The only use for bed outlet

Used it a few times ... powered a 26" TV at a football tailgate, powered a jigsaw to cut speaker holes for a boat, George Foreman grill, small shop vac to blow up tubes for the river, power to blow up air mattress, etc. Never had an issue with it!

 

I used it to run hedge trimmers so I could do the far side of the neighbors house. He was in the hospital and his outside electric outlets were nonfunctional.
It did shut off several times so that load was running at my trucks capability.

 

Used it on a road trip for my coffeeboxx. The coffee maker needed 1000 watts and shut off several times but eventually got a cup out of it.

 

Kept my house warm last year during a power outage.

Had enough juice to run my circulation pump, burner, and of course zone valves and T-stats.

Yes, of course I shut off the mains at the panel - duh.

 

I sold him my used blow up dolls. I was surprised they still blew.

 

The plug is used for this when you take your wife hunting ....

 

Guess you don’t do it for her anymore?

 

I used it on my edgestar fridge/freezer so I did not have to run a wire from the cigarette lighter in the cab on a drive from Tx ti Cali

 

I prefer to pick up a pizza from Costco when I get gas on the way.

 

18 gauge wires are very telling. And most laptops require a little more than 400 watts. Be careful. Back that sucker up before you plug it in. Don't screw it up due to low power. I've got a 750w inverter that I use in the boat that I'm considering switching out to be safe.

 

I've now used mine twice to power my heat gun to unfreeze my parking brake line. Maybe that was part of Toyota's thinking when they chose the righthand side of the bed for it.

 

Only if you use "low" ... 100w while driving makes it practically useless for me lol.

There's so many other things I could see being super useful, like powering high-powered lights from the bed at a work-site, using an electric trimmer while moving, running a decent size 120v air compressor... none of which it can muster.

 

I found that just wiggling the rubber gasket where it goes into the drum does the trick, but my circumstances could have been different. Had both lines replaced and it's never frozen up again.

More on topic. I did the 400w anytime mod and kept the cock pot on low to keep the food warm while driving 1.5 hours to a family christmas thing:

 

Camera ran out of juice, used the bed outlet to charge the battery for a while. I had to turn the ignition to the second position, which turned on a bunch of stuff that I didn't want on - is that how it is supposed to work?

 

Yup... I don't think you're really "supposed" to use the outlet at all unless the truck is either running or or has the ignition on.

On a second gen like mine it's 100w while the truck is moving, 400w while the truck is idling. I've only ever used it to keep a crock pot on "low" while traveling. It was a real pain in the ass and I would have found it much more useful if I could use the 400w while moving.

 

Any easy mod to get selectivity to run inverter only, without turning on the whole freaking truck?

 

Holy crap I want your truck!

 

I've installed 600W PSW's under the driver seat on a Taco, Tundra, 4Runners. Some people go higher wattage with dual batteries and upgraded alternator. 600W was the max for me with the factory 130A alternator and single batt on those vehicles.

Fairly easy.
- Pos lead to inverter on the + batt post
- Next in line is a fuse or ckt breaker
- Add a low-voltage shutoff
- Run appropriate AWG to the grommet under driver seat
- Connect + to inverter under driver seat
- Ground inverter to seat bolt
- Run AC extension cord(s) to where you please

My barebones installs I riveted the ckt breaker and low-voltage shutoff to the fusebox cover next to the battery.

I used this https://www.donrowe.com/Samlex-SSW-600-12A-p/ssw-600-12a.htm because it's only 2.2" tall so easy to mount under the seat. Larger inverters of course you run into a problem with where to mount them.

 

@fatfurious2 , forget the bed fridge. Bed Crockpot is the new #EAF hotness!

 

I sold an old tv on craigslist, I met the buyer in a starbucks parking lot. He hemmed and hawed, wanting me to halve the price, saying he didn't want to spend my asking price of 50 bucks on an untested TV. I plugged that bastard right into the bed and started flipping through channels, and walked away 50 bucks richer.