12v outlets & power stations

[jsmilanic]

Hello 6G forum! First time posting. I took delivery of my 2023 Badlands this February and absolutely love the thing.

Last month I did a month-long overlanding trip out west. I was powering my Anker 757 via the rear 12v outlet, which powered my fridge among other things. I used the provided 12v cigarette lighter power cable that came with the Anker. It all worked great for the first 20 days or so of the trip and then both of the 12v outlets in my Bronco gave out. I’m no car expert but I did check the fuses and that wasn’t the issue.

Today I dropped it off at Ford since it’s still under warranty. They claim that maybe it won’t be covered under warranty.

My question is is this something I should have had an inverter for the whole time? I asked Anker how much power it draws via the 12v cable and they said 120w/hour at around 10a. Any insight or suggestions? Thanks!

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[da_jokker]

Absolutely no reason that shouldn't be covered under warranty. Now if it's just a fuse it means you overloaded the circuit and that's on you. But if it's not the fuse then that should be a warranty item.

As for your setup, what I would recommend is to get a power station and plug that into the rear cargo. Then plug everything into that.

The power station will take the load, and the Bronco will simply help keep the power station charged.

Fyi, as you're probably aware, the 12 volt outlets only keep power for so long once the Bronco has been shut off. I find this actually perfect with a setup I mentioned above.

 

[35tires]

Today I dropped it off at Ford since it’s still under warranty. They claim that maybe it won’t be covered under warranty.

That's not going to fly with me and shouldn't with you either. I hate to say call Ford corporate, but honestly even as much of a hassle as they are, they got stuff fixed for me. If you live in a small town with one dealership that's a hard play, but if you have options, exercise them.

 

[Finbox]

There should be a fuse inside the 12v cigarette plug of the Anker

 

[jsmilanic]

There should be a fuse inside the 12v cigarette plug of the Anker

It's good to know that there's a fuse in there. That's not the problem but helpful! I tried another 12v male plug for a different device and nothing was working.

 

[jsmilanic]

That's not going to fly with me and shouldn't with you either. I hate to say call Ford corporate, but honestly even as much of a hassle as they are, they got stuff fixed for me. If you live in a small town with one dealership that's a hard play, but if you have options, exercise them.

Just to be clear they said maybe it won't be covered. Not an official word yet. It's the only dealership in town but I could go down the highway a bit. I will fight it. I checked with the manufacturer of the Anker power station and it seems like it draws a reasonable out of power that the bronco outlets should be able to handle. I'll fight to have it covered by warranty.

 

[jsmilanic]

As for your setup, what I would recommend is to get a power station and plug that into the rear cargo. Then plug everything into that.

That was exactly how I had it set up and it worked wonderfully for the first ~20 days or so.

Thanks for the reply it is helpful!

 

[GuiGarcia05]

Hello 6G forum! First time posting. I took delivery of my 2023 Badlands this February and absolutely love the thing.

Last month I did a month-long overlanding trip out west. I was powering my Anker 757 via the rear 12v outlet, which powered my fridge among other things. I used the provided 12v cigarette lighter power cable that came with the Anker. It all worked great for the first 20 days or so of the trip and then both of the 12v outlets in my Bronco gave out. I’m no car expert but I did check the fuses and that wasn’t the issue.

Today I dropped it off at Ford since it’s still under warranty. They claim that maybe it won’t be covered under warranty.

My question is is this something I should have had an inverter for the whole time? I asked Anker how much power it draws via the 12v cable and they said 120w/hour at around 10a. Any insight or suggestions? Thanks!

Hey there!

following up on this to see how did it all end up?
I’m experiencing the exact same issue with my EcoFlow power station.
Everything worked great for a few months now, and then all of a sudden, nothing from the cigarette lighter in the cargo area.
Thought I’d check before going thru the dealership.

 

[DC9atnight]

Following

 

[Brian_B]

There have been a few posts along this vein here. Seems I recall one saying they found the socket had been damaged and it melted one of the wires off?

But that was just one, not like everyone was having that issue.

Im wondering one of two things; either the sockets Ford is using aren’t meant to handle a duty cycle of 100% and/ortheir 20A rating (which is likely), and/or the power stations are drawing more than their 120W advertised 12v power (also likely)

At this point I would say if you want to run a power station - run a fused dedicated 12V line for it with its own socket. It seems the rear cargo power point isn’t up to the task.

But you should get it fixed under warranty - you didn’t do anything wrong to it

 

[swooshdave]

That's not going to fly with me and shouldn't with you either. I hate to say call Ford corporate, but honestly even as much of a hassle as they are, they got stuff fixed for me. If you live in a small town with one dealership that's a hard play, but if you have options, exercise them.

The reason the dealer has to say that is if it's a fuse that's not a warranty item and the owner will pay for the service. It's not some conspiracy by Ford.

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