September 1998 The Outdoorsman

Cool: a homemade, Paccie-designed, gas-powered blender complete with handlebars, number plate, and throttle control. It gets the job done and never fails to get a few stares, but it's a bear to transport and a bit loud for public campsites.

Cool: a homemade, Paccie-designed, gas-powered blender complete with handlebars, number p

Nearing 100 degrees with nary a breeze, sitting in the middle of Diablo Dry Lake outside of San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico, and all our buddy Paccie can come up with for conversation is, "Oh, I'm hot. I'm melting. This sucks."

Some might call us fools for putting ourselves in this situation, but sometimes you need to go to the extreme to gain the best viewing of an off-road race. And really, it isn't all that bad. One thing we could use, however, is an ice-cold Margarita-probably would shut Paccie up and definitely would make our day. The situation led to the construction of a gas-powered blender. A neat idea, one that's a great spectacle at the races, but a bit awkward and bulky for transporting. So what's the preferred method of getting a cold one and, more accurately, generating the electricity to run a blender or anything else you'll need while in the middle of nowhere? The AuraGen mobile generator.

Designed to be installed in the engine compartments of many late-model trucks, RVs, and SUVs, and winner of the Chrysler Design Excellence Award at the 1997 SEMA Show, the AuraGen G5000 can produce as much as 5,000 watts of well-regulated 60Hz 120/240-volt AC power at any engine speed, which is enough electricity to power the equipment on a commercial vehicle or a home's essential appliances. The AuraGen is an electromagnetic device that mounts to the front of the vehicle engine and is turned by an automotive belt set that's included in the installation kit. One of the key features of the AuraGen is the full-power load following, which automatically reduces the vehicle engine's workload and fuel consumption when more than one appliance or tool is plugged in but only one is being operated. Also, since it's mounted under the hood, you'll never again leave your power source at home.

With that kind of onboard power, a day in the desert doesn't have to be a long, hot one, although we're curious to see what size portable air conditioner ol' Paccie will be lugging out here with him the next time around. Whether you're powering a blender, a microwave, a refrigerator, or even something as conventional (and businesslike) as a laptop computer, the AuraGen mobile generator can't be beat.