400W AC POWER IN THE BED DOESNT MEET NEEDS

Toyota wants the Tundra to be a "work truck" and so developed and optioned the 400W 120V Power receptacle in the bed of the truck. I had the perfect chance to use it this week and was severely disappointed with the outcome. Laid the tailgate down to set up my workbench and set my compound saw on it and plugged it in. Went to cut my first piece of 2x4 and the saw had no torque (saw blade stopped within three rotations).

The unfortunate reality is that the output power can provide no more than roughly 3.3A. Not many tools are seriously going to run using that small a power draw. Sorry Toyota. I LOVE MY TRUCK!!! Please don't misunderstand, but I am sure there are some Toyota people who have influence or otherwise know the right people to get the information out there. With the iForce Max engine/batteries, you could put a serious 2400W inverter power receptacle on that truck that would meet a typical 20A circuit (typical garage outlet ampere rating).

 

The torque curve on a compound saw is incredible. It is hard to feed a circuit through DC invertor and handle equipment with that kind of inrush current. For this reason, motors and HVAC equipment are difficult to power through any battery BESS system. This is not specific to Toyota. For hard hitting loads, you will need a generator. Hitting your invertor like this will cause a voltage sag, which can also damage your invertor/electrical system

 

Yea, it would have been better to just not offer the 120V outlets than the underpowered outlets they implemented. The 100/400W outlets are next to useless.

I bought one of these for portable power. Pure sine wave AC at 2000W (4000W surge) and also outputs 12V and 5V.
https://www.pecron.com/products/pecron-e2000lfp-portable-power-station

 

This feels like utter spam.

 

Even with an inverter that size, I would suggest a soft-start saw, or retro the one he has. I believe the surge on that invertor suppresses load, it doesn't give you 4000w of available instantaneous load. It'll still sag like hell.
If op were to meter his saw, it would most likely pull well over the 20 amps of the home circuit he mentioned. Because home breakers are thermal and don't actually sense current, they allow this for a moment. 2400w DC, fed from a car battery, is not equivalent to 20 amps fed from a 120v single phase service.

 

It's not obvious from the picture but that inverter has an integrated 1920Wh 26V LiFePO4 battery. It will run the 16,000BTU A/C in my sailboat without issue and the startup on that is pretty huge. Granted it will only run it for an hour to two before it's drained but I tested it just to see if it could handle it. It can also be charged from a 10A 12V car outlet (all be it very slowly). It comes with a 600W AC charger but the Tundra outlet couldn't handle that.

 

Any chance a retrofit will be made avail for us owners?

 

Yea, Let me just bring my compound saw to the dealer. smh

I didn't buy the truck with the intent of using said compound saw. I just know Toyota on their advertising is touting it as a work truck when displaying the bed outlet. Thought I would give it a try and this is what I found out and thought ya'll would like some feedback. Stand down cowboy or just don't respond.

 

I figured the outlet was placed there for cordless tool battery charging, jobsite boomboxes, or smaller appliances. It didn't even cross my mind to try a compound saw...but that would be awesome if you could actually run a small power tools like drills or circular saws off it.

 

this ^

the continuous load is one thing, the start up spike/surge draw is another, needs to be taken into account.

 

another point I wanted to add, toyota really needs to update this for the hybrid trucks, 400 W is useless.

my wife's Sienna even has 1500.

so its good to hear they are hoping adding 2400 like RyanG stated.

 

Electric motors often pull 6 times the running amperage on startup. If you have a large 10 amp miter saw, it's pulling 60 amps just for a split second when you pull the trigger. It also will spike when you drive the blade into a hard piece of wood. Depending on the inverter's construction it may not be able to handle it. Lots of inverters and generators tend to have running and peak or surge wattage ratings. The latter tends to be bullshit. Bottom line is that plug in the bed is a gimmick for charging batteries and running a box fan or a light.

You may be able to use a battery bank to absorb the surge from running the saw and charge it off the truck, but i cant say for sure i havent tried it.

Something like this:
https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb1...ower-station-and-simultaneous-battery-charger

 

Just be mindful of it. It may be starting and still receiving a huge voltage drop. Voltage sag on inrush causes current spikes, and AC compressors are especially vulnerable to damage from under voltage starting. More so than standard squirrel cage motors.

If you have a good meter, clamp the leads on the AC side of the invertor and start the equipment. Make note of the voltage on startup. It shouldn't drop below 5% of nameplate nominal voltage.

 

Also, running the saw with major voltage drop at startup will burn the motor out faster. Whatever solution you find shouldn't let the motor bog down too badly.

 

I have owned several tundras but this is my first with power in the bed. I have read these posts trying to figure out what I can and cant use. I will admit I know knowledge about watts and amps but do need an answer. I know power tools wont work but what about small appliances like an electric cooktop or hot plate. Thanks

 

Volts X amps = watts. If hot plate draws 10 amps at 120 volts you have 1200 watts. Most likely isn't going to work. Not sure why they bothered with the plug at all since it's only good for 400 watts.

 

One solution is to switch to m18 tools or something along those lines. Use the inverter to charge the m18 batteries

 

Hot plate will not work..Limited on what you can run off 400 watt outlet. 3.3 amps max. Volt x Amp = Watts

 

Work van has a 2400 watt inverter ran to battery with 1/0 cable. Runs a 71/4" circular saw fine. Never thought about a 12" miter saw? Probably generator territory.

 

The truck bed power is utterly useless. Can't even charge my Makita batteries since the charger is 300W.

 

The 120v outlets work fine for charging my Milwaukee m18 batteries on the way to a job. They work well for just about all charging situations, or running basic electronics.

When I bought my truck, I saw it only had a 400w inverter and understood it would only have a few amps available.

 

We run a
DOMETIC CFX3 45-Liter portable refrigerator just fine. Sure it sucks that whenever we turn the truck off to gas up or make a stop we have to remember to push the button, but that's a minor inconvenience.

 

Gonna try this to at least keep my 400watts while driving...

https://caliraisedled.com/products/400w-anytime-wiring-harness

 

I wonder if doing that runs the risk of starving the spark plugs from enough current to operate properly. There must be a reason the engineers limited the inverter output when driving.

 

MPG...less drag on the alternator

 

We have M18 batteries to supply short term power to a Starlink. We carry an M18 12v/AC-DC charger to supplement the batteries and can attach them to our trailers Lithium battery's cig adapter. I charges just fine.