Charging Stihl batteries from a vehicle

[Grassyass]

We have just got the new ap500 battery’s  last twice as long as the 300,the al300-4 charger pointless holds 4 battery’s but only charges one at a time and only at the speed of the al 300 so not as fast as the quick charger, 

[Dan Maynard]

2 hours ago, Grassyass said:

We have just got the new ap500 battery’s  last twice as long as the 300,the al300-4 charger pointless holds 4 battery’s but only charges one at a time and only at the speed of the al 300 so not as fast as the quick charger,

Does it change over to charge the next one when first is done though? So if you left it overnight would do all 4?

[Mark_Skyland]

Interesting thread. It will be good to see how people are adapting to the battery move. As the OP says great on domestics jobs, "Can you just plug this in while you get the kettle on please" great excuse and I couldnt count the amount of times in the past that customers have asked us if we need an extension lead for our chainsaws. Although with the increase in electricity costs I doubt many will hear that phrase anymore!

 

 

[Grassyass]

Yes that’s it.so it would be ok in the workshop

[rarefish383]

Might be apples to oranges, but my Ford F150 has a standard house plug in the dash. I often have a half hour drive between lawns and plug my DeWalt 20V charger in the dash and it does a good job keeping the batteries up to snuff. I think that plug is rated at 6 amps. Don't know how it would do with the saw batteries?

Edited August 7, 2022 by rarefish383
spelling

[difflock]

5 hours ago, rarefish383 said:

Might be apples to oranges, but my Ford F150 has a standard house plug in the dash. I often have a half hour drive between lawns and plug my DeWalt 20V charger in the dash and it does a good job keeping the batteries up to snuff. I think that plug is rated at 6 amps. Don't know how it would do with the saw batteries?

I applaud that pragmatic approach by Ford in the US. Especially if a larger capacity alternator/battery/batteries  is standard or can  be specced as an option.

Edited August 7, 2022 by difflock

[chrism3513]

I have a 200ah Invicta slim line lithium battery in my hilux, and a 2000w Redarc inverter. 
Expensive set up at around $2000aud a piece but the battery for eg has a 7 year warranty. 
I use this set up to charge my husky batteries and I don’t worry about draining the aux battery. 200amps of lithium is a lot of power, essentially equivalent to 4 lead acid batteries of a standard size. lithium you can drain to around 10% with no voltage drop 

 

Also have a solar panel on the roof of the Ute to help keep it topped up. 
Do a bit of research into lithium batteries as I think that is the answer. Another benefit of lithium is it charges quicker than lead acid, so you don’t need to drive as far to replenish it. I have a 50amp DC-DC charger so essentially 1 hour drive  puts in 50a, but you can add multiple dc dc chargers to increase the charging speed.
 

Petrol generator to charge the batteries seems. a bit counter intuitive 😂 

Edited August 7, 2022 by chrism3513

[Dan Maynard]

23 minutes ago, chrism3513 said:

Petrol generator to charge the batteries seems. a bit counter intuitive 😂 

It does but I don't think there's a free lunch in vehicle charging, it's going to burn more fuel to drive the alternator.

 

Doug's in Scotland so solar panel will be less effective.

[Woodworks]

Get yourself one of these and you wont need to worry about running the battery down in the truck when charging. Comes with plug in points haha.

 

Small generator would probably be easier though 

 

https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/

[Stere]

BLUETTI AC300 + B300 + PV350 Solar Generator Kit

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Expensive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Stere