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Powerboost charging capability while boondocking.

Bcourt29

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Hello everyone. Currently looking to upgrade my ecoboost to a powerboost. We enjoy dry camping but have to bring our 2000w Gen to top off the batteries every night before bed.

Will the powerboost 7w Gen charge and top of our trailer batteries While boondocking? If so how long would it take to top off a 100AH battery? My 2000w gen takes up to 6 hrs to fully charge them.

Thanks on advance.
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Tosh

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Assuming you have a trailer with 30amp service, as I do....

You will have 3.6kw available (one bank of the ProPower) to the trailer. I think it's reasonable to expect that your battery will charge in about 1/3 less time than it does with your 2kw generator.

My trailer has 380watts of solar on it, so I've never been concerned about using ProPower to charge the batteries. However, when it comes time to run the microwave/convection oven, electric kettle, or A/C, ProPower does all of that.
 
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Bcourt29

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Assuming you have a trailer with 30amp service, as I do....

You will have 3.6kw available (one bank of the ProPower) to the trailer. I think it's reasonable to expect that your battery will charge in about 1/3 less time than it does with your 2kw generator.

My trailer has 380watts of solar on it, so I've never been concerned about using ProPower to charge the batteries. However, when it comes time to run the microwave/convection oven, electric kettle, or A/C, ProPower does all of that.
Thanks for the info. Yes it's a 30Amp service.
 

RickBullotta

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Hello everyone. Currently looking to upgrade my ecoboost to a powerboost. We enjoy dry camping but have to bring our 2000w Gen to top off the batteries every night before bed.

Will the powerboost 7w Gen charge and top of our trailer batteries While boondocking? If so how long would it take to top off a 100AH battery? My 2000w gen takes up to 6 hrs to fully charge them.

Thanks on advance.
Lots of variables, mostly based on the battery's maximum charge rate, but you'll have almost 2X the available amperage from the 3.6kw/120V feed from your truck.

Nice thing is that you really don't need to worry about the batteries at all - since having the truck connected is just like being on shore power.
 

RociPB

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I’d say, it has everything to do with the specs of the battery charger (what the max charging wattage is) which varies with battery type and personal needs. But I agree with what Rick said, there’s no need for the batteries if you are ok using PPO for all of your needs. The only reason I could see onboard batteries being necessary is if you were using solar.
 

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HammaMan

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Depends on the battery's maximum rate of charge (or depending on chemistry the healthiest c-rate you'd like to use). The truck can sustain 7.5kW output at 240v pretty much until it runs out of fuel which would be ~28 hours assuming full load continuously, w/ a full tank.

I don't really factor in the charger itself as you can upgrade to a 240v charger if your battery can handle the full power the truck can output (not likely). Another factor to consider is how your inverter is setup. Are you powering a charger directly to the batteries whereby the house load is feeding off of the charger as well? I believe your charge time took so long is that your charger is undersized for the 2kW you were feeding it unless you've got 10kWh worth of batts (highly unlikely unless you went out of your way to construct one).

If you had a wiring diagram of the RV itself that'd save a whole bunch of back and forth questions.

I can just throw out one scenario - the 7.2kW unit has your standard 240v 4 prong 30a generator outlet that can take a 'dog bone' that will split it into 2 discrete 30a 120v RV plugs. You can feed your trailer w/ one while the other powers a larger charger to fit your battery's max charge rate. Some folks upgrade or convert chemistries so there's really not a one-size-fits-all approach.

More than likely what'd benefit you the most is to just keep the truck connected and on in generator mode. It will power things off of the HVB until demand reaches ~1.6kW when the ICE will turn on (the inverter experience itself is uninterrupted as the HVB can easily power the inverter at max output). With low power usage the ICE will come on for a few minutes each hour. This allows you to run off the truck itself entirely while keeping the battery charged / floating. Another possibility is to increase the size of your house battery bank as well as the charger and then you're able to charge relatively fast in one go. This approach is better suited for lithium chemistries as they can eat loads of power quickly.

I'm looking at RV trailers right now and already have the power system it'd get -- 14kWh worth of LFP batts and twin 3kW inverters that could operate in series, parallel, or discrete systems feeding off of 1 48v 14kWh battery.
 
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Samson16

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I'm in the market as well, and I'm planning 200Ahr of LFP as a chassis battery bank to run things like the fridge, fans, internet, and security system while boondocking and we're away in the PB.
 

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So 30 amp service at 120 VAC or 240 VAC? If you're setup to use 240 VAC it'll charge up even faster...
 

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I'm in the market as well, and I'm planning 200Ahr of LFP as a chassis battery bank to run things like the fridge, fans, internet, and security system while boondocking and we're away in the PB.
If you're not opposed to doing some DIY, the minimum economical setup I'd run would be a "48v" made of 100ah cells which would make a 5kWh batt with a balancer 4a balancer on it. What that does is allows you to tap any number of cells to get anywhere between 3.5v and 56v of DC to do with as you please. You could have a couple discrete 12v taps for the 12v devices (as in randomly tapping groups of cells in a semi balanced fashion where the balancer circuit itself will pull energy from higher charged cells and feed them into lower charged cells). It sounds more complex than it really is. The benefit is that you can power a lot of devices that use power bricks directly with DC energy including laptops, cameras, etc...

By using a strategy like this your 'small' device load (dc driven) end up using a fraction of the power that'd normally be wasted by power conversion. When you have DC on hand, use it. If you don't want to tap groups of cells you can get DC-DC converters for pretty cheap that will then eat the ~50+ volts from the batt and convert it to whatever voltage you want. It really comes down to how lax or conservative you want to be with your energy. You can even get mini split AC units that will eat directly from a "48v" battery.
 

Samson16

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That's fascinating. We've been using 48v switch gear for our voice and signaling systems for years. Balancer you say hmmm? Thanks Professor let the research begin!
 

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HammaMan

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That's fascinating. We've been using 48v switch gear for our voice and signaling systems for years. Balancer you say hmmm? Thanks Professor let the research begin!
Just about every BMS has a balancer in it, but it's often very low current .2a or so. However if you're wanting to tap groups of cells for specific voltage ranges, there are several balancers on the market that basically once a voltage delta of which some allow you to specify, the balancer turns on begins taking energy from higher voltage cells and putting them into the lower voltage cells. 4 amp units are available and it makes discrete voltage tapping a reality without having to worry about the cells coming out of balance. They can be stand alone or BMS controlled. Opinions are mixed on their usage. It really comes down to one's own ability to design / implement a solution for their needs.

The house battery itself could be done away with entirely if properly designed, though some still choose to still use an additional 12v battery in addition to the 48v one. It's not really necessary when designed right though. There's countless solutions overall, I personally prefer the 48v systems as it allows for smaller conductors and higher inverter efficiency. Case in point tesla is switching their vehicles LV side to 48v from 12v and anticipate being able to save about 75% of the copper from the LV side of things.
 

Samson16

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Ford F-150 Powerboost charging capability while boondocking. 1685065172803

16 x 3.2v of LiFePO4 perhaps? Tapable and in need of an external BMS? I'm not a fan of so many mechanical connections open to the air. Inspection, cleaning, and re-torque required on a routine basis unless you have a fix for that as well sir.
 

HammaMan

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16 x 3.2v of LiFePO4 perhaps? Tapable and in need of an external BMS? I'm not a fan of so many mechanical connections open to the air. Inspection, cleaning, and re-torque required on a routine basis unless you have a fix for that as well sir.
Yes, those are the cells. No need for cleaning and what not. You assemble and it's done. Yes, you do need a BMS on LFP. All of the pre-made units made to resemble lead acid batteries have those inside of it, though they typically have really shitty BMSs in them. The BMS protects the cells. When properly cared for these batteries will last over 10 years. In the event that a cell does fail, it can be replaced. It's not for everyone, granted it's worth learning IMO. The cost to buy quality pre-made "batteries" can be 2-3x the cost of self assembly. There are however well-priced pre-made 100ah 48v batteries to purchase. Just search for 100ah 48v server rack LFP and you'll see.
 

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The connections are exposed and therefore require periodic inspections I would think? Dust covers or something anyway...

I like that you are more in control of the quality and as you described, have multiple voltage options available while maintaining equality across the grid. Smaller gauge charging wire is handy in many ways for sure. I didn't know this was out there as an option for us. Thank you for sharing Hamma!
 

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The connections are exposed and therefore require periodic inspections I would think? Dust covers or something anyway...

I like that you are more in control of the quality and as you described, have multiple voltage options available while maintaining equality across the grid. Smaller gauge charging wire is handy in many ways for sure. I didn't know this was out there as an option for us. Thank you for sharing Hamma!
You turn it into an assembly and make a cover for it. Several videos and writeups on it. It's a pretty common thing for people to do relatively speaking.
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