400 Watt inverter uses

[DEZ OHM]

Hello All,
Getting a lot of use from our 2026 Hybrid, tows our little vintage travel trailer like a charm. I wanted to ask what others have to say about the
400 watt inverter and it's uses. I have a big Bluetti power pack and a small one as well. I use them to run the 12 volt fridge in the vintage
trailer that I have updated in a number of ways. (lights, fans, the fridge) Just what can I do with that plug in the truck bed? Will it charge
anything? Can I route the electric from the 7-pin trailer plug that I installed to charge it while it's in the trailer? I can imagine that it would
charge slowly but if it could while we are driving that would be a plus.
Any help or ideas would be great!

Chris E

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[Maverick123]

Ours powers a Noco Genius 10 10 amp battery charger which recharges the camper's 100ah LFP battery if there isn't enough sun to recharge it with the solar panels. We had a few cloudy days last time, the truck charged the battery from 25% to 100% over about 8 hours ... it sounds like forever, but the engine only runs 2 minutes every half hour to recharge the HVB ... so the engine only ran a total of 32 minutes over those 8 hours.

Sometimes I'll also use the Noco to recharge the camper battery and keep it full while we're towing to another campground

It also recharges our eMTBs when we're boondocking and it powers my mobile office setup for the one day a week I have to work

 

[DEZ OHM]

Thanks Glen! So you plug the Noco into the bed outlet and then connect it to the posts of the battery? Do these units have a plug that can go into my power station outlet? 'm an electrical dummy so this is all new to me. We went camping and had fog so the solar panels were useless.

 

[Maverick123]

Name isn't Glen, but you're welcome

Noco plugs into 120v outlet, and the 12v output leads have clamps for the battery posts

If you want to charge your power station you better avoid the 120v outlet, most of them don't like the modified sine wave output and they won't charge. Get a 12v cigarette lighter socket for the the Flexbed ports from @Maverick_Innovation_Designs and plug it into that for a steady 20a charge

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

You can run most things in a camper with 400 watts 120 VAC.

Except air-conditioning or microwave or hair dryer.

I run a 36" tv, blu-ray player, satellite dish, etc. Wife has a 400 watt toaster oven. Could do a SMALL coffee/tea maker. Charge all your devices, computers, tablets, phones, drills, 18v tools, 21v tools, 40 volt tools etc. Soldering iron if you do hobbies, sound systems, RC cars, planes, boats, tanks, etc.

 

[lewfoer]

Name isn't Glen, but you're welcome

Noco plugs into 120v outlet, and the 12v output leads have clamps for the battery posts

If you want to charge your power station you better avoid the 120v outlet, most of them don't like the modified sine wave output and they won't charge. Get a 12v cigarette lighter socket for the the Flexbed ports from @Maverick_Innovation_Designs and plug it into that for a steady 20a charge

Name isn't Glen, but you're welcome

Noco plugs into 120v outlet, and the 12v output leads have clamps for the battery posts

If you want to charge your power station you better avoid the 120v outlet, most of them don't like the modified sine wave output and they won't charge. Get a 12v cigarette lighter socket for the the Flexbed ports from @Maverick_Innovation_Designs and plug it into that for a steady 20a charge

You mentioned that it has a modified sign wave inverter. I was trying to charge my bike battery but the light on the receptacle in the truck, not the battery charger, was flashing. Do you think the truck was having an issue with the charger? (The charger works fine in my shop)

 

[Maverick123]

You mentioned that it has a modified sign wave inverter. I was trying to charge my bike battery but the light on the receptacle in the truck, not the battery charger, was flashing. Do you think the truck was having an issue with the charger? (The charger works fine in my shop)

The light above the outlet flashing usually means that the inverter's breaker is tripped. Either your bike charger is drawing too much juice OR there's a mismatch between the current it's drawing vs what the inverter is expecting I guess

I have a 20A lithium battery charger which should work (20A x 14v = 280w) but it does the same thing yours does ... trips the breaker. That's why I still use the 10A Noco instead : half the charging speed, but at least it works

 

[lewfoer]

The output of the charger is 56vdc @ 2 amps. It doesn’t seem likely that there’s an overload situation with those numbers.

 

[BK007]

 

[MaverickDragon]

Now that's something you don't see every day...
Apparently the create-a-bot doesn't like keyboard competition, because all of the techs have clipboards...

 

[Maverick_Innovation_Designs]

Name isn't Glen, but you're welcome

Noco plugs into 120v outlet, and the 12v output leads have clamps for the battery posts

If you want to charge your power station you better avoid the 120v outlet, most of them don't like the modified sine wave output and they won't charge. Get a 12v cigarette lighter socket for the the Flexbed ports from @Maverick_Innovation_Designs and plug it into that for a steady 20a charge

Two quick notes:

1. The 12v is a good option for charging power banks, but it should be limited to a 15A power draw since both the left/right Flexbed circuits are connected to one 20A quick-blow fuse.
2. Both the 12v (120-180W) and USB-PD (65W) are good options, depending on how big your power bank is.

I'll also be making more of the XT-60 connectors since that was specifically requested for charging power banks and coolers. That should be up on Etsy later this week.

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