New charging inlet & Drive Away Protection

 

So, this happened. A year and a half of meaning to get around to installing the drive away protection circuit later, I eventually drove away while the J1772 charger was plugged in, which yanked my inlet out of the truck, breaking the plastic air dam in the process. (Luckily, my EVSE wasn’t damaged.)   $150 later, I had a new J1772 inlet and air dam, and had to re-do all of my mounting work. I took this opportunity to re-work how the license plate mounted. Instead of tipping up (which shielded the inlet from view and made it hard to plug in without kneeling) I decided to make it slide to the side so that it would be easier to see and plug into the inlet. I used a 12″ stainless steel drawer slide (with self/soft closing features to keep it closed) for the motion.

Mounting the 15 amp RV inlet, button, and rotary switch was a simple matter of drilling the appropriately sized holes, but the J1772 inlet needed a custom mounting block that would match the interior contour of the air dam so that it could be recessed behind the license plate.

I assembled a stack of laser cut plywood into a block with the correct bolt pattern and cutout for the J1772 inlet, and then I sanded it down to match the interior contour of the air dam. I painted it black and mounted it to the inside of the air dam, and then screwed the inlet to the back of the block.

I also hooked up my drive away protection circuit. Here is a video of the finished system in operation.

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