[1]Inverter Ready to Go
When I say “cut my way to Paradise (here in Green Cove) I mean it literally. On my to the metropolis of Tellico Plains, I navigate about 25 miles of winding country road that follows the Tellico River. On any given day there can be one or more trees down across the road. That’s a sure bet after the monsoon we’ve had this summer.
What this means is that you either carry a chain saw or you sit and wait on someone who does have a chain saw. In the winter, that wait can be a long time!
Ever since I’ve lived up here I’ve carried a small gas powered chain saw in my vehicle. Several problems with that. First off, it stinks up the vehicle with the smell of gasoline. Two, fresh gasoline must be kept in the thing. Three, in cold weather it’s hard to start.
Being an electronics nerd, I knew there had to be a better way. The Better Way is an electric chain saw powered by a 2000 watt inverter and 100 ft of light gauge cord. Since I didn’t want to drill holes in my new truck body and didn’t really want the inverter exposed to the elements, I used a pair of Anderson connectors to make the inverter to battery a quick connection. The details of how to do this are described here [2].
And as long as the battery was equipped with an Anderson connector, I decided to make a heavy duty set of theft-resistant jumper cables. Somewhat theft-resistant because they’re useless to anyone without an identical setup to mine. The details of that project are here [3].
I’ve had this installed about 2 weeks and already I’ve had to use it once. Returning to my cabin late night I found a small tree across the road. Only about 3″ in diameter, I could have probably put the truck in 4WD and creeped over it. But this was a perfect opportunity to try out the new toy :-) 10 minutes later, the tree was cut up and off the road and I could continue home. Success!