A big reason that I traded my Model Y for the Lightning was towing range, so I took it on a 97-mile loop this afternoon to get some worst-case numbers. The nose of the trailer is 5’8” tall, and it was running almost empty, which is about 2,700 lbs.

Today is a windy 40º day in Minnesota, and I averaged 1.2 mi/kWh at 60 MPH for a 97-mile loop. This run took me from 90-26% SOC with an average of 60 MPH, but I sped up to 65 and 70 for the last fifteen miles. The truck says my range with this trailer at 100% is 155 miles, but I expect to do a bit better in warmer weather.

The truck handled the trailer unlike anything I’ve had before. It’s not a lot of weight, but this is the first time I had to remind myself that there was a trailer behind me. This truck rides better than almost everything else I’ve had before, and the rear end was even more settled with ~460 lbs on the tongue. This will still be a difficult rig to travel with until Tesla’s network opens up, but it should do a fine job for what I’m looking for. I’m looking forward to using the ProPower system instead of a generator, and I may take advantage of the power to set up a Starlink dish in the bed.

Ford’s app integration and charge controls are awful, but they did a nice job with trailer programming. The truck prompted me to input trailer details after connecting for the first time and gave an estimated range of 160 miles before we started moving. That edged down to 155 miles by the time I got home, but the range estimate in the cluster was dead-on after a few minutes of driving. I don’t know if the trip computer takes wind into consideration with its calculations, but that’s a big factor when planning charge stops and travel speed.

Overall, I’m impressed with how it pulled, but hope I can go further in better conditions.

 

Thanks for the report

 

Very interesting real world test. Thank you Tom.

Wind can definitely add up. We usually get 11-11.5 mpg with our camper. One time (luckily it's rare) we dropped to under 7 mpg. I thought we had a fuel leak. Then I realized the grass was lying flat in the opposite direction we were traveling ! Don't know the wind speed but it was a lot.

 

Thanks Tom!

When i was at the dealer on Monday and just looking to kill a little time, I was looking at a 2023 SD STX with the 6.8L gasser and I chuckled to myself about how much fuel that rig would guzzle pulling most anything. But at $61,000 MSRP, that big truck seemed like a better deal than any F-150 on the lot.

 

That surprises me because of how much they’ve been discounted up here. My local dealer is knocking off between $8-14K on new F150s, but discounts on Super Duties are much lower.

I got an appreciation for fuel cost when I got my first EV in 2019. I’ve owned two Super Duties and a V10-powered Excursion in the past, but I have zero interest in owning something like that again. If I ever want to enjoy lousy fuel economy, I just hook something to my old Expedition and get my fix. It cost me $100 every time my boat moved last summer, and most of that was powering the tow vehicle. It’ll now be $6 in electricity instead of 10 gallons of gas.

 

I wanted to elaborate on the towing experience and how this compared with the F150s I've had before.

This trailer is smaller than most RVs at 3000 pounds, but large enough to have electric brakes. This truck doesn't have the came with the age-old pigtail to wire a brake controller in the glove box instead of the IBC, so I temporarily rigged up my Tekonsha P2 under the steering wheel. My Tesla wouldn’t activate the brake circuit unless I pressed the brake pedal, which gave me full regen without using the trailer brakes. That was an intentional choice; the brake lights would activate under heavy regen, but the brake controller stayed dormant until I needed more.

The Lightning activates the trailer brakes whenever the brake lights come on, which prevents me from recovering the maximum amount from a stop. I don’t understand why that is…max regen is far below the point where a tire would break traction unless you’re on ice. I remember rolling into Golden, CO with my Tesla at the same battery percentage that I had at Loveland Pass because the trailer pushed energy into the battery all the way down the mountain. I might upgrade to the IBC later on, but I’m not eager to spend the money after just buying a P2 for the third time last month.

That’s the only negative feedback I have, though. The Lightning is brutally powerful without a trailer, and not much slower with this one. Without having an ICE to manage, the towing experience is smooth enough to make a turbodiesel blush. No shifting, revving, or delays, which is very different than its Expedition stablemate. This truck has a lower center of gravity than an ICE truck because of that 1,800-lb battery slung between the frame rails, and it weighs about 1,600 lbs more.

My boat is in storage for the winter, but I’m really looking forward to hooking 5,100 lbs to the bumper next spring. I expect to surprise a few folks at stop lights on the way home.

 

For the record, I have absolutely zero, zilch, nadda interest in the SD truck or another F-150 for that matter. These trucks are enormous in heft, size and price. The Ranger and the Nissan Frontier are my semi finalists going forward although that could change quickly. The two that I mentioned are stupid reliable and tow plenty.

I remember you pulling very very heavy with your Ecoboost truck....in fact heavy enough to break stuff. There's no doubt the lightning would pull it but is it built strong enough?

 

That was my first question when they announced the Lightning would have an IRS.

I think they overbuilt the entire chassis. It’s the beefiest independent rear suspension I’ve seen this side of a military truck, and it has as much payload as my F250 did. I might indulge my nerdery and pull the wheels off to get a better look at those lower castings. They look like more than an inch of cast aluminum.