Prep for our first road trip in the F-150 Lightning [updated w/ trip stats]

Happy to answer any questions anyone might have!

I will share more details post-trip including the charging network and mileage! I will be posting on my blog here: https://geekyschmidt.com

Prep for our first road trip in the F-150 Lightning
It made big news yesterday, but for the sake of posterity, we are the first F-150 Lightning Owner in the world at this point. The timing was great as we have a long-ish road trip today to visit the beautiful Mackinac Island.

This meant practically moving a car seat, all the junk in the current truck, and getting the suitcase and bikes loaded before the following day. Yippie!

First Charge
At the dealership, I had to sign paperwork stating that I acknowledged that the fast charger would not come for some amount of time. How much time? No idea, but luckily we have the Tesla and Airstream, so we already have a NEMA 14-50 in the garage.

When we got home from the dealership, I plugged in the mobile charge to a NEMA 5-20 standard household plug and let it top off just to see how it functioned. No different than our Tesla mobile charger. I didn’t consider as we drove to dinner in Bay City with friends (I had to take the new truck, of course) that I was likely to need a full charge the next day. Whoops.

This meant trying to extend the mobile charger cable into the driveway to keep the Tesla in its spot. That, unfortunately, didn’t work, so at midnight there I was shuffling vehicles around the driveway.

With the 50amp connection in place, I started the charging process. I was surprised at a few things:

1. There is no warning that charging to 100% isn’t great for batteries
2. The charging speed is okay, but its SUCH a large battery pack compared to the Tesla that a few hours isn’t enough
3. The mileage estimate is hopefully not a valid indication given this is 100% full, supposedly

If It Fits, I Sits
My little charging shuffle experiment allowed me to see how well the truck fit into our standard garage. The second bay is filled with a four-wheeler, yard trailers, and a Ducati that I need to rehome before both can park indoors.

Truck
The truck is tight in our garage, but no different than any other full-size we have parked there. Compared to just whipping the Telsa in without much thought, I found myself highly reliant on the 360 cameras. Why did I put so much crap in the garage was my main takeaway as I navigated around my daughter’s stuff.

Suitcase
One of our key issues with the Tesla is that it cannot fit two large suitcases in the trunk without some healthy convincing. We would take our existing F-150 so we could toss a month’s worth of world travel luggage in the bed, but we always ran into the issue that some could not get wet. The frunk provided an exciting alternative!

You see here two-fold, the frunk open in the garage, which has plenty of clearance, and a full-size Briggs and Riley CX series sitting comfortably with space on all sides. We could likely fit our two computer bags and a few other items without issue.


Car Seat
It pains me to put a car seat into the rear seat and ruin that new truck feel, but I am pretty attached to the kiddo. We use the back seat storage a good bit, so I generally try to place the car seat on the side that blocks the least amount of it. The large bench fold doesn’t lock when fully up, so I might need to get that fixed. It seems like a safety issue!

We use a Britax Marathon ClickTight for size reference. The latches are easy to find and attach to (unlike the Tesla) and made for a quick install. I am a little concerned about how close the latches bring the seat to the door, but I trust that Ford did sufficient study and engineering on this front.


Bikes
The bikes fit just fine. Nothing to report here, and it is an F-150.

Other
A few other thoughts…

App notifications
The notififcations are useful, but I hope one day we get the Sentry Mode from Tesla on the F-150.

nice, we will be doing the same, after a quick '100 mile run' without the camper, and then another with...

What was it like to drive it for the first time?

Try being a little forceful with the rear seat. If it is like the ranger or maverick rear seat latch you basically have to slam it to get it to latch.

cag said:

What was it like to drive it for the first time?

Click to expand...

Like driving an F-150 that is super fast and gets looked at by tons of folks

oneguynick said:

It pains me to put a car seat into the rear seat and ruin that new truck feel, but I am pretty attached to the kiddo. We use the back seat storage a good bit, so I generally try to place the car seat on the side that blocks the least amount of it. The large bench fold doesn’t lock when fully up, so I might need to get that fixed. It seems like a safety issue!

Click to expand...

As a parent myself, I am considering putting the luggage in the back seats and the kid in the frunk....

Once you’ve charged at home (or anywhere) the first time, you can set charging parameters for the location. I set mine to 90% max charge. If I’m heading out on a road trip , I just tap the “Charge to 100%” button in FordPass.

oneguynick said:

Like driving an F-150 that is super fast and gets looked at by tons of folks

Click to expand...

LOL, I told my GF that a lot of people would be staring at us in the truck. I don't think she really gets it yet.

The securialert notifications are well intentioned, but any way to (at least temporarily) disable? Not looking forward to getting spammed by notifications every time I pack the truck.

Nick, thanks for all this! We’re lucky the first owner is on here and able to write well.

oneguynick said:

Like driving an F-150 that is super fast and gets looked at by tons of folks

Click to expand...

I was the first person outside of California to get the Model S's rear-facing seats installed in late 2012. For the next few months it was not the car to drive if you needed to go somewhere quickly. It gathered crowds no matter where I went, which then led to 20 minutes of Tesla Talk.

I was pulled over once because an officer saw my kids peering out the rear window of the car and he thought they were unsecured. Many people saw my kids climbing out of the trunk and had to do a double- or triple-take, then ask questions. I even had a woman start berating me for allowing my kids to ride in the back without safety and she didn't believe me until I showed her the seats and the 5-point harness..

The kids, on the other hand, loved it.

Wait you can’t put the car seat and kid in the frunk? Guess I’ll cancel my order

YankeeCP said:

Wait you can’t put the car seat and kid in the frunk? Guess I’ll cancel my order

Click to expand...

Strap kid to car seat, throw both in the frunk. Done.

The Sercuralert stuff can be turned off in the app. It works but gets super annoying real quick with all the notifications. I suppose it has it's place but for me I just keep it turned off

Maquis said:

Once you’ve charged at home (or anywhere) the first time, you can set charging parameters for the location. I set mine to 90% max charge. If I’m heading out on a road trip , I just tap the “Charge to 100%” button in FordPass.

Click to expand...

This^^^^^

Oh, and there's no warning not to charge to 100%. Just don't let it sit for long periods at that level