AC outlet- who uses it

Being the OP of this thread and seeing the results of the poll, most people do not and have never used the power outlet. The main reason I would conclude is that it's simply underpowered and cannot run what most people want, like a power tool. Perhaps the lawyers at Toyota concluded that if the outlet was made to actually run power equipment it wouldn't take long until someone died from carbon monoxide poisoning from running the vehicle in an enclosed area to power their tools, then the lawsuits would follow, so the made it only powerful enough to light a LED light bulb and that is about it. Thanks for taking part in the poll.

 

Sweers says it's to run your flat screen TV while you are tailgating. It will probably do that OK. I plan to use it for battery chargers that won't run on 12V. I think it would be cool to have a bigger unit as an option, but I bet the aftermarket has a better, though generic, solution already. I think an 800W unit with 1400W surge (for short saw cuts and/or starting current) would be a lot more useful; Especially if coupled with an aux battery. Someone get on it!

 

Keep in mind you polled in the 3rd gen forum. While some of us wander all over the place (via the 'new posts' selection) many folks only view in specific forums.

You might get different results in the 2nd gen forum.

I do know there are nice articles on how to make the 400w anytime mod, and some have even put an outlet in-cab in the console, looking very neat.

Yes, it has limitations, but considering we're not using a power company line truck here, it's not bad. It's not meant to substitute for an on site generator.

I think my favorite use was crock pot cooking while on the road. Dinner was ready for the evening when the destination was reached. That ain't all bad.

 

Very true, I should have polled 2nd gen also, but I have a feeling those 2nd generation folks read most posts for the 3rd gen to see what they might be missing out on.

 

Used in my 2012 Taco and on my 2014 T4R...I dig it.

 

It works great for the only thing I ever tried.... the Coleman electric cooler....... Keeps my beer and fresh caught fish cold... That's all it's intended for... upgrade if you need more...

 

Cell phones, laptops, electric razors, Wahl hair clipper, rechargeable AA/AAA batteries, power tool battery charging, jump pack charging, charging spotlight battery. If you don't have shore power an inverter is a great feature.

I've installed aftermarket inverters since '98 (never had the Toyota 400W), a 450W modified sine wave and a 600W pure sine wave. Mounted them under the driver seat, ran an extension cord to the bed.

Put a 4-way AC plug on the inverter and you can keep four devices charged or inuse while you're driving. 400W anytime mod or aftermarket you have a very nice feature to use without the engine running. Gotta be careful about battery drain but that's why I use the inverter to keep the jump pack charged.

600W IMO is the max with the 130A alternator and the 27F battery. Upgraded alternator and dual battery you can go higher wattage.

 

I am thinking of plugging a battery charger to the outlet in the bed,then run the cables from the charger to the battery on my small travel trailer.This will be connected while I am driving.I have the 400 mod done.Will this cause any problems to my truck due to back feed?I worry that charging like this with 7 pin connected at same time will cause problems.

 

I used it recently to charge a dead camera battery. It's a pretty handy feature. I carry an extension cord (so in a pinch I can run power to the cab) and multi-receptacle adapter so I feel prepared.

When I get around to camping, I'll have most of by battery powered equipment (lantern, flashlight, inflator) standardized on the same 18v battery packs I use in my tools. I plan to use the inverter to charge batteries while I drive. We'll see how that works.

The poll needs something between "often" and "once", say "occasionally"?

 

Why not use the hot wire on the 7-pin to charge as its intended?

 

I use mine almost every day...for charging phone, tool, and camera batteries.
But then I have an inverter hard wired under the passenger seat.
I will likely install one there in my 2016 too if there is room. I dislike that the factory one is in the back and needs the engine running for a measly 400 watts and I doubt I'll use it much.

 

Haven't towed with this truck yet,but have had problems in the past with other vehicles not charging the battery enough through the 7 pin.My old Ford was only pushing 12.5 volts.Checked the Taco last night and am showing 14.1 at the seven pin so will probably be good.I do only dry camping in the country so I will be using this setup to run charger once in a while when parked also.And no I don't want to run heavier wire.MY QUESTION was will it backfeed and cause any problems if both are connected.

 

I use it to charge camera batteries quite a bit. One time a few years ago, we had to put a new electrical service on our cabin from snow damage. The AC Outlet came in very handy when we needed to cut off the old service with an angle grinder while we had zero power to the cabin. Works as advertised.

 

Used the outlet to run a Makita angle grinder with plenty of power to run it. Next step is to try a circular saw and a 4x4 PT post. That might be pushing it...

 

Most likely it will backfeed

 

That's a huge waste of power.

 

Is it so hard to just answer the question?All I get are replies like waste of electricity or why not use 7 pin like supposed to.The question is still the same.Will it back feed and cause any problem or does Tacoma have some type of protection built in to prevent this causing problems?If you don't know then that is fine,but why waste time replying without answering the question?

 

must be a misprint on iPod 120 watts....more like 1.2 watts.

 

First, sorry for the responses so far. This is the 3rd Gen forum, so that sort of thing happens.

I don't think I would do this if the trailer battery is connected to anything in common with the truck. I'm not that familiar with trailer wiring, but if you had trailer brakes that use the battery as backup and the brakes or lights could ever be powered by the truck and the charger at the same time, I'd say not to risk it. Under those conditions you'd have two sources trying to regulate one load. It might work, but it might not. I wouldn't want to risk my $40k GoPro accessory (my truck) on such a setup. However....

IF you just want to charge a house battery on the trailer and it is not connected to anything that is connected to the truck's wiring (common ground is OK and I would expect that) then your proposed setup should work just dandy and would totally rock that.

Sooo, it really depends on how your trailer is wired while you are charging and I don't have enough information to make a call.


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I have a portable jump starter/power source, the common type with a built in VRLA battery (gel-cell). The built-in AC charger is a nice 3-stage design that efficiently charges the battery and won't overcharge it. If you just run the trucks DC into it, it will charge, but you have to be careful because there's no regulation and it is subject to overcharging. The instructions say no more than 2 hours at a time in this configuration. So, I plan to use the inverter AC to charge it if that ever becomes necessary while I am on the road or trail. However, in this case the battery being charged is completely isolated from the DC of the truck (when using the inverter).

Looking back over this post, I have no idea if I have provided any useful information, but I feel better. So there's that.

 

YES IT WILL BACK FEED. There I answered you twice if you would bother to look on the previous page. What you are trying to do is equivelant to trying to charge the truck battery while using the in bed inverter. You need to isolate the trailer battery from the truck wiring if you are going to use a charger, but that is still a poor idea.