TRD outlet in bed question

Hey everyone,

Quick question- does the outlet stay on continuously when you turn on from cab? I never used mine when I first purchased my taco new in 2013. I have used it a few times in the last 3 months and it only stays on for like 5 min if that. Is this normal? Was gonna take to dealer but wanted to check with all of you first.

Thanks

 

Are you running the engine while using it? Are you overloading it?

 

Yes, forgot to include - engine is running while this happens

 

I've used the outlet on my 2016 for power tools and haven't had it shut off on me. I've done it with the truck on and off. I don't see that the two systems are different. That would be pretty frustrating! I'd go to the fuses first. I know it shouldn't work at all if the fuse is blown, but I had a similar issue with the cigarette lighter in a Jeep and fixed it by changing the two fuses.

 

In addition to ForeRunner's point. The outlet is rated for 100 Watts when the truck engine is not running. When the engine IS running, it's rated for 400 Watts. I haven't played with the outlet yet and don't know what the manual says, but I don't know if the 100W is available ALL the time, or if you have to have the ignition in the "accessory" or "on" mode for it to be energized. I would think you would want that so not any jack-hole could come along and plug something into your truck when you weren't around.

Also if you want to get really anal about it, household tools are basically rated for 3 different voltages. 110, 115, and 120. FR gave you the ratings for a tool rated at 120V. Use his formula figure it out for 110 and 115, but they will all obviously be in the same ball park and I don't know how sensitive the current detection is on this.

Lastly, based on your problem you aren't blowing a fuse. Once again, I haven't looked at this electrically, but it sounds like it's protected from a thermal overload and not a fuse. A thermal overload will open the circuit based on circuit temperature. Once it has had a couple minutes to cool down, the contact closes making it available again. But this should be a tell-tale that you are overloading the circuit. Eventually you will burn up the thermal overload and it won't work at all.

Sounds like you just need to quit using it for whatever tool you are trying to use it for.

 

I don't know jack about electricity so I always farm out any electrical jobs. This is great to know. I'll be checking the amps on all of my power tools now. I've run a skill saw, power drill, and sawsall off of the outlet without any problems. Really nice to have while working the fence line.

 

Doesn't it shut down if it's overloaded? Might be a temp thing for the converter. Wonder if anyone has thought to add a cooling fan to the converter to dissipate the heat when close to the max.

 

Its 400w only when running and in park (or before pushing the clutch to the floor i.e. putting it in gear). 100w when out of park and driving. Doesn't work if the ignition is off. Stupid to use if you just turn the ignition to on.

 

Thanks guys! All this makes a lot of sense. I'm not to sharp on electrical . Yet- all I've done was plug in a mini shop vac to to try to vac my truck and a blow dryer when removing badges and both times power would only last 2-5 min. Not sure what voltage was on both shop vac and blow dryer- but I assume not that much?

Was thinking of dropping by dealer after work- what do you guys think? Also Gonna check manual.

 

Yeah a typical blow dryer can be up to 2000 watts and a mini shop vac can easily pull 800 watts. I'm surprised it lasted as long as you say. This isn't worth wasting your time going to a dealer, you just overloaded it.

 

Wouldn't hurt to check them. All of those are short duration tools, so while you are overloading the circuit, you aren't running them long enough to trip the thermal overload (assuming that's what it's protected by). If you held the trigger under load for an extended period, then you may start to see it trip off. You are probably drilling a hole, or making a quick cut then getting off of the tool so the circuit doesn't have time to trip. Not that it's a good thing, you may still be overloading it, but you aren't seeing a circuit trip.

Once again, I don't know if it's a thermal overload, but from what I'm reading here I can infer that it is. And a fan wouldn't really do anything. It's as current draw increases, the temp of the wire does too. Think of how you see the heat element in a hair dryer glow or an incandescent light bulb glow. It's why a light bulb gets so hot you can pop popcorn. Blowing a fan on it will not keep the wire or circuit from getting hot. Once it gets to a point it's going to open the circuit regardless of a fan on it or not.

You are just overloading the circuit. It's definitely not rated for the hairdryer. That has more amp draw than just about any device in your house!! Anything that produces heat is going to be high amps. The vac is overloading it as well probably and it's running long enough to trip the thermal overload. If you read the other responses, you may be able to run a drill or a saw for a brief bit of time, but those are tools where you pull the trigger to run the tool for a few seconds then let off. You are running a vacuum cleaner for a decidedly much longer duration so the circuit temp comes up and trips until it has time to cool off. And that DEFINITELY the case for the hair dryer or ANY heat producing device.

Also keep in mind that using extension cords also increases the electrical load.

Overloading periodically probably won't hurt too much, but if you know you are constantly tripping and resetting, then you're best off not using it for that purpose. And you're best off not overloading it all. Sooner or later the Thermal protection will burn up and it won't be usable at all. Worst case, the contact welds shut, but then you would probably blow the fuse and you'll be done until you replace the fuse for the circuit.

 

Thanks man! Went out to my truck and plugged in a walkie talky and seem's to hold up just fine when engine running. Looked online specs for my shop vac and site says its 110V household- so this all makes sense.

 

Plugged a set of Christmas lights in just to check to make sure there was power there when I got it. Haven't used it for anything else yet.

 

Hey!! At some point, I've jumped up in status to being a well-known member. Yay Me!!!

Okay

^^^^THIS^^^^ Nails it. Look at what you're wanting to run. If it has a motor, it will have an amp rating on it. If it says mA on the rating, you are fine. If the engine is running, probably anything 3.5a or less is fine. If the engine isn't running anything less than 1a is probably okay.

It's not meant to run construction equipment to build a house. It's meant to plug your speakers in while you're tailgating. Maybe hitting blender real quick to make your margarita (mine is 500W, but a quick bump won't hurt I wouldn't think), or plug your crock pot in to keep the melted cheese warm. Of course the engine has to be running for all of this.

Other than that, charge your phone, iPod, iPad or iwhatever or, oh yeah, Christmas Lights, LOL

 

Not trying to jack the thread, but the "Magic Bullet" blender only draws 250W. It's not going to make big batches, and it's so/so for crushing ice, but it'll run within the limits of the inverter (which is the main reason I bought one for tailgating). As for the OP question, shop vacs and hair driers are definitely going to pull enough amps to overload the TRD inverter; odds are there's a self-resetting breaker built into the circuit somewhere, or the thermal protection might be set right on the transformer, (or both) which is why you're seeing the system shut down pretty quickly.

I've always wondered what the 100W level while driving could really be used for. I suppose you could trickle-charge the batteries in a camper-trailer while travelling, but that seems most useful if you're camping a day or two between 6-8 hour driving stretches, which seems like an uncommon plan for most kinds of vacations.

 

Best approach is to look at the amps both start-up and running. I've run a bunch of stuff at the same time when I went in order from highest to lowest to plug in and turn on.

 

Laptops use around 60W.

 

Sounds like about all we can do is mix a daiquiri and blow dry our hair with the bed outlet. Should be relatively popular in the Bay area.