Well . . . according to West Marine http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/westadvisor/10001/-1/10001/Inverters.htm They say that my alt will keep up with a 550 watt laod without touching the batterys reserve . . . Reserve Capacity currently is only 120 . . . This batter is about 100 AH . . .

So . . . what that means is that if I used say 1100w for one hour . . . I'd have about 45 AH left in the battery, but I could run 500w all day long and still have a fully charged battery at the end of the day . . . as long as I was driving the car . . . or kept it above about 1000 rpm.

Mostly I put this in because it is nice to charge phones or laptops while driving, but I bought this back when I had a truck with a 200 amp alt . . . I do plan on getting a bigger alt from the saab to boost it to 105 or was it 115amp? I like to have a "extra source" of juice if our power comany should let us down.

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale

Yes a welder or well pump will need more juice!

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale

I believe that. My Arc Welder need 220 Volts to work.
I guess it might be possible to run a small hobby type Welder for a few minutes.
If you look at a Welder/Generator set-up it is clear that the Alternator is much more substantial than the on a Car. And, when the Welder is in use the Engine is at full load.

Other stuff:
I have a 1700 watt Inverter and I hooked my 1200 watt Electric Space Heater up to a pair of Deep Discharge Wheel Chair Batteries and in about 7 minutes the low voltage alarm went off on the Inverter.

There is also another issue I read about. A Lighting System was set up in a Shed powered by a Battery Bank and charged with Solar Panels. What the writer of the Article found out was that he only got 2 1/2 years use out of the Batteries but had expected 5 years.
The reason was that when the Voltage dropped below 11 volts it really shortend the life of the Batteries. He found that in order to get the full amout of Battery life he had to add enough Batteries so that under load they never went below 11 volts.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

A few belts ,a two by eight...

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

I've emptied my tank to replace the fuel lines using this method and it works just fine. I completely dried out the tank yet had no problem restarting the engine. I didn't even have to prime it one I put fuel back in the tank. I would not hesitate to fill a generator, or another car using this method.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13