What did you use your cargo bed inverter for today? (Now with Poll)

Do not follow this guy's advice! At 3:25 he recommends plugging a generator into the inverter. That will definitely cause your Taco to .

Think he's a tad confused: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iPBrITCQzFg

 

The only time that I really used it was in 2012 when a little thunderstorm named Sandy knocked the power out .It kept the cell phones charged and fresh coffee ready..I haven't used it since.

 

I've been rebuilding the doors to the fault at the local cemetery. I cut the wood with a jigsaw plugged into the bed outlet, it worked quite well. Sorry, no pics!

 

My buddy used his to blow up his air mattress last weekend camping. Another idea it could be used for is a radio?

 

Why would you want to plug a generator into your truck? The truck is basically its own generator

 

I think you could possibly convince him the best use for the inverter is to run a battery charger for the starting battery.

 

Amazing people still ask this question. A factory inverter is one the most useful tools available. If one is too ignorant how to use it is the real question.

It doesn't work in the cab? Move AC to the cab. Friggin mall-crawling Tacoma owners I-want-to-liftit-for-looks, but I can't figure out how to make use of a 400W inverter.

The same mall-crawlers will sneer at a Colorado or Ridgeline with a 400W inverter that maybe their owners are not so ignorant and can figure out the many uses for it.

Tacoma owners have been lucky for many years they have a factory 400W inverter, every other truck owner had to add one in. Yet here we are still with Tacoma owners not only ignorant about how to use it, they sneer at the option as useless.

 

You have it backwards. 400w parked, 100w running

 

I work as an electrician and install and service inverters of all kinds, all of the time. My question was not about what it does, just what people are finding it useful for. Almost nothing I own that I consider a "portable device", in 2017, is powered by AC, with most stuff being USB, or wanting a cigarette socket. My tools are all cordless, including my circular saw, and the charger is 12V.

Anyways......just curious what people are using it for, because of my personal experience of not needing it. Not looking for the standard, boring, inane TW "mall crawler" rant, that demonstrates some sort of mommy issue or something.

 

Turns out I was wrong. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

alright, I'll ask the dumb question. What are ya'll using for coffee makers? Everything I've found is well over 400w and lugging my french press/tea pot to a campsite is getting old.

 

Your name and tag line sure says it all

 

I used the 110v plug to power an air pump and dremel to cut a hole for a 12v plug

 

400watt is actually quite a bit.
I mean ok if you expect it to do the same as any receptacle in your house no.
You can't run a hair dryer, no coffee maker, no power tools.

But can charge a laptop, cameras, phones, use for small electronics.
Might seem useless but to me its very useful. No need to install an inverter anymore as its more than enough for me.
When camping I don't need much, I only carry my laptop with me for trails that I have and an app for my mac book that lets me view and follow GPX files, and cause I'm too cheap to buy a dedicated GPS lol.
Chargins Wasp action cam
can use it to charge batteries for power tools

Honestly does more than enough for me. I just need it for charging small electronics basically. I make coffee on the stove in the morning or in the fire. I don't plan to run powertools as most are battery powered. Only things that really arent are my wood tools and not like I'll be using those while out.

 

in all fairness I would like it even more in the cab and if it could do the 400W while driving. I think there's a mod for that here which I should probably do.

But realisitically I'd really rather not leave my laptop in the bed with the elements.
But at the same time I may or may not have an extension cord I run in the cab through the back window to charge my laptop
And a lot of fullsizes seem to come with a 120 plug in the cab now.
Or maybe its just the higher end ones. I just always see them at the auto show where they have a plug inside.

 

Minivans come with the plug inside now.

A lot of people said they make coffee with it, but its just as easy to use a portable stove to boil water and a pour-over coffee maker.

 

meh I have a stove top percolator when camping.
Some coffee makers could probably run on 400 watts. All depends on the size. Doubt you'll be able to run a tassimo or kurig though.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Wand-M...e=UTF8&qid=1497400955&sr=8-1&keywords=hitachi

 

I've used it to run a skill saw a few times. Also runs a margaritaville when camping!

 

must be a pretty small skillsaw.
I know when I was looking at my 4 1/2" grinder it was over 400watt at 850watt.
I know when I was up at the cottage I was doing some stuff didn't want to run a cord for my track saw and was going to use the truck but just read the side of the motor on my saw and saw an amp rating of 10amp, so about 4x too much lol.

400watt is only about 3amps so not much for big loads or motors. Anything with a high inrush will have a hard time.