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First towing experience with F-150 Lightning


rampagex7

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Well I finally had my first towing experience with the F-150 Lightning this weekend.  I pulled my boat out of the water and then hauled if from my cottage up on Georgian Bay down to Toronto which is a one way trip of about 136km and pretty much 90% highway driving.  I tried my best to document the experience and all the starting/ending variables and took some photos which are shared below.

 

I charged the truck up the night before I left to 100% SOC and got a range estimate of 408km in the morning which I'm guessing was quite low because I'd been doing mainly highway driving the day before and it got quite cold at night to about 8C.  After hooking up the trailer I was prompted to enter all the trailer details into the touchscreen, which I did, and are listed below:

 

Length: About 25ft (from tongue to tip of outboard motor)

Width: 102"

Weight: 3500lbs (3,494lbs is the combined boat & trailer weight according to Tracker specs)

 

Once I entered the trailer details a prompt came up on the gauge screen and it immediately cut the range down to 249km.  A few minutes after departing another random message popped up saying it revised the range due to the external temperature and the range strangely increased to 255km.  For the entire trip I had the climate control turned off to conserve battery power and just used the heated seat and steering wheel to stay comfortable.  I tried my best to keep a constant speed of 110km/h although I did exceed that several times to pass a few cars and big rigs on the highway.  When I got to my destination the final SOC was 42% and the range remaining was 102km.  I then disconnected the trailer and it revised the range up to 156km.  See photo below of the trip stats from the energy consumption screen showing the average energy consumption was 1.8km/kwh.  (my usual energy consumption averages between 3.2-4.5km/kwh)  The same trip (without towing the boat) would normally consume about 30% of the battery so with towing the energy consumption was about 58% so it is effectively double.

 

Overall the driving experience while towing was phenomenal, the truck has no issues pulling the trailer at all or getting up to highway speed.  If you didn't actually look at your mirror and see a trailer behind you, you would likely forget you are towing anything.  I had it in Tow/Haul mode the whole way and my only complaint was that the regen braking seemed quite low in this mode compared to Sport mode (which I normally drive in) and that has very strong regen braking.  I really wish Ford would give an option to independently adjust the regen braking settings regardless of what drive mode you're in.

 

It is definitely a great truck for towing, as long as you don't have to go a particularly long distance otherwise you will be stopping to charge often, which for some I imagine would be a major obstacle. 

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Edited by rampagex7
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I could not be happier with my Lightning for towing.  I tow our Scout Trailer, a 6,000lb dual axle cargo trailer. The truck is a towing beast, the weight of the truck plus 700flb of instant torque meant I barely felt the trailer behind me. Sure, it cut my range in half, but it’s more than enough range for my needs.  The only thing I can’t do is tow to summer camp, but I’m happy to leave that to someone else anyway. 

Edited by sullynd
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Thank you for sharing your real-world F-150 Lightning towing experiences, rampagex7 and sullynd! As you both mentioned, the truck's towing capabilities are very impressive. Just a few days ago, JR Garage did a video on how deftly their Lightning handled towing duties.

 

 

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1 hour ago, sullynd said:

I could not be happier with my Lightning for towing.  I tow our Scout Trailer, a 6,000lb dual axle cargo trailer. The truck is a towing beast, the weight of the truck plus 700flb of instant torque meant I barely felt the trailer behind me. Sure, it cut my range in half, but it’s more than enough range for my needs.  The only thing I can’t do is tow to summer camp, but I’m happy to leave that to someone else anyway. 

 

Couldn't agree more it is definitely a beast, whether towing or not!  And even though the Lightning may lose half its range when towing, this is no different than my experience with my 2020 Aviator GT which also loses a substantial amount of its gas range while towing (I never actually calculated how much, but I would say 40-50% would be close).  I've talked to many people that tow trailers with ICE vehicles and when I mention the Lightning and towing somehow a comment always comes up that it will never be practical for towing because it loses too much range, and my rebuttal is always the same:  does your ICE truck get better mileage while towing?  Of course not! 

 

The only advantage ICE has for now is the speed/convenience of refueling quickly especially if you are traveling a long distance, but as EV charging infrastructure and battery technology improves that will become less of an issue.

 

Tom Moloughney from State of Charge and Inside EV's did a great interview with Darren Palmer at Ford (linked below) fast forward to about the 11 minute mark for the discussion about towing.

 

 

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Great writeup rampage!  Great to hear the Lightning tows well.

 

Just to give you an idea, with my Super Duty 6.7L diesel, non-towing, I can squeeze out about a 675+/- mile range (20MPG) if I'm extremely easy on the go pedal.  Towing my fifth wheel at about 12k lbs, my range drops to around 300 (9MPG).  Those are both running it completely empty, which I don't do.  So, yeah, ICE engines, even diesels, are drastically affected when towing as well.  It just takes less time (and much more $$) to fill our tank.  Right now, from empty, it's $150 to fill up!

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On 10/4/2022 at 6:44 AM, fordmantpw said:

Great writeup rampage!  Great to hear the Lightning tows well.

 

Just to give you an idea, with my Super Duty 6.7L diesel, non-towing, I can squeeze out about a 675+/- mile range (20MPG) if I'm extremely easy on the go pedal.  Towing my fifth wheel at about 12k lbs, my range drops to around 300 (9MPG).  Those are both running it completely empty, which I don't do.  So, yeah, ICE engines, even diesels, are drastically affected when towing as well.  It just takes less time (and much more $$) to fill our tank.  Right now, from empty, it's $150 to fill up!

 

Wow! $150 for a fill up and 20MPG in ideal driving....I certainly don't miss the days of gas.

 

I took a screenshot of my longest charging session so far with the Lightning to charge it up from from 27% to 100%.  The charging station delivered 98.77kwh of electricity to the truck and contrary to the $14.82 calculated by the Chargepoint app (which doesn't apply the TOU rates) the actual cost to me would be $8.10 because I charged it overnight and the TOU off peak rate for in Ontario is $0.082/kWh.  Even in worst case scenario if I charged it during the highest daytime peak rate at $0.17/kWh it would have cost $16.79.

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