hook up electricity to tacoma on electric campsites

Hey.

I was wondering if you're camping at a campsite that has an electric hookup if you could plug it into your truck via extension cord into one of the 12 volt outlets.

I'd like to do this like RV's do so that when the truck isn't running, you can plug it in, and still use electrical appliances (laptops, etc..) without draining the battery.

Thanks in advance.

Would a battery tender be ok if I connect it to the battery, and then use my electrical appliances?

Thanks.

 

Not thru the factory inverter but yeah, not seeing why you couldn't have retractbale cord to plug in and feed a few recepticles in the camper or cab to pwr stuff. I'd keep it seperate from any vehicle wiring tho.

 

Today I tried plugging my camper into the inverter plug to charge the battery through the 3 stage converter / charger in the RV. The charger operated fine, this was the first time I had plugged in the RV this year, so the battery was fairly low. It went for 10 minutes no issues. The load indicator on my Scangauge showed a 5% (29 - 34%) increase in engine load, fuel consumption was 1.35 Liters per hour (no load / idle is 1.25LPH). This seems very fuel efficient. A good option for dry camping. No point getting a generator.
I also tried a hair dryer on 3 different settings. 400watts, 800w, and 1200w. On 400w, I believe the inverter was keeping up fine, the truck showed 40%load, and 1.5 LPH.
On the 800w setting, the fan on the dryer was not blowing as hard as normal, and was not generating very hot air. The inverter did not shut off though. I only tested it for 20 seconds. 43% load, still around 1.5LPH.
On the 1200w setting, the inverter never shut off, but was not putting out anywhere near 120v. The truck was still @ 43%load, 1.5LPH.
The indicated voltage on the truck never dropped below 13.5V, indicating that the alternator was keeping up no problem. Very cool.

 

Very informative post Hemi. Thanks.

 

Hemi how are you getting up to 1200 watts i thought the inverter could only get to 400

 

It was not putting out even close to 1200, maybe 600ish. My testing suggested it will surge to 600watts without shutting off.