Toothbar installation with cordless drill

Ozarker · Jul 27, 2002

same as if you hooked up an inverter and plugged your regular charger into that).

You don't hook up an inverter to charge cordless tools. You hook up an inverter to plug 110v tools into.

cchoate · Jul 27, 2002

I don't even own a corded drill anymore, my 18v DeWalt will drill in anything. I do use pilot holes for something big though. I use a 300 watt inverter in my truck for charging.

Ozarker · Jul 27, 2002

That is probably a record worthy of, at the very least, honorable mention in Rippleys. Worlds most expensive battery charger. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

If all you are going to do is charge an 18v battery away fron the grid, a 300W inverter on a V8 engine is some serious overkill. Go get one of those cheap Coleman Recreational generators that burn about a quart of fuel an hour and put out 1100 watts. It will be far more efficient, will save wear and tear on your truck and will give you a little emergency power for lights and a radio if you need it. They cost about $200.

Hawkflyer · Jul 27, 2002

How about we install the inverter on the tractor, use a 3 cylinder engine or the battery to power it, forget the cordless drill, and use a 120 volt drill? Then you will always have a source of 120 volt power any where you take the tractor.

Ozarker · Jul 27, 2002

Gee, why didn't I think of that? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif But yes, running 110 direct is far more efficient that converting 12v to 110v to operate a charger to turn it back into 18v to charge another battery for an hour.

Lots of guys don't take their tractors out to those remote work sites. They have their PU because they are hauling tools and materials to make some type of repair on something. I think that a small generator used in combination with a deep cycle battery is the most efficient way to do that if the other option is to use the short discharge automotive battery to run the inverter.

If you are going to run an inverter off the vehicle cranking battery, the 2 or 3 cyl diesel engine is far more efficient than the 6 or 8 cyl gasoline engine. You will have to run the engine or the battery will quickly discharge and you won't be able to restart the vehicle.

Hawkflyer · Jul 27, 2002

My problem is as I get older I get more lazy every day. I would not want to carry a battery of any size to most of the places I need to have power. On top of that most of them are not readily accessable by truck. In fact most are only accessable by tractor or mule./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif So for me, installing the inverter in the tractor just makes sense. I don't have to have 2 sets of tools, I don't have to drive back and and forth swapping between the tractor and the truck. And I don't have to maintain yet another little engine (on a generator).Besides, I never seem to have a truck when I need one./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gifBut, whatever works.

Ozarker · Jul 27, 2002

I understand....and I use an inverter exactly that way but on my 15hp lawn tractor. I have a small trailer behind it with a deep cycle marine battery and the inverter. I run my electric trimmer off of it and I clip the marine battery to the lawn tractor battery to let the tractor charging system keep the marine battery topped off.

The tractor cranking battery couldn't provide enough amps for a long enough period.

I am going to mount a deep cycle battery on my Yanmar in front of the normal battery and isolate it like a camper battery so that the charging system will keep the marine battery up but when in use it won't drain the cranking battery. Then I will mount a 500 watt inverter attached to the deep cycle battery.

John_Mc · Jul 28, 2002

You don't hook up an inverter to charge cordless tools. You hook up an inverter to plug 110v tools into.

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but that was exactly my point: IF you have a charger that will run off of 12V DC, you can plug right in. You would only need the inverter if the only charger you had was designed for 110VAC and you wanted to plug in to a tractor or car. I was finally able to find a charger for my 18V Milwaukee Cordless system that would run off of 12 VDC, but it took some searching.

John Mc

Ozarker · Jul 28, 2002

Changing from 12v to 110v or changing from 12v to 18v to charge another battery is the same. Let me tell you why I believe that is not a good thing. Unless you are running your truck the entire time you are using the charger, you have a steady low amp drain on your vehicle cranking battery. It simply isn't designed for that type of discharge.

Take a car phone for example. You should charge the cell phone while driving but not while the vehicle is not running such as overnight. You take it in the house to plug it on for overnight charging. If you leave a steady drain on a cranking battery for extended periods of time you will cause the premature failure of the battery. Not to mention the fact that sooner of later you will not be able to start your car because it no longer has an adequate reserve of cranking amps.

I assume that since you went to the trouble of finding that 12v to 18v converter that you do that a lot. If I did a lot of charging of the type you describe, I would mount a deep cycle battery and isolate it from the vehicle cranking battery. That way you could charge all you want and never drain any power from the cranking system.

John_Mc · Jul 29, 2002

Unless you are running your truck the entire time you are using the charger, you have a steady low amp drain on your vehicle cranking battery. It simply isn't designed for that type of discharge. 

Since the battery charges in less than an hour, and the current draw is rather low (6 Amps @ 12V), it does not significantly discharge my car battery. The draw is similar to leaving my door ajar so the two 8 watt (?) dome lights stay on for 4 or 5 hours. What really shortens the life of lead acid batteries is deep cycling them. A shallow drain has little effect. (researched a bunch of this when I was looking at setting up my new house "off-the-grid" using wind and solar power to charge a bank of batteries). On the other hand, I don't generally charge more than one battery (or on rare occasions two) without running the vehicle.

I assume that since you went to the trouble of finding that 12v to 18v converter that you do that a lot.

The charger was made by Milwaukee. The tough part was finding out that it even existed. Looks just like their 110VAC unit, but has a cigarrette lighter plug on the end. Once the battery is charged, the power draw drops to almost nothing. I don't use it particularly heavily, I just needed something to work with before I had power out at our homesite... sawing/screwing/drilling by hand got old quickly, as did hauling wood back into town to cut with a circ saw.

John Mc