If you do add an outlet I would be curious to see where you end up placing it. I am slowly working on a rear drawer project that will incorporate a 200ah of LiFePO4 batteries and an inverter/charger. Plan to place an outlet in the rear and one somewhere in the front as well but have not identified a great spot for one yet.
Additional 110/120 V Outlet In Front of Vehicle (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter bkfitz
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172 watts per the nameplate (lenova), there seems to be a start up draw of even more current for the first second.
on a cheap inverter, it kind of cycles the inverter in a bizarre oscillation.
you MIGHT be able to skinflint it by plugging the laptop charger into the 110v plug, let the internal capacitors charge up for a few seconds, and THEN plugging the charger into the laptop. that might handle the initial current spike better. also, charging the laptop when it is off might help.
Markuson
SILVER Star
Ya, that’s pretty high draw as laptops go…
The OEM isn’t gonna cut it at just 100.
My 15” MacBook Pro pulls just 85 max.
RET2
SILVER Star
Surfing or welding?
Surfing or welding?
. well it IS a gaming laptop with an Nvidia graphics card, but yeah it draws a lot of juice
RET2
SILVER Star
Ok just as long as it's not for something frilly like a Margarita blender or disco ball.
Thinking outside of the box/inverter... I like powerful laptops as much as the next guy. Unless you're wanting to setup for mobile gaming, maybe cheaper and more effective to get a different laptop that has all day battery life? Many can easily do that these days. And/or one that can charge off of USB-C PD?
Blending Margaritas is nothing to joke about! Have you no shame!
I started a thread asking what people used the 2000 watt inverters fueled by 4 gauge welding cable for, and I was surprised and educated at the same time. While I’ve never enjoyed a bag of microwave popcorn and the warm glow of an electric firepit while on a camping trip I can respect those that do! Maybe…
OP I’d run an extension cord or use one of the factory 12V jacks and a cheap inverter to keep all the doodads changed! I carry 150watt inverter I’ve had for 20 years my kids used to charge/run gameboys and DVD players back when we were all younger. It works great for the occasional 110V low current needs.
RET2
SILVER Star
OK I confess, uninstalled 2k owner here. Saving for a microwave.
for business reasons, there is specific high end software installed on that machine i needed for work.
but now that i am mostly retired.....i already DID order a new laptop with lower power needs! way ahead of you.
just an OT, but i was doing a lot of road tripping a few years ago, and got a samsung tablet with trucker software on it for detailed GPS mapping, and weather radar links and hotel booking sw. I had to get rid of it. These tablets have touch sensitive screens, and no keyboard. so i would be on the highway tooling along at 70 mph, reach over for something in the passenger screen, and accidentally touch the tablet. it would then go off and do some other thing that required me to touch the screen many times to get back to where i was. after doing that about 20 times on one trip, i was ready to throw the damn thing out the window.
After years of trying to keep my wife warm camping and throwing crazy money at high end sleeping bags, insulated sleeping pads, etc I am going full cheat codes.
My wife sleeps colder than any human I have ever known, she is claustrophobic so a mummy bag is just right out, and we have a couple high end down filled 2 person bags (Big Agnes King Solomon 15 and Sierra Design Backcountry Bed 20 Duo) but even trying to tuck myself or our son in with her for body heat she just moves around so much she ends up halfway out of the bag and wakes up freezing... over and over again.
Sooo I am certainly not going to throw in the towel on camping, but also don't want a miserable sleep deprived popsicle of a wife so I'm going big battery bank, inverter and a full residential heated mattress pad, if that's not enough I'll throw a heated blanket on top of her too and just roast her to her hearts content
We did over a year of full time travel in an RV (Grand Design 399TH) and I'm just over it. I don't want another camper, not for a long time. I like that I can keep all of our camping gear sans food up in the cargo box full time and we can go on a whim. I just need to solve the comfort factor for the wife and this seems like a pretty fool proof solution. After building the off-grid energy system for our RV that would run 3 AC units off grid in perpetuity I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how to design a solid system for this use and I'm sure we'll find other creative uses for it as well.
RET2
SILVER Star
Kudos on you perseverance Sir. BTW it's not cheating if it works, it's innovation.After years of trying to keep my wife warm camping and throwing crazy money at high end sleeping bags, insulated sleeping pads, etc I am going full cheat codes.
My wife sleeps colder than any human I have ever known, she is claustrophobic so a mummy bag is just right out, and we have a couple high end down filled 2 person bags (Big Agnes King Solomon 15 and Sierra Design Backcountry Bed 20 Duo) but even trying to tuck myself or our son in with her for body heat she just moves around so much she ends up halfway out of the bag and wakes up freezing... over and over again.
Sooo I am certainly not going to throw in the towel on camping, but also don't want a miserable sleep deprived popsicle of a wife so I'm going big battery bank, inverter and a full residential heated mattress pad, if that's not enough I'll throw a heated blanket on top of her too and just roast her to her hearts content
We did over a year of full time travel in an RV (Grand Design 399TH) and I'm just over it. I don't want another camper, not for a long time. I like that I can keep all of our camping gear sans food up in the cargo box full time and we can go on a whim. I just need to solve the comfort factor for the wife and this seems like a pretty fool proof solution. After building the off-grid energy system for our RV that would run 3 AC units off grid in perpetuity I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how to design a solid system for this use and I'm sure we'll find other creative uses for it as well.
Dunbar
SILVER Star
More on perpetual off grid AC setup please!
I’ll see if I can dig up some Visio drawings of the setup the cliff notes version is:
2 x Victron 3KVA MultiPlus wired in split phase so I could pass through a full 2phase 50A service on shore power and run each phase with 30Amps on battery.
6 x 360 watt Solar Panels
ONAN 5KVA generator with 60gal of fuel onboard
12 x Renogy LiFEPo4 100Ah batteries
3 x MicroAir soft start controllers for the AC units
If I was doing it again I’d definitely build a 48V system and have a custom pack made by IronEdison or the like vs paralleling a bunch of 12V batteries and running a 12V system but it was the start of the pandemic and a lot of this stuff was impossible to get. I made due with what I could actually find in stock and buy.
I still have a Victron 48V to 12V converter sitting around I need to eBay as I started down the road on a 48V system and just hit too many supply roadblocks.
That's a nice setup. Were you able to squeeze an inverter back there? I kind of wish I didn't have the rear AV controls in that spot. I've considered trying to modify it to add some USB ports. I have a 2010, so I don't even have the 12v plug that was moved up to the empty panel here. Currently i use a little brick that has 2 12v plugs and 5 USB with a 6ft 12v extension that i run between the passenger seat up to the front and just plug into the console 12v when the kids are in the back.
I have bought some parts already to add a 12v to the spot the early models don't have, but 120v there would be pretty cool too.
Have a shot of the backside of your rear console panel?
CharlieS
GOLD Star
BlueSea makes some USB plugs that fit the same spot as a cigarette lighter plug. A step bit would make it easy to add.
The 110 volt inverter needs to be put some where else. If you are keeping the rear seats then you can fit it behind the cargo panels easily. The you can run the wire under the carpet to that center consol. Same for USB plugs or 12 volt if you put them there.
Bringing this thread back up us we will be going on a cross country road trip in a few weeks. My son has a gaming laptop that he we want to use while on the long drive, like 14+ hours 1 way. His laptop pulls almost 200 watts. So what is the best short term fix here. To buy a cheap inverter that connects directly to the battery or to buy a jackery? I was going to post up a separate thread about the possibility of replacing the factory inverter for the 100 watt outlet in the back but even if that is possible it's probably not going to be possible with the short amount of time I have before the trip. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!
