I have had my 2010 Ram for almost a year, and never had a chance to try the optional 110v ac outlet on the dash - finally had a chance to do so yesterday and had a problem - wanted to see what everyone's experience with this outlet has been, and if this is a problem to be repaired by the Dealer or not - I wanted to put some air in a neighbors car tire that had gone flat, so I pulled up next to it, left my engine running, pushed the little button on the dash that turns on the 110v outlet (a small light comes on when you do so) - and I plugged in my Black & Decker home airstation pump into the socket - hooked it up to neighbors flat tire, turned on the airstation, and BLAH, nada, nothing happened - the airstation made a horrible groaning noise as if it could not even turn its litte compressor motor over, it just made a freaky little blub blub blub sound almost like turning over a car motor with an almost dead battery - and then after 10 seconds or so of this bizarre-ness, the light flips off on the 110v outlet on the my Ram's dashboard, and it shuts down the outlet. Turns itself off. Tried this 3x or so, same thing happened each time, pump would not fire up and run, then the switch would flip off after a very short time. What's going on? Like I said its the very first time I tried the outlet. What a dissapointment !!! Is this B&D Airstation pump drawing too much voltage for the little 110v ac outlet to handle, perhaps? Does the outlet only work for very very light duty tasks, like charging a laptop, or a flashlight, etc ??
Any help and especially actual experience using this outlet is Greatly appreciated !! I don't know what to do yet. Has anyone ever tried successfully running any air pumps or power tools from this 110v outlet?
Thanks in advance for your help and answers - -

 

My understanding from reading the manual is that the outlet is for light duty use only....such as plugging a laptop in, maybe a car vaccuum..things that don't draw too much power....its not designed nor will it power something like a powertool....

 

Unfortunately it's only a 115V circuit, which won't power much (my portable hand held vacuum, for example, is 120V). It's good for a light, maybe a crock pot, but not much more...

 

x2 I think it will only run very small objects. cell phone charger, laptop charger ect. probably anything with moving parts or motors will draw too much.
pretty lame if you ask me.

 

The Outlet on your Ram is rated for 115V at 150 Watts. What it can power depends on the Power your device requires. Power is Volts X Amps and in this case the constant is 115VAC. Just check the wattage requirement on the device you are plugging in. If you don't know the wattage requirement for the device being powered the maximum Current that can be drawn is Watts/Volts which in this case is 150W/115V = 1.304 Amps.

 

I thought it was good to 2 amps? Just guessing, but I thought I read that in the manual when I did, I have never used that thing because it is light duty, if you saw the light guage wire that plugs to that thing you would not plug a crock pot or anything that has a heating element. Nope just for small chargers, laptop, maybe a small TV . I wish it could handle a power tool then it would be worth while. I am sure we will find something to use it for someday, I tested it it works fine.Did you try plugging that pump in somewhere in a house plug to see if maybe it was seized up things like that seize if not used once in a while. My pressure washer has to have a manual turn each season with an allen key or it blows a fuse but once it works.it works.

 

It might be good to 2 amps surge but continuous would put at 230 Watts. Maybe there are different versions? Mine is labeled 150W on the outlet (Nov 08 build). For you academia’s out there, it is a constant voltage source with a 1.3 Amp capability. At demands above 1.3 amps, voltage collapses and it attempts to become a constant current course but it goes into foldback back soon after

 

It doesn't matter what anyone else says on this thread. Hemi_Rom is exactly right. Volts are probably the least important part of the equation for figuring out why your outlet didn't power your pump. In all honesty it doesn't matter if it says 110V or 115V or 120V. Technically they all mean the same thing, its just a category of common voltages. If you took a Voltmeter to your plugs in your home you would find it ranges from 110-150v at any given time.
The most important rating amperage. To many amps is what causes wires to over heat. And amps are what kill you when you get electrocuted.

The VA rating on your appliance cannot go over the VA rating of your transformer (and the outlet in your truck is a Step-up transformer).
If you overdraw the transformer you will burn out the internal coil wiring.

Use the formula HEMI_ROM gave you to figure out the amp draw on your appliance. Theres no way your gonna get a Microwave to work, at 1000W and 120V, thats 8 Amps!

 

thanks for all the good information from everyone - its obvious the air pump is just too much for this outlet - whats funny is on that commercial that aired the last few months all around Christmas, they show a Ram 1500 with the optional 110v outlet, they pull a giant xmas tree out of the ground, and put it in the back bed, then next thing you see is hundreds of lights in this huge 30' xmas tree being lit up by the little plug on the dashboard. Makes me doubt it could even handle the xmas lights in the commercial in reality !! I feel like the one person commented above here, super light duty, not good for much, really lame of Dodge not to make it powerful enough to run a tool or air pump, in my view too. I mean, charging a cell phone or laptop? We have had the old 12v cigarette lighter adapters for decades now to charge little things like that up. I mean really, Dodge, I wish their engineers were reading these posts - why put a nice feature like that on a truck, and not make it truly use-able for any type of real equipment or accessories - just lame to me, really lame. Thanks again for all your responses though, it was a big help in explaining this problem.

 

Just think about this for a minute. The A/C outlet is being powered by the same battery, alternator, wiring, etc. as the 12v "cigarette lighter" plug. Why in the hell would you even expect it to handle a higher capacity than those types of plugs? The A/C plug is simply a convenience so you don't have to purchase an inverter/adapter.

Think about how thick the wires are on an extension cord that is thick enough to be approved for power tools and/or outdoor use. How realistic is that for the wiring inside your truck? I've seen no passenger vehicle by any manufacturer utilizing a plug with any higher capacity.

You want to run a power tool off of a 110v plug in your vehicle, then buy a damn motor home that has a generator on board. Even at that, it better be a good size generator. I own two portable generators, one a small, tool box size portable for camping use (without going out to my shed and looking at it, I believe it's a 1500 watt peak, 1000 watt nominal unit) and the other a huge, hundred and a half pound 14 HP, 7000 watt model. The small generator will NOT power a simple skill saw without tripping it's own circuit breaker.