William Lear was one of the most incredible minds of the 20th century. He invented the car radio, founded Motorola, created auto-pilot and numerous other aeronautical advances, created the freaking Lear Jet, and then kind of went off the rails trying to save the world with steam powered cars in the 1960s and 1970s. But along the way, Lear had something like 100 patents and inventions to his name. One of the simplest and most freaking awesome is shown here, the Lear Charger. Long before there was something like a portable jump pack, you had to drag a battery charger to your car or truck and to get it running. This was not great if you were anywhere but at a garage, right? This is where the Lear Charger wins.

Basically you have a McCulloch chainsaw that has the bar and chain removed and replaced with a Motorola alternator. Instead of the engine turning the chain to saw up logs, it spins the alternator, creating juice which is transferred through the supplied leads to the battery and providing a pretty awesome charge. As you will see here, the thing works like a freaking champ and must have saved many a motorist, construction guy, logger, and whatever else over the years that they were popular. If we had a vehicle fleet back when they were making these we’d have bought a half dozen and kept them handy.

The unit shown here is in really great shape for something that is likely 50+ years old. The saw sounds awesome screaming its guts out spinning the alternator and the proof is in the pudding. The truck did not run…and now it does. How did we never hear about the Lear Charger before. Has anyone out there ever owned one?

Hit the image of the Lear Chager below to see the video of it working!