Puzzled by ProPower

[climateguy]

I’m powering my travel trailer in a campground using the ProPower bed outlet of my 2024 Flash. I’m trying to set the bed outlets to stay on when the vehicle is off. So far, the best performance I can get out of the system is for the bed outlet to power the trailer for a few hours before it shuts itself off.

One message that intermittently appears when I turn the truck off after setting the ProPower bed outlet to stay on is: “To use this feature the vehicle must be on”. It’s the last thing the center display shows as I exit the truck.

Whether this message appears or not, the bed outlets stay on when I turn the truck off and get out of it, most of the time. Rarely, the bed outlets are off when I get out of the truck. I haven’t gotten to the bottom of exactly what conditions result in the bed outlets being off once I’ve set them to stay on.

In all cases, once I’ve succeeded in getting the bed outlets to stay on when the vehicle is off they only stay on for a number of hours then they turn themselves off.

Most of my experiences with this are when we get back to the campground after driving around during the day and I plug the trailer into the truck for the night. We get power in the trailer for several hours, until after we go to sleep for the night. Without fail the trailer is not receiving power from the truck in the morning.

Thoughts, anyone? The truck has always been above 70% charged, and I’ve manually set the discharge limit well below that.

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[Firn]

I’m powering my travel trailer in a campground using the ProPower bed outlet of my 2024 Flash. I’m trying to set the bed outlets to stay on when the vehicle is off. So far, the best performance I can get out of the system is for the bed outlet to power the trailer for a few hours before it shuts itself off.

One message that intermittently appears when I turn the truck off after setting the ProPower bed outlet to stay on is: “To use this feature the vehicle must be on”. It’s the last thing the center display shows as I exit the truck.

Whether this message appears or not, the bed outlets stay on when I turn the truck off and get out of it, most of the time. Rarely, the bed outlets are off when I get out of the truck. I haven’t gotten to the bottom of exactly what conditions result in the bed outlets being off once I’ve set them to stay on.

In all cases, once I’ve succeeded in getting the bed outlets to stay on when the vehicle is off they only stay on for a number of hours then they turn themselves off.

Most of my experiences with this are when we get back to the campground after driving around during the day and I plug the trailer into the truck for the night. We get power in the trailer for several hours, until after we go to sleep for the night. Without fail the trailer is not receiving power from the truck in the morning.

Thoughts, anyone? The truck has always been above 70% charged, and I’ve manually set the discharge limit well below that.

Continious use of Pro Power requires the truck to be "running" so you need to leave the truck on.

Word of warning, there is an automatic timer that shuts the truck off after 30 minutes. You will need to disable that each time (simple button in the settings).

This all is dumb and talked about frequently, however it is what it is.

 

[TaxmanHog]

We get power in the trailer for several hours, until after we go to sleep for the night. Without fail the trailer is not receiving power from the truck in the morning.

Sounds like you have switched off the 30 minute shutdown timer, but after lights out and everyone in their bunks, very low power draw has been found to cause the PPOB to still shut down, at least that's what a few other members have reported. Anyway to increase the load?

 

[climateguy]

Sounds like you have switched off the 30 minute shutdown timer, but after lights out and everyone in their bunks, very low power draw has been found to cause the PPOB to still shut down, at least that's what a few other members have reported. Anyway to increase the load?

Thanks for your reply.

That could explain what is happening. The largest consumer of power at night is a small 3 way fridge (Dometic 2354). I think the way it runs is a constant small load to substitute for the constant small propane flame it replaces. It automatically switches to gas when the truck shuts off the bed outlet. I'm not sure how many amps it draws. This trailer only uses more power when we run the microwave or the instant pot. I could live with it the way things are, but I wonder now if it could power a small freezer overnight which could be a small load just like the fridge, or maybe an intermittent somewhat larger load.

Perhaps a larger load like a heater set to run at intervals, (hourly?)for a minute or so could keep the bed outlets running?

 

[Firn]

Thanks for your reply.

That could explain what is happening. The largest consumer of power at night is a small 3 way fridge (Dometic 2354). I think the way it runs is a constant small load to substitute for the constant small propane flame it replaces. It automatically switches to gas when the truck shuts off the bed outlet. I'm not sure how many amps it draws. This trailer only uses more power when we run the microwave or the instant pot. I could live with it the way things are, but I wonder now if it could power a small freezer overnight which could be a small load just like the fridge, or maybe an intermittent somewhat larger load.

Perhaps a larger load like a heater set to run at intervals, (hourly?)for a minute or so could keep the bed outlets running?

Running a light, an old school incandescent, may be enough. Maybe one of those smelly plastic warmer things

 

[climateguy]

Continious use of Pro Power requires the truck to be "running" so you need to leave the truck on.

Word of warning, there is an automatic timer that shuts the truck off after 30 minutes. You will need to disable that each time (simple button in the settings).

This all is dumb and talked about frequently, however it is what it is.

One of the advertised features of the 2024 Lightnings is that ProPower is supposed to be able to be set to stay on while the truck is turned off.

Are you saying that people with 2024 Lightnings report that even though there is a software switch under a headline "outlets availability" that you can set to "Keep On When Vehicle is Off", for some people the outlets do not stay on unless they keep the truck on?

 

[Firn]

One of the advertised features of the 2024 Lightnings is that ProPower is supposed to be able to be set to stay on while the truck is turned off.

Are you saying that people with 2024 Lightnings report that even though there is a software switch under a headline "outlets availability" that you can set to "Keep On When Vehicle is Off", for some people the outlets do not stay on unless they keep the truck on?

Sorry, can't speak to the 24s. It could have changed but I have not seen mention of it yet. If so that's awesome

 

[Robob]

On my 24' there is a software switch on the pro power screen that enables leaving the plugs on after the truck is turned off.
However, I have not had a use case to test the pro power yet. I have the generator plug on the house modified and ready to go just waiting for an outage to test it haha

 

[Monkey]

Yeah…. The ‘24s let you leave the plugs active. That option is supposed to be coming to us older trucks, if Ford could ever get their software team all on the same page and updates consistent across model years. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for this one…

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