How to Keep Pro Power Onboard Power On For Long Period

[mitchskis]

I just went camping for the first time with the Lightning. We used the pro power onboard for the first time to inflate our air mattress and a few other things which was great. I was a little surprised on a couple of things when using pro power and hoping there are some pro power experts who can confirm this is how it works.

1. You have to actually "start" your vehicle in order to use pro power on board. Is this the only way to activate pro power?
- Before using it for the first time I thought that you'd be able to use it by just powering on your vehicle i.e. just hitting the start button to activate the power in the truck and not having to actually start the vehicle by holding down the brake and hitting the start button.
2. Why is there a time limit for how long you can use pro power before it automatically turns off? Is there a setting where you can turn it on and just leave it on until you decide to turn it off? I understand that leaving the vehicle on for a long period can drain your battery, but I believe you can update your settings to turn off pro power if your battery level gets too low i.e. 50 miles of range, 25 miles of range, etc.

We came across this issue while we were camping because our air mattress would slowly deflate throughout the night and I'd have to get up and turn on the truck to turn on the pro power. Would've been nice if I could've just turned it on once and been able to use it when needed rather than having to get up and turn it on every time we needed to inflate our air mattress.

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[hturnerfamily]

try pushing the 'start' button twice to go into ACCESSORY mode, which might then allow the truck to provide ProPower without having to be fully 'ON'... and yes, Ford provides the ability to tell the truck 'when' to stop using ProPower in order to conserve the battery pack, such as when it drops below 20% or something similar. Not having my PRO yet doesn't help, but these are good ways to try it.

Our KIA Sorento PHEV does something similar, if you put the car in 'park', it will eventually give you an alert on screen that says something like "the vehicle will automatically shut off in 30 minutes", but within the setting profile you can disable that all together, or set it to 60 minutes. It's true that EVs don't have any associated 'noise' or 'sounds' to know if they are running, so these engineers have decided to 'mandate' turning the vehicle off, at some point, in order not to run down the battery, should a driver get out and not realize the vehicle is not totally 'OFF'. That's actually very easy to do.

 

[Maquis]

Unlike an ICE, you are not using significantly more power with the truck ”on” vs accessory mode. People have reported camping in their Mach-E leaving the car on running the AC all night and only losing a few percent charge…may be 10%, I don’t recall exactly.

 

[yed19]

try pushing the 'start' button twice to go into ACCESSORY mode, which might then allow the truck to provide ProPower without having to be fully 'ON'... and yes, Ford provides the ability to tell the truck 'when' to stop using ProPower in order to conserve the battery pack, such as when it drops below 20% or something similar. Not having my PRO yet doesn't help, but these are good ways to try it.

Our KIA Sorento PHEV does something similar, if you put the car in 'park', it will eventually give you an alert on screen that says something like "the vehicle will automatically shut off in 30 minutes", but within the setting profile you can disable that all together, or set it to 60 minutes. It's true that EVs don't have any associated 'noise' or 'sounds' to know if they are running, so these engineers have decided to 'mandate' turning the vehicle off, at some point, in order not to run down the battery, should a driver get out and not realize the vehicle is not totally 'OFF'. That's actually very easy to do.

Just tried this. No go. It does go into "Full Accessory mode" but you still have to turn on Pro Power in order to get power to any outlets (including the outlet in the cab). And as @Maquis points out, I kinda wonder what the difference is for power draw on when the truck is "on" vs. the "Full accessory" modes. I am sure they probably have that data somewhere.

 

[adoublee]

I ran a camper overnight several nights. I had to leave the vehicle in the "on" position. I turned the HVAC off. I think the only real implication is that the screen is on overnight on a fixed page.

Additionally I found that when having the truck plugged in (charging) and then power the camper from the bed outlet, that the pro power onboard shut off when the battery got to fully charged in the night. Had to get up, get back into the truck, and restart the pro power onboard.

 

[Fryballin]

There’s a couple things I can think to try.
I know after 15 or 30 minutes of the truck running in PARK, the auto shutdown countdown will show up and you have to click “okay” to allow the truck to stay on. I’m not sure if that countdown is just reset for another 15-30 minutes or if the one time is enough to let the truck keep ”running”.
Next is starting the truck from the Ford Pass app, allows you to “extend” the truck run time by 15 minute increments, not sure if you can stack them to add a large amount of time and I would also caution doing this remote start with the key fob inside the truck as I seen one video where the guy locked his fob in the truck and couldnt get the truck to unlock after remote starting it.

 

[Maquis]

There’s a couple things I can think to try.
I know after 15 or 30 minutes of the truck running in PARK, the auto shutdown countdown will show up and you have to click “okay” to allow the truck to stay on. I’m not sure if that countdown is just reset for another 15-30 minutes or if the one time is enough to let the truck keep ”running”.
Next is starting the truck from the Ford Pass app, allows you to “extend” the truck run time by 15 minute increments, not sure if you can stack them to add a large amount of time and I would also caution doing this remote start with the key fob inside the truck as I seen one video where the guy locked his fob in the truck and couldnt get the truck to unlock after remote starting it.

The shutdown timer can be disabled in the settings.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I would imagine that Ford has built in some way to defeat any automated 'cut off' of the ProPower since it's very design is to allow Construction work to be done at a worksite - I don't imagine they contemplated having to turn 'on' the truck every now and then just to keep it working.... someone here will eventually and accidentally find it : ) (maybe before I go camping!)

 

[adoublee]

I would imagine that Ford has built in some way to defeat any automated 'cut off' of the ProPower since it's very design is to allow Construction work to be done at a worksite - I don't imagine they contemplated having to turn 'on' the truck every now and then just to keep it working.... someone here will eventually and accidentally find it : ) (maybe before I go camping!)

It keeps running if the truck is left in on position. There is no engine running so it is essentially the same as accessory mode. Just need a way to turn the screen when the truck is on.

 

[hturnerfamily]

or throw a towel over it

 

[Tomwilli2025]

Isn't there a button to turn the screen off? What about "Calm" mode?

 

[Icebear1987]

Truck needs to be on but I can lock it and turn middle screen off. Haven't been able to turn dashboard screen off though. Question, can someone break the window and drive away when locked? I don't know. I drained the battery last night to 0% even though I have reserve at 10 miles or 5%. Pro Power didn't shut off as it should so be careful. Other than that I love Pro Power On board.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

@Icebear1987:

1. How do you turn the middle screen off?
2. My truck won't shift from Park if the key fob is not in it.
3. Very odd that the reserve did not work. I'm curious if anyone else has had this happen.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

It keeps running if the truck is left in on position. There is no engine running so it is essentially the same as accessory mode. Just need a way to turn the screen when the truck is on.

...And turn off climate control!

Too many "button" erm, touchscreen presses.

 

[PV2EV]

Certainly need a reserve. In an outage, I want to stop Pro Power with enough power left to drive to a working public charger. One would think Pro Power is exaclty the scenario Accessory Mode would be for...

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