Faulty Mobile Charger?

[Amps]

They are not very good. A lot of people have the same problem with the same charger on the mache. Me included.

That makes sense, it looks like it was manufactured by aptiv, which makes the ones VW includes with the ID.4

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[Amps]

Nope.

I'll raise you 2 amps.

https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-charging/what-is-the-ford-mobile-power-cord/

That's nice. Now, do the one for Lightning:

https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/features/ev-charging/ford-mobile-power-cord/

 

[RickLightning]

That's nice. Now, do the one for Lightning:

https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/features/ev-charging/ford-mobile-power-cord/

Same exact charger...

 

[Hopeful]

Well luckily the electrician showed up and installed the Pro tonight.
He said the wiring to the receptacle for the mobile was rated for 40 amps and said it should only need a 40 amp breaker. The wire was not hot; only the charger and the charger cord. We’re going to take the mobile charger up to the dealer and have it checked out.

 

[Crilly]

The dealer has to have a plug to fit the charger.

 

[Amps]

Same exact charger...

That's the point. Ford has de-rated the mobile in new literature because the they weren't putting out their full SAE rating. This was a theoretical answer to a question about the reason a '32A EVSE' wasn't tripping the 30A circuit breaker the OP said they were using.

 

[FlasherZ]

Well luckily the electrician showed up and installed the Pro tonight.
He said the wiring to the receptacle for the mobile was rated for 40 amps and said it should only need a 40 amp breaker.

Correct, it is legal to have a 40A OCPD (breaker) on a 50A receptacle if the load is rated at 40A. 32A charging load + 125% continuous load = 40A, so you're good there. If you get a newer mobile connector that charges at 40A, you will need to upgrade wiring and the OCPD if it's only 40A capable today.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that you may have a loose connection in that mobile connector somewhere. First-gen Tesla UMC's (which charged at 40A) were notorious for melting the adapter plugs because of poor pin contact over time. This led Tesla to rework the UMC's (and nerf them to only 32A charging) for gen 2. I would call Ford customer service and tell them you have a mobile connector that seems to be getting very hot, and ask them if they would want it back for engineering analysis in return for a new one -- tell them you've checked the wiring and receptacle and it seems to be located within the charger.

In addition, beatle's receptacle is another example of something to watch, above. Over time, connections can become loose and loose connections generate heat. New installs for EV charging should be torqued well, and after a few months, retorqued to ensure that nothing has worked loose with expansion and contraction. I re-torque all the terminals for my EV charging equipment and runs at least every other year.

Remember that the EV charging load is going to be the largest electrical load that most people have in their homes, in terms of kWh consumed. Even electric stoves, ovens, heaters, etc., cycle on and off, but EV's just keep drawing a full load constantly.

This is why "it works", "it's legal", and "it's legal and safe" are three different key things with EV charging, and why it's a bad idea to cut corners on installs.

 

[GDN]

This was recently posted - please read it about any 14-50 plug. The cheap ones will work, until they don't and burn your house down.

https://www.seahurst.com/nema-14-50-tesla/

Having said that - I have a proper charger and circuit for my Model 3 - it is hard to describe warm and hot as different people perceive it differently, but my Mobil charger and cord get pretty warm during a charge session. They will all heat up some, it is the nature of the beast. It should not be so how however that you can't touch it or put your hand on it. Just very warm.

 

[beatle]

In addition, beatle's receptacle is another example of something to watch, above. Over time, connections can become loose and loose connections generate heat. New installs for EV charging should be torqued well, and after a few months, retorqued to ensure that nothing has worked loose with expansion and contraction. I re-torque all the terminals for my EV charging equipment and runs at least every other year.

It's worth noting that I didn't re-torque any of the receptacle's screws after installation. I did reef on the screw pretty good during the initial install though. I then ran it as-is for a little over 2 years @ 40A before it started to melt. It's definitely possible that the terminal worked itself loose from heat cycling, but I also saw that the Leviton receptacle I used was known to fail on others in the same way. Here's a side shot:

Not to distract from the OP's question, but I posted the electrical gore it as a note to say that the breaker won't save you from every failure point, and running a circuit/receptacle at its maximum rating for extended periods is a good way to reproduce my problem.

 

[Hopeful]

Husband took truck and charger to dealer. They didn’t have a 240V outlet there to check it out. Brought it home and tried again. Plugged into the 240 V outlet, charger started with a flash of red light, then pulsing blue for about 5 minutes before amber light came on and charger and first 9” or so of cable got hot. Tried plugging into 120 V. It started with a red flash again, pulsed blue for about 10 minutes before amber light came on. Dealer says Ford doesn’t have many spares - only about a dozen in North America so may take a while to get a replacement.

 

[VTbuckeye]

I will have no idea if mine even works when the truck comes in. We have hardwired EVSEs in the garage. A 14-30 outlet in the garage, a 6-20 outlet in the garage, but no 14-50s. I don't know if our Volvo's evse works either (again, no 14-50), but it is supposed to deliver 40 amps. I guess it will get used when traveling at some point. Hope yours gets taken care of. If your dealer has a mannequin they should pull the portable evse from that truck.

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