12V always on?

Took my 4R camping for the first time last week. The truck was great - was able to fit everything my family of 4 needed to be comfortable, and we are not minimalists. I'm talking 2 teenage girls with phones, blue tooth speakers, and a battery-powered fan in the tent.

It was a giant PITA, not being able to charge our electronics unless the truck was on. It would be great to make the 12V outlet in front always on, and maybe even the USB outlets for the back seat too.

I have searched the forum but haven't been able to find a good mod for recent gen 5 (I.e. looks like they changed wiring in 2020). Is there a good way to rewire my truck and make these outlets always on?

 

Your 4runner has a starting battery and not meant to run stuff with it turned off . You'll kill the battery's plates and severely shorten it's life discharging and charging . When it's running it's using the alternator to power the outlets and the battery. Search difference in starting vs deep cycle battery.

This is 2022 and charging stations with deep cycle lithium batteries are the best these days for camping or off grid. Jackery is one of the better names but just do a search of "best camp power stations"
In the old days ,lol ,a second battery that was deep cycle was all the rage and only choice ,but a lot of work to fit and wire it.

 

There's not, not without disassembly of half the dash. Honestly your best bet is to add one or several sockets that are wired to battery. There's at least one fuse in the interior box that is hot all the time.

I disagree with above poster, a cell phone or similar isn't going to kill or shorten the life of your battery.

 

Came across this though it is from 2015 so I don't know if exactly the same for current years.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/always-hot-power-outlets-pictures.665/

 

I agree. My last truck's 12V was aways hot and I never had a problem with it. It's not like I'm going weeks without driving the truck, charging lots of devices the while time.

 

I saw that. I think they moved that relay. It's not in the fuse box on my '22.

 

That's for a third gen

 

Ok, I figured out how to do this for <$9 with parts from Amazon. Parts should be here tomorrow. I'll do a write-up on how to do this once I get it working.

If you should do it or not - that's an entirely different question.

 

He's talking camping with a family of four
Camping with 2 teenagers, been there done that for six years on my old 5th gen.
Running off the starting battery is NOT the way to go. Maybe one person ,but not a family.
Better with something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Port...=AZF6YB7UVA7OU&sprefix=jackery,aps,224&sr=8-2
or this https://www.amazon.com/MOSKIZ-Porta...1658424821&sprefix=power,aps,224&sr=8-1-spons

Here is the setup we had but no need now with today's portable solutions.

 

I'm all ears, I don't / didn't think it was possible to do the factory outlets without more labor than it was worth to me.

 

Those are pretty cool.

Yeah, doing some math, charging 4 devices from empty may be doable, but as my battery ages, it gets riskier and riskier.

Assume each phone takes 4 Ah. One device on an 80 Ah battery = 5% of capacity. No big deal. 4 devices on a 40 Ah battery (I.e. nearing end of life) = 50% capacity, which could be trouble.

I should add - I'm not talking about boondocking. I'm talking about state-park campgrounds. Difference is, needing a jump-start isn't life and death. If I was 20 miles from anyone else - yeah, no way am I charging off my starter battery.

 

I spy a Dobie !

 

Ya, that was my old one Abby, that went to doggy heaven. I've had Dobies my whole life and have another red now.Do you have one?

Abby could drive pretty good (this was up north of Grand Junction,CO)but the one I have now is all over the road and stays in the back. lol

 

Running accessories off the starter battery can deplete a battery sooner than you think. I once helped a guy at a county park who had a dead battery. He had been sitting there on his lunch break listening to his stereo for 20 minutes. And that was in a Honda less than one year old.

I had the original 4 year old OEM Panasonic battery in my 4Runner, daily driven, well maintained with a battery tender, warm weather, in good shape. I sat in the truck listening to the radio for 10 minutes while waiting for wife at a store. It would not start. Not even a click. Luckily I always carry a jump starter battery pack (Audewdirect) which started it right away.

A portable power station like a Jackery is a good way to charge several accessories at one time. It also gives you the capability to power a DC fridge, as many do. Preserve your starter battery.

But if you still need constant 12V power for light duty, here’s a method for 5th Gens prior to the 2020 models when the electrical system changed. You may be able to use a similar technique for 2020 and later years, but you’d have to verify the wiring diagrams and fuse block first.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/rear-12v-outlet.18459/#post-221350

 

Thanks. That write-up is exactly what I am planning on doing. I probed out the junction box this morning and know exactly how to hook it up in my truck.

 

They're great dogs, we've had one as well (with Abby now), he was all over the road, all of the time They are super intelligent, beautiful dogs But holy cow, those "doberteens" between 1 - 2 years old will test your sanity!

 

I haven't done the math but your 4Ah estimate seems really high for a phone. We've had a couple different campers and I was always keeping an eye on the hungriest electrical devices. For us it was the squirrel cage blower motor for the furnace, which was 4Ah if I recall correctly. Back then we had dual golf cart batteries, LED lights, a small solar panel and never had to worry about running low. These days I'd probably go with a good sized Jackery unit as a self-contained option or maybe add a second battery for the 'house' feeds.

An inexpensive solar panel may help bridge the gap while you decide on your system (looks like HF has a 100 watt panel for $130, a 25 watt panel for $70).

Have fun! Projects like that are what I enjoy about owning a 4runner.

 

my phone has a battery capacity of 4500mAh - that's technically 4.5Ah. That assumes charging a brand new phone from completely drained to completely full.

Edit: check that. I think my math is off. Cell phone is at 5V, and 4R is at 12V. Cell phone is closer to 2% capacity of truck battery....i think. This is why I'm not an electrical engineer.

 

My 07 Volvo wagon has a plug that's always hot in the cargo area. It's great for keeping phones and lights charged when camping. I never killed the battery using it, though I usually end up driving somewhere every day while camping.

The cigarette lighter on my 00 Firebird is always hot too, I once used it to charge my phone during a power outage.

Side note: this thread makes me regret not jumping on a Jackery deal on prime day.

 

Ok, just tried the jumpers in the fuse box, it didn't work. I think there must be a relay between the fuse box and the outlet.

I measured 12V going into the load side with the truck turned off so power was going where it needed to go, but still no power from the outlet. As soon as I turned the truck on, power. All I can figure is another relay.

 

You would need to get the Power Outlet 12V wiring schematics for your 2022 model year to verify how this circuit works. It may be totally different than previous years.

 

Another cost effective option is to enjoy the outdoors without the electronic pacifiers. Yea, I’m guilty too.

 

I can’t even find a optima yellow top for my 4 runner apparently…in my old Tahoe and other previous vehicles I always used that battery. Could listen to music for a half hour with a amp and subwoofer drawing power as well as charge 2 phones and a Bluetooth speaker at the same time. Never left me stranded, and the 12v cigarette outlets were always live (3 of them). Miss the old vehicles and there features. Take my TSS away and give me a live outlet!

 

Haha, I hear ya. The reason I wanted power to my phone was to keep an eye on the weather forecast - I.e. to plan activities around when it was supposed to rain. We got like an inch of rain over a couple of hours last week, and that sucked. It would be even worse had we been out for a hike on slick rocks when the storm moved in.

The other item is a battery-powered fan for the tent. Anything to make things slightly nicer for my wife to get her out more often.

 

On top of this issue if you roll down your windows with accessory mode on (push start) why do we need to start the vehicle to roll them back up and turn off power lol

 

Always live bruddah

Rear window only though

 

The 2020+ electrical systems changed from the previous 5th Gen design. A guy on the other forum seems to have gotten constant 12V to the front power outlets on his 2021, and he did have to jumper a relay position. See posts #36 and 38. I still would verify his work by getting a 2 day subscription and downloading schematics from the Toyota TIS before wiring this up.
https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInf..._request_url=https://techinfo.toyota.com:443/

 

Makes sense. I'm not messing with jumping a relay without checking out the wiring schematic.