400W All The Time Mod - Research

I'm tempted to skip this underpowered, squarewave turd altogether and install my own ~1000W to 1500W pure sine inverter.....
Tell me I'm crazy.

 

Just used my AC in the truck bed for the first time, just powering a dremel for cutting metal. Worked fine.

Can anyone tell me the real world limitations of the AC ports? Can I use inside and outside simultaneously? I ran mine with the acc on, my engine off. What's the time limitations for the battery on doing that, or does the engine have to be on?

Educate me please. Thanks

 

That's a great idea with the heating blanket.
Yeah, I'm sure it's the stupid little heater. No idea if it's sine wave. It does run initially but when I get to where I'm going it is off.
Unplug it, plug it back in and it works again. So either the inverter is turning off power at some point ...or it could be some built in safety feature of the heater.

Ice Coast here as well. I haven't skied in a decade but gonna blow the dust off the old girls this weekend.

 

What's the actual power draw on that heater?
In park the Tundra can do 400W but once you put it in drive it drops down to 100W.
Maybe it simply shuts down due to lack of wattage provided by the 120V system?
Could make sense;..........you park, putting the inverter back into 400W mode, go turn on your heater and it works again.

Amazing that Toyota would put the work into this for "us" yet make it semi-worthless.


I frequent Belleayre, but heading out to Catamount tomorrow to meet up with my son and his scout troop.
See you on the slopes.

 

The heater is 200w which is why I attempted the "anytime 400w mod". I can drive it for a bit and the heater does stay on.
On a longer trip the heater is shutting off at some point.
I'll need to test it with a volt meter in park and somehow while in drive to see if the mod is working.

White mountains here. NH and VT. Loon, Bretton Woods, and Killington were my go-to's back in the day.

 

Hmm,
Does it get toasty inside the bed after a couple of hrs?
Perhaps a thermal shutoff on the heater...

I know my boot dryers will turn off if the air flow is impeded too much.
Maybe shove it in a closet at home and see if/when it turns off?

 

It won’t care about a square wave if it just has a simple on/off switch and mechanical thermostat setting. If anything is digital then it won’t be happy without a sine wave. Also consider the tipping safety switch. Looks like you have it well mounted so probably not the issue. Some of my little heaters have a little pop-out button on the bottom to detect if they fall over. Might make sure that’s not the case.

 

It seems to be working now. Drove a few hours up skiing and back and the little heater seems to have ran the entire way.
Whatever the glitch was that shut it off, it's working now. (I blame the heater).
Turns out, a 200w heater does very little in the uninsulated bed of a truck. Ambient temp was about 30d and I couldn't really tell if the gear was any warmer. maybe a tad "less cold" ... but not warm.
Maybe I'll try a 400w heater next and see if it will run.

 

Not trying to sway you 1 way or another, but just wanted to chime in that I can drive 4hrs in 15 degree weather, with that stupid 12V electric blanket over my bags, get to the mountain, take them inside the lodge, and our boots are "ambient" temp.
They don't get "warm" but sure as hell can't feel any coldness putting them on.

Anyway,
Just a little feedback and comparison of my blanket solution vs your heater approach.


PS:
Catamount was decent last weekend.
Come to Belle on Sat - Potter Bros are doing their demo day there on March1/Sat (which I coincidently took advantage of at Catamount past Sat, as they were there too).

 

The electric blanket makes much more sense than trying to heat the entire area. Wish that I thought of that.
... maybe a heating blanket would work with the anytime 400w mod that I did. I might try it next trip.
Put the gear on top of the electric blanket and another blanket over the top (since heat rises).
For now, the little heater might thaw the hard folding tonno cover when covered in ice I guess.

Sunapee was excellent Sunday. Great conditions, good weather, and almost no lift lines ... which was weird.
We got 17 runs in even with stopping for lunch.
First time skiing in 15 years and my legs were burning. I was strongly considering ending the day early
but I took it easy and kept up with the 20 something year-olds that I was with for the last 3 or 4 runs.
https://www.mountsunapee.com/-/aema...pee/maps/20231031_MS_winter-trail_map_001.pdf

 

Anyone that has installed this on the hybrid have any long term reviews? Any effect on the other systems at all?