Continuing 2kw PowerOnBoard issues.

[crazywayne311]

i havent tried to run anything that demands juice off of my 2kw yet. i have charged some 20V dewalt batteries but thats about it so far. hearing all this is kind of a buzzkill at this point.

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[Countryeemann1]

Update.

One, purchased a cheap scope to look at the waveform and it's ugly. So ugly both the multimeter and scope can't decide what the frequency is (anywhere from 160 Hz to 740 Hz). I'm guessing this is a bad run of inverters.

Two, a Ford rep from this site contacted and opened a case. Fingers crossed.

Three, out of curiosity, plugged our RV surge protector into the cheapest inverter we have ($19) and the power light came on. It works with any power source other than the truck's inverter.

Four, I'd recommend anyone with the 2KW inverter to not plug any sensitive (i.e. expensive) electronics into your truck until you verify it's clean.

P.S. Disregard some of the voltage values on the cheap scope... they vary depending on the settings. The waveform is really the important part.

 

[minirx7]

Update.

One, purchased a cheap scope to look at the waveform and it's ugly. So ugly both the multimeter and scope can't decide what the frequency is (anywhere from 160 Hz to 740 Hz). I'm guessing this is a bad run of inverters.

Two, a Ford rep from this site contacted and opened a case. Fingers crossed.

Three, out of curiosity, plugged our RV surge protector into the cheapest inverter we have ($19) and the power light came on. It works with any power source other than the truck's inverter.

Four, I'd recommend anyone with the 2KW inverter to not plug any sensitive (i.e. expensive) electronics into your truck until you verify it's clean.

P.S. Disregard some of the voltage values on the cheap scope... they vary depending on the settings. The waveform is really the important part.

Wow that's nasty.

I

 

[Countryeemann1]

So, approaching 3 weeks now since Ford has opened a case on this. Turns out that "opening a case" simply means turning the matter over to your dealer who didn't fix the issue in the first place.

Having purchased many new vehicles during my many years and, this being my first Ford, have to say.... serious regret.

Again, this completely garbage inverter was THE major reason we went with Ford. Kinda speechless at this point and I guess we're going to seek legal counsel.

 

[cghall77]

Have the 3.5 eco with 2kw and have powered our trailer on a few occasions over the past couple of years. I do have the micro-air easy start module installed on the ac. Don't use the propower as much as I thought I would, but nice to have as back up. Managed to get a renogy setup including 200w solar suitcase, 2000w inverter, 30a mppt controller and added 2 6v batteries for almost half the cost of the propower option.

 

[Countryeemann1]

Have the 3.5 eco with 2kw and have powered our trailer on a few occasions over the past couple of years. I do have the micro-air easy start module installed on the ac. Don't use the propower as much as I thought I would, but nice to have as back up. Managed to get a renogy setup including 200w solar suitcase, 2000w inverter, 30a mppt controller and added 2 6v batteries for almost half the cost of the propower option.

We also have an easy start but the compressor doesn't even attempt to start because the waveform from our inverter is so messed up (runs fine on any other power source). You must have a properly functioning inverter. Nice to know some of them are ok. Hopefully someday Ford will fix ours but so far they've been totally useless.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[IPAsAreA-OK]

Mine routinely throws the ground fault warning. Could that be another symptom?

Admittedly, I’ve abused mine using it with a pole saw that occasionally tripped it when the chain got pinched.

 

[TarnishedCopper]

I have a background in electronics, and have worked on and with generators, inverters etc. My guess is that perhaps Ford tapped the input to the inverter from the alternator prior to the final voltage regulation. As you know, any AC power passed through diodes can produce DC power (13.8 volts alternator output) Some alternators generate AC Power at a much higher AC frequency than 60 cycles. Rectified to DC you would never know the difference. I wonder if the connection to the Alternator is separate from the large single terminal/wire on the back of alternator.

 

[HammaMan]

I have a background in electronics, and have worked on and with generators, inverters etc. My guess is that perhaps Ford tapped the input to the inverter from the alternator prior to the final voltage regulation. As you know, any AC power passed through diodes can produce DC power (13.8 volts alternator output) Some alternators generate AC Power at a much higher AC frequency than 60 cycles. Rectified to DC you would never know the difference. I wonder if the connection to the Alternator is separate from the large single terminal/wire on the back of alternator.

The 2kW system series 2 alternator / aux batts to run a 24v nominal input for the inverter so the noise potential is even higher. They went out of their way to make a decent system, on paper at least. Sad to see they cheaped out on the inverter's design itself.

 

[TarnishedCopper]

Thanks for the explanation of Ford using two alternators. The approach makes sense, but it also limits one's choice of inverter to replace the original one because of the 24 volt input. I'm sure they are available, but probably not as many choices as ones with 13.8 volt input.

 

[The Roadless Traveler]

Thank you very much for this post as this is exactly what we're trying to do with this... run our little RV AC unit. Ours also runs fine on a 15 amp circuit and only draws 1300 to 1500 watts. We have the soft start installed and it's a slow ramp up.

This inverter is so bad that the compressor never even attempts to start. You can hear the thermostat click but no compressor. No overload, no trips... just won't even attempt to start. Just a guess but the compressor might have an AC synchronous motor so the frequency is just too high for it. Of course, if I plug the camper into ANY other power source (a different inverter, generator, house power, etc), it's fine.

Honestly I'm afraid to plug any important piece of electronics into the thing for fear of damaging something.

Are you connected to ProPower through your RV's invertr-charger? I was able to run my RVs AC (Dometic Penguin II) while plugged into my Tremor's 2kW pro power as our shore power source, but as my RVs on-board inverter allows control of shorepower current (to eliminate the risk of tripping the shore power circuit), I had to limit the draw to 9amps. At that rate, my RV inverter-charger makes up the difference by drawings just a few amps from the RVs battery. Once the AC compressor kicks in, I can manually increase the draw from shorepower (my truck's pro power). When the temperature reaches the thermostat setpoint and the compressor shuts off, the RV's inverter-charger draws all that power from the truck's inverter to charge the batteries. However, I have to manually be ready to lower the shore power setting before the compressor kicks back in. So, that said, I use it for emergency back-up purposes when I've drawn down my RV's batteries and still want to keep the AC on while charging them back up (little by little). Another solution I'm working on is to keep the shore power draw to 9amps but supplement battery charging with a DC-DC charger that connects the truck's alternator to the RV Battery bank.

 

[HammaMan]

LOL, tell us you haven't used the 7.2kW system much without saying those specific words. Mine will happily output 7.55kW of sustained output for hours.

There is zero comparison grounds from the powerboost's system and the dual alternator 2.0 system. Nothing about them are even remotely comparable.

 

[Atlee]

So, approaching 3 weeks now since Ford has opened a case on this. Turns out that "opening a case" simply means turning the matter over to your dealer who didn't fix the issue in the first place.

Having purchased many new vehicles during my many years and, this being my first Ford, have to say.... serious regret.

Again, this completely garbage inverter was THE major reason we went with Ford. Kinda speechless at this point and I guess we're going to seek legal counsel.

I've always wondered if this intervention by a "Ford guy" was anything more than message board pablum. I'm guessing not.

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