Power Supply Into The Bed - What Have You Done?

[Jim Oaks]

When I had the Loan Ranger I added lights to the rear of the bed rack and tapped into the power plug on the drivers side of the frame under the bed.

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Since this truck didn't have an outlet in the bed, the plug had a dummy plug in it to seal it. When I added the lights, I just used a wiretap to splice into the power.

Since I'm keeping this truck, I want to make a harness to plug into this connector.

Ford Dealer Option:

I realize that I can buy the outlet and harness through a Ford dealer for around $100.

Equip your Ranger's truck bed with a 12 volt bed outlet with this custom kit from Levittown Ford Parts. Kit contains genuine Ford Ranger parts. Drilling is required for installation.

Part Number: RNGRBEDOUTLET

Kit Includes:

• KB3Z-14A411-A - Wire Assembly
• 7A2Z-19N236-A - Socket
• W505575-S307 (x4) - Screw
• W520801-S306 (x4) - Nut

Price: $97.11

CLICK HERE to check it out.

This is TheRangerStation.com. We like to find more economical ways to do things other than lining a Ford dealers pocket.

Ebay - Make Your Own Harness:

I found a company on ebay that sells just the plug to make my own harness:

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2019 2020 2021 Ford Ranger 12V bed accessories male connector. This connector fits into the factory 12v female connector located on the frame of your Ford Ranger behind your drivers side rear tire. Use this connector for custom lights, outlets, inverters, compressors, etc. This is just the plug and terminals so you can crimp them onto your own wiring. Pigtail connectors are also available in a separate listing.

Price: $24.00

CLICK HERE to check it out.

Ebay - Plug & 6-Foot Harness:

And I found someone on ebay that sells the plug with 6-feet of 14 gauge wire already connected.

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2019 2020 2021 Ford Ranger 12V bed accessories 6 foot male pigtail connector. This connector fits into the factory 12v female connector located on the frame of your Ford Ranger behind your drivers side rear tire. Use this connector for custom lights, outlets, inverters, compressors, etc. This is a pigtail connector with 6 feet of 14AWG wire. Standard terminal connectors are also available in a separate listing.

Price: $29.00

CLICK HERE to check it out.

What Plug Is It?

What plug is this anyway? I can find the plug, but not the proper plug name / style / whatever to refer to it.

Rear Cargo Area Power Point Limitations:

The owner's manual lists the power points rated at 15 amps and 180 watts (15 amps x 12 volts = 180 watts). The fuse (#17) for the Rear Cargo Power Point is actually 20 amps which would equate to 240 watts (20 amps x 12 volts = 240 watts).

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Extending How Long The Power Point Has Power:

This power point will shut off after 1 hour and 15 minutes.

If you use FORScan (CLICK HERE) and go into the BdyCM Body Control Module you can look for 'Power Point Feature' and change it from Enabled to Disabled. This allegedly turns off the timeout feature (I haven't done it to confirm this).

The 'Power Point Timeout, s' sets how many seconds the Power Point stays on. 4500 seconds would equate to 75 minutes or 1 hour and 15 minutes. (4500 seconds / 60 seconds = 75 minutes of 1 hour and 15 minutes)

The battery cutoff system should kill all AUX power usage if the battery goes below 11.8 volts.

If anyone changes the Power Point settings let us know.

What Have You Done?

What have you done to add power, lighting, or other accessories to your Ford Ranger's bed area?

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[snoranger]

 

[franklin2]

I would imagine the proper connector is in this link, but I looked and can't figure it out.

http://www.fordservicecontent.com/pubs/content/connectors/images/connectorcatalog.pdf

You can put those w numbers in a google search and get hits on them.

P.S. I see someone found them in the previous post. I looked those up and they are not in my link. My link must be old and doesn't have those numbers.

 

[mikkelstuff]

I inherited the 2002 4WD XLT extended cab Ranger when my Dad passed away in 2015. Being a WW-2 vet, the VA gave him and electric scooter and a hoist mounted in the right rear bed corner to move that scooter around. Power came directly off the battery with 10 AWG cable routed under the truck to an on/off switch on the lift. This was all rather sloppy in my opinion and definitely not the safest to have battery power full time to the rear of the box.

I rerouted this cable with power coming off of the under hood fuse box through a fuse to a solenoid starter switch. Power out of the solenoid switch runs inside the upper front end cross member and back along the frame to the lift.

The solenoid starter switch is activated by a second 18 AWG line from the under hood fuse box to a toggle switch inside the cab and on to the solenoid starter switch. I also installed a red LED indicator in the cab which lights with power to the solenoid switch.

 

[Josh B]

You can make a solar generator with a battery back-up. They were once discussing this quite a bit at the scrap metal forum. I used to hang out there a bit on scrapping computers.
I don't see as many as I thought would be but this one is still there, for whatever its worth

How to make a Solar Generator from a Battery Backup

As promised, this is going to be a detailed thread on making a solar generator from several different types of backups. It will be very detailed, indepth, and will walk you through step by step. You may be able to skip some of the info and later come back to reference some of the material, but...

www.scrapmetalforum.com

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I missed thus was in the 19+ sectIon but it still applies.

Quick cheap and dirty.

Tail lamp power is next the ground pin on a 4 flat trailer connector. So I just snagged a two pin, plugged that into my trailer connector and fished it up thru the bed and into my topper to run the topper light. I have to have my running lights on to use the topper light... but I have a topper light.

 

[sgtsandman]

I do not but the bed cap I ordered for the truck came with one. They wired it directly to the battery which is nice since it circumvents the in vehicle system, which seems to shut all the power ports, outlets, and USB ports down after about an hour.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I don’t usually like to hook in to the factory systems, and instead run a fused line from my battery to a seperate fuse block. I added one down by the passenger kick panel.

The fact that there's an unused power wire on the frame for the bed is tempting. I'd just run my own fused line off of it.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

I added a 12v outlet and bed lights off of it. I run my little fridge/freezer off of it. I've also added a secondary battery and a 1000w inverter in the bed. I didn't use that I rans a wire straight to the battery to a DC to DC charger to keep from overloading my alternator. The DC to DC charger only allows a max of 25amp draw off the alternator. But I'm looking at adding a solar panel (once I find where I can mount it permanently) and a second battery so my inverter can run for a longer period of time. If I do decide to finish up my bed rack, I'll probably use the existing 12v for some camp lights on the bed rack to assist in camp setup. May be a better idea to come off my secondary battery setup so I can use them anytime without having to worry about them timing out.