ProPower Onboard very impressive

[amschind]

So I've been pretending to be a gentleman farmer lately, and bought a tractor loader bucket from Missouri. Westendorf's quick attach is rare, so I drove to grab it from Texas, but apparently the main use of loader buckets in Missouri is "moving salt". The bottom of the bucket looked like the Titanic.....this year. So I fired up the Lincoln and the Lucky Dragon Best Finest Plasma Cutter from Scamazon and got to work. The PB can't run the air compressor AND plasma torch at once, but I have 120VAC at the barn and run the 230VAC plasma torch from the truck. That worked to get the rotted sections out, and I was then able to use the stick welder function on my Squarewave to weld 1/4" plate on. It managed 115A on the stick, but would flip the breaker at 120A. Still, I was able to weld 1/4" to 5/16" using just the truck with 1/8" and 3/32" 6011 sticks.

That's what I bought this thing to do, and I was very impressed. I'd love an inverter with 50A 230VAC, but it's very capable as is.

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[The Gray Manalishi]

So I've been pretending to be a gentleman farmer lately, and bought a tractor loader bucket from Missouri. Westendorf's quick attach is rare, so I drove to grab it from Texas, but apparently the main use of loader buckets in Missouri is "moving salt". The bottom of the bucket looked like the Titanic.....this year. So I fired up the Lincoln and the Lucky Dragon Best Finest Plasma Cutter from Scamazon and got to work. The PB can't run the air compressor AND plasma torch at once, but I have 120VAC at the barn and run the 230VAC plasma torch from the truck. That worked to get the rotted sections out, and I was then able to use the stick welder function on my Squarewave to weld 1/4" plate on. It managed 115A on the stick, but would flip the breaker at 120A. Still, I was able to weld 1/4" to 5/16" using just the truck with 1/8" and 3/32" 6011 sticks.

That's what I bought this thing to do, and I was very impressed. I'd love an inverter with 50A 230VAC, but it's very capable as is.

So you were able to run your plasma cutter? Assuming you have a 402A Tremor with Pro Power correct?

 

[Snakebitten]

That ain't no Tremor, I don't believe.

That's the full 7.2KW ProPower.

 

[amschind]

No, I have an XLT 302A Powerboost. Tremors don't come with the 7.2kW onboard power or the hybrid powertrain. I can't go over about 25A on the plasma torch AND I need an alternative source of power for the air compressor (the air compressor motor will flip the circuit breaker when it kicks in because the 7.2kW 230VAC circuit is two 3.6kW 120VAC hots, which means that when the air compressor loads one of the two 120VAC circuits, that circuit will flip the breaker on everything). There's no way the 2.4kW would run either of these machines.

A standalone 50A 230VAC IN ADDITION TO 2+ 15A 120VAC circuits would be amazing, but for now the 3.6+3.6 makes A LOT of things possible that weren't before. The current ProPower doesn't replace an F350 with a huge Lincoln generator-powered welder in the custom bed, but it can do a surprising amount and really shows the way forward. The Powerboost was always a low-risk proof of concept, and the Ramcharger is very much the next step, but once you make electrons the energy currency within your vehicle, a lot of stuff gets easier. This 10R80 is the last transmission that I'll ever buy, and the 9.75" in the back/8.8" in front are hopefully the last differentials that I'll ever buy. A thick copper wire is a very durable piece of kit, particularly if you keep it cool, and the efficiency gains form hub motors vs motor-transaxle-CV shaft basically cancel the efficiency losses from a series hybrid layout.

40 MPG, 750 lb-ft, no transmission/diffs to break and 15kW aux power is gonna be the baseline for a truck in 10 years, and ideally half that wait.

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