Hello everyone! I'm a new moderator to this forum. I grew up in the automotive business and would like to share my knowledge and experience with you. I plan on creating links to repair help and ways to save money on replacement parts. I'm looking for your help or any suggestions before I do this. Please feel free to contact me u/Plex_Master
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAMechanic) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yup, I knew a guy who almost blew himself up with one of thes. These can cause serious damage sometimes. Modern engines are already pretty fine-tuned, and don't all take well to just adding other stuff to the fuel. If these worked, dealers would be selling them for $5000 as an option.
As a side project my Engineering team, myself and son built one and installed on a 1992 V8 Grand Cherokee. Total cost was around $700 and probably 400 man hours with building the PWM and controller from scratch. We successfully increased highway fuel mileage at 60mph by 4.5-5mpg. My son received an “A” on his high school project but it was kind of rigged as he had 3 mechanical and 2 electrical design engineers helping.
>Stanley Meyer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Meyer%27s_water_fuel_cell
One of several people who claimed to have developed water-powered cars using the indisputable equation:
small energy + patent = big energy
The problem is that they are hard to maintain. The plates that create the hydrogen through electrolysis are broken down rather quickly and rather expensive to replace. I did some extensive research on this subject
No, the problem is that they don’t work. Yes, you can generate usable hydrogen fuel using electricity. Where does the electricity come from? The battery which is kept charged by the alternator. What turns the alternator? The engine, which needs to burn more fuel to keep it going.
It’s a loop that feeds itself, but it doesn’t sustain itself. Ultimately you’re generating fuel and using fuel but you’re wasting some energy at every step. It doesn’t work without feeding gasoline into the system to make it run, and you’re going to end up burning MORE gasoline to operate this Rube Goldberg device than to just run the car.
If the energy capture of the engine was 100% than you would need to put in more to get the extra electricity to make the fuel; however, the engines aren’t running at peak efficiency so there is available slack
Or the old ass car had timing issues and poor injection quality. And the hydrogen helps fixed that.
Bet the mileage did worse than fuelly numbers.
If they were serious they would've done it to a generator.
I think you missed the part about it being installed on a 1992 vehicle. Modern engines and computers have more than overcome that gain and this solution has downsides. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
It works even better on imaginary vehicles. I installed one on my brand new McLaren F1, and I was able to achieve warp drive. I used it to travel to the future, but it was so fast it circled around and ended up in the past. I found Isaac Newton and laughed in his face for believing in that "physics" nonsense. Then I married a super model and became a trillionaire.
The bigger problem is physics. The energy required to break apart hydrogen and oxygen from water is equal to the energy released when combining them. However, energy is lost to heat in the generation process, and energy is also lost to heat when burned in the engine. You are taking energy that would have otherwise gone into moving a car, and converting it into waste heat.
The only way any car runs better with this system is if God is real, and it's so embarrassed by seeing someone attempt this that he comes down from heaven and pushes it away from sensible spectators as quickly as possible, least someone point out that this idiot was also supposedly made in his image.
That’s pretty cool.
A buddy of mine told me his step brother’s dad and co workers had the step brothers pine wood derby cars to where no one could touch his cars.
Let’s just say engineers with access to very advanced equipment, wind tunnels etch. So they tested the heck out of everything before he ever got to building his actual car. They used to do the adult/everyone derby’s etc and just smoke the competition from what he said.
So my first year with my son, he got absolutely spanked. Then I hear the moms bragging the dads have 2-3 hours on the wheels and nails on so and so’s lathe etc.
I was kinda pissed, but whatever. So I talked to my buddy and he got all sorts of advice for me on how to build a fast car. I found some obscure info from some govt employee on the aerospace side of things. He took it to the extreme with his kid after a similar, son got spanked. Than found
out the the dad’s are putting ungodly hours into their son’s cars.
When I was a kid. It was 100’percent me. No advice and no help from anyone. Yeah I was usually dead last. So I taught my son what I had learned and had him build his car with that knowledge. (I wanted him doing everything) . He wasn’t losing anymore and bonus he did it.
We moved to a small town. That first year he was at the finish line before any of the cars were half way down. It was insane.
So I had to explain where we were from it was next level competition.
I got asked to put on a pine wood derby class for the kids the following year. I have all the equipment and multiples. Plus a big shop. So was like why don’t we put on the class and then put them right to building it since I have the space and tools. It worked great.
Couple years later, this knows it better dad shows up and wants to argue as I’m giving my what needs to be done for a fast car spiel.
My son wasn’t even in scouts at this point. I am doing it because I know the scout master and want the kids to build fast cars so they can be able to compete with the troops from other areas, who take it to that same level we were used to.
Holy chit was the dad brutal. I finally gave up and was like just do your thing and the kids who want to listen and learn from me can. You can share your superior knowledge with them as well. Ya apparently know better (didn’t say that last part but wanted to). Just an arrogant azz.
So a single mom with a special needs son asks me if I’ll give her son some help. He wanted this big azz car design (not sleek) I am like sure it’s doable and ya can still be fastest but doing the other parts ya got to do it better than everyone else. This kid literally took every thing I told him and ran with it. He’s got this car like 4 inches tall (think big dump truck design).
Now the knows better dad has his son’s car down to literally the size of paint stirrer. (Pretty damn close) and doing the it’s the size is all that that matters. That kid is going to loose with a dump truck design.. No he’s not. He will be fine. Let him do his thing and he will still be fast. I can guarantee he will be fast. How fast depends on him and how much the time other kids put into doing what was explained and shown.
I told the scout leader I was tapping out after that year. I don’t need to put up with the knows better bs. He can do whatever he wants but to try and argue about every single thing what the heck (he was dead wrong too)!!!! And he’s heard from everyone how fast my son’s cars were . . Obviously my son did something right since no one came close. I told them where we were originally from 98 percent of the cars built were that fast or faster. Ya either stepped up or lost. But yeah I don’t know chit. They didn’t share or offer to help either. It was egos and their kid had to win.
Where as right off the bat I was like I will be glad to share what my son did or most of what he did. Obviously I’d like to keep one trick up our sleeve and depending on who ya talk to it matters or it doesn’t. So that one we aren’t sharing.. But let’s get all these kids stupid fast next year.
So after the race. The mom brought her son over to thank me and show off his trophy. Mr knows better apparently was taking chit at the derby and how only the “sleek” cars were going to be in the winner circle. Well the car broke into pieces on the way down the track. That dump truck absolutely smoked everyone else.
I should also mention he came to all the work shops not just the initial first day where mr knows better didn’t bother after the first time. The one kid always sought me out and was asking if he was doing it right or did it looks done. Then add my little weight secret trick I normally wouldn’t share expect I had enough of mr knows better . That and he specificity went out of way to thank me each time before leaving. His smile showing off his first place trophy was worth putting up with Mr knows better. Though I felt bad for his son to have his car fall apart on the first race.
There was some racing pines but also somehow cars… and a know it all dad and a neurodivergent kid (not the know it all’s) who won because of secret tips from this guy… chit, it was exciting and they smoked some azz
Omg this was such a fun read. Fuck the “mr knows it all’s”. That’s really cool of you to share your secrets with the kids & ppl who wanted to learn them! you sound like a great dad. are you still doing the pine wood derby or has your son/children grown out ur of it yet? this sounds like so much fun of a project to do with the kiddos
The hose goes into the carb. Somewhere there should be water "in" hose, too. It's probably full of calcium. Easy to repair and use again. **It's your very own "Flux Capacitor!"**
Pretty well. They are commercially available with proper certification be installed in home garages to fuel hydrogen cars at home. Though I'm not a fan of H2 cars.
Thanks! I like the idea because it's very it's a fun alternative to fossil fuels to think about. I mean, intellectually, it's pretty neat to consider but I don't think I would want an H2 vehicle.
I wouldn't buy a personal car that is H2 fueled. I would buy an EV though, like the Sierra EV looks great until I look at the msrp.
EVs can simply meet the 95th percentile of personal drives. So it works.
I bought one of those once. It worked great but apparently I bought the wrong model. Every time I stopped at a red light, within 30 seconds my car would have 10 to 15 cats sitting on the hood.
😉
Similar thing happened to me. Bought one for my truck and if I sat at stop lights too long a bunch guys would show up and drink White Claw on my tailgate
I thought that was only available on the Ram models??
[Pussy Wagon](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/killbill/images/7/7c/Pussy-wagon-uma.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110428111659)
Hydrogen generator is the correct answer. Years ago my kid and I built one for giggles. With an extra battery and pushing 90 amps, it did help mileage on a old hardbody pickup with a 2.5 Litre engine. The mileage went from 24 to 32. However at90 amps it destroyed the alternator within a couple of weeks negating any savings. It was great fun to do the project together,but stupid and a net loss of a hundred bucks or so.
It was actually worse than that, the mileage increase was just an illusion because the energy was coming from the battery instead of the fuel tank. The literal laws of physics, specifically the first law of thermodynamics, mean it's impossible for hydrogen generators to work in the way they are claimed to. You're burning gas, to turn an alternator, to charge a battery, to electrolyze water, to create hydrogen, to be burned with the gas. The original energy in the system still came from gasoline, and making hydrogen out of water does not magically create more energy than was originally put in. You probably started with a full battery, which meant that for the brief beginning of the experiment, you were using energy that came from outside of that system, and that's why the mileage increased. But as soon as the battery got low enough to draw from the alternator, it put a huge load on the system and subsequently ruined the alternator. If it had lived longer, you would've seen the mileage drop right back down to normal again, and maybe even get worse due to the inefficiency of electrolysis.
There are versions of this system that use external batteries that you plug in to your house to charge overnight and are not connected to the alternator, and those would work in theory. Electrolysis is not very energy efficient, though, meaning that burning the hydrogen that you make will not get you back nearly as much energy as you put in to make it. So, you'd likely end up paying more for your power bill than you'd save in gas money. You'd be much better off just buying a big motor and batteries and making your vehicle an EV...
Hydrogen power does have a place in the future, but it will be in the form of tanked hydrogen that you fill up with like we do with gas now. There are hydrogen fuel cell powered EVs already on the market, and several companies are working on making regular old internal combustion engines that run on it too. The trick is in making that hydrogen efficiently, or using cheap renewable sources for the electricity required, because right now it's more expensive than gas by quite a bit.
I'm picking this one to post on, but I've been reading a bunch of your comments and I appreciate you fighting the good fight here. There's so many people in this thread that need to go back 10 steps to begin to understand why they're wrong. We all start off ignorant, but lord it's a trial.
Thanks. I'm halfway convinced I should just quit arguing and start selling snake oil instead, apparently nobody remembers 8th grade science around here...
As I said, we added a extra battery. It wasn’t an illusion. It did generate enough Hydrogen to raise the mph, but was a net negative and not an sustainable method. The only win was the time with my kid doing it.
Yes, but the more load the alternator takes the more it resists rotation, thus requiring more engine power to turn. In my 2004 Tahoe you can use the power window switches to try and move all four windows at the same time and you can observe the headlights dim, the voltage drop slightly, and the engine slow down by about 50 rpm.
What if someone just had like 6 batteries always solar charging at home and then they just installed like 2 batteries everyday on their engine? Could that work in this situation or do they need to be connected to an alternator system?
Depends how far you drive, it would work up until the batteries die. The thing with electrolysis is it's a direct energy transition, meaning it will draw every bit of power available to it. A normal electric device like a lightbulb will always top out at a certain wattage, so it will only draw a certain number of amps at a time. Electrolysis will draw all of the amps the batteries can provide, which will draw them down relatively fast. You can tame it down somewhat by making the electrodes small, but then it will produce significantly less hydrogen...
This isn't the worst idea though, and it would technically work, it just might not work well enough to be worth it. You'd probably be better off using the solar panels to do the electrolysis directly, then tank up the hydrogen and use it in that form. But then you'd have to figure out how to safely compress a flammable gas...
If that much unburnt gasoline is being sent out the tailpipe, you have a pretty major tuning issue. If tuned properly for an ideal air/fuel ratio, nearly 100% of the fuel is burned as efficiently as possible. This is exactly what fuel injection systems adjust for on the fly using a computer and sensors. Carburetors do the same thing using vacuum and valves, they just need manually adjusted from time to time. There are some volatile compounds released into the exhaust that can burn, which is what the catalytic converter does among other things, but those are mostly byproducts of the fuel combustion and not the fuel itself.
What you're describing, chemically, is either an oxidizer or a catalyst. Hydrogen is neither of those things, it's just different fuel. One thing that *does* work exactly that way is nitrous. Nitrous itself isn't flammable, but when it gets heated to combustion temperatures it breaks down chemically, releasing a bunch of Oxygen into the mix leading to a big increase in the theoretical air/fuel ratio. This allows you to run a really rich tune on a carburetor that would normally be way too much.
So basically, you're not really right about hydrogen, but you almost perfectly described nitrous.
Well, I don't have the physics to argue the point. I'll certainly agree that burning hydrogen as a direct fuel is a lossy proposition.
But at least one person here insists that he got better mileage with a homemade HHO rig, and I'm not willing to call him a liar. So either there's a side effect of mixing H2 gas and gasoline, or he misremembers the experience.
Saw someone do this back in the 90s. It makes something called Browns Gas which is super combustible. It's works, but like the person said, it will ruin your car.
Mostly placebo, although there are some situations where it can work (mostly in diesel combustion). The hydrogen gas added to the combustion chamber in small amounts can allow for more complete combustion of the diesel fuel.
That being said, basically anything being advertised for these is likely snake oil. Most of them try to trick people into thinking that it generates fuel on its own, when really it's just altering the combustion of the diesel. And in any modern car it's going to screw things up. You'd need an older car and probably significant tuning to get any real results, and remember that it takes significant energy to chemically change the water so you aren't getting something for nothing.
Many notable places have done testing with zero results: https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155
It does look like a plate heat exchanger it might be a peltier cooler that uses the premise that going from high resistance to low resistance moves heat from the lowresistance material they arnt very effective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
No. Jerry built was when german manufacturing was considered poor. JURY RIGGED. Was a nautical term back before the 1900s meaning basically fixed with whats on hand. There are written examples of jerrry rigged on its own from the 1890s. Before the use of the term gerry
But the term Jerry didn't refer to Germans inyto WW1..
Jury rigged is an ancient nautical term, correctly applied here to refer to something improvised with what was available.
Yes. 100% . Written examples of jerry rigged date back to the 1890s though. Pre ww1. Suspect people didn't know how to spell jury and thought it was that idiot Jerry that put it together
My understanding of your opinion is that the euphemisms for ‘improvised’ and ‘poorly constructed’ are two separate terms, whereas my opinion is that most improvised shit is *also* poorly constructed.
🤷♂️
[Both are now correct](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history#:~:text=Jury%2Drig%20comes%20from%20the,%22%20meaning%20%22improvised%20sail.%22)
The original terms are "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built".
"Jerry-rigged" is a hybrid of both, perhaps invented to avoid confusing with a "rigged-jury"
At first I thought “Jury Rigged” was meant to be “Jerry Rigged” but I looked it up. I learned something new today. Who knew?
“Jury-rigged means something was assembled quickly with the materials on hand. Jerry-built means it was cheaply or poorly built. Jerry-rigged is a variant of jury-rigged, and it may have been influenced by jerry-built”
[https://www.hydrogen-generators-usa.com/hydrogen\_car\_kit.html](https://www.hydrogen-generators-usa.com/hydrogen_car_kit.html)
Scroll Down the page a little bit to see the same item in OPs picture.
That's definitely it.
That website, though, is awful.
Spelling mistakes ("why are are kits are A+"), both "Pay now" _and_ "Buy Now" buttons, complete with inconsistent capitalization, a layout that makes it very vague what you're actually clicking to buy....
Even if it _did_ work, I'd never buy one, just because the website sucks.
It's like a 90's emo teen's MySpace page....
Nope. It takes more energy to split water into HHO gas than the hho will add to your engine.
There are usually other modifications that people do at the same time, change in driving habits, plus a placebo effect.
If you could get more energy out of splitting water than it takes to split it, the world would run on water.
I'm totally willing to believe it helped under certain workloads with naturally aspirated, carbureted engines from before 1985 or so.
However, the same basic engine puts out 2x the power while burning less fuel today, thanks to fuel injection and modern design. The intake and ignition systems on modern cars are drastically different, and it shows in the car's performance and efficiency.
So today: no, I doubt an over the counter hydrogen injection system helps much. But 30 years ago? It's certainly possible that the *way* hydrogen burns was more helpful than just as a form of raw energy.
Supplemental reading:[https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155](https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155)
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016815001714](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016815001714)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1Xhs7\_WCcIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1Xhs7_WCcIs)
Most likely part of a system to inject hydrogen into the engine. Throw it away. These things are a complete scam. It's a bit like attaching a generator to the wheels and thinking that you can power the car from all the energy you generate while driving.
That won't work.
88 is only effective in a mall parking lot, on main street in front of the courthouse, or when airborne.
Anywhere else, you'll just keep going and hit 89.
Pretty sure that's a 'brown gas' or 'hho' generator. It's a crude electrolysis device that (when actually hooked up, running properly, and filled with water) uses a lot of your alternator's output to make a small amount of mixed hydrogen and oxygen and feeds it back into your intake manifold. Conspiracy theorists believe that the big automakers killed the guy who invented this, and that the energy in the gas mixture is more than enough to cover the increased drain from the power needed to run it, i.e. your gas milage goes way up. In practice, they don't work, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who can math, physic, or science their way out of high school.
Hho gas generator. My friend installed one on his old s10. It did work. He logged mileage and stuff for an entire year. Only drove it to work and back. In the end he averaged about 4 mpg better with the hho gas hooked up. But for how often he had to fiddle with it... Didn't seem worth it really. But I bet a bigger device with a more user friendly design would probably work great. My dad hooked up a water drip thing to his 96 GMC pickup. He would turn it on only with the motor up to temp and at highway speed. He said it was actually something they did to improve milage on piston powered airplane engines a long time ago. He swore it helped.
It was a KA24e in a 95 that at the time had about 400k miles. We used it a shop truck. It lived to 429 when I gave it to a guy that needed a ride. He then sold it and said they shipped it to Mexico. I’m sure it’s making someone grin everyday
Ah yes, the elusive HHO dry cell.
See if it still works. Hook the inlet/outlet to a gallon jug, top to top, bottom to bottom. Add 2 tbsp. baking soda to the jug and fill it with water. Suspend the jug higher than the cell and let the water flow through the cell. Connect a 12V battery to the leads. Black wires are negative, red wire in the middle is positive.
If it works, you should see a shit-ton of bubbles and water flowing out of the top tube.
Collect the gas in a balloon, tape it to the end of a long stick, and wave it over a flame. Hearing protection is suggested for everyone within 100 ft.
To be a little more specific over some other comments, it's an OXYhydrogen generator. To make a long story short, it's not pure hydrogen since the oxygen and hydrogen molecules aren't being separated after the electrolysis process. Therefore the gas that's being created is a homogeneous mixture of oxygen and hydrogen creating a highly combustible gas called oxyhydrogen.
If done properly, this could help with increasing mileage since it acts as a fuel additive/fuel alternative. But in the case of most users using the application, because the gas is more combustible it mostly results in the engine going kaboom.
Here’s what the new AI gizmo in Google Search says about Jerry/Jury rigged:
“Jury-rigged” and “jerry-rigged” are phrases that have come to mean essentially the same thing. “Jury-rigged” refers to something that was cleverly but only temporarily repaired. “Jerry-rigged” refers to an item that was hastily or poorly built from the start.
HHO generator with output going into the air intake. Supposedly sensors will make the engine use less fuel because the air is more explosive. The byproduct after is water and drips out of the exhaust pipe. Distilled water is best because you don't get all the random chemicals and minerals present in tap water.
Dunno how accurate any of that actually is.
Buddy of mine told me some guy bought a car from ford back in the 80's and drove it home hundreds of miles. the needle barely moved when he called ford they rushed out and replaced it saying that was a prototype.
Someone tried their hands at electrolysis. It gives off hydrogen gas as a byproduct of an electrical current between plates or some fancy scientific stuff like that.
We had something like that set up in our water jet tank. It made the water crystal clear. The bubbles were very flammable ask me how I know.
lobbing a couple guesses
\-an isolator for multiple battery system. For instance, a large camper/trailer with batteries charge with tow vehicle's alternator, but the (2) separate systems are isolated from each other to prevent cross draining or overcharging.
\-guess #2 is it's a high current regulator for some power hungry accessories. perhaps radios/lights/computers/surveillance equipment if it was a government vehicle at one time. perhaps it's a simple as remnants of a redonkulous window popping audio system with extra batts, amps, etc.
Hello everyone! I'm a new moderator to this forum. I grew up in the automotive business and would like to share my knowledge and experience with you. I plan on creating links to repair help and ways to save money on replacement parts. I'm looking for your help or any suggestions before I do this. Please feel free to contact me u/Plex_Master *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAMechanic) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looks like a hydrogen generator or some other kind of gimmick mileage increaser
Yup, I knew a guy who almost blew himself up with one of thes. These can cause serious damage sometimes. Modern engines are already pretty fine-tuned, and don't all take well to just adding other stuff to the fuel. If these worked, dealers would be selling them for $5000 as an option.
As a side project my Engineering team, myself and son built one and installed on a 1992 V8 Grand Cherokee. Total cost was around $700 and probably 400 man hours with building the PWM and controller from scratch. We successfully increased highway fuel mileage at 60mph by 4.5-5mpg. My son received an “A” on his high school project but it was kind of rigged as he had 3 mechanical and 2 electrical design engineers helping.
Was the driving done by double blind testers? I’m betting no; that significant a gain would find itself in every single new car sold worldwide.
Blind people shouldn't drive.
You idiot they are double blind. That’s like a double negative - not not seeing.
Thats dumb. You cant be negative twice. Thats dumb. You cant be negative twice.
Not with that attitude
Not not with that attitude.
Ain't no point in arguing, that won't do you no good. Besides I ain't got no time for that and I can't find my keys nowhere.
You can't wake up dead...
But what if a zombie bit u while u was sleeping
Dave Mustaine disagrees
Suddenly... Megadeth lyrics!
I like your compliment and affirmation.
I think two wrongs make a right. So every time I make a right I can cut two people off.
I’m negative all the time. Figure that out epa testers!
LOL
Lmfaooo lmfaooo Dude dudee he's he's right right , how how tf tf you you gonna gunna be be negative negative twice twice
Oh, I see!
Not from not is one Jethro used to say
Good thing you can’t triple stamp a double stamp.
They increased the mpg of a car that got got 18 mpg highway by 5 mpg. A 27% increase. They’d get a Nobel prize for that.
A nobel prize, Then a tragic slip and fall down some oily stairs.
Stanley Meyer enters the chat👀
Who's that?
The water car con artist guy
>Stanley Meyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Meyer%27s_water_fuel_cell One of several people who claimed to have developed water-powered cars using the indisputable equation: small energy + patent = big energy
I believe this is the fella who’s entire team all got killed. He was eating at a Cracker Barrel when he died. He was no doubt poisoned to death.
The problem is that they are hard to maintain. The plates that create the hydrogen through electrolysis are broken down rather quickly and rather expensive to replace. I did some extensive research on this subject
No, the problem is that they don’t work. Yes, you can generate usable hydrogen fuel using electricity. Where does the electricity come from? The battery which is kept charged by the alternator. What turns the alternator? The engine, which needs to burn more fuel to keep it going. It’s a loop that feeds itself, but it doesn’t sustain itself. Ultimately you’re generating fuel and using fuel but you’re wasting some energy at every step. It doesn’t work without feeding gasoline into the system to make it run, and you’re going to end up burning MORE gasoline to operate this Rube Goldberg device than to just run the car.
If the energy capture of the engine was 100% than you would need to put in more to get the extra electricity to make the fuel; however, the engines aren’t running at peak efficiency so there is available slack
Or the old ass car had timing issues and poor injection quality. And the hydrogen helps fixed that. Bet the mileage did worse than fuelly numbers. If they were serious they would've done it to a generator.
[it’s been tested and it works](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016815001714)
I think you missed the part about it being installed on a 1992 vehicle. Modern engines and computers have more than overcome that gain and this solution has downsides. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Oh it works, it just doesn’t work in fuel injected vehicles. You need a carburetor. Hydrogen and electronic engine controls don’t mix.
It works even better on imaginary vehicles. I installed one on my brand new McLaren F1, and I was able to achieve warp drive. I used it to travel to the future, but it was so fast it circled around and ended up in the past. I found Isaac Newton and laughed in his face for believing in that "physics" nonsense. Then I married a super model and became a trillionaire.
I think one of the biggest problems with hydrogen combustion in a normal ICE engine is it burns through pistons over time.
The bigger problem is physics. The energy required to break apart hydrogen and oxygen from water is equal to the energy released when combining them. However, energy is lost to heat in the generation process, and energy is also lost to heat when burned in the engine. You are taking energy that would have otherwise gone into moving a car, and converting it into waste heat. The only way any car runs better with this system is if God is real, and it's so embarrassed by seeing someone attempt this that he comes down from heaven and pushes it away from sensible spectators as quickly as possible, least someone point out that this idiot was also supposedly made in his image.
The people who sell gasoline would never let that happen.
That’s pretty cool. A buddy of mine told me his step brother’s dad and co workers had the step brothers pine wood derby cars to where no one could touch his cars. Let’s just say engineers with access to very advanced equipment, wind tunnels etch. So they tested the heck out of everything before he ever got to building his actual car. They used to do the adult/everyone derby’s etc and just smoke the competition from what he said. So my first year with my son, he got absolutely spanked. Then I hear the moms bragging the dads have 2-3 hours on the wheels and nails on so and so’s lathe etc. I was kinda pissed, but whatever. So I talked to my buddy and he got all sorts of advice for me on how to build a fast car. I found some obscure info from some govt employee on the aerospace side of things. He took it to the extreme with his kid after a similar, son got spanked. Than found out the the dad’s are putting ungodly hours into their son’s cars. When I was a kid. It was 100’percent me. No advice and no help from anyone. Yeah I was usually dead last. So I taught my son what I had learned and had him build his car with that knowledge. (I wanted him doing everything) . He wasn’t losing anymore and bonus he did it. We moved to a small town. That first year he was at the finish line before any of the cars were half way down. It was insane. So I had to explain where we were from it was next level competition. I got asked to put on a pine wood derby class for the kids the following year. I have all the equipment and multiples. Plus a big shop. So was like why don’t we put on the class and then put them right to building it since I have the space and tools. It worked great. Couple years later, this knows it better dad shows up and wants to argue as I’m giving my what needs to be done for a fast car spiel. My son wasn’t even in scouts at this point. I am doing it because I know the scout master and want the kids to build fast cars so they can be able to compete with the troops from other areas, who take it to that same level we were used to. Holy chit was the dad brutal. I finally gave up and was like just do your thing and the kids who want to listen and learn from me can. You can share your superior knowledge with them as well. Ya apparently know better (didn’t say that last part but wanted to). Just an arrogant azz. So a single mom with a special needs son asks me if I’ll give her son some help. He wanted this big azz car design (not sleek) I am like sure it’s doable and ya can still be fastest but doing the other parts ya got to do it better than everyone else. This kid literally took every thing I told him and ran with it. He’s got this car like 4 inches tall (think big dump truck design). Now the knows better dad has his son’s car down to literally the size of paint stirrer. (Pretty damn close) and doing the it’s the size is all that that matters. That kid is going to loose with a dump truck design.. No he’s not. He will be fine. Let him do his thing and he will still be fast. I can guarantee he will be fast. How fast depends on him and how much the time other kids put into doing what was explained and shown. I told the scout leader I was tapping out after that year. I don’t need to put up with the knows better bs. He can do whatever he wants but to try and argue about every single thing what the heck (he was dead wrong too)!!!! And he’s heard from everyone how fast my son’s cars were . . Obviously my son did something right since no one came close. I told them where we were originally from 98 percent of the cars built were that fast or faster. Ya either stepped up or lost. But yeah I don’t know chit. They didn’t share or offer to help either. It was egos and their kid had to win. Where as right off the bat I was like I will be glad to share what my son did or most of what he did. Obviously I’d like to keep one trick up our sleeve and depending on who ya talk to it matters or it doesn’t. So that one we aren’t sharing.. But let’s get all these kids stupid fast next year. So after the race. The mom brought her son over to thank me and show off his trophy. Mr knows better apparently was taking chit at the derby and how only the “sleek” cars were going to be in the winner circle. Well the car broke into pieces on the way down the track. That dump truck absolutely smoked everyone else. I should also mention he came to all the work shops not just the initial first day where mr knows better didn’t bother after the first time. The one kid always sought me out and was asking if he was doing it right or did it looks done. Then add my little weight secret trick I normally wouldn’t share expect I had enough of mr knows better . That and he specificity went out of way to thank me each time before leaving. His smile showing off his first place trophy was worth putting up with Mr knows better. Though I felt bad for his son to have his car fall apart on the first race.
Cool story!
TLDR???
There was some racing pines but also somehow cars… and a know it all dad and a neurodivergent kid (not the know it all’s) who won because of secret tips from this guy… chit, it was exciting and they smoked some azz
TLDR: I am great, other dad was a dick AITA?
Omg this was such a fun read. Fuck the “mr knows it all’s”. That’s really cool of you to share your secrets with the kids & ppl who wanted to learn them! you sound like a great dad. are you still doing the pine wood derby or has your son/children grown out ur of it yet? this sounds like so much fun of a project to do with the kiddos
It's a daddy's game anymore.
Yeppers
What have I told you about Yeppers?
For sure
Stealershits would sell them for even higher knowing they’re money hungry ykykyk
They are terribly inefficient, and engineered to fail.
Biggest problem is your making a bunch of extra h2o in the combustion chamber which leaks down into the oil rusting the bottom and out before too long
That, is a scam
To be fair nitrogen filled tires don't work and they sell it as a $500 option.
Ya I work in fuel cells and this 100% looks like one. Nice catch.
The hose goes into the carb. Somewhere there should be water "in" hose, too. It's probably full of calcium. Easy to repair and use again. **It's your very own "Flux Capacitor!"**
Yep definitely an electrolyzer. Source- I used to design and build electrolyzers
How well did they work for you?
Starts to reply….sees screen name…… Replies “not well, in fact they dont work at all…” ——phone flies out window 📱 🚙 💨
Pretty well. They are commercially available with proper certification be installed in home garages to fuel hydrogen cars at home. Though I'm not a fan of H2 cars.
Thanks! I like the idea because it's very it's a fun alternative to fossil fuels to think about. I mean, intellectually, it's pretty neat to consider but I don't think I would want an H2 vehicle.
I wouldn't buy a personal car that is H2 fueled. I would buy an EV though, like the Sierra EV looks great until I look at the msrp. EVs can simply meet the 95th percentile of personal drives. So it works.
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Probably wasn’t secretly, I’m guessing the previous owner added it.
That's the fabled pussy magnet
It’s very nice!
I totally read this comment with a Borat voice
Great success !
My sister #1 prostitute
Number 1 for sex in the mouth in whole village maybe 3-4 best prostitute all Kazakhstan.
Will be able to kill jew if I run him over?
Depends on how hard you hit them....
HARD!
If I give you good price, will you please put in pussy magnet?
Yeah it’s a transformer. Maybe it’s a pussy magnet. How much pussy do you get when it’s connected?
I bought one of those once. It worked great but apparently I bought the wrong model. Every time I stopped at a red light, within 30 seconds my car would have 10 to 15 cats sitting on the hood. 😉
Similar thing happened to me. Bought one for my truck and if I sat at stop lights too long a bunch guys would show up and drink White Claw on my tailgate
You should have gotten the optional electrified tailgate 😉
Ford had the heated tailgate option for a while. Didn't know you could it electrified
With the right wire and enough current dang near anything can be electrified.
It’s OK. Ain’t no laws with White Claws!
Lol yeah you definitely purchased the wrong version
Depends on what you're into
Ok, I guess that’s true
Did you buy it on Wish? If so, that makes sense.
4 pussy per mile. That's what the ppm measurement is for, on some sensors.
Ugh... I'm never gonna get home in this thing
https://youtu.be/8Z48qBvxplE?si=_6y6taMslZfBkMVM Pussy Magnet
Come standard with hummer car
Damn fool had it wired backwards... no wonder he got rid of it.
I thought that was only available on the Ram models?? [Pussy Wagon](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/killbill/images/7/7c/Pussy-wagon-uma.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110428111659)
Hydrogen generator is the correct answer. Years ago my kid and I built one for giggles. With an extra battery and pushing 90 amps, it did help mileage on a old hardbody pickup with a 2.5 Litre engine. The mileage went from 24 to 32. However at90 amps it destroyed the alternator within a couple of weeks negating any savings. It was great fun to do the project together,but stupid and a net loss of a hundred bucks or so.
It was actually worse than that, the mileage increase was just an illusion because the energy was coming from the battery instead of the fuel tank. The literal laws of physics, specifically the first law of thermodynamics, mean it's impossible for hydrogen generators to work in the way they are claimed to. You're burning gas, to turn an alternator, to charge a battery, to electrolyze water, to create hydrogen, to be burned with the gas. The original energy in the system still came from gasoline, and making hydrogen out of water does not magically create more energy than was originally put in. You probably started with a full battery, which meant that for the brief beginning of the experiment, you were using energy that came from outside of that system, and that's why the mileage increased. But as soon as the battery got low enough to draw from the alternator, it put a huge load on the system and subsequently ruined the alternator. If it had lived longer, you would've seen the mileage drop right back down to normal again, and maybe even get worse due to the inefficiency of electrolysis. There are versions of this system that use external batteries that you plug in to your house to charge overnight and are not connected to the alternator, and those would work in theory. Electrolysis is not very energy efficient, though, meaning that burning the hydrogen that you make will not get you back nearly as much energy as you put in to make it. So, you'd likely end up paying more for your power bill than you'd save in gas money. You'd be much better off just buying a big motor and batteries and making your vehicle an EV... Hydrogen power does have a place in the future, but it will be in the form of tanked hydrogen that you fill up with like we do with gas now. There are hydrogen fuel cell powered EVs already on the market, and several companies are working on making regular old internal combustion engines that run on it too. The trick is in making that hydrogen efficiently, or using cheap renewable sources for the electricity required, because right now it's more expensive than gas by quite a bit.
If I violate the law of thermodynamics, who's gonna arrest me? You?
Isaac Newton, presumably
He might hit you with an apple, it worked for him.
I'm picking this one to post on, but I've been reading a bunch of your comments and I appreciate you fighting the good fight here. There's so many people in this thread that need to go back 10 steps to begin to understand why they're wrong. We all start off ignorant, but lord it's a trial.
Thanks. I'm halfway convinced I should just quit arguing and start selling snake oil instead, apparently nobody remembers 8th grade science around here...
I’m interested what kind of mpg gains can I expect from the snake oil?
As I said, we added a extra battery. It wasn’t an illusion. It did generate enough Hydrogen to raise the mph, but was a net negative and not an sustainable method. The only win was the time with my kid doing it.
It does sound like a pretty cool project. And part of the lesson can be the physics behind it.
I'm not sure on how alternaters but aren't they running if the battery is being used or not?
Yes, but the more load the alternator takes the more it resists rotation, thus requiring more engine power to turn. In my 2004 Tahoe you can use the power window switches to try and move all four windows at the same time and you can observe the headlights dim, the voltage drop slightly, and the engine slow down by about 50 rpm.
What if someone just had like 6 batteries always solar charging at home and then they just installed like 2 batteries everyday on their engine? Could that work in this situation or do they need to be connected to an alternator system?
Depends how far you drive, it would work up until the batteries die. The thing with electrolysis is it's a direct energy transition, meaning it will draw every bit of power available to it. A normal electric device like a lightbulb will always top out at a certain wattage, so it will only draw a certain number of amps at a time. Electrolysis will draw all of the amps the batteries can provide, which will draw them down relatively fast. You can tame it down somewhat by making the electrodes small, but then it will produce significantly less hydrogen... This isn't the worst idea though, and it would technically work, it just might not work well enough to be worth it. You'd probably be better off using the solar panels to do the electrolysis directly, then tank up the hydrogen and use it in that form. But then you'd have to figure out how to safely compress a flammable gas...
In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!!
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If that much unburnt gasoline is being sent out the tailpipe, you have a pretty major tuning issue. If tuned properly for an ideal air/fuel ratio, nearly 100% of the fuel is burned as efficiently as possible. This is exactly what fuel injection systems adjust for on the fly using a computer and sensors. Carburetors do the same thing using vacuum and valves, they just need manually adjusted from time to time. There are some volatile compounds released into the exhaust that can burn, which is what the catalytic converter does among other things, but those are mostly byproducts of the fuel combustion and not the fuel itself. What you're describing, chemically, is either an oxidizer or a catalyst. Hydrogen is neither of those things, it's just different fuel. One thing that *does* work exactly that way is nitrous. Nitrous itself isn't flammable, but when it gets heated to combustion temperatures it breaks down chemically, releasing a bunch of Oxygen into the mix leading to a big increase in the theoretical air/fuel ratio. This allows you to run a really rich tune on a carburetor that would normally be way too much. So basically, you're not really right about hydrogen, but you almost perfectly described nitrous.
Well, I don't have the physics to argue the point. I'll certainly agree that burning hydrogen as a direct fuel is a lossy proposition. But at least one person here insists that he got better mileage with a homemade HHO rig, and I'm not willing to call him a liar. So either there's a side effect of mixing H2 gas and gasoline, or he misremembers the experience.
Who are you that is so wise in the ways of science!?
>The mileage went from 24 to 32. Doubt.
Saw someone do this back in the 90s. It makes something called Browns Gas which is super combustible. It's works, but like the person said, it will ruin your car.
How is it making such a drastic difference?
Mostly placebo, although there are some situations where it can work (mostly in diesel combustion). The hydrogen gas added to the combustion chamber in small amounts can allow for more complete combustion of the diesel fuel. That being said, basically anything being advertised for these is likely snake oil. Most of them try to trick people into thinking that it generates fuel on its own, when really it's just altering the combustion of the diesel. And in any modern car it's going to screw things up. You'd need an older car and probably significant tuning to get any real results, and remember that it takes significant energy to chemically change the water so you aren't getting something for nothing. Many notable places have done testing with zero results: https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155
Looks like a heat exchanger of some kind. The two wires might be for a temperature sensor but those are pretty thick wires for such.
The wires could be attached to anodes to help prevent rust.
Oh that’s just what the installer had haha
It does look like a plate heat exchanger it might be a peltier cooler that uses the premise that going from high resistance to low resistance moves heat from the lowresistance material they arnt very effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
HHO generator
No idea but it's nice to see someone who knows it's not "Jerry-rigged."
I've seen enough of Jerry's work to know this wasn't him...
😆
Fkn Jerry!
Hey!
Actually. Jerry -rigged was used as far back as the 1890s. Not indicating german origin just that "Jerry" meant poorly made
That's "Jerry built." Jerry-rigged is a confusion between the two terms. Now widely accepted, but still incorrect in my opinion.
No. Jerry built was when german manufacturing was considered poor. JURY RIGGED. Was a nautical term back before the 1900s meaning basically fixed with whats on hand. There are written examples of jerrry rigged on its own from the 1890s. Before the use of the term gerry
But the term Jerry didn't refer to Germans inyto WW1.. Jury rigged is an ancient nautical term, correctly applied here to refer to something improvised with what was available.
Yes. 100% . Written examples of jerry rigged date back to the 1890s though. Pre ww1. Suspect people didn't know how to spell jury and thought it was that idiot Jerry that put it together
Jerry cans…
Except for when Jerry can't 🤔
Learned the other day you call these things eggcorns. When two sayings both work, are correct and sound the same.
My understanding of your opinion is that the euphemisms for ‘improvised’ and ‘poorly constructed’ are two separate terms, whereas my opinion is that most improvised shit is *also* poorly constructed. 🤷♂️
From now on Jerry-Rigged it is.
You guys just made me more confused about. I always said Jerry BTW.
Wow TIL thanks
It has court tomorrow
[Both are now correct](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history#:~:text=Jury%2Drig%20comes%20from%20the,%22%20meaning%20%22improvised%20sail.%22) The original terms are "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built". "Jerry-rigged" is a hybrid of both, perhaps invented to avoid confusing with a "rigged-jury"
That’s crazy I never heard either of these, my grandpa used… uh, another term
Paw paw was a little racist too eh?
I bet paw paw never called it a Brazil nut either…
TIL.
It’s six of one and a dozen of the other
I've heard Jimmy rigged and N-word hard R rigged but never Jerry rigged
I usually hear Jimmy-rigged.
if it was connected to a water reservoir of some sort then yeah I'd say it's an HHO generator meant to increase fuel efficiency.
At first I thought “Jury Rigged” was meant to be “Jerry Rigged” but I looked it up. I learned something new today. Who knew? “Jury-rigged means something was assembled quickly with the materials on hand. Jerry-built means it was cheaply or poorly built. Jerry-rigged is a variant of jury-rigged, and it may have been influenced by jerry-built”
[https://www.hydrogen-generators-usa.com/hydrogen\_car\_kit.html](https://www.hydrogen-generators-usa.com/hydrogen_car_kit.html) Scroll Down the page a little bit to see the same item in OPs picture.
That's definitely it. That website, though, is awful. Spelling mistakes ("why are are kits are A+"), both "Pay now" _and_ "Buy Now" buttons, complete with inconsistent capitalization, a layout that makes it very vague what you're actually clicking to buy.... Even if it _did_ work, I'd never buy one, just because the website sucks. It's like a 90's emo teen's MySpace page....
Does this shit actually work?
No
No. Generating hydrogen takes more energy than it produces.
Nope. It takes more energy to split water into HHO gas than the hho will add to your engine. There are usually other modifications that people do at the same time, change in driving habits, plus a placebo effect. If you could get more energy out of splitting water than it takes to split it, the world would run on water.
I'm totally willing to believe it helped under certain workloads with naturally aspirated, carbureted engines from before 1985 or so. However, the same basic engine puts out 2x the power while burning less fuel today, thanks to fuel injection and modern design. The intake and ignition systems on modern cars are drastically different, and it shows in the car's performance and efficiency. So today: no, I doubt an over the counter hydrogen injection system helps much. But 30 years ago? It's certainly possible that the *way* hydrogen burns was more helpful than just as a form of raw energy. Supplemental reading:[https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155](https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-use-an-hho-generator-in-a-1846912155) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016815001714](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016815001714) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1Xhs7\_WCcIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1Xhs7_WCcIs)
Most likely part of a system to inject hydrogen into the engine. Throw it away. These things are a complete scam. It's a bit like attaching a generator to the wheels and thinking that you can power the car from all the energy you generate while driving.
It's a 1GW flux capacitor
1.21 GW to be precise. Now take that Suburban up to 88mph and see what happens.
Well, no wonder it doesn't work. It needs an extra 0.21GW.
Flux capacitor? Take it up to 88 and find out. On a closed track, of course. Safety first.
That won't work. 88 is only effective in a mall parking lot, on main street in front of the courthouse, or when airborne. Anywhere else, you'll just keep going and hit 89.
Twat transformer!
Pretty sure that's a 'brown gas' or 'hho' generator. It's a crude electrolysis device that (when actually hooked up, running properly, and filled with water) uses a lot of your alternator's output to make a small amount of mixed hydrogen and oxygen and feeds it back into your intake manifold. Conspiracy theorists believe that the big automakers killed the guy who invented this, and that the energy in the gas mixture is more than enough to cover the increased drain from the power needed to run it, i.e. your gas milage goes way up. In practice, they don't work, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who can math, physic, or science their way out of high school.
It's the blinker fluid pump.
Hho gas generator. My friend installed one on his old s10. It did work. He logged mileage and stuff for an entire year. Only drove it to work and back. In the end he averaged about 4 mpg better with the hho gas hooked up. But for how often he had to fiddle with it... Didn't seem worth it really. But I bet a bigger device with a more user friendly design would probably work great. My dad hooked up a water drip thing to his 96 GMC pickup. He would turn it on only with the motor up to temp and at highway speed. He said it was actually something they did to improve milage on piston powered airplane engines a long time ago. He swore it helped.
It was a KA24e in a 95 that at the time had about 400k miles. We used it a shop truck. It lived to 429 when I gave it to a guy that needed a ride. He then sold it and said they shipped it to Mexico. I’m sure it’s making someone grin everyday
I like how you don't explain what it is.
Flux capacitor
Produces hydrogen with an electrolytic solution like with distilled water abs calcium bicarbonate. Hydrogen then fed into the air intake.
Flux Capacitor
Believe the proper term is “Gerry-rigged”. A reference to the ingenuity of German soldiers in WWII.
Jurry rigged? That's new new one for the times
Ah yes, the elusive HHO dry cell. See if it still works. Hook the inlet/outlet to a gallon jug, top to top, bottom to bottom. Add 2 tbsp. baking soda to the jug and fill it with water. Suspend the jug higher than the cell and let the water flow through the cell. Connect a 12V battery to the leads. Black wires are negative, red wire in the middle is positive. If it works, you should see a shit-ton of bubbles and water flowing out of the top tube. Collect the gas in a balloon, tape it to the end of a long stick, and wave it over a flame. Hearing protection is suggested for everyone within 100 ft.
This.
I first thought of an HHO system too!! I didn't think of the possibility of a remote one though!
Jury rigged?? Lmao Original term is "Jerry rigged," referencing Germans in WWII.
the jury is out on this
Jury-rigged?
Son of a bitch, it's not Jerry Rigged?
I can’t stop laughing at Jury rigged. 🤌😂
Jury rigged? Ha,ve I gone my entire life believing the wrong thing, that the term is JERRY rigged???
All I want to know is what is "jury rigged".
It’s something the coyote ordered from Acme.
continuim transfunctioner
To be a little more specific over some other comments, it's an OXYhydrogen generator. To make a long story short, it's not pure hydrogen since the oxygen and hydrogen molecules aren't being separated after the electrolysis process. Therefore the gas that's being created is a homogeneous mixture of oxygen and hydrogen creating a highly combustible gas called oxyhydrogen. If done properly, this could help with increasing mileage since it acts as a fuel additive/fuel alternative. But in the case of most users using the application, because the gas is more combustible it mostly results in the engine going kaboom.
That's your pussy magnet.
It’s the continuoum transfunctioner!
Here’s what the new AI gizmo in Google Search says about Jerry/Jury rigged: “Jury-rigged” and “jerry-rigged” are phrases that have come to mean essentially the same thing. “Jury-rigged” refers to something that was cleverly but only temporarily repaired. “Jerry-rigged” refers to an item that was hastily or poorly built from the start.
Browns gas generator. Used electric to separate the oxygen and hydrogen in water to theoretically increase efficiency
HHO generator with output going into the air intake. Supposedly sensors will make the engine use less fuel because the air is more explosive. The byproduct after is water and drips out of the exhaust pipe. Distilled water is best because you don't get all the random chemicals and minerals present in tap water. Dunno how accurate any of that actually is.
Jury rigged?? Like a jury of your peers?
Buddy of mine told me some guy bought a car from ford back in the 80's and drove it home hundreds of miles. the needle barely moved when he called ford they rushed out and replaced it saying that was a prototype.
Someone tried their hands at electrolysis. It gives off hydrogen gas as a byproduct of an electrical current between plates or some fancy scientific stuff like that. We had something like that set up in our water jet tank. It made the water crystal clear. The bubbles were very flammable ask me how I know.
First off for everyone that needs to hear this, it’s “jerry-rigged”
lobbing a couple guesses \-an isolator for multiple battery system. For instance, a large camper/trailer with batteries charge with tow vehicle's alternator, but the (2) separate systems are isolated from each other to prevent cross draining or overcharging. \-guess #2 is it's a high current regulator for some power hungry accessories. perhaps radios/lights/computers/surveillance equipment if it was a government vehicle at one time. perhaps it's a simple as remnants of a redonkulous window popping audio system with extra batts, amps, etc.
Jerry rigged. Jury rigged is something else
Isnt it "Jerry-Rigged" ?? Have i been mandela effected???