DIY power setups are great if you like tinkering or want to do something more custom for your application. They used to be cheaper than turnkey power stations, but not so much any more. We went with the turnkey option mainly to save time, and to have a battery that can easily move from the truck to the house for emergency backup.
Thanks for the great review! I have two 100 watt solar panels on my canopy and a large storage battery that has been kept fully charged by the panels. In addition, I have a large power inverter to run 120 volt devices when needed. It works, but I probably should have gone with the Ecoflow type system instead. I'm looking at adding a fridge/freezer unit at some point too so I may switch. I was particularly interested in the way you ran the power cable. I know those plastic plugs can pop out as well. I need to run a small cord from the cab to the canopy space for a rear view camera. At the moment, it's just going through the sliding windows but that's been a pain. I haven't been able to find a port through the cab wall yet unfortunately. I don't want to drill, but that my be my ultimate solution. But seeing the way you ran that cable under the cab gives me some ideas for using a firewall wire port instead. Thanks again!
We considered a DIY power system, but needed a solution in a hurry after our Goal Zero didn’t cut it on our Steens Trip. The choice is a toss up these days, especially if you can get a deal on a power station. Yes sounds like running the wiring back out through the firewall grommet would be the cleanest solution. For more details on running wires under the vehicle search for U-Haul’s trailer wiring installation guide.
Right on! And for sure, big one being that the provided wire is just long enough to go from the driver's side front corner of the truck bed to the battery. Drilling through the plastic plug has worked out well, if I was to do that again I would put a little rubber gasket around the hole before running the cable, then use some form of silicon water proofing to fill the gap between the cable and the hole. To get the cable up to the engine bay follow the brake line most of the way since Toyota obviously put that in a safe spot. You can follow the line up through the driver wheel well into the engine bay!
Thanks for the video. I'm an ecoflow fan and had been considering the alternator charger for emergency backup and an extra redundancy. On your trip did you take any solar panels, just in case something happened or did you feel pretty comfortable trusting only the alternator charger?
Thanks for watching! No solar on that trip. Our backup plan was to charge using a trailer plug to 12v cable that I custom made and ran into the bed through the tailgate gap. That would have charged very slowly, but still better than nothing. We also stayed in hotels/Airbnbs every couple nights since this was our first long trip with a baby. Worse case we could have dragged the battery and the fridge into the hotel to run on AC. Hope that helps!
I bought the alternator charger with the delta 2 max and have had it installed for about a month. It has unfortunately let me down on every trip. The alternator charger disconnects from my phone and requires WiFi to reconnect. As soon as it disconnects from my phone it is basically useless as there is no way to turn it on. I have had to leave my camp in search of internet just to reset it. I have sent messages to Ecoflow and was told that it does in fact require internet and that I should use the personal hotspot on my phone… that doesn’t work when off grid. Sorry to leave such a harsh sounding comment on your video. My intention is to share my experience so people know what they are getting, not to talk trash. I love Ecoflow products and hope they make changes to this potentially game changing piece of tech.
I hear ya, lots of hit or miss experiences with Ecoflow products in general. People tend to either have no issues, or end up in a customer service nightmare. That's strange about the charger not turning on. Ours powers up automatically once it is connected to the Delta 2. There is also a manual power switch hidden on the data port. Did that not work for you? In any case thank you for sharing your experience! We have only had one issue so far. If more problems occur we will provide an update, and yank the links if we can no longer recommend the product.
@ thank you for your response. It’s not that the unit won’t turn on, it powers on just fine. It actually disconnects from the app on my phone. It will be connected and working fine one second and then it isn’t. Once it disconnects from the app you have to have WiFi to reconnect. I can turn my vehicle on and the green light will show but the app is completely greyed out. I can still access my delta 2 max on the app however it won’t recognize the alternator charger once it has lost connection. I am still in the process of working with Ecoflow so I hope everyone reading this understands that I am just sharing my experience. This is in no way a bad review as there is always things to figure out with new products. If things get resolved I will definitely update my experience. Thanks again
Wish it just needed bluetooth, Wonder if the engine needs to be running to draw from the tow vehicle or if there's a cutoff voltage. I would like to install a 100 ah battery to draw from.
@ agreed, it can connect to the app with just Bluetooth but updates require WiFi. And yes you can set a voltage cutoff manually (believe we have it at 13.5v), so at least in theory you would be able to run it off of another battery by dropping the cutoff below 12v.
I agree with you on the firmware, it is the first thing I did when testing it. Good review, thanks!
Thanks! And yes, clearly a must do first step with any Ecoflow product.
Thank for showing set up. Looking into different systems; either batteries, inverter, panels, etc…
Maybe all in one battery pack.
DIY power setups are great if you like tinkering or want to do something more custom for your application. They used to be cheaper than turnkey power stations, but not so much any more. We went with the turnkey option mainly to save time, and to have a battery that can easily move from the truck to the house for emergency backup.
Thanks for the great review! I have two 100 watt solar panels on my canopy and a large storage battery that has been kept fully charged by the panels. In addition, I have a large power inverter to run 120 volt devices when needed. It works, but I probably should have gone with the Ecoflow type system instead. I'm looking at adding a fridge/freezer unit at some point too so I may switch. I was particularly interested in the way you ran the power cable. I know those plastic plugs can pop out as well. I need to run a small cord from the cab to the canopy space for a rear view camera. At the moment, it's just going through the sliding windows but that's been a pain. I haven't been able to find a port through the cab wall yet unfortunately. I don't want to drill, but that my be my ultimate solution. But seeing the way you ran that cable under the cab gives me some ideas for using a firewall wire port instead. Thanks again!
We considered a DIY power system, but needed a solution in a hurry after our Goal Zero didn’t cut it on our Steens Trip. The choice is a toss up these days, especially if you can get a deal on a power station.
Yes sounds like running the wiring back out through the firewall grommet would be the cleanest solution. For more details on running wires under the vehicle search for U-Haul’s trailer wiring installation guide.
@@Western-Wild Thanks for that tip!
Awesome review! Just purchased this as well + spare battery set up. I have the same truck, any pointers when running the wires ? Thanks!
Right on! And for sure, big one being that the provided wire is just long enough to go from the driver's side front corner of the truck bed to the battery. Drilling through the plastic plug has worked out well, if I was to do that again I would put a little rubber gasket around the hole before running the cable, then use some form of silicon water proofing to fill the gap between the cable and the hole. To get the cable up to the engine bay follow the brake line most of the way since Toyota obviously put that in a safe spot. You can follow the line up through the driver wheel well into the engine bay!
@ Appreciate it!
Thanks for the video. I'm an ecoflow fan and had been considering the alternator charger for emergency backup and an extra redundancy. On your trip did you take any solar panels, just in case something happened or did you feel pretty comfortable trusting only the alternator charger?
Thanks for watching! No solar on that trip. Our backup plan was to charge using a trailer plug to 12v cable that I custom made and ran into the bed through the tailgate gap. That would have charged very slowly, but still better than nothing. We also stayed in hotels/Airbnbs every couple nights since this was our first long trip with a baby. Worse case we could have dragged the battery and the fridge into the hotel to run on AC. Hope that helps!
I bought the alternator charger with the delta 2 max and have had it installed for about a month. It has unfortunately let me down on every trip. The alternator charger disconnects from my phone and requires WiFi to reconnect. As soon as it disconnects from my phone it is basically useless as there is no way to turn it on. I have had to leave my camp in search of internet just to reset it. I have sent messages to Ecoflow and was told that it does in fact require internet and that I should use the personal hotspot on my phone… that doesn’t work when off grid. Sorry to leave such a harsh sounding comment on your video. My intention is to share my experience so people know what they are getting, not to talk trash. I love Ecoflow products and hope they make changes to this potentially game changing piece of tech.
I hear ya, lots of hit or miss experiences with Ecoflow products in general. People tend to either have no issues, or end up in a customer service nightmare. That's strange about the charger not turning on. Ours powers up automatically once it is connected to the Delta 2. There is also a manual power switch hidden on the data port. Did that not work for you?
In any case thank you for sharing your experience! We have only had one issue so far. If more problems occur we will provide an update, and yank the links if we can no longer recommend the product.
@ thank you for your response. It’s not that the unit won’t turn on, it powers on just fine. It actually disconnects from the app on my phone. It will be connected and working fine one second and then it isn’t. Once it disconnects from the app you have to have WiFi to reconnect. I can turn my vehicle on and the green light will show but the app is completely greyed out. I can still access my delta 2 max on the app however it won’t recognize the alternator charger once it has lost connection. I am still in the process of working with Ecoflow so I hope everyone reading this understands that I am just sharing my experience. This is in no way a bad review as there is always things to figure out with new products. If things get resolved I will definitely update my experience. Thanks again
Wish it just needed bluetooth, Wonder if the engine needs to be running to draw from the tow vehicle or if there's a cutoff voltage. I would like to install a 100 ah battery to draw from.
@ agreed, it can connect to the app with just Bluetooth but updates require WiFi. And yes you can set a voltage cutoff manually (believe we have it at 13.5v), so at least in theory you would be able to run it off of another battery by dropping the cutoff below 12v.