A camping buddy of mine has an F-150 Power Boost and we were camping together last summer at a campground with no hookups. I remember being impressed with how quiet it was with the engine running but I don’t remember him running it at night. He has an Airstream Basecamp with two lithium batteries on board so he had plenty of power at night. He charged them during the day and he even brought his truck to my campsite one day and charged my batteries in under an hour! My recommendation would be for Jim to get himself on-board lithium batteries or one of those new multi-kW-hr power stations with a 30 A, 120V RV shore power outlet and power his RV with that at night. He could then charge the power station or on-board lithium batteries with his PowerBoost during the day. That sounds much better to me than leaving it on all night. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on that idea.
Unless I need A/C at night I am fine with my 2 6v batteries. I left it on thinking it wouldn't run much overnight. One repondent on Reddit suggested the truck has to run more often to keep the catalytic converter warm...I can't say whether that is right.
We also have a '23 PPOB (7.2kw)....we tow it behind our 43' Truck Conversion (aka Super C, built on a Freightliner Columbia chassis...too bad we can include a pic here), our RV has an on board 10kw diesel Onan.
We volunteer for a 501c3 Charity (Cowboys 4 Heroes - https://www.cowboys4heroes.com - sorry for the shameless plug but it is an amazing cause and group of volunteers)....anyway....
We were recently cooking for a 1st responders fund raiser (officer recovering from injuries) when I had a catastrophic failure of our Motor Coaches QD10k generator, it was HOT as Hell - (we smoke briskets, pork butts & sausage over night and often end camping in the parking lot).
The parking lot / site had a single 15a outlet that was insufficient to provide Air Conditioning for our Motor Coach (even with "soft starts" on each AC unit)....THANKFULLY I'd TOAD the F150 PowerBoost and had the proper "dog bone" under the back seat....we connected the RV to the F150, and were able to run all the Air Conditioners and rest COMFORTABLY while smoking 40 Briskets in the South Texas HEAT!
Please email me a few pictures of your rig and I’ll do a writeup in a future newsletter. Also, are you towing the F150 4-wheels down? Any special mods needed to make that work? Send any pics to mike@noshockzone.org
Hey, Mike - I also own a ‘21 PowerBoost, and I tow a ‘22 Airstream Basecamp 20’ travel trailer, and since November of ‘21, I’ve driven the pair a bit more than 28,000 miles. The Airstream has the standard AGM batteries, and has no inverter, so the only way to power my 120V outlets or the A/C is to connect to shore power while at a campground, or to the truck while I’m not.
While boondocking, the combination of my PowerBoost (with the 30A, 7200W option) and the Airstream have been, in my experience, just terrific. The truth is that at night, the only time I run the truck in “gernerator mode” is when I need to run the A/C on a hot summer night or to run a small ceramic heater on a cold night. Yes, the truck idles from time to time, but rarely for more than 30 seconds or so, and does so without engaging the starter motor, and won’t run again for somewhere between a half hour and nearly 2 hours. I turn the headlight switch off to minimize impacting any “neighbors” I might have, but yeah, the truck does have an audible idle. My wife, a notoriously light sleeper, says she can hear the truck idle and can feel it if the camper is still hitched to the truck.
The truth is, I only use the PowerBoost when we’re boondocking, and I camp more of the time in campgrounds. But I thank my lucky stars I have it when I need it.
A camping buddy of mine has an F-150 Power Boost and we were camping together last summer at a campground with no hookups. I remember being impressed with how quiet it was with the engine running but I don’t remember him running it at night. He has an Airstream Basecamp with two lithium batteries on board so he had plenty of power at night. He charged them during the day and he even brought his truck to my campsite one day and charged my batteries in under an hour! My recommendation would be for Jim to get himself on-board lithium batteries or one of those new multi-kW-hr power stations with a 30 A, 120V RV shore power outlet and power his RV with that at night. He could then charge the power station or on-board lithium batteries with his PowerBoost during the day. That sounds much better to me than leaving it on all night. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on that idea.
He is on this newsletter, so perhaps he’ll respond directly.
Unless I need A/C at night I am fine with my 2 6v batteries. I left it on thinking it wouldn't run much overnight. One repondent on Reddit suggested the truck has to run more often to keep the catalytic converter warm...I can't say whether that is right.
We also have a '23 PPOB (7.2kw)....we tow it behind our 43' Truck Conversion (aka Super C, built on a Freightliner Columbia chassis...too bad we can include a pic here), our RV has an on board 10kw diesel Onan.
We volunteer for a 501c3 Charity (Cowboys 4 Heroes - https://www.cowboys4heroes.com - sorry for the shameless plug but it is an amazing cause and group of volunteers)....anyway....
We were recently cooking for a 1st responders fund raiser (officer recovering from injuries) when I had a catastrophic failure of our Motor Coaches QD10k generator, it was HOT as Hell - (we smoke briskets, pork butts & sausage over night and often end camping in the parking lot).
The parking lot / site had a single 15a outlet that was insufficient to provide Air Conditioning for our Motor Coach (even with "soft starts" on each AC unit)....THANKFULLY I'd TOAD the F150 PowerBoost and had the proper "dog bone" under the back seat....we connected the RV to the F150, and were able to run all the Air Conditioners and rest COMFORTABLY while smoking 40 Briskets in the South Texas HEAT!
Brushpilot,
Please email me a few pictures of your rig and I’ll do a writeup in a future newsletter. Also, are you towing the F150 4-wheels down? Any special mods needed to make that work? Send any pics to mike@noshockzone.org
Hey, Mike - I also own a ‘21 PowerBoost, and I tow a ‘22 Airstream Basecamp 20’ travel trailer, and since November of ‘21, I’ve driven the pair a bit more than 28,000 miles. The Airstream has the standard AGM batteries, and has no inverter, so the only way to power my 120V outlets or the A/C is to connect to shore power while at a campground, or to the truck while I’m not.
While boondocking, the combination of my PowerBoost (with the 30A, 7200W option) and the Airstream have been, in my experience, just terrific. The truth is that at night, the only time I run the truck in “gernerator mode” is when I need to run the A/C on a hot summer night or to run a small ceramic heater on a cold night. Yes, the truck idles from time to time, but rarely for more than 30 seconds or so, and does so without engaging the starter motor, and won’t run again for somewhere between a half hour and nearly 2 hours. I turn the headlight switch off to minimize impacting any “neighbors” I might have, but yeah, the truck does have an audible idle. My wife, a notoriously light sleeper, says she can hear the truck idle and can feel it if the camper is still hitched to the truck.
The truth is, I only use the PowerBoost when we’re boondocking, and I camp more of the time in campgrounds. But I thank my lucky stars I have it when I need it.
I cross posted to Reddit F150 Powerboost group.