Charging While Driving w/ Gas Generator in Bed (Range Extender for F-150 Lightning) - Testing

[Traconesu]

30 to 50 extra miles could make all the difference sometimes. I love thr idea of having a range extender. I'd probably use a large LFP battery pack in the bed or trailer I'm pulling and a pure-sine-inverter to make the 240V connection.

It seems like an awfully big expense, large generator, cabling and everything else require to be able to charge while driving, to get 30-50 extra mileage per charge. I'm so thankful I only need to use my lightning locally without ever worrying about running out of energy. I do sympathize with those that could use that extra 30-50 miles.

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[ZSC100]

It seems like an awfully big expense, large generator, cabling and everything else require to be able to charge while driving, to get 30-50 extra mileage per charge. I'm so thankful I only need to use my lightning locally without ever worrying about running out of energy. I do sympathize with those that could use that extra 30-50 miles.

It's over double the range if you can generate at 19kW. It takes 30kW to drive at moderate highway speed, it you generate 19kW, say 2kW is lost, that means you are only using 13kW on the highway. With an ER you can drive for 10hr non-stop with that, 700mi.

 

[PJnc284]

It's over double the range if you can generate at 19kW. It takes 30kW to drive at moderate highway speed, it you generate 19kW, say 2kW is lost, that means you are only using 13kW on the highway. With an ER you can drive for 10hr non-stop with that, 700mi.

10 hours might be a stretch and you'd probably get run over at the speeds required. Chatgpt says the Westinghouse 28kW (20kW) I listed earlier running near the max would be about 3gal/hr so maybe 5-6hrs if lucky on the 17 gallon tank. Problem with the larger generators is the weight. That ends up being almost 650lbs with a full tank so 1/3 of your payload and you'd probably want a larger one so you're not running near 100% capacity for a long duration.

Check my math but I took a 135 mile drive this morning and stuck to 70mph on I40 from Raleigh to Wilmington, NC. Reasonably flat terrain with minimal wind but the temp was only about 45F here in eastern NC this morning. Dash showed 1.8mi/kWh. Got home and charged from 18%-80% on my FCSP today and averaged about 15.8kW to the battery (according to the difference in energy remaining in Car Scanner) over the 5 hrs it took. So at that rate, it would be a net used of 70/1.8=~39kW-15.8kW=23.2kW. Assuming no degradation, 131/23.2 = 5.6 hrs or ~400 miles at 70. That's roughly 10mi/gal. That is a substantial increase over the 235 miles or 3.5hrs I'd get on just battery though. 2.1mi/kWh would give you a theoretical 7.5hrs and over 500 miles at 70mph assuming a sufficient fuel tank. I'd need a couple breaks before the truck would.

And gotta love chatgpt. Asked it for alternatives to the westinghouse and got this. Guess I should've mentioned it needed to fit in the bed first.

It really likes Winco Vehicle Mounted Generator - EC22000VE-17, 19 kW, 35 HP Briggs & Stratton, 3-Phase, 240 Volts for some reason.

 

[ZSC100]

10 hours might be a stretch and you'd probably get run over at the speeds required. Chatgpt says the Westinghouse 28kW (20kW) I listed earlier running near the max would be about 3gal/hr so maybe 5-6hrs if lucky on the 17 gallon tank. Problem with the larger generators is the weight. That ends up being almost 650lbs with a full tank so 1/3 of your payload and you'd probably want a larger one so you're not running near 100% capacity for a long duration.

Check my math but I took a 135 mile drive this morning and stuck to 70mph on I40 from Raleigh to Wilmington, NC. Reasonably flat terrain with minimal wind but the temp was only about 45F here in eastern NC this morning. Dash showed 1.8mi/kWh. Got home and charged from 18%-80% on my FCSP today and averaged about 15.8kW to the battery (according to the difference in energy remaining in Car Scanner) over the 5 hrs it took. So at that rate, it would be a net used of 70/1.8=~39kW-15.8kW=23.2kW. Assuming no degradation, 131/23.2 = 5.6 hrs or ~400 miles at 70. That's roughly 10mi/gal. That is a substantial increase over the 235 miles or 3.5hrs I'd get on just battery though. 2.1mi/kWh would give you a theoretical 7.5hrs and over 500 miles at 70mph assuming a sufficient fuel tank. I'd need a couple breaks before the truck would.

And gotta love chatgpt. Asked it for alternatives to the westinghouse and got this. Guess I should've mentioned it needed to fit in the bed first.

It really likes Winco Vehicle Mounted Generator - EC22000VE-17, 19 kW, 35 HP Briggs & Stratton, 3-Phase, 240 Volts for some reason.

Yeah prime power generators are enormous. It just speaks to the different longevity and duty of a generator meant to run 100% duty, versus a little portable generator meant to be used every once in a while. I figure these portable generators when ran hard are probably good for less than 1000 hours of operation before they are trash.

The math for sustained power usage in the truck is really easy It's just your speed divided by your efficiency. So, if you are going 70 mph at 1.8 efficiency That means your truck was using a sustained 38kW to drive at 70mph. Dropping just 5mph would make a huge difference; you can see the non-linearity because you've got two factors, both helping as you slow down.

Still, if you were able to generate half of your sustained driving load you would double your range. Yeah, no way you're generating 19kW for 10 hours straight without stopping for fuel. But that's the beauty of a generator for interstate travel, you can stop at any gas station and in 5minutes you're back on the highway. I'm working on getting a water cooled diesel generator right now that is small form factor and can fit in the back and I'm planning to try and harvest the heat from it this winter and do more testing. Small generators are like 30% efficient so if I could use the waste heat that would really be nice.

 

[Traconesu]

It's over double the range if you can generate at 19kW. It takes 30kW to drive at moderate highway speed, it you generate 19kW, say 2kW is lost, that means you are only using 13kW on the highway. With an ER you can drive for 10hr non-stop with that, 700mi.

That would require a very large generator to produce 19kw per hour. You're probably looking at a 28 kw generator. Westinghouse makes one that has a run capability of 20 kw per hour with a 17 gallon fuel tank that would run at full load for just over 4 hours.
Generating that kind of power eats a lot of gasoline. To drive those 10 hours with the generator at full load would use approximately 37.5 gallons of gasoline. Add that expense to the roughly $4000 generator and the unknown cost of the DIY conversion.

 

[Traconesu]

That would require a very large generator to produce 19kw per hour. You're probably looking at a 28 kw generator. Westinghouse makes one that has a run capability of 20 kw per hour with a 17 gallon fuel tank that would run at full load for just over 4 hours.
Generating that kind of power eats a lot of gasoline. To drive those 10 hours with the generator at full load would use approximately 37.5 gallons of gasoline. Add that expense to the roughly $4000 generator and the unknown cost of the DIY conversion.

Maybe closer to 43 gallons of gasoline.

 

[Traconesu]

10 hours might be a stretch and you'd probably get run over at the speeds required. Chatgpt says the Westinghouse 28kW (20kW) I listed earlier running near the max would be about 3gal/hr so maybe 5-6hrs if lucky on the 17 gallon tank. Problem with the larger generators is the weight. That ends up being almost 650lbs with a full tank so 1/3 of your payload and you'd probably want a larger one so you're not running near 100% capacity for a long duration.

Check my math but I took a 135 mile drive this morning and stuck to 70mph on I40 from Raleigh to Wilmington, NC. Reasonably flat terrain with minimal wind but the temp was only about 45F here in eastern NC this morning. Dash showed 1.8mi/kWh. Got home and charged from 18%-80% on my FCSP today and averaged about 15.8kW to the battery (according to the difference in energy remaining in Car Scanner) over the 5 hrs it took. So at that rate, it would be a net used of 70/1.8=~39kW-15.8kW=23.2kW. Assuming no degradation, 131/23.2 = 5.6 hrs or ~400 miles at 70. That's roughly 10mi/gal. That is a substantial increase over the 235 miles or 3.5hrs I'd get on just battery though. 2.1mi/kWh would give you a theoretical 7.5hrs and over 500 miles at 70mph assuming a sufficient fuel tank. I'd need a couple breaks before the truck would.

And gotta love chatgpt. Asked it for alternatives to the westinghouse and got this. Guess I should've mentioned it needed to fit in the bed first.

It really likes Winco Vehicle Mounted Generator - EC22000VE-17, 19 kW, 35 HP Briggs & Stratton, 3-Phase, 240 Volts for some reason.

Most of those larger 30 kw > generators run on propane or natural gas.

 

[PJnc284]

Dropping just 5mph would make a huge difference; you can see the non-linearity because you've got two factors, both helping as you slow down.

heck I felt like i was about to get run over just running the speed limit. Have a comma 3x and it estimates the speed of the car in front of you and most of those that passed me were showing 85-90 and this was from about 6:30-8:30am. Can probably count on one hand the number of cars I had to pass but I lost count of how many thought it was the Daytona 500.

My normal non-interstate route to the coast and back is mostly 55mph highway. Running 60, I average about 2.2mi/kWh which is pretty close to Motortrend's numbers.

 

[doggod]

That would require a very large generator to produce 19kw per hour. You're probably looking at a 28 kw generator. Westinghouse makes one that has a run capability of 20 kw per hour with a 17 gallon fuel tank that would run at full load for just over 4 hours.
Generating that kind of power eats a lot of gasoline. To drive those 10 hours with the generator at full load would use approximately 37.5 gallons of gasoline. Add that expense to the roughly $4000 generator and the unknown cost of the DIY conversion.

that is a heavy generator

 

[PJnc284]

that is a heavy generator

yeah around 650lb with a full tank. Still curious about the racket it would make back there though. Sounds like Martin is going to see if he can get 500 miles on his trip to Florida in a couple weeks. Below is what chatgpt estimates at various speeds with the Westinghouse and an estimated 2.8gal/hr fuel burn. Basically what we already know. Speed kills and the tank size seems to be the limiting factor under 70mph. If you drove like grandma and had a fuel trailer in tow, you could go forever.

Parameter	Value / Notes
Truck	2023 F-150 Lightning Lariat ER (131 kWh usable)
Generator	Westinghouse WGen20000TFc @ 15.8 kW net output
Fuel use	2.8 gal/hr (gasoline)
Battery energy	131 kWh usable
Energy use (approx.)	see table below

Speed (mph)	Vehicle kW Used	Generator kW	Net Battery kW	Drive Hours	Gallons Used	Energy from Generator (kWh)	Base Range (mi)	Range + Extender (mi)	Base mi/kWh	Adj mi/kWh (Range÷131)
45	17.1	15.8	1.3	72.0 h	202 gal	1,138 kWh	345	3,240	2.63	24.7
55	23.1	15.8	7.3	18.9 h	53 gal	299 kWh	312	835	2.38	6.38
65	31.2	15.8	15.4	7.0 h	19.6 gal	111 kWh	273	456	2.08	3.48
70	36.4	15.8	20.6	5.0 h	14.1 gal	79 kWh	252	346	1.92	2.64
75	43.5	15.8	27.7	3.1 h	8.7 gal	49 kWh	226	278	1.72	2.12
80	52.0	15.8	36.2	2.8 h	7.8 gal	44 kWh	202	228	1.54	1.74

Interpretation

• At 45 mph, the truck consumes 17.1 kW but gets 15.8 kW from the generator — so over 72 hours, the battery drains slowly and the generator adds ≈1.1 MWh.
• Around 65–70 mph, the generator contributes 80–110 kWh, roughly offsetting half of propulsion demand, effectively doubling range.

 

[doggod]

yeah around 650lb with a full tank. Still curious about the racket it would make back there though. Sounds like Martin is going to see if he can get 500 miles on his trip to Florida in a couple weeks. Below is what chatgpt estimates at various speeds with the Westinghouse and an estimated 2.8gal/hr fuel burn. Basically what we already know. Speed kills and the tank size seems to be the limiting factor under 70mph. If you drove like grandma and had a fuel trailer in tow, you could go forever.

Parameter	Value / Notes
Truck	2023 F-150 Lightning Lariat ER (131 kWh usable)
Generator	Westinghouse WGen20000TFc @ 15.8 kW net output
Fuel use	2.8 gal/hr (gasoline)
Battery energy	131 kWh usable
Energy use (approx.)	see table below

Speed (mph)	Vehicle kW Used	Generator kW	Net Battery kW	Drive Hours	Gallons Used	Energy from Generator (kWh)	Base Range (mi)	Range + Extender (mi)	Base mi/kWh	Adj mi/kWh (Range÷131)
45	17.1	15.8	1.3	72.0 h	202 gal	1,138 kWh	345	3,240	2.63	24.7
55	23.1	15.8	7.3	18.9 h	53 gal	299 kWh	312	835	2.38	6.38
65	31.2	15.8	15.4	7.0 h	19.6 gal	111 kWh	273	456	2.08	3.48
70	36.4	15.8	20.6	5.0 h	14.1 gal	79 kWh	252	346	1.92	2.64
75	43.5	15.8	27.7	3.1 h	8.7 gal	49 kWh	226	278	1.72	2.12
80	52.0	15.8	36.2	2.8 h	7.8 gal	44 kWh	202	228	1.54	1.74

Interpretation

• At 45 mph, the truck consumes 17.1 kW but gets 15.8 kW from the generator — so over 72 hours, the battery drains slowly and the generator adds ≈1.1 MWh.
• Around 65–70 mph, the generator contributes 80–110 kWh, roughly offsetting half of propulsion demand, effectively doubling range.

it will also create drag so milage will decrease. easier to find charger and use restroom.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

drag?
-from the OP pic,the generator is like 1-inch above the truck bed side. LOL.

 

[ZSC100]

drag?
-from the OP pic,the generator is like 1-inch above the truck bed side. LOL.

Yeah, there is no additional wind resistance within the cab-triangle envelope of the bed

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

Yeah, there is no additional wind resistance within the cab-triangle envelope of the bed

I bet the 650 lbs generator in the bed helps to level out the truck and reduce drag.

 

[ZSC100]

I bet the 650 lbs generator in the bed helps to level out the truck and reduce drag.

My truck is already 2" leveled in the front, I couldn't stand the factory rake. The DuroMax I've been testing with is only 450lbs with fuel, the truck doesn't even know it's back there.

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