Added 12v Outlet in the Trunk

[rbatch]

I got a 12v fridge/cooler a few months ago for road tripping and was a little jealous of the Model Y folks who had their convenient 12v outlet right there in the trunk. Sure pulling the cable to the front wasn't the worst thing, but I always wished I had something slightly more convenient. I started with a panel from Blue Sea Systems and 3d printed an enclosure for it that could be bolted straight into some existing cutouts in the top of the trunk.

12v supply is tapped from the same wire that feeds the outlet in the center console from VCLEFT. This way I know there won't be anything funky going on with confusing VCLEFT about power draw that it's not expecting, and the outlet stays on so long as sentry mode is on. I didn't get any photos of the ground spot, but there's a 10mm bolt that's mirrored on both sides next to the rear seats with some sort of sensor (maybe an impact sensor for side airbags?). It was a little close to the HV charge port conduits on the driver's side, so I ran the wire in front of the penthouse over to the passenger side.

Overall not too bad, the worst part was trying to finagle the bolts into my enclosure, and dealing with pulling the wire along the existing wire looms. Now I can plug in my fridge without running the power cable between the seats up into the front console. It only draws around 5A at most when it's actively cooling on max, so I still have around 7A left up front that I can comfortably use if I had any other accessories that I wanted to use.

 

[kessel_run]

Well done, looks good and is out of the way so it won't unintentionally get ripped off.

 

[freescale]

Nicely done! Might attempt this one day, thanks for sharing.

 

[Watts_Up]

I think I would had took the power directly from the battery and have my own fuse.
I did this in my frunk, so I can charge a laptop, or the battery of my OneWheel, when the car is sleeping.

And eventually I can connect an air compressor or other tools without the risk
of the motor inrush current blowing the Tesla 12 V circuit breaker.

Also I would prefer not touching the Tesla electrical circuit, when my car is still under warranty.

The inboard DC/DC charger get triggered when the battery reaches 12.5V,
I never had any problem or warning detected by the Tesla electrical system.

I used as reference a video of someone connecting his trailer harness directly from the 12 V battery.
So he was still having power when the car was sleeping.

 

[rbatch]

Nicely done! Might attempt this one day, thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

I think I would had took the power directly from the battery and have my own fuse.
I did this in my frunk, so I can charge a laptop, or the battery of my OneWheel, when the car is sleeping.

I'd considered this but was hesitant to tap the 12v battery directly after reading Ingineerix's warning here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/943e3o/_/e3i3r4h

.

I totally get not wanting to splice an existing wire though under warranty, I was willing to accept the risk here since the amount of things that I could have "broken" with this mod should be super minimal. Tapping power from the existing 12v socket feed is the only way that Tesla actually states that you _should_ do it in Service Document CD-19-17-001, my splice just pulls from this line further "upstream" rather than inside the center console itself.

 

[Watts_Up]

Thanks!

I'd considered this but was hesitant to tap the 12v battery directly after reading Ingineerix's warning here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/943e3o/_/e3i3r4h

.

I totally get not wanting to splice an existing wire though under warranty, I was willing to accept the risk here since the amount of things that I could have "broken" with this mod should be super minimal. Tapping power from the existing 12v socket feed is the only way that Tesla actually states that you _should_ do it in Service Document CD-19-17-001, my splice just pulls from this line further "upstream" rather than inside the center console itself.

I doubt that charging a laptop when the car is sleeping will get too much damage.
The Inboard charger get activated when the battery reaches 12.5V.
I have a dashcam that I connect sometime, but this dashcam has a voltage limiter to avoid daining the battery.
I don't like however having Sentry runningn all the night, this is very inefficient.

 

[ChaoticNeutral]

This might be what I’m looking for, I have a Segway Kickscooter Max G30 that I want to be able to charge while it’s in the trunk. It has an inbuilt charger that uses an Edison plug, but also a DC direct input. Would I be better off trying to adapt the 12V to an Edison outlet or to a DC adapter? (not sure what voltage is required off the top of my head)

 

[stopcrazypp]

This might be what I’m looking for, I have a Segway Kickscooter Max G30 that I want to be able to charge while it’s in the trunk. It has an inbuilt charger that uses an Edison plug, but also a DC direct input. Would I be better off trying to adapt the 12V to an Edison outlet or to a DC adapter? (not sure what voltage is required off the top of my head)

From a google looks like it is a 42V? You may want to see if they sell a car adapter, that would save some conversion losses. However just putting in an inverter with enough power would be more flexible and there would be a lot more options.

 

[ChaoticNeutral]

From a google looks like it is a 42V? You may want to see if they sell a car adapter, that would save some conversion losses. However just putting in an inverter with enough power would be more flexible and there would be a lot more options.

Segway-ninebot seem to have an official 5 amp DC fast charge brick. It's $99 - kinda pricey but I imagine most cheaper options might be a bit dodgy. I've not done any aftermarket mods to my M3 yet, but this could be quite a practical one.

 

[rbatch]

This might be what I’m looking for, I have a Segway Kickscooter Max G30 that I want to be able to charge while it’s in the trunk. It has an inbuilt charger that uses an Edison plug, but also a DC direct input. Would I be better off trying to adapt the 12V to an Edison outlet or to a DC adapter? (not sure what voltage is required off the top of my head)

The thing to be careful of is the total draw on this circuit. Since this is tapped off the existing 12v outlet that's in the center console, it's bound by the same meager limit of 12A (or 144 watts). Quick googling leads me to believe that the G30 charges around 2A @ 120V, which would put you well above that limit if you used an inverter with the standard charge cable.

The only DC chargers that I saw were the kind that have an inline transformer, so these still need an AC supply and thus would need an inverter. The benefit here is that you _might_ be able to find one of those chargers that keeps the current draw low enough and then pair it with a pure sine wave inverter. That 5 amp one would draw far too much though unfortunately.

There are ways to tap 12v and get around the limitation here, but they can get sketchy fast. For example you'll hear some folks talk about tapping straight off the PCS where there are hundreds of amps available. That will immediately void your battery pack warranty and one wrong move will cause hundreds of dollars in repairs and I would personally not recommend it. At that rate, it's much cheaper and safer to carry around one of those Jackery/Ecoflow batteries that has 120v outlets on it imo.

 

[mspohr]

The thing to be careful of is the total draw on this circuit. Since this is tapped off the existing 12v outlet that's in the center console, it's bound by the same meager limit of 12A (or 144 watts). Quick googling leads me to believe that the G30 charges around 2A @ 120V, which would put you well above that limit if you used an inverter with the standard charge cable.

The only DC chargers that I saw were the kind that have an inline transformer, so these still need an AC supply and thus would need an inverter. The benefit here is that you _might_ be able to find one of those chargers that keeps the current draw low enough and then pair it with a pure sine wave inverter. That 5 amp one would draw far too much though unfortunately.

There are ways to tap 12v and get around the limitation here, but they can get sketchy fast. For example you'll hear some folks talk about tapping straight off the PCS where there are hundreds of amps available. That will immediately void your battery pack warranty and one wrong move will cause hundreds of dollars in repairs and I would personally not recommend it. At that rate, it's much cheaper and safer to carry around one of those Jackery/Ecoflow batteries that has 120v outlets on it imo.

I think using a small Jackery/Ecoflow/Bluetti "solar generator" is the best option. These can charge safely from the 12v (actually 16v on newer cars) cigarette adapter and you can plug your AC adapter into them to charge your device. The "generator" has a battery which acts as a buffer so you don't need to worry about keeping the 12v on (with it's associated risks).
I've used a Bluetti EB3A when traveling to keep a small electric cooler running as well as run things like a hot water kettle and waffle maker. When the car is on, it charges and then keeps the devices running for extended periods from its internal battery.

 

[RossRAllen]

There's also a 12V accessory outlet in the right cubbyhole in the trunk of my '22 MX. No mention of it in the user's manual.

 

[rbatch]

There's also a 12V accessory outlet in the right cubbyhole in the trunk of my '22 MX. No mention of it in the user's manual.

Weird that it's not in the manual, but yes MX and MY have 12v outlets in the trunk already, but unfortunately not M3 and MS.