Inverter

[PioneerMan]

Anyone mounted a power inverter to their tractor? It might be nice to run 110 in the field, for a drill or whatever.

 

[fuseboxer]

Never mounted one but I own two and have had no problems with them. The Orchard shed barn, 12 x 16 was wired and finished inside when I dragged it down from the neighbors house. I use a solar pannel on the roof and a inverter inside to power the wiring. Works good. I seldom use power and it is 500' from my other building. ----Fuseboxer

 

[JB4310]

I put a 12 volt outlet on my tractor with the idea that I may get an inverter someday. I use it now for a warning beacon strobe light for plowing snow near the street. Not sure if I could power a very large inverter with this set up though. The higher watt inverters require HD wiring right to the battery.

I'd like a 2kw unit on my work truck for those times when having a 110 volt outlet would be much appreciated.

If you wanted a nice set up with a 1 to 2 KW inverter, it would almost be cheaper/ easier to just get a little generator.

Jb.

 

[tommu56]

One thing to remember the inverter will draw roughly 10 times the current that you are using.
IE drill at 5 amps will be 50 amps on the dc side your wiring and battery has to keep up with it and the alternator on tractor to keep battery charged

Cigarette outlets are usually fused at 20 or so amps that means with a plug on the inverter you can get 2 amps out at 120v , 2 amps at 120v 240 watts not a lot of juice

The 2000 watt unit would be about 17 amps @120v so at 12 volts it would be 170 amps (starting current for some smaller tractors) that is alot of power to draw from a tractor battery unless it is short bursts.

Note all the calculations are rough and rule of thumb that I use

tom

 

[JB4310]

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to, it's not very practical to try and squeeze 110volt power out of a CUT's battery/ alternator.

To drill that hole you better keep your engine running at high rpm's to keep the battery up.

Those larger inverters are not cheap either, might as well get a used PTO generator, then you could make all the power you need.
I know that is a big leap from just wanting a little ac juice out in the field once in a while.

I have a tiny little plug in the cigarette lighter inverter, I use it for my camera's battery charger, cell phone and blue tooth ear piece charger. Mine has the usb outlet which is handy for those cell phone acs. Not sure if mine would power a laptop, looking at my laptop's power supply charger it says 65 watt output at 19 volts DC, and 1.6 AC amps input.

JB

 

[psj12]

Keep in mind that most affordable inverters on the market produce a square wave power and not he smooth round wave (sine wave) of commercial or generator produced power. This square wave power does not run induction motors well. They become slow and may run hot. Brush type motors like found in power tools work well. Additionally much electronic equipment is sensitive to this difference.

True Sine wave inverters are quite a bit more expensive.

 

[jenkinsph]

Anyone mounted a power inverter to their tractor? It might be nice to run 110 in the field, for a drill or whatever.

I have dealt with portable power for about 15 years or so and have come to the conclusion that a small separate genset is the most practical. It depends on your needs but the Honda 2000w inverter genset at 46 lbs is what I use the most. I have a 2000w ProSine inverter/charger and a couple of smaller ones, 800w, 400w and three of the 100w cigarette lighter models. I do use the tiny ones to power the cordless tool chargers these are practical and see daily use. The reason the small genset is more practical is that it weighs alot less than a battery you would need for a comparable inverter.

I also have an Onan commercial diesel genset on my construction service truck, a Miller gas driven welder/genset and a Honda 3000 inverter genset. My reason for mentioning all of this is none of this stuff gets enough use to justify having it for ac power. This is one area where I have spent close to $10,000 (not including the welder) and have found it to be a mistake by and large.

I would use cordless tools for portable work, there is some decent stuff out there now and consider the tiny inverter for the cordless tool charger these are less than $50. This small inverter can recharge the cordless tool batteries without the need for the engine running in most cases. If you need more power than that I would consider a genset over the inverter. Most tractor electrical systems don't have enough capacity to use a larger inverter.

 

[PioneerMan]

Thanks guys, good advice all around.

I have a 70 amp alt, and was planning on hard wiring it, but for once or twice a season, battery operated tools or a small generator would have a lot more added capability.

TBN never fails!