Took my truck in for a couple warranty issues to have cleared up before I rolled the odometer over.

I actually have a good service team here in San Antonio, and they take your issues serious. Had the steering re-flashed, and holy crap, what an improvement. Also got the running board replaced on the drivers side due to the strips coming loose and scuffing the paint.

However, the inverter was giving me fits when I tried to charge my cordless drill batteries. Light would flash 3 times and go into "fault" which required a restart to stop the light flashing, my laptop would cause the same issue. Showed the tech the issue, and he ordered a replacement inverter.

Had the inverter replaced this morning, same issue with the battery charger, but Itll charge my laptop just fine now. Tech says, "your battery charger is listed at 65w and 120v, this is only 110v."

In all fairness, my laptop charges just fine now. But hell, even the manual says the inverter should be able to charge cordless drill batteries; it is even specific about it.

Is there something else going on? I know I am not expecting too much. My old f350 would charge the batteries. Even a cheap pepboys inverter will charge the batteries.

Should I demand another replacement? Anyone else having this problem??

 

Two possibilities...

One, the output of the F150's inverter is not a pure sine wave. This is common of cheaper inverters. Some switch-mode power supplies won't like this form of AC input. You may notice a high-pitched whine from things like laptop power supplies, and they may get hotter than usual.

Two, the charger may be placing a significant surge demand when the battery is attached, overloading the inverter.

The whole 110 vs 120 volt thing is semantics. Most likely, that charger will accept anything from about 90 to 250 VAC at a frequency of 20-100Hz and be perfectly happy. The US mains system is technically 120VAC. The NEC lists the tolerances at +/- 5% at the service entrance (114-126 VAC) and -13/+6% at the point of utilization (104.4-127.2 VAC). NEMA suggests a straight +/- 10%, or 103.5-126.5 VAC. In short, the tech is looking for a way out.

There's also some possibility that the charger has some sort of internal fault that's only apparent in certain situations. Have you tried another similar charger?

I'd suggest taking the charger and battery and testing it on a few vehicles on their lot... see how they behave. If they work and yours still doesn't, it's obviously an inverter issue.

 

Thanks. The whole voltage thing I knew was a cop-out. I sell lighting for a living, and some of my customers freak out when they see 110v vs 120v. Im not an electrician, nor will I pretend to be one. I have installers who get to play with electricity. ha

I tried two different 18v chargers(Craftsman & DeWalt). Neither of them can use the trucks power supply. Both are rapid chargers tho; might be the reason.

 

There was a lot of discussion about his before. But it's been awhile. These inverters put out a square wave which is most likely causing the problem. Chargers are hit and miss if they work. Trying to search with the garage talk app is a pita or i would try and find the threads for you.

 

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/power...287998/index6/

 

My Ryobi 6 port charger works fine with my 110v outlet.
Plug it in before I head out to job site and batteries are fully charged when I get there.
Know that doesn't help with your current situation but.... just saying.