It is an ol' school power inverter. I have read about some folks who have used high amperage alternators (160 A) along with this inverter to run an arc welder. Or you can go with Julie's recommendation for the battery charger...:~) Kinda reminds me of the woman who said that the light on her vacuum cleaner was there so that she could see where she was vacuuming in case the power went out!

 

So, .............is it the rain or the Chargers that makes you hallucinate like this?

 

Chargers! Those clowns are sittin' at home on the couch watching other teams play football. How a pro bowl kicker can miss more field goals in one game than he missed all year is beyond me. I think the game was fixed!

The rain helps with the silliness. It's fun being off all week, being shut in because of the down pour and eating junk food and drinking wine!

I did a little math. So far (we have two more days of it) we have gotten 5 inches of rain here (my rain meter says so). Our annual rainfall is 14 inches. With the size back lot I have that mean it would have collected/absorbed/flowed off 62,334 gallons of water since monday evening! And the fireplaces and wine collecting/absorbed/flowed is going great too!

Bored!

 

You have a rarity there. That device and other similar ones were wired into the alternator to get approximately 120 volts AC. But the frequency varied with engine speed. With a 40 amp alternator you could get about 500 watts of 120 volt AC. They were good for operating lights, small electric percolators, and things like small drills, fans, and vacuum cleaners with universal motors.

If you want to use it, I suggest you use a test meter to check voltage, and then check frequency to see what engine speed you need to get 60 hertz. Often vehicles equipped with these had a remote cable throttle control to hold a set engine speed. But be careful what you plug in - many of these were not fused, and an overload could fry the alternator.

 

An older gentleman that I used to work for had one of those brand new in the box, just sitting on a shelf in his shop. There was even a high output alternator in the kit. Always wondered if it was good for anything. He's long gone, but I wonder if it is still sitting there?

 

 

Lots of people looking for info on that little gem, but not getting much.

This one puts out 3kW continuous. http://www.fabcopower.com/generat/bgen.htm

 

The problem with tapping the alternator for AC is that it isn't 60 cycles at more than one RPM. Modern electronic inverters (DC to AC) are a huge improvement.

 

Great information on the Tote-A-Volt gadget, I have to admit I was a little confused as I read on down through the thread.

 

I remember them being advertised in the back of magazines like Mechanix Illustrated, etc, when I was a kid. Maybe even in the J.C. Whitney catalogs.

 

Hey Ross what's your idea of North ?

 

Chicago area. Not as far north as you!