ok, in my car i need to charge my batteries for work i usually have 2 milwaukee battery chargers running my laptop my frig that draws i think 4 amps? i have extra batteries in my truck with a 1000 watt inverter, i am not going to run quite as much on the prius as the truck but... my car is under warranty and i dont know about plugging into the alternator set up like i have on the truck without screwing up the warranty i have a solar panel on the truck also but i dont want to do that on the pri because i think i will lose mpg any suggestions?
You can use the inverter to charge the Milwaukee batteries and still run the 12V refrigerator without any current issues, but you will have a battery capacity issue. The 12V battery on the Prius is fairly small, so it doesn't do well when used for extended loads. Also, the 12V receptacles on the Prius are switched: they will turn off with the car. You can rewire them if you wish, but keep the small battery in mind. The alternative is to leave your Prius in Ready mode, where the large traction battery supplies electrical power and ICE can come on as needed to recharge it. Tom
ok, since the small 12 volt is in the back of the car? right? if i hooked another 12 volt to this do you think it would burn up my alternator? and do you think that voids my warranty having the second battery hooked to it? i bet it will i should have 2 plugs in the package 2 right? so each plug can handle 15amps no problems? i looked at the chargers, from what i can tell they draw 2.5 amps so that would be 5 cooler/frig pretty sure is 4amps max laptop not sure, think it is 100 watt charger, but hoping to swap to netbook with long battery life soon, so that may help a lot considering putting 2 batteries in the back and doing a separate system, but not happy about the weight but i will be less happy sitting somewhere broken down this was the one thing i did not think about when buying this car, will have to figure it out
One simple solution is to just leave the car ON ("Ready"), in Park, with the parking brake set. Then the two charger outlets will be active and the car will keep the 12V battery fully charged. No modifications required. If necessary lock the car using the mechanical key stored inside the fob. If a Solar charger works for your application then why not use it?
well the solar charger i have on my excursion is at least as big as the prius roof i may end up having to do that, but i think if i put a rack up there and add that it is going to hurt gas mileage i also have a 240 amp alternator on my truck, it NEVER dies with 4 batteries, the solar charger and the alt it never even gets weak, no matter what i do with it i can work in the headlights and fogs for more than an hour with the tools charging and the laptop and it is fine i am going to look into putting as many of the smaller solar chargers on the dash as i can and running one battery, maybe running an extension cord out and charging it when i am parked a lot the guy that did my truck set up is very good, i am going to talk to him and see what he thinks
There is no "alternator" in the Prius. The 12 vdc side is handled by the Inverter/Converter. Some folks have turned their Prius into a UPS to power their home during a power blackout PriUPS-getting electricity FROM your hybrid vehicle The only caveat is that the 12 vdc battery is quite small, think motorcycle sized. I took this photo of my Prius battery after hooking up the VDC Battery Minder harness to it The only way to power stuff with the Prius is to leave it in Ready. The gas motor will automatically start and stop to maintain correct charge in the primary NiMH battery pack, which powers the Inverter/Converter, which charges the 12 vdc battery and accessories
ok, i am allowed to put a bigger battery in there? it looks like there is a lot of room or am i mistaken?
Uhh, true. Any rack will hurt MPGs. What about leaving the car on? Does that not work in your situation? Adding more batteries could be a problem if they ever all got significantly drained. The DC-DC converter is fused to 100A or so, and four depleted batteries might easily want to suck more than that when the car is turned on. To completely prevent that possibility you'd have to leave the car on whenever you were using the external 12V equipment... but if the car is going to be on anyway then you wouldn't need the extra batteries.
i guess it is somethingb to try, i am worried about it being stolen like that some places that would not be a problem for it, but some i would not be able to do that before i get into major mods i will try it ay suggestions of a way to make the car imovaable when i have it on, guess i could do that steering wheel thing anything i can turn off as far as driving? this is all great info, thanks for all the help i am excited about my new car, cannot wait to pick it up!!
I'd be more worried about someone breaking in just to steal the laptop or those nice expensive tools. A Club won't prevent that. But yeah, if the car is on there's nothing to stop someone from breaking in and driving away.
I removed the trim panel to take the photo. A larger battery would have to be hooked up externally. Hobbit has had good writeups on this http://www.techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/pix/prius-ferrups.jpg Hope this helps
If your tool batteries are charged overnight outside the car, and you just use the Prius battery to maintain charge, maybe you'll be fine--extra batteries? But if you're re-charging in the car while it's off, and using the refrigerator 24x7, another solution may be needed. I still plan to install a cigarette lighter socket under the cargo floor for a rechargeable lantern with its charger base. However, I also have the same lantern in the garage, and will use that base to charge the car lantern, and use the car to maintain charge. The charger says 500 mA on it, but the trickle charge to maintain the battery draws only 10mA. I'll run a power wire from under the dash via the driver-side door sills using the excellent instructions and photos by [FONT="]Judgeless at my older thread:[/FONT][FONT="] http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-prius-accessories-modifications/72677-adding-12v-charger-led-[/FONT][FONT="]lantern.html.[/FONT] The manufacturer responded that it was OK to use a switched source, since the car is used every day.
Be careful Milwaukee tool chargers use roughly 300 watts each to charge. I ran into this in my work truck. They would blow the 20 amp fuse on the lighter outlet when using the inverter for them. Also the prius outlets are fused at 10 amps. Solution... run a dedicated outlet and only run when the car is running.
ok sounds like i am going to have to run a separate system, thinking i will try running laptop on car and everything else on separate system using big battery and solar chargers on the dash, hoping there are some small stronger solar chargers available now, will do research i have the m18 tools, i just looked in the manual for the charge rate and it said 2.5 amps, i will look at the top of the charger and see if it says 300 watts, yuck thanks for letting me know those only do 10amps is there any room to replace the standard battery with a larger one under that panel, just one larger one? do you think it will void my warranty if i run a heavy duty 12 volt socket with fuse directly off the battery? probably should just go separate system, blah i just dont know how i will keep it charged during the day, no problem to plug in at nite at home
