Charging Set, 300-Watt Variations

[Mike K]

My OMC chorehorse had a run after many years . I bought it NOS in the shipping crate including the tool/spares boxes and all of the ancillaries. Wish now that I should have taken the opportunity to buy the large stock of NOS chorehorse parts that Bill D. had back in the day.

[David Dunlop]

I just finished reviewing some wartime RAF documentation on Charging Sets they used and was surprised to discover a model identical externally to the wartime British Army model already included in this thread. The difference, however, was in the details.

Unlike the wartime army sets that produced 15 Volts DC output at 300 Watts, this one produced an output of 32 Volts DC and a Watt rating across two models of either 325, or 350 Watts. I wonder how many of those survived and who the manufacturers were during the war.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Probably still BSA, like the Army version. The generator is a 4-pole one, so conversion from 15 to 30 volts is simply a matter of connecting the brush sets in series rather than parallel. The power output is "nominal" anyway, so the Air Ministry rating may just be normal variation. (The RAF would want to charge 24 volt batteries later in the war as aircraft radios went from 12 to 24 volts to allow for more power (and engines required more torque to turn them over) without having to rewire the system with thicker cable.)

(I can't remember what the "Trolley Acc" used for aircraft starting had as a generator - something by Arthur Lyon & Co. (ALCO) with a 129cc JAP[1] petrol engine - that used the JAP 3 engine and was rated at 360 watts (20 volts at 18 amps). The earlier (JAP 2A) version was similar as far as I know.)

Chris.
[1] J.A.Prestwich Industries.

[rob love]

i rmember a small mountain of them at Rose's surplus in Saskatoon in the mid to late 80s thru to the mid 90s. They were part of the C42 radio EIS, and all were the 24V conversions. The used ones were $75, and the new in the crate with the lend lease decals were $125 or $150....cant remember which.

They still show up in the Manitoba/Saskatchewan market. I have a few and have never paid more than $100 for one. Just as often they are given for free.

[Mike K]

Is there any documentation around , on when BSA began manufacturing the chorehorse ?

The surviving BSA built examples seem to be dated from the early 1950s.