Adding inverter

Anyone here have an inverter on their tractor. I was thinking about adding one to run lights,drills etc.What size do you use?.

Go cordless, its easier and cheaper
Jim

I use an inverter on my tractor sometimes (1949 8N).
It's a 700 watt (1400 watt surge) inverter.
I can run drills, hedge trimmers, weed eater, etc.

The downside is I have to run the tractor at a high RPM
so the alternator can keep up with the load.
I may have a weak alternator or just need a bigger one.

I plan on building a device that runs off the the PTO
and drives and alternator at the correct speed.
That way the tractor can sit and idle and I can use the inverter.

Comes in handy for a lot of stuff.
Specially the weed eater and the hedge trimmers.
I go around the yard several times a year with the hedge trimmers
and cut all the stuff that hits me in the face when I am mowing.

Pooh Bear

MrJimi said:

Go cordless, its easier and cheaper
Jim

Click to expand...

I considered an inverter and came to the realization that MrJimi has got the best answerd. Inverters are not particularly efficient and many of my needs were for high amp power tools (13 to 15amp) so I would have ended up with a large inverter and still would have had to had the tractor engine churning at high speed for the alternator to keep up and under load it is not unreasonable to assume it would have also started to draw the battery down too. There are a couple threads on this topic, they are pretty old, but the guys who know a lot more about electrical stuff talked me out of it and were very convincing.

What? Those little inverters are incredible!!

Why I saw on TV last night a guy run his house pool pump off the inverter in his car and put out a fire with it!!! ROTFLMAO!!!

Seriously, inverters get expensive quick if you need some decent power out of them.

I agree, cordless tools are the way to go. Inverters can put a big drain on a tractors electrical system. Most equipment charging systems are not designed for high current draw's like automotive applications are. Tractors usually only have to run a couple of thing's like some light's, engine electronics (on newer engines) and so on. Go sticking a large inverter on it and your bound to start having alternator failures.

If you must have 120VAC on your tractor I would check into adding a belt or PTO driven AC generator. I built one for a friend a few years ago and it works great. Got a old Coleman 3,000 watt generator at the junk yard that had a blown engine on it. Took the generator head off of it, made up some mounting brackets to attach it to the engine and installed a electric clutch on it so it didn't run all of the time. He now has a 3k generator that comes on with the flick of the switch and has 4 120 VAC outlet's on the back of the generator head. Doing a little bit of basic math I got a drive pully to put on the electric clutch unit that let's the generator operate at peek RPM with the tractor at idle.

He now has a 4 wheel drive 120 volt generator that cut's grass and has a FEL.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I bought a small inverter to power the charger for my cordless tools. The inverter capacity (continuous) is about twice the rated draw of the charger.

This seemed simpler than a brute force, hi amperage inverter for AC tools and its a lot cheaper.

I'll go the other direction from the cordless recomendation.

My favorite tool is a Honda EU200i generator. It is 45 lb light, very small, very quite (53 db), and will run all day on a tank or gas. It will run most of my power tools except air compressor, table saw, or chop saw. A wife can start it with one easy pull, and it also can supply 12v to recharge your battery.

Search for EU2000I on ebay.

Why not cordless?
The 120v corded tools I have average 18 years old. A quality corded tool is a lifetime investment that can be repaired for very little. The most common repair is installing new cord which is cheap. Used tools are cheap on ebay.

I have four coordless drills. Only one works well, and two are dead. The batteries go bad before the tool goes bad, and batteries are expensive. These cordless tools do not run for the duration. I don't see buying a cordless circular saw, sander, grinder, or similar long run time tools.

Two weeks ago I cleaned equipment with two 5" grinders equipped with wire brush cups, before painting. Two men ran two grinders for six hours on the little Honda. A cordless grinder (have not seen one yet) might run three minutes.

If I could do life again I would have gotten the little Honda many years ago. It is so handy compared to a much bigger 5000w Honda that weighs 180 pounds. My opinion on generators has gone 180 degrees and the convenience of small is much better than more power.

I've got a 1Kw in my truck. It draws 83 amps at full power so it needs #1 gauge cable from the battery to the inverter. I've probably used it most for angle grinders and halogen work lights. Your tractor probably has a small alternator (35 to 50 amp) and a big battery if it is diesel so it would be OK for short time periods. No need to rev the engine much past 1200 rpm as the alternator will put out almost full power at that speed, but count on drawing the power from the battery and charging on the way back to the barn.

CTyler said:

What? Those little inverters are incredible!!

Why I saw on TV last night a guy run his house pool pump off the inverter in his car and put out a fire with it!!! ROTFLMAO!!!

Seriously, inverters get expensive quick if you need some decent power out of them.

Click to expand...

Here is text of my posting in a previous thread regarding experience with inverters on tractors.

I have direct experience with running Remingtons 14" Limb and Trim on both Xantrex and Vector 1000W inverters. This has turned out to be a long term compatible combination. The saw is rated at 8.0A, 120VAC, which means it requires around 960W at load. The Xantrex has been mounted on our BX1500 hood for years and the Vector is on the Kub 2550 also long term. The invertors pull about 100A to run the saw so DC wiring must be good. This is more than the tractors alternators put out but with the engine running even on the little one you can do several continuous minutes of heavy cutting or 20-30min limbing before the inverter cuts out due to low supply voltage. I have had trouble with other inverters in these useage conditions. These are mechanically and electrically robust. Ive had no problem with the startup surge except when I had a poor DC connection. You can spot check those by running a 500W shoplite or other substantial load and measuring across each DC connection with a digital Voltmeter. This will allow you to compare the quality of each individual connection. You want very low voltage readings like 0.1V or less at this 60A load. If not, the higher loads inherent in startup will cause the inverter to kick out because it isnt getting high enuf supply voltage.
I love these things - lets my wife use a chainsaw. She cant pull enuf to start a gas.

I paid $70 for the Xantrex inverter at costco. I think battery powered tools get expensive more quickly than an inverter set up, and they limit you to less power and less run time. Its nice not to worry about a cord, but the tools weight with battery adds up.
Larry