Ford F-150 Lightning ⚡ The Best Towing Truck or Just a Pain in the Butt?

Pop is 100% spot on about the charging stations.

Pain in the butt is my vote. Maybe worth short commutes and hauling stuff occasionally, but towing...100% NO.

Every auto manufacturer should watch Howard's discussion midway through the video in regards to station charging, design and general issues. The planning, foresight, and effort to get something like this done can be inconvenient for those traveling. It's a hard sell to be honest.

As an owner of a small EV car, and a big ICE truck, I’ll say you did a pretty good job with this video. I’ll add that I can’t afford to trade my ICE truck for an $$$ EV truck, and an EV truck can’t tow a trailer long distances between remote areas (where I like to camp), so it’s just a total no-go for me right now. My EV car has lots of check-ins at DC chargers, and routinely does 400+km trips, but it’s not the right tool for every job.

You speak from my heart when it comes to the charging stations... nothing, no roof, no table, no shop, not even an ice cream machine, nothing...

As an RV puller, I've had a chance to drive that Lightning (the one in the video). I towed my small trailer to a campsite, connected my EV to the park 30-amp service via a portable Level 2 charger, and then connected my trailer's 30-amp service plug. It used the truck as a battery of sorts and charged it with the excess juice from the park plug. I did this at a local Ontario Parks campsite.

I've towed a 24' boat several times and have had to pull into charging spots in less than ideal ways at times. Some are better designed for it. One time, I had to disconnect the boat to charge to not block everything. Some rural places in Utah have been more convenient for charging while towing.

I think pop should consult with these electric charging station companies and be a part of thier design team. Also those trucks should have a charging port on both sides.

The reason I'd imagine KOA doesn't allow vehicle charging is because the electrical code allows you to undersize the service feeders the more lots there are, if you are at a RV park with 100 sites with 50A connections on them the service feeders can be sized at 40% of the connected receptacles so instead of 5000A service equipment and feeders they can be 2000A rated conductors / equipment. The problem with electric vehicles they are rated at 100% demand factor so if even 1/4 of campers had electric vehicles charging + the load of the RV's/Campers it could trip the main breaker at the campground quite easily

I don’t agree they nailed the strategy. Right now it’s been reported they’ve lost billions. This isn’t gonna work until there is a breakthrough in battery technology. I imagine charging all the vehicles going through one of the major fueling stations on a holiday weekend. Nope won’t work. $192 for 8 hours of driving? So if I take $12 for one have hour x $16. That’s hugely expensive.

Would be interesting to see the same test at -20, -30 degrees winter driving.

You guys are spot on about the bad designs of these charging stations!

Love the well reflected honest data and information. Howdy from one Canadian to another.

Not to mention charging isn’t free and the price of these trucks is outrageous

I swear, the people producing, designing, and installing EV charging infrastructure have not thought through some of the most basic considerations and use-case scenarios of a normal vehicle. It's like they've never had to drive outside the city or ever pull a trailer. The classic fuel station design has been around for over a century, and for good reason. It's a pull-through design, accessible on both sides by vehicles of any length or size, and located away from general parking, where other drivers not refueling/recharging might be tempted to park. They're doing a poor job of reinventing the wheel. These half-baked infrastructure implementations are going to be a huge problem for the future of EVs.

I think you pretty much hit the nail right on the head. Your analysis really applies to all EVs but even more so to vehicles that are towing. The infrastructure is not yet ready for EVs. I have an EV car and a gas powered pickup truck. I use the EV around town and for relatively short trips because the cost to charge at home is very low. If I were to take the EV on a long trip I would have not only the inconvenience of the added frustration and time of planning for the charging but the cost goes up significantly (yes still cheaper than gas but not by as much as people think). If I am taking a longer trip I take my traditional gas powered vehicle because it will be no problem to refuel in just a few minutes. I think EVs are great and that they will eventually be more plentiful than gas/diesel powered vehicles but money is gonna have to be spent on the infrastructure first and most entities are reluctant to do that part. Currently planning a 1,000 mile trip and it will be nice to only have to stop 3 times for fuel and I won't have to plan my stops ahead of time. Thanks for the video.

Stephen, The trick to towing with the Lighting is hitch it to a huge battery on wheels instead of a typical trailer. 😉😂🤣

My lightning works great for my use case (just towing the boat to the dock, or utility trailers around town) but i wouldnt use it for pulling a camper unless youre good with taking a really long time to get anywhere

Another excellent video. I’m getting about 40kWh/100km not towing with 0-10 degree weather on my 23 XLT ER. So 55kWh/100km while towing is impressive!

Our company bought three of them to test for hot shot trucks. All three of them couldn't last half a day. We're sticking with the 5.0s electric isn't ready for work yet.