and design wider market possibilities. Why not use a river for hybrid transportation, nature takes care of building and maintaining the infra ... on an island city like montreal, one can say they got the widest peripheral highway . With the very light and strong materials some are on the market others not yet, we are testing (so far so good, better good in fact) the hovercrafts can make a comeback. The idea is to inflate and deflate and store within 20 minutes. Within and above the car, on a convertible it is all within, removing the rear seats. It is interesting how much air can be pumped with 85 hp . Had enough motorcycles, now looking at ebikes powered on tool batteries, i need tools on the boat anyway. cheers Mike