ProPower and engine running full time for RV use or any use

[Shooter56]

I didn't know about engineering mode. Thanks for that.

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[oneinch]

I have my doubts about the Powerboost being the bees knees powering an RV. No doubt it does it. I overnighted in the truck bed with a truck tent. It was cold and a space heater made the truck start up every 9 minutes or so. An RV will likely draw more power causing the recharge cycle to happen more frequently. In this use case I'm not impressed with the Powerboost. The truck is going to be running a lot at a time that campers are going to want and expect quiet. Furthermore, the truck's hybrid battery effectively is only about a 450 watt battery. It definitely doesn't give you 1.5 kWh of juice. That's really small. In short, yes, the truck powers an RV, but it isn't much better than a gas generator.

 

[Oakstone]

I found this thread over at F150 Forum that definitely is the same issue I’m experiencing. My solution of stopping g the truck for a while and restarting seems to align with what others have seen, though based on the Ford rep suggesting a buyback that seemed weird, like it’s a bigger known issue than what it may seem.

I think I’ll just leave the truck off for a few hours in the evening and then hopefully that will give me a solid overnight.

https://www.f150forum.com/f129/engine-won-t-turn-off-when-generator-mode-520831/

 

[Snakebitten]

I have powered my RV many times with the Powerboost. Without the Air Conditioning the load is far less than requiring the truck to run every 9 minutes.

It's closer to being between 15<>19 minutes. Resulting in the engine running around 5-6 minutes per hour.
My Yamaha 3000ISEB runs all 60 minutes, regardless of load.

There's no comparison.

 

[Blueonblue]

I have my doubts about the Powerboost being the bees knees powering an RV. No doubt it does it. I overnighted in the truck bed with a truck tent. It was cold and a space heater made the truck start up every 9 minutes or so. An RV will likely draw more power causing the recharge cycle to happen more frequently. In this use case I'm not impressed with the Powerboost. The truck is going to be running a lot at a time that campers are going to want and expect quiet. Furthermore, the truck's hybrid battery effectively is only about a 450 watt battery. It definitely doesn't give you 1.5 kWh of juice. That's really small. In short, yes, the truck powers an RV, but it isn't much better than a gas generator.

This is true its not the bees knees. I have the 7.2 pro power and the first caviat is that all RVs or trailers are 120V. The powerboost will only provide 3600 watts on a single phase. So you are limited there. If you have a trailer with 2 AC units you are well beyond that. Even if you have a 50A plug on your RV its still single phase and the twist lock plug on the propower is two phases of 30A 120V.

I have a 27ft toy hauler and if the air is cranking and my wife wants pop corn it will trip the breaker i in the truck. The remedy is we just run an extention cord into the kitchen window and plug it into the 2nd phase of the truck.

One of the big advantes is that the Generator mode is more efficient than the 4500W Cummins onan in the toy hauler. An entire weekend of running the air in genrator mode is around 10 gallons of gas. The onan will eat that up in a single day. The truck is also much more quiet than the onan.

 

[oneinch]

For sure, some campers and their use case will find the Powerboost perfect. (And BTW, I'm assuming y'all are using the 7.2 nuclear power station) Other campers will be close to disappointed, but never disappointed. After all, when you need juice you have it. In my case I will be nearby other tenters. The expectation is quite nights. The truck isn't really loud, but it runs far too often to keep it's 450 watt battery charged. If I was able to use a lot more of the battery that would help things. RV'ers can tolerate more noise. They've got walls to block some noise.

 

[Yves]

I have my doubts about the Powerboost being the bees knees powering an RV. No doubt it does it. I overnighted in the truck bed with a truck tent. It was cold and a space heater made the truck start up every 9 minutes or so. An RV will likely draw more power causing the recharge cycle to happen more frequently. In this use case I'm not impressed with the Powerboost. The truck is going to be running a lot at a time that campers are going to want and expect quiet. Furthermore, the truck's hybrid battery effectively is only about a 450 watt battery. It definitely doesn't give you 1.5 kWh of juice. That's really small. In short, yes, the truck powers an RV, but it isn't much better than a gas generator.

I think one of the problem, if it was a cool night, the engine also had to run until the engine was warm.

 

[oneinch]

...the engine also had to run until the engine was warm.

In my case I don't think so. I had done testing previously in the warm daytime to find out what I could expect. My tests matched my actual use. My space heater is 1500 watts whether on low or high. The "temperature" dial just increases or decreases the cycle time of the heating element. I improved the truck's performance in the end though. I ditched the inefficient space heater and used a much more efficient 100 watt electric blanket. I learned when tent camping you don't need to heat space, just the body. After dialing in the blanket setting the truck went from recharging every 9 minutes to 40 minutes.

 

[Shooter56]

I’m disappointed some of you have not been able to have the same success I’ve had running my 30amp trailer with the 7.2Kw (actually two 3600w) inverter. I will say the comment about engine noise to be unfounded. We’ve camped near tent campers and I’ve asked if they heard our engine kick on at night and they denied even hearing it. Not sure why some of you have experienced an every nine minute cycle of the engine kicking on. That has not been my experience.. Anyway, here’s some pics from our last trip up to Taylor Park CO.

 

[Snakebitten]

My comparison is just generator to generator.

I've done a fair share of tent/teardrop/RV camping, as well as I full time in another RV when I'm not camping.
Technically I have been camping everyday for better than 7 years.

I have had dual Yamaha 2000's
Yamaha 2400
Yamaha 3000

I have lugged gas cans and generators all over the continental US. The Powerboost is a magnificent generator in versatility, efficiency, sound, and convenience. Not to mention with OBDLink app I can monitor it in incredible granularity.

It's true with the 30Amp RV, it's a clever approach to use 3600 watts on the standard RV receptacle and then use the other bank with an extension cord for anything that might tax the RV.

Admittedly, if I was camping in a situation where even the truck idling would bother others, I'd have to invest in an appropriate battery storage device. Afterall, a generator, regardless of how quiet it might be, has to make some noise generating.

I might be tent camping on the beach tonight. With the steady coastal breeze and waves, nobody can hear the truck idle. So that's a good scenario for this dream machine.

My best friend LOVES the beach.
Fish & Fries for sunset supper last night.

 

[Oakstone]

I’ve now been camping for 3 days using the truck to power the RV, without AC, so mainly lights and the occasional hood fan and the toaster. It’s been flawless outside of the weird “permanent idle” situation, but turning the truck off for an hour or so seems to fix that situation.

I’ve brought 2 electric scooters with us and they are amazing to get around the campsite on, so using the exterior 120v plugs to charge them overnight is awesome!

I will eventually try a soft start for the AC and see if it’s possible to run, but 99% of my camping is “glamping with hookups” so I’m not in a big rush.

My neighbours are perhaps 50ft away on either side and the only comment I’ve had is how quiet the truck is. One asked if it was running when it was.

Due to my low power draw, the truck idles about 2mins per 80 mins (roughly).

I am running my fridge on propane since I’m pretty sure it’ll be cheaper that way than the trucks genny and it’s more efficient if it gets hot outside.

I am kinda wishy washy on whether lacking the 7.2 is going to ever be an issue for me. I chose to go with the standard 2.4.

If there is a power outage I’m likely just to use the 2.4 for the fridge and my deep freeze, just so I don’t lose $$$ in food. Maybe charge a phone or two.

 

[Samson16]

SORRY let me correct myself, it said engine running

It probably said this:

That's a warning so people don't use it in their garages. Ford doesn't nitpick over SOC or load. Just expect the engine to be running and act accordingly so you don't go night night and never wake up. Carbon Monoxide is real.

 

[jpsutka]

I have seen this happen a couple of times. I do not know what the "glitch" is, but there's some circumstance that can hang something up and it results in the ICE not cycling. I also noticed that the HV battery was NOT charging even though the engine was idling. Since the SOC was never going to get to 63%, the ICE was never going to turn off.


Both times I noticed, I just started over. But if it happens again, I'm going to try blipping the throttle first.

By the way, I often monitor the PIDs from inside the RV when I'm on ProPower. So I can SEE what is going on and how much draw there is. I know when the engine is going to start, and when it is going to turn off. So it's pretty noticeable when something out of the ordinary is going on.

Surprisingly the Bluetooth from my phone/tablet works pretty good from inside the RV to the trucks OBD adapter. (OBDLink)

I have seen this happen a couple of times. I do not know what the "glitch" is, but there's some circumstance that can hang something up and it results in the ICE not cycling. I also noticed that the HV battery was NOT charging even though the engine was idling. Since the SOC was never going to get to 63%, the ICE was never going to turn off.


Both times I noticed, I just started over. But if it happens again, I'm going to try blipping the throttle first.

By the way, I often monitor the PIDs from inside the RV when I'm on ProPower. So I can SEE what is going on and how much draw there is. I know when the engine is going to start, and when it is going to turn off. So it's pretty noticeable when something out of the ordinary is going on.

Surprisingly the Bluetooth from my phone/tablet works pretty good from inside the RV to the trucks OBD adapter. (OBDLink)

After sustained generator use, regardless of load, I always find my PowerBoost idling away constantly in the morning when I wake up after a night of boondocking. Mine also says “ running because of battery charging”. I tried to tap the throttle and the ICE immediately turned off. I tried that the throttle tap again the next morning and the gas ICE continues to run. My next experiment was to turn off the generator and the ICE immediately stopped running. It’s becoming annoying always waking up to my truck idling away, consuming gas, regardless of ProPower load.

 

[Snakebitten]

Definitely sounds like a software bug. And it wasn't there during 2021. At least I hadn't experienced it at the earlier software levels back then.

Since whatever the theoretical software bug is, it makes sense that turning off generator mode shut ICE down. It sure would be nice if Ford hadn't removed remote control for Generator Mode from FordPass.

 

[powerboatr]

My comparison is just generator to generator.

I've done a fair share of tent/teardrop/RV camping, as well as I full time in another RV when I'm not camping.
Technically I have been camping everyday for better than 7 years.

I have had dual Yamaha 2000's
Yamaha 2400
Yamaha 3000

I have lugged gas cans and generators all over the continental US. The Powerboost is a magnificent generator in versatility, efficiency, sound, and convenience. Not to mention with OBDLink app I can monitor it in incredible granularity.

It's true with the 30Amp RV, it's a clever approach to use 3600 watts on the standard RV receptacle and then use the other bank with an extension cord for anything that might tax the RV.

Admittedly, if I was camping in a situation where even the truck idling would bother others, I'd have to invest in an appropriate battery storage device. Afterall, a generator, regardless of how quiet it might be, has to make some noise generating.

I might be tent camping on the beach tonight. With the steady coastal breeze and waves, nobody can hear the truck idle. So that's a good scenario for this dream machine.

My best friend LOVES the beach.
Fish & Fries for sunset supper last night.

YOU WIN..grandkids and papa... plus the gulf scenery
the Colorado pics had me...
but the kryptonite of grand kids trumps the colorado mountains and he has a blue truck

now back to the discussion

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