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What's the maximum wattage the rear 120V plugs can handle?

millim

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I've been asked to use my Lightning to power a large inflatable at a fundraiser next week. There will be thousands of people there, and I really want it to work!

I'm being told that a 3000 watt generator is what the vendor w/ the inflatable requested. They also said it's a standard 120V plug. I'm not familiar w/ electrical, but I would have assumed you needed a 240V for 3000 watts.

Whatever the answer above, the vendor is stating they only need 120V. As such, would it be fair to assume that the 120V load that the Lightning can handle is at the upper limit of what 120V sockets off a generator are capable of? I'd hate to show up and have the Lightning not be sufficient since it's a 5am start. TIA
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KurtsRPMGarage

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The plugs are 120v and 20 amps. So that would be 2400 watts maximum. That's typically as big as you get with a 120v circuit so I'd say you should be fine. The 3000 watt generator rating is likely so you can run multiple plugs at once.
 

GarageMahal

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I believe a 3000w generator would have two 15 amp outlets.

Worst case is you have 20 amps in the frunk along with 20 amps in the bed but I think each of the bed outlets gives 20 amps but cannot find anything to confirm that.

I am assuming you have the 9.6kw ProPower upgrade.
 
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millim

millim

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Extremely helpful. Thank you both. I do have the upgraded so should be good to go.
 

NCMike

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How many blowers will you be running? When I use to rent those for my kids birthday party’s, the blowers would pull over 10amps each. Two blowers would trip a 20amp breaker. I had to put them on different circuits. I’d plan on one blower for each 20amp circuit to be safe. Last thing you want is an inflatable deflate with kids in it. Also make sure you turn off any timers or automatic shutoffs on the truck.
 

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LifeAsDane

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Extremely helpful. Thank you both. I do have the upgraded so should be good to go.
Would love to hear how this ended up working out for you?
Have a large 18' Water Slide inflatable rented for Sunday and I'd love to power mine off the back of the truck as well. My concern is more the shutting off of the outlet or truck by some timer or warning that I don't see in time.

I've successfully charged some things off the truck without any shutoffs happening over a 3hr period.
 

Maquis

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Would love to hear how this ended up working out for you?
Have a large 18' Water Slide inflatable rented for Sunday and I'd love to power mine off the back of the truck as well. My concern is more the shutting off of the outlet or truck by some timer or warning that I don't see in time.

I've successfully charged some things off the truck without any shutoffs happening over a 3hr period.
I ran an air compressor and battery charger for 4 hours working on a tractor. Just be sure to disable the shutdown timer - the setting doesn’t stick, so you have to do it every time you want to leave the truck on.
What you did to get 3 hours is all you need to do. It will stay on unless you hit the SoC threshold.
 

Refactoringdr

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I ran a couple of big inflatables off of the truck. I had to put them on separate circuits, but it worked fine.
 

hturnerfamily

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congrats, and while it may be a little confusing, there are two 'circuits', for the truck...

A) one being the 120v powered 20 amp outlets found in the Frunk, the Cab, and the Bed(even a bed outlet for Lightnings without ProPower)... these are all on the same 'circuit', and therefore, have a total MAX OUTPUT, combined, of 2,400 watts, or 20 amps. And even though each outlet set is '20 amps' on it's own, the total output of all the outlets combined is still only 20 amps.
This is the same setup for F150 'Hybrid' trucks.

B) the ProPower Onboard brings on more outlets, and another 7,200 watts of power, from a totally DIFFERENT circuit, and also a different Inverter. This circuit, made up of TWO lines of power, is 240volts, providing the 240v 30 amp outlet in the Bed, and ANOTHER set of 120v 20 amps outlets in the bed.
With both the 240v outlet AND the additional 120v outlets, you can use them in a combination of up to the 7,200 watts of power, or a combination of up to 2,400 watts(20amps) Max from the 120v outlets, and up to 4,800 watts(30amps) Max from the 240v outlet.

If you exceed any of these Maximums, per circuit, the truck will turn these circuits off(trip the breaker), and you will have to then reset the 'breaker'(turn the ProPower back on for this circuit)...managing your electrical needs is sometimes confusing, but once you get to know the 'limits' of each outlet/circuit combination, it's not too difficult.

Now, when you use ProPower output of the 240v 30 amp outlet, such as to your home's breaker panel, for 'whole house' power, you are limited to the 240v 30 amps of power, in total, which is similar to 120volts at 60 amps. Yes, it is 240v power, but it's also likely you don't really have a lot of devices or appliances actually 'using' 240v at any given time. But, regardless, this is generally PLENTY of power in any outage situation. Plenty to run your air conditioner, even if it's 240v on a 30amp double-pole breaker, as it only gets anywhere close to that maximum at first start up of the compressor, and generally settles in at more like 18-20 amps while it's simply 'running'...

Unlike most, if you have the ProPower PRO Charger unit, and the 'Whole House' inverter equipment, etc., you might can actually make use of the whole 9,600 watts of power available from the truck.


fun! : )
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