When I first got the F250, I was excited to see the inverter. I was just sort of skimming the truck manual and I read that it could be a power source. I was super excited -- I told my husband that if he needed to use his corded power tools somewhere where there was no power, he could just run them off the truck. Well, I was wrong about that. The manual actually specifies that you can't run power tools off of the inverter. It's more for powering a laptop or something similar. What I'm wondering is, what's the point of having an inverter, then? I can power a laptop from my Civic, too. Why does the 250 need a special set up to do it?

Also, I am obviously not a mechanic or car person at all, so pardon me if this is a dumb question, but is there any way to increase the power output so that I CAN run power tools off of the truck? Well, by me I mean my husband. The truck has a big enough engine, doesn't it? I mean it can tow 12k pounds, it can't run a stupid electric chainsaw?

 

An electric chainsaw is going to require a large inverter and some fairly substantial wiring. I doubt that Ford would make any money installing those, not many buyers I bet. That said, I added two more batteries and run a 3000 watt inverter in my truck. It is nice to have, but not really cost effective. Better to have bought a nice cordless chainsaw (ie Milwaukee 18V).

 

Unfortunately, there are always losses to get in the way.
You would need a pretty high output alternator to get enough to power to some electric motors.
Its not that it can't be done ,but you don't always get out of a system what you put in.

 

Alright, thanks guys.