110v in rear?

[Mibuckeye]

Has anyone successfully relocated or extended the stock 110v (400w) to the rear trunk area? Seems folks have but can't seem to find anything searching.

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[Brian_B]

I stuck another small inverter in the back and plug it into the rear power point when I need it (I don't have the Factory Inverter though). Some folks have some impressive inverter/station battery setups though.

 

[CalvinT]

I'd be careful about extending the 110V wiring. You'll need different wire than what's sold for automotive use. There are additional standards the wire would have to meet.

You'll need a reliable way to splice into the stock 110 volt wiring. Then you'll need flex conduit to protect the add 110v wire. Any connections you make will have to be able to handle vibration. Same with the outlet. That's not normally a consideration for 110 v wiring. Finally I wouldn't use any connections that weren't UL rated for 120 v.

Normal automotive wire insulation isn't rated for 110V. It usually has a max 60-80 volt rating. There are other issues. You're better off doing what Brian_B did.

You'll be able to add capacity for one thing. The internal inverter isn't intended for continuous use. You'll add redundancy and wiring will be easier, only 12 V wire.

If you just need power for overnight use and not something permanent, an extension cord should be fine.

What are you thinking of plugging into it?

 

[HighVelocity]

The factory square-wave inverter is useless, so a power station or pure-sine inverter in your favorite Chinese food flavor would be much more versatile.

 

[CalvinT]

The factory square-wave inverter is useless, so a power station or pure-sine inverter in your favorite Chinese food flavor would be much more versatile.

I'm pretty sure the factory inverter puts out a sine wave. Most computer power supplies won't tolerate a squaire wave and will overheat. Square waves will cause inductive loads to run hot. Finally there's a probem with EMI compliance. Difficult to achieve with a square wave output.

Maybe I'll find the time to drag out my oscilloscope and check, but I doubt it.

 

[DarthLincoln]

The factory square-wave inverter is useless, so a power station or pure-sine inverter in your favorite Chinese food flavor would be much more versatile.

Is that what it’s doing? I plugged a Kill-A-Watt meter into the outlet, which can tell me Voltage, Amp, Watt, Hz, and KWh and instead of reporting ~110V and 60Hz it can’t figure it out, then says it’s DC power source.

Anyone put an oscilloscope on the outlet to get an image of the output?

I can’t charge my Jackery with it. Only device I have successfully powered with it, besides a simple lamp, is the AC power brick to power my laptop. That has a USB-C end so I can slowly charge my Jackery with that also.

 

[DarthLincoln]

Maybe I'll find the time to drag out my oscilloscope and check, but I doubt it.

Please do! Something about the output is garbage and cannot be used to charge most portable power stations.

 

[HighVelocity]

I'm pretty sure the factory inverter puts out a sine wave. Most computer power supplies won't tolerate a squaire wave and will overheat. Square waves will cause inductive loads to run hot. Finally there's a probem with EMI compliance. Difficult to achieve with a square wave output.

Maybe I'll find the time to drag out my oscilloscope and check, but I doubt it.

It might be modified sine, but it's not pure sine. No power station I've plugged into it will charge, which requires pure sine power.

Either way, it might as well not exist.

 

[CalvinT]

I plugged a Kill-A-Watt meter into the outlet, which can tell me Voltage, Amp, Watt, Hz, and KWh and instead of reporting ~110V and 60Hz it can’t figure it out, then says it’s DC power source.

I have a Kill-A-Watt meter. Great gadget but it won't report waveform. Did you have anything plugged into the meter, or did you just plug the meter into the outlet. The inverter probably won't put out anything until it senses a load.

 

[CalvinT]

@HighVelocity, DarthLincoln, plug a lamp with a low wattage incandescent bulb 10-25 watts into the inverter and see if it will light. If so, leave the light turned on and try plugging your Jackery or other device into it and see if it works. If it works, leave it plugged in and unplug the lamp. Your device should keep working.

My logic...
The Jackery or other similar device may have circuitry that needs to see AC present before it will activate. And the inverter needs to see a load before it will put out power. Catch-22.

 

[DarthLincoln]

I have a Kill-A-Watt meter. Great gadget but it won't report waveform. Did you have anything plugged into the meter, or did you just plug the meter into the outlet. The inverter probably won't put out anything until it sense a load.

I tried both. The Kill-A-Watt meter will still report Voltage and Hz of the source even if no load is connected to it. Just Current and KWh will show 0 if there is no load. If I plug it into a house outlet with no load plugged into the meter, it will still show ~120 V and 59.9 Hz.

So whether a load is connected or not, when I have the meter connected to the Bronco’s AC outlet it will show 0 Voltage, 0 Current, and 0 KWh, but Hz will initially show some high number like 500, then drop to like 8, then just says “dC”.

Whatever garbage power the Bronco inverter puts out, it is ok for simple stuff like a lamp or my laptop’s powerbrick cable, but not other things like charging my Jackery 300 Explorer power station.

 

[HighVelocity]

@HighVelocity, DarthLincoln, plug a lamp with a low wattage incandescent bulb 10-25 watts into the inverter and see if it will light. If so, leave the light turned on and try plugging your Jackery or other device into it and see if it works. If it works, leave it plugged in and unplug the lamp. Your device should keep working.

My logic...
The Jackery or other similar device may have circuitry that needs to see AC present before it will activate. And the inverter needs to see a load before it will put out power. Catch-22.

No thanks, don't give that much of a shit.

From what I understand, power stations use their internal inverters to charge with and need very clean power. I could be wrong, but again, don't really give a shit.

No factory inverter from 5 different vehicles I've tested with will charge them.

No amount if 'testing' is going to magically make a stupid, dirty 400w inverter useful.

 

[DarthLincoln]

@HighVelocity, DarthLincoln, plug a lamp with a low wattage incandescent bulb 10-25 watts into the inverter and see if it will light. If so, leave the light turned on and try plugging your Jackery or other device into it and see if it works. If it works, leave it plugged in and unplug the lamp. Your device should keep working.

My logic...
The Jackery or other similar device may have circuitry that needs to see AC present before it will activate. And the inverter needs to see a load before it will put out power. Catch-22.

That’s not the issue. The outlet is always active AFAIK (if the engine is running). But I did test your idea and connected an AC outlet splitter to the Bronco then connected a lamp (lights up fine) and then connected to my Jackery (no recognition of AC connection and no charging, but lamp is still on). During the whole time with the lamp on, the meter still reports 0 V, 0 A, 0 KWh, and “dC” for Hz.

Clearly the output is garbage and not close to a clean sine wave and is the problem. It won’t resolve anything, but I’m still curious to see what the output wave actually looks like on an oscilloscope if you have one.

 

[CalvinT]

I have to admit I've never tried using the 110 V outlet, but this discussion has me wondering...

A friend has a Jackery. I'm going to try it, my computer charger and some other gadgets I have laying around and see which work or don't work. To me that's more of an issue than waveform.

 

[Brian_B]

Flipping through new topics and seeing the title
again - the first thing to mind was
“most things in the rear just take D cells”

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