>> Am I alone in this? <<

Er, um, probably not - but I don't remember them making the invertor connection. I've got a couple of links stashed somewhere - but not here in FireFox. Easy to google it up, I think. Anyway, I thought of making up one with alternator, battery, voltage regulator, etc and then tying in an invertor, but never built one. Subsequently found a site or two about this, but minus the invertor.

There were/are two approaches that I recall: 12vdc (actually more like 15vdc) straight off the alternator and a hack job on the alternator that gave ~110v AC (and certain GM alternators are simpler to do that to). AC frequency is a function of rpm in that conversion, I'm almost certain. Now for a little geeking...

Anyway - and this is off the top of my head (or from a dusty corner of my mind) - there are few or no automotive alternators that are self-exciting. Probably takes at least 5-6 amps 12vdc thru the field coil to start making electricity. A permanent magnet generator (very uncommon now - maybe nonexistent) is self-exciting, and there is such a thing as a self-exciting alternator... this exhausts my top layer brain cells, so someone else can pick that up and expound/correct.

Anyway, simple math tells us a few things. Older alternators typically ranged from 35 - 60 amp. With all the electrical demand increases in most modern vehicles, a 135 amp alternator would not be uncommon. If we assume they put out 15vdc, an alternator churning out 100 amps would be making just 1.5 kw. Run it thru an invertor to bump it up to 120v AC and now we're looking at more like 1kw, more or less, which won't even run a circular saw. Even an aftermarket 200amp alternator is only going to put out around 3kw max, and invertors that size are getting expensive. Having written all this...

I still think it would be worthwhile to put one of these together with salvage parts and a modest sized / priced invertor. That pretty much rules out waveform-sensitive devices, as true sinewave invertors are expensive. And there are lots of surprises out there on that count - I know of at least two brands of chargers for battery op tools like drills and saws that will NOT operate well or at all on anything but true sinewave power; specifically will not operate on "modified sine wave" invertors. YMMV.

Regards,

Tom