Rear 12v outlet

I was running my small fridge with the Accessories on, and in about 10 minutes I got a warning on the center console, System shutting down to protect battery, and the truck powered off. I didn't know it did that.

 

So I can confirm that the modification on page 1 does not work on a 2020 model. The fuse box is different, but when I send a constant 12v to the P/Outlet, I am not getting full power to any 12v source in the car, with the engine off.

Has anyone figured out how to do this on a 2020 model? I'd love to be able to use the OE rear power ports with the engine off.

 

Check out this thread. I would still get the schematics to make sure you know exactly what circuitry is being modified. And be careful.
https://www.4runners.com/threads/12v-always-on.26894/#post-370070

 

I bought a 2-day sub to learn about the wiring, but I feel like I'm going to spend 2+ days just learning their website and digging through random wiring schematics... Not a very user friendly website for anyone unfamiliar with it.

 

You’ll have to poke around to see how it’s all organized.
If its still organized like my 2018, get into your model year folder. Then drill down to the System Circuit. Then in the Vehicle Interior folder individually download each circuit wiring diagram to your computer. Organize in folders on your computer. Do the same for for Vehicle Exterior and any others you are interested in. It takes a while. Get as much as you can in your 2 days.

Probably in the Vehicle Interior and/or Exterior are diagrams for Power Outlets (12V) or some similar title. Check into that first. I imagine there’s a diagram for the Interior circuits and a power distribution relay in the engine compartment (Exterior).

Good luck. Let us know how you did.

 

So, I was sort of successful last night.

I jumped the ACC 3 relay under the hood and also had to send a constant hot to the P/Outlet fuse in the fuse box underneath the steering column (jumped from the power seat fuse). The result is that all 12v cig lighter outlets in the car are now constant hot. This includes the one in the rear of the car. The 120v outlets and USB ports are still only hot when the engine is running.

But this mod is allowing me to run a refrigerator independent from the engine, which is handy. I did a 12 hour test last night and zero issues with excessive battery drain in that time period. I also have a 2-battery Genesis kit going in next week, along with a solar panel.

 

I posted this on another thread too and thought this one might also be a good place to ask.

I've been searching the forums all over and it seems like everything I can find is similar mostly to my issue but not always the same. I have the Bluetti AC50S, had it for several years back when it was a kickstarter. Great little power unit, does the fridge just fine so long as we move sites every day and do some charging while driving. In my truck this was never a problem, F150, It would charge at 100w or more plugged into the 12v cigarette port in the rear of the truck.

The 4R is a totally different story. I only have two 12v ports in the 2023 ORP, one in the center console and one in the back next to the AC plug. When I plug the battery into the 12v port in the cargo area, it starts to take a charge, 20w, 30w, 41w, 50w, 60w, 68w, 77w...then zero. It then repeats this cycle over and over again and never really charges the battery. Took a 5 day trip and I didn't realize this was happening because why would a 12v port act this way.

The center console 12v port is better but still not consistent. I plug in there and it will bounce around and usually settle on 100w of charging and stays...just not every time.

So, for the moment, the only reliable way is to also take along the AC wall adapter to the battery and plug it in to the inverter in the cargo area, THEN REMEMBER TO HIT THE SWITCH UP FRONT, and charge it that way. I hate having to remember to hit that switch and will be moving it up a little maybe, some say that helps see it but they still miss turning it on from time to time.

I'm guessing the power in the back 12v outlet isn't clean enough....or...I don't know, I can't make sense out of it.

All this is with the 4R running and in park. The rear 12v seems unaffected with the dash button pushed or not (which makes sense).

 

It’s not that the 12v isn’t “clean”, it’s probably because there’s a longer run of wire to the rear outlet so there’s a greater voltage drop there. The outlets spec at 100 watts out max and if your fridge takes 100 watts you’re right at the limit in a perfect world. At a little more than 100W the 4Runner may be turning off that port. Or maybe your fridge has a current limiting feature; if it needs 100W but if the voltage is lower then it tries to draw more current hence tripping its own current limiting feature.

In any case, if your fridge really needs 100W (check its input power specs, I think it can be up to 120W), then you’re right at the limit of the 4R 12V outlets capacity ~10A). Your AC adapter probably outputs 24V at a lower current to the Bluetti, and draws less current from the 4R. It would be best to charge with the AC inverter output and remember to hit the switch each time you start the engine.

Or you could run heavier gauge wire to a dedicated auxiliary 12V DC port just to power your battery/fridge. There are threads describing how to do this in this and other 4R forums.

 

I have the Anker 555. Last summer in July we had a two day outage and I spent two nights in the Runnr. So I was considering an aux battery install. Then I thought about it. I needed power in the house more often than in the truck. So, "I did my own research" and was surprised by the technology that's out there.

Think about the pluses of the power pack. They are chargeable from 120 VAC, 12 VDC and Solar Panel. The 555 max charging power is 200 W. There's a mod on this board that shows how to get full-time 400W inverter so charging on the go is do-able. They can be charged with a solar panel. There's probably videos out there that show roof top mounts.. And they are portable, use them anywhere.

Now, to each their own, but I'd urge folks to look into this technology before making a final decision.

 

To be clear, it's the Bluetti that won't charge, I was able to run my fridge directly from the 12v socket on the trip that I figured out all this wasn't working as it should. The fridge only pulls like 35w most of the time, the iceco is pretty efficient.

I tried again last night and the front 12v outlet doesn't work either for the battery. when I saw it working the other day it must have been a fluke. So I don't know that it's distance. Something is obviously not compatible with the AC50S and the 4R, in the F150, any 12v outlet would result in 90-100w of charging to the Bluetti. Unless the truck can just handle the 'spikes' and then settles down better, the 4R just simply isn't able to tritely provide 120W as it says on the cover of the 12V outlets. The F150 also has 15a fuses on the 12v outlets in the cab, I didn't double check the 4R, but if it is 10a and the battery is always trying to pull 100w, then there's only 20w of headroom and that must not be enough.

So anyways, I'll get really good about hitting that switch for the inverter (and possibly move it's location) or I may look into a battery that can change how much power it draws during DC charging.

 

A fuse will only carry 80% of its rating continuously. So a 15 A fuse will blow if you run more than 12 Amps through it. Good practice allows upping the fuse to the next standard size. So 10 A circuits can be fused at 15 A, as long as the feeder wires are rated at 15 A or more.

DC doesn't like long runs of wire, especially small diameter wire. That's because voltage drop calcs require the resistances of the + and - wires to be added together to determine system voltage drop. (That's not the case in AC circuits.)