Thats my thought also of the Capabilities and happy owners. Stay within reason and the happy F150 EV owner. Also that 80 Amp 240 v. standard charger is very attractive for the home install ! Many Campers have permanent Camper lots so adding the 240V additional plug would be simple. My experiences wiht campers were limited Amp availability in the camper, think 30 amps in the camper so the additional plug would most likely work. I will check into that service . My experience was unlock the box and plug in the Camper drop cord. ...... Sold the Camper in 2004 and bought a Lake home instead. Lucky Me ! Looking back the 28' Camper was a weekend life of leisure ! Ya got it good ! Thas lake home has been a ton of work ! ......

 

Here are my thoughts owing a 2020 Powerstroke 6.7 FX4 and towing a 32' center console.

Empty:
Cruising down the interstate at 65mph, about 21 mpg
80 mph down the interstate 18ish mpg (significant hit from drag)

Towing a 16,000 pound boat with lots of frontal drag (1000 pounds of gear in the bed):
8 mpg at 72 mph. This is a 60% reduction and I was only at 25,000 pounds, truck is rated for 30,000 pounds and a dully is rated for 45,000 pounds.

Towing an EMPTY 24' cargo trailer that weights 2300 pounds:
11-12 mpg at 75 mph. This is a 40% reduction due almost entirely to DRAG.

Watts and horsepower are both units of power...

Take a BEV F150, strap on a 12,000 pound travel trailer (this will be less than 2x times the weight of the truck) and cruise at 72 mph (anything less than PSL on the freeway is going to be uncomfortable for everyone).

300 miles advertised, 250 real world freeway X .4 (towing said 12k trailer) = 100 miles and apply a correction for only charging to 80% and you will be making stops at LESS THAN AN HOUR on the freeway. You'll be sitting on the charger 50% of your travel time, probably more as there will be lines. So maybe 1:1. This is going to make for a long, crappy day taking the wake boarding boat to the river or lake. A toy hauler? No...

The vast majority of truck owners never tow anything, the next group up from that rent the occasional u-haul. Only a small percentage use their trucks and a very tiny percentage of those use them anywhere near a limit. Let's say less than .1% use an F150 anywhere near its towing limit.

The F150 BEV is suitable for the vast majority of owners. For towing, BEV and lithium is not the future, sorry. It's diesel until battery tech improves 100% or we finally admit the future is small modular area reactors and hydrogren plants. Hydrogen fuel cell technology is the future for long haul towing.

 

This is exactly right. Highway fuel economy is almost entirely dependent on wind resistance, which is all about trailer profile and frontal area. My dad's F150 will get 20-21 MPG empty at 70 MPG, but only 9 MPG pulling an empty 7.5x18' enclosed trailer that weighs 2,400 lbs. A Lightning would do fine getting my 3,500-lb boat to the lake and back, but my dad could never use one to pull his trailer on a road trip.

I'd add the caveat with current technology. Charging speeds, capacity, and energy density improvements are being researched by dozens(hundreds?) of companies around the world, and solid-state batteries are on the horizon. Tesla, Damiler, and Nikola all have BEV semitractors in development, and I wouldn't bet against the smart folks they have working to make this happen. Will it be cost-effective to build a truck with that kind of capacity in the next ten years? Probably not...but that time may come. It's certainly not today, though.

 

JCZ - for what it's worth, I wrote a quick article for Hydrogen Fuel News when the Lightning hit the media in June. Since then, a cross-country heavy tow with the new Rivian pickup (with about the same ton of batteries as the Ford) confirmed those earlier estimates. The Rivian driver had to stop about every hundred miles, 18 times in his 1800-mile trip, and put a lot of effort into ferreting out useable charging stations on the way. He also had trouble charging with the trailer in tow, sometimes blocking other chargers while connected.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but it wasn't hard to figure this out in June, given Ford's range estimate of 300 miles non-towing and my typical range reduction of 50% towing with my Ecoboost. 100 miles of range with maybe a 50-mile cushion would make me pretty uncomfortable out on the road.

The article is at the bottom of the list of six you'll find here. Some of the others might be of interest too:

https://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/?s=bob+meyer

Let me know what you (and others) think.
Thanks -Bob

 

you'd be lucky to get 100 miles with the large battery pack. Lucky.

these vehicles are meant for lawn service business type weight. NOT towing a TT. You'll simply be mad and feel you got ripped off. Do the math. F150 lightening curb weight is 6200 lb and they claim 300 mile range. now add, two more axles, more than twice the weight and seriously increased drag. like i said, 100 miles max.

 

If you're not on the engineering team, you're just guessing.

I'm not saying this won't be true, but it seems like most estimates suggest cutting range in half while towing is a good starting place. And if the brick-like truck starts with a 300-mile range, I can see getting 150 if driven at reasonable speeds on the highway. If you're trying to burn across the desert in a headwind at 90, you might not. But on the highway, wind resistance means a heckuva lot more than weight does. So speed matters to a great degree.

 

No. you are guessing. I've at least applied some math, albeit napkin in nature. i am not even counting the electrical load to get the truck and trailer moving. God forbid you are stop and go. I'd guess 50 miles with OPs set up in stop and go. And no, a truck and a TT do no have the same drag coefficient. Just think about the station wagon effect on a TT. It is seriously laughable and beyond quixotic to believe you'd get 150 miles at any speed with OPs set up. Sorry, but being a fan boy doesn't make it so. Estimates are like bung holes, everyone has them and they are full of it, and gullible people make buying decisions on them.

 

I never claimed to know the answer. You did.

My Tesla would frequently get better efficiency during low-speed stop-and-go conditions. Lower average speed means less is lost to wind resistance, and much of the energy that’s usually lost to braking is recovered through regen. I could easily go further in those conditions than setting the cruise at 70 MPH.

 

I saw a 18 Wheeler loaded with 1000 Lb. Lithium's headed to the Chevy Volt Factory got in a wreck recently, Batteries burned, Interstate closed for near 4 hours. Was on Rt. 44 near Rolla Mo. Most likely shipped below full charge. Whew The drivers were trapped in cabs.

 

I imagine that was quite a scene. I think it would pale in comparison to a gasoline truck accident, though.

 

I dunno bout that. Ever seen a lithium battery ignite? I have up close and personal and it was a very small battery but the heat and pressure it exerted when it started outgassing simultaneously igniting. Holy crap what a force of power that little thing let loose.

Had it on my walk way from the front door to the driveway and actually thought about kicking it down the driveway away from the house but feared it might ignite me lol. So I just watched it carefully to make sure it didn't get out of control with a CO fire extinguisher at the ready. Took a long time for it to finally burn out. IIRC it was only about 1"x2"x5". one of my drone batteries.

Needless to say it gave me a deep respect for those things no matter what size they are.

 

The coolant in side the cell is easily & very ignitable. When things go wrong Its ↑↑↕ Heaven or ____ ! ....

 

No. Most ev batteries are cooled just like an ice vehicle. Water and ethylene glycol which is non flammable. Some systems use mineral oil which is also non flammable. My drone batteries are non or air cooled so when they exceed thermal safety values as designed. FWOOM!!!

 

Here's the Rivian on the Ike.
My apologies on another TFL video, but I think it's informative.

 

I believe the reason for the Battery packs explosion is that the Cell wall gets damaged from short circuits or impacts, generates heat & the electrolytes vaporizes, combines with water and heat and boom.. So tha actual coolant outside the Cell creates the condition due to Cell damage from one cause or another, the exact safety factor of the cell is compromised and thus water is a good or evil thing.
Thus Fire departments use copious amounts of water to try to cool the mess down and the self ignition of the battery pack vapors go out or most often reignite. Most all storage type of batteries blow up from the vapors of over charging, over discharging or internal damage of the Cells. Impact damage kills batteries cell structures thus crap may happen !

an example is mixing sodium metal with water and boom.