120v charging troubleshooting

bbutala · May 9, 2025

Talk to me like I’m dumb, because I guess I am. Have the ford mobile charger, 120v. 12g extension cord to the outlet on my porch. Generates a charging error on the app. Where did I go wrong and how to troubleshoot.

Whammy Bar · May 9, 2025

Depends on the error, what is it?

12ga cord is likely undersized for the continuous draw an EV will require. Charger should be plugged directly into a receptacle.

TaxmanHog · May 9, 2025

bbutala said:
Talk to me like I’m dumb, because I guess I am. Have the ford mobile charger, 120v. 12g extension cord to the outlet on my porch. Generates a charging error on the app. Where did I go wrong and how to troubleshoot.

Have you tried other outlets at your house?

Maquis · May 9, 2025

What are the lights showing on both the charger and your charge port?

bbutala · May 9, 2025

TaxmanHog said:
Have you tried other outlets at your house?

No but this outlet didn’t trip the breaker.

BSEE SPARKY · May 9, 2025

How far is porch outlet away from fuse box (wire length) plus how long is 12 ga extension cord? If this is pretty long you might be suffering from voltage drop on a long run. I just don’t remember current draw on mobile charger running on 120v. You might want to invest in a 10 ga extension cord and find a plug closer to fuse box.

Scorpio3d · May 9, 2025

TaxmanHog said:
Have you tried other outlets at your house?

Maquis said:
What are the lights showing on both the charger and your charge port?

what they said!

Voltage drop calculator:
https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/voltage-drop

Ted23Lightning · May 9, 2025

Scorpio3d said:
what they said!

Voltage drop calculator:
https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/voltage-drop

That’s pretty cool.

potato · May 9, 2025

Whammy Bar said:
12ga cord is likely undersized for the continuous draw an EV will require. Charger should be plugged directly into a receptacle.

Lightning only draws 12 amps on 120 volts. The wire in the wall is 14 gauge. Bigger wire wouldn't hurt but I doubt that's the problem.

I wonder if there is a charging location enabled. With my truck, if I have a charging schedule and the state of charge is just right, the truck can't decide whether it can finish within the charging window or not. It cycles the EVSE on and off for a couple of minutes then gives a charging fault. I then have to do something later to "wake up" the truck once the charging window has started, and it'll start charging OK.

htobin · May 10, 2025

I usually charge at 220v, but once while visiting my daughter I tried to charge at 120 and it failed. Tried again at home with same result on several circuits. Brought the charger to the dealer to get it checked. They said it worked fine. Took it home and tried on same circuits and it worked. Go figure,

Maquis · May 10, 2025

htobin said:
I usually charge at 220v, but once while visiting my daughter I tried to charge at 120 and it failed. Tried again at home with same result on several circuits. Brought the charger to the dealer to get it checked. They said it worked fine. Took it home and tried on same circuits and it worked. Go figure,

A good possibility that the 120V dongle didn’t get fully seated the first time. Dealer may have reseated it.

On the Road with Ralph · May 10, 2025

Maquis said:
A good possibility that the 120V dongle didn’t get fully seated the first time. Dealer may have reseated it.

This has happened to me. The mobile charger is very susceptible to this – it really wants that dongle fully seated at the top of the unit. It faults out with a yellow light if the dongle is even very slightly not fully seated.

Dan's Lightning · May 10, 2025

The Ford Mobile charger is a piece of shit, mine was DOA from the start, never use it, put back into the bag. I bought two Tesla Gen 3 mobile charger and adapters, it will do 120 and 240v. I have one installed at my in-laws house on a dryer plug using the Tesla Adapters and one I keep in my truck for back up. Charging via 120v I don't recommend every day cause it's not powerful enough to charge the truck and the 12V battery at the same time. I was on Ski trip and had the Tesla mobile plugged into a 120V wall plug for 3-4 days, the 12V almost died, lucky the truck started and i was able to get over to the resorts EV Chargers. My suggestion is not to rely on 120V for charging and The Ford mobile charger toss in the garbage.