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Replies
Oliver
I would price the inverter against buying more batteries. My guess is a cheap inverter from amazon isn't going to do this job safely and you still have to install it which will require some fairly beefy cables etc. Have you considered the strain you could be putting on your car battery and alternator? I would also question how many batteries you can realistically charge whilst driving a vehicle during a day - you would likely have to be driving for so long that finding closer customers would be a better move. Stihl don't offer a 12volt charger for their batteries and I expect they have a very good reason for doing so. If I remember correctly the cigarette lighter plugs can supply 120W max for a short time with out getting stupidly hot.
I have 2x ap200 and 4x ap300 and dont even take them all out every day. I have only once run out of charge - that was on a very large 3 hours plus strimming job which I went to with 5 fully charged batteries and one part charged. 10 more minutes and I would have finished, and it wasn't the battery that let me down it was my own planning. I do still run a petrol blower which probably saves me a lot of battery power. I don't think I have ever used 3 batteries in a day when hedge cutting.
Electric motors use most power when they are accelerating so if you can use the machine at a constant speed without revving up and down you will find you get significantly more useful run time out of a battery. This was a game changer for me when I was told by a stihl engineer.
Yes a vote from me also to just buy more actual battery packs. Charging on the go is inconvenient and the power draw of a rapid enough charger is too high. I have a few of the black carrying crates made by Stihl to hold 6 of their AP packs, so can take a selection of the different capacities with me. Rarely use all of them unless using the Stihl battery lawnmower. I use Ego blowers so they have their own much larger packs of course. I always carry more batteries than I'm likely to need so never end up suffering from range anxiety