Ford Lightning Pro Power Onboard failure on the last weld of the project

[chl]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I thought I better get familiar with this forum because of the issue I had last week.

I'm the owner operator of a Mechanical piping company. We do many different kinds of piping but mostly welding. I recently purchased a brand new Miller CST 282 stick welding machine as my main welder for the lighting. For the last few days my trucks pro power onboard has been acting up. The power keeps shutting off and Im getting a "Pro Power Onboard Service Required" indication. After unplugging the cord, restarting the truck it has been ok until.... The last weld on the job, Christmas eave in Malibu. We would have been finished, packed up and home for eggnog early. But the lightning would not re power up the bed outlets to my welder. I dropped the truck off this morning at Fullerton Ford.
I hope he understands the urgency of this repair because my company is shutdown until they get this fixed.

I am wondering if perhaps your welding equipment burned up the Lightning breaker?

I am not too familiar with providing circuits to power welding equipment, but I seem to remember that a time delay breaker or fuse is usually needed/required.

It could be the Lightning breaker is not adequate for your welding equipment and over time failed.

I believe welding equipment can generate a large inrush current when starting the arc. That sort of thing can cause the GFCI to trip, but it could also, over time damage the breaker.

I had a really big current spike one time when Lightning passed through the circuit breaker my roof fan was on and it burnt up the breaker.

Hopefully in your case the inverted was not damaged - the breaker 'should have' protected it, but...anything is possible.

 

[Felix Mechanical Inc]

Slight update.

Monday, I showed up at the Ford dealer ready to weld. Our plan was to catch it red handed. I was devoting the whole day to this if needed. They put me off on the corner of their parking lot with a mechanic to monitor. I proceeded to weld non stop, rod after rod until the same "service required" indication showed up and my welding machine shut off 15 rods in. The tech updated multiple modules and reset the truck just for it to do the same thing over and over again. NOTE: The temp of the cooling water to the inverter was in the 90 degree range. NOT GETTING HOT. The tech says the inverter will only shut off if it sees temps over 190 deg. The wattage being used realtime is in the 1300-1500 range (see video). I'm only using literally 1/2 of what this truck should be able to produce.

Next they pulled up a 2024 lightning demo vehicle. This truck had the extended range battery and the 220 volt 30 amp bed outlet just like mine.
I started welding and within 12 rods in the same thing happened to this truck. I don't get it. Why is the same issue happening with two different trucks. Same warning light to see dealer, dealer can't help me...even when they are standing right there when it happens.

I've had no luck contacting the ford moderator in this site. I have 4 unanswered DM's to him with no response.

Where do I go from here?

 

[v2h8484]

It looks more and more like high frequency noise from the welder's inverter is causing nuisance tripping. You could try a power conditioner/noise filter between the welder and the truck.

 

[Ricks Lightning]

It looks more and more like high frequency noise from the welder's inverter is causing nuisance tripping. You could try a power conditioner/noise filter between the welder and the truck

If that's the case, wouldn't that have tripped way sooner than 15 minutes in and 12-15 rods lat

Watching this as welding is 1 of the reasons I purchased the pro 9.6 for.

Heck last week during our high winds and extended power outage, I got a shut off of power with a message that I can't exceed 175 watts from a closed frunk outlet. Problem was that it took about 1 hour to happen and I was away from the house using the power to recharge my battery packs running the fridge, and modems, cameras to the house. The load was approx 500-700 watts as I had monitored it prior to leaving. I left it running while taking my van to work for the day.

Why 175 watt shut down. Thought it's 400 watts. Why about 1 hour later, and not immediately?

Thanks for the update.

Rick

 

[v2h8484]

If that's the case, wouldn't that have tripped way sooner than 15 minutes in and 12-15 rods lat

Watching this as welding is 1 of the reasons I purchased the pro 9.6 for.

Heck last week during our high winds and extended power outage, I got a shut off of power with a message that I can't exceed 175 watts from a closed frunk outlet. Problem was that it took about 1 hour to happen and I was away from the house using the power to recharge my battery packs running the fridge, and modems, cameras to the house. The load was approx 500-700 watts as I had monitored it prior to leaving. I left it running while taking my van to work for the day.

Why 175 watt shut down. Thought it's 400 watts. Why about 1 hour later, and not immediately?

Thanks for the update.

Rick

Just speculation but a few possibilities for the delayed/random shutoff:

* high frequency noise magnitude/pattern can be somewhat random due to interaction with the load (e.g. where actual welding starts on a mains AC cycle, etc.).

* the truck's detection of high frequency noise can be marginal and/or include some logic processing (e.g. detected noise events per minute, etc.) for tripping that again can be affected by the specific load pattern.

 

[Webbo85]

If that's the case, wouldn't that have tripped way sooner than 15 minutes in and 12-15 rods lat

Watching this as welding is 1 of the reasons I purchased the pro 9.6 for.

Heck last week during our high winds and extended power outage, I got a shut off of power with a message that I can't exceed 175 watts from a closed frunk outlet. Problem was that it took about 1 hour to happen and I was away from the house using the power to recharge my battery packs running the fridge, and modems, cameras to the house. The load was approx 500-700 watts as I had monitored it prior to leaving. I left it running while taking my van to work for the day.

Why 175 watt shut down. Thought it's 400 watts. Why about 1 hour later, and not immediately?

Thanks for the update.

Rick

Per the user manual, it says 'When the hood is closed, the frunk outlet power is limited.'

They don't give you the definition of 'limited' though. I think it's been assumed on the forum that it's to idiot proof the truck from someone putting a crockpot, hairdryer, or some other device that can generate a lot of heat, and close the frunk and set the thing on fire. Not saying I agree with the logic, but from a legal standpoint I can see why they might do it.

Sponsored