In Bed Outlet 400w/100w Conversion to 400w while driving?

Is there any downside to converting the stock 400w/100w inverter to 400w all the time? Why does Toyota limit the watts to 100 while in drive?

 

No many people have done this including me. I will actually be coming out with a Plug-N-Play Kit soon for this mod

 

I added an in cab outlet on my gen 2. Used it way more than the bed outlet.
I realize this is sort of off topic, but WTH.

 

Thanks! I am potentially interested in the PnP kit... LMK when it comes out.

 

I just bought my Taco less than 2 weeks ago so I am just figuring things out. So, do you get 400w output with the engine running and the trans in neutral? And what is the output with the engine off?

 

100W while driving, 400W while park or neutral and 0W when engine off.
But I have doubts that it is putting out 100W while driving.
I have a new Goal Zero Yeti 1000 Solar Generator and my fridge while plugged into the Goal Zero showed 67W but when I attempted to run it straight to the Tacoma's bed outlet while driving it would not run and the Tacoma's inverter shut off.

 

100 watts, engine off, ignition on.

Mine does that occasionally when I drive. I try to keep my eye on that light on the button and turn it back on and it stays on. Have you tried that? Seems like surge power capacity (when refer turns on) might not be so good at the claimed 100 watts.

Edit: Or you could use the Yeti in between the inverter and refer as a buffer?

 

Probably because when you’re driving you need more watts from the alternator to run lights, ac, heat, etc. So, while in drive it drops to 100W.

 

Yes- I have tried turning it back on after it shuts itself off but I am not a fortunate as you mine continually shuts itself off. I did test the Yeti this morning on the way to work and without any draw on it, it continually charged. I now test it by plugging the fridge into the Yeti, which I expect it to work fine. However, I don't think until the fridge gets to temperature and the compressor is not running will the Tacoma be able to recharge the Yeti, which should be between 7-8watts of draw after it reaches temp.

 

Thanks... I will try this. I thought I had previously, but maybe I was thinking it was going to run at 400w.

 

If you’re running any kind of dual battery set up you could use one of these on the spare battery. They have great reviews, very affordable and go up to 2000W. I just bought one to have in an emergency.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Schumacher-Power-Converter-750W-1500-Peak-Watt-XI75DU/303120961914

 

My Yeti 400 Lithium charge controller limits input to approximate 70 watts. Goal Zero customer service says sumptin sumptin about lithium charging safety. Yours is limited to 120 watts according to the user guide. Makes it impossible to fill that thing up unless you hang out in camp all day long tending to the solar panel or hooked up to the RV camp electrical outlet. And who wants to do that. I think maybe strolling over to the dual battery threads will be in your future

 

Back to square one. Goal Zero Yeti 1000 runs just fine while driving and it is plugged into the bed outlet... 100w. But as soon as I plug the Dometic into the Yeti the Tacoma inverter shuts off while in Drive. Would love to understand what is happening.

 

Could your inverter be defective? Try devices with increasing loads while engine off/ignition on. My Wahl clipper uses 10 watts, no problems. Find something similar and devices with increasing loads. See what the failure point is. Toyota says that condition allows 100 watts. You can take a failure point below stated to the dealership for warranty.

 

I am looking at the small one of these https://bigkahunashowers.com/ with the heater for camping and am trying find a way to heat it.

I don't have experience with inverters, do you think there would be any problem using that kind of inverter to power the water heater for the 10-15 minutes it would take to heat up 5 gallons of water?

I have a dual battery set up with 12v power in the bed and would connect to that.

 

Power electronics (charging your goal zero) behave differently than mechanical components (the motor that spins the compressor in your fridge). Motors have a startup current which almost always exceeds the normal operating current by a factor of several times (varies based on a lot of things, but yeah..) Electronics usually dont have such a surge.

Then there is something called power factor that AC circuits and devices have to contend with. Ideally its always 1.0 on a AC circuit, but usually isnt. Especially for motors on startup. They may require more VAR's than the Toyota inverter can produce (I've never seen a spec sheet on the inverter thats detailed enough to give that info, but to be fair Ive never looked)

Lastly, we have to consider pure vs modified sine wave AC. Again, not sure, but if I had to guess these inverters dont output a true sine wave, which messes with the before mentioned stuff a little bit more..

Long story short, the power rating (watts) of a device you're plugging in is really only part of the story here. Its a pretty reasonable assumption that the reason your fridge keeps tripping off is due to the mechanical nature of it

 

That website is pretty garbage. It doesnt tell you the power of the heating element.. No way of sizing a sufficient inverter without knowing some basic info about it

 

As an experienced RVer I can tell you that using 12vdc power inverted to 120vac to try and run a heating element is a bad idea. To put it briefly it will stress the battery and if the engine is running the output of the alternator is likely not sufficient to overcome electricity line loss and the the power draw of a heat element capable of heating water.

For showering while camping I heat water with a gas stove and then use this: http://www.hotjugz.com/

The key component of the above portable shower is the low flow shower head which does allow you to shower with less than 2 gallons of water. And it does not require 12v or 120v, which imo makes it superior to the Big Kahuna.

I have had my Hot Jugz portable shower for 9 years of use without problems.

 

The only way I found it was watching one of the videos, I think it was an 800w heater unit.

 

Thanks, I will look at this one. I like the simple design but was looking for ways to avoid carrying around additional propane containers, we only have a smallish cook stove so can probably do it but would it would take a while, thanks for the recommendation