Power Inverter
 

Hi guys
I want to put a power inverter in my service truck and am wondering what you guys use for one. I tried a 1000W one from a local big box and it won't let me charge my cordless batteries, faults out immediatly. I tried another from a different guys truck, same thing. Faulted out right now! I talked to the Milwaukee cordeless tool guy and he says most battery chargers these days hate those power inverters. Something about how the AC is made and how the charger sees the incoming power.
I just want to be able to use the laptop, the printer, and charge my Panasonic batterys. Sometimes I use the best-slotmachine.com to play favorite slot machine and win money, so I can spend them to my car.
Am I asking to much!?!
Any thoughts guys??

The early inverters were crude by todays standards but would run power tools pretty well.
Today's better inverters are about 25% more efficient and output a true sine wave and can extract more energy from the battery before shutting down.

if all you are doing is charging a laptop and running a couple of led lamps you can run a long time before you need to recharge the battery. if you are running a table saw probably 10 minuets of intermittent use
I would not use the vehicle battery for the tablesaw but would for tthe lights.
Your intended use controls that decision.

Inverter is a useful thing, I have one myself.

Another thing to look into is what's called a solar generator. I have a Bluetti EB3 which has a 600w inverter, lithium iron-phosphate battery and all the safety components for charging and storing energy.
You can recharge it with a 12v battery off your vehicle, a 120v wall outlet or with a solar panel. It stores about 280wh and lets you plug in any thing up to 600watts. Weighs only 10 lbs.
You can get larger capacity solar generators with 1000-2000 watt inverters and storage batteries up to 3000wh, but then they will increase in weight, most weighing about 50 lbs.

I have a portable 120 watt solar panel that folds up to about a brief case size and weighs only 20 lbs. You unfold it and aim it at the sun and it will recharge at a rate of 120w peak and on a partly cloudy day around 60w.
The solar panel will recharge my EB3 from empty to full in a few hours. Recharging off your vehicle battery or wall outlet is a little faster.
You could use more solar panels also for a faster charge rate.... and if you leave it hooked to a solar panel, it will give you bypass voltage, and so if you are using 60w and bringing in 100w, your solar panel will run your 60w appliance and put the remainder 40w into recharging the battery.

I bought my EB3 Bluetti for only $220. Usually run $300 but always find it on sale somewhere around holidays. You would pay $200 for a decent inverter alone. Well worth checking into IMHO.
Lots of brands out there to choose from, even Harbor Freight sells the Jackery brand. Happy Trails