Rewiring the "rear power outlet" to ALWAYS ON...

There will always be too many idiots who plug in their fridge or boiler etc. and run the battery flat for Toyota to do that.

I have installed a pair of PowerPoles in the boot directly connected to the 12V battery via fuses and a 'battery saver' automatic disconnector. Mainly to power Ham radios but also to monitor and charge the battery directly if necessary.

 

I have two other vehicles, A 98 Dodge Neon, and a 2001 Chrysler minivan. Both have one "always on" 12 volt cigarette lighter power socket in front (with a several "switched power" sockets throughout the van). Honda's that I have owned in the past were also "always on".

Toyota totally paranoid about being sued. For example: every driver's side floor mat has clips that prevent the mat from ever possibly sliding under the gas pedal. I am surprised that they didn't come up with a way to disable the ignition, if the floor mat clips were not locked!

 

So, you added an extra fuse(s) for the trunk outlet?

Did you upgrade the wiring to thicker cables for more juice power, too?

How much did it cost ya? I'm needing a back one on preferably drivers side to handle 1000 max continuous watts or better yet 2000 with pure sine inverter option. Length of time would be for 15 to 30 min . usually but could go up to an hour from time to time.





SM-N910V ?

 

Feel free to contact me directly.

SM-N910V ?

 

Is it really being 'paranoid' when they do it after having been sued for a quadruple fatality crash where this was a major contributing factor?

This isn't just Toyota, my newer Subaru now does the same.

Were those Hondas built before or after the market introduction of those battery draining thermoelectric coolers? My household's Hondas and Fords with always-on sockets were built before. My other brand cars with switched sockets were all built after.

 

It definitely won't go up to an hour ever, unless the car is in READY. 1000 watts continuous is 83 amps at 12 volts (and that's assuming a magical 100-percent efficient inverter). If the car's not in READY mode, that would take your 45-ish amp-hour battery from fully charged to completely flat in half an hour tops. (If the inverter has a low-input-voltage safety feature, it will cut off before that, to make sure you can still start the car.)

The 2000-watt will flatten the battery in half the time (if you really use that much power, anyway). It would also exceed the capacity of the car's DC/DC converter to run it with the car READY.

-Chap

 

Remember the Prius 12v battery is smaller than a normal car's battery because it does not have to run a starter and its smaller to save weight and space.

If I really needed 2000 watts for an hour I would probably try to find a full size battery "jump starter" system that would charge on 12vdc or 120vac as needed. It would have a full size 12vdc battery inside and have its own smart charger built in. If I left it in the car to charge, I would charge it only on the switched 12v the car already has. It would have to be bigger than most of the $100 versions out there that have small batteries inside.

It is conceivable that the Prius 12v battery could be replaced with an appropriate high amp hour battery that could be used for 2000w for an hour but I would still need to buy a small lithium powered jump starter so I could start the car if the big offline load killed the car's primary 12v. A note about this option: The existing under floor space for the 12v battery won't accept anything bigger, so some creative mounting would be needed. Probably could still get one under the top floor panel through modification of the foam bins below. I would certainly test rig something like this to ensure it meets power and time requirements before permanently installing.

Probably the premium solution for high loads would be one of the high voltage 200 vdc to 120/240 vac systems that can literally run a house off a Prius (but only when in Ready mode to keep the HV battery charged). Then we have a quiet high output high efficiency gas generator, commonly known as a Prius. This works until you run out of gas.