Introductions & Welcome Thread 👋

[Joe Lightning]

CONGRATS!

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[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

I hope these last far Longer than the 2014's !!
Take it for a nice long drive and enjoy the silent ride.

We went on a long 1000km (600mile) trip recently and my wife told our friends "the most unexpected feature is the low noise and charging stops make the trip far less tiring"
I had to think about that for a few minutes, but she is right ! the long trips feel far more relaxed and comfortable, arrive and not feel tired from the long drive at all.

 

[BirdsFan]

Hello everyone , I'm not sure this is the correct place to post this for the most response .



I’ve been following the forum for a while and finally decided to join. I don’t currently own a Lightning (I drive a Model Y), but I plan to pick one up within the next year when I retire. At that point, I won’t be commuting to parking garages every day or racking up 35K miles annually. I already have a home charger and use Superchargers a few times a week, so I’m comfortable with EV life.



Historically, I’ve always bought my vehicles used and plan to do the same with the Lightning. Over the past few months, I’ve looked at hundreds of Lariats and Platinums but still can’t decide which trim is the best fit.



Here’s what I’m looking for:

• Pro Power Onboard 9.6 kW
• Max Tow Package (will be towing a 7,000 lb center console boat with trailer twice a year, about 20 miles each way)
• Power running boards
• Comfortable seats (Platinum’s massaging seats are tempting, but I’ve heard the Lariat seats are also very comfortable)
• Heated steering wheel (must-have)

Other considerations:

• I love the look of the Platinum wheels, but I’m concerned about range loss, especially in cold Philly winters. I wish those wheels came in a lighter 20-inch option.
• Debating between a 2022 with faster 80-amp charging versus a 2024 with the heat pump. Not sure which is the bigger advantage.

I keep going back and forth on Lariat vs. Platinum and will probably change my mind a few more times before buying, but I’d really appreciate any feedback or advice from those who’ve lived with these trucks.



Thanks in advance!

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

I would say you want the 2024-25 for the heat pump. Charging on DC is very fast, charging at home is over-night so it doesn't matter how fast really it will be charged by morning.
Welcome to the forum.

 

[BirdsFan]

I would say you want the 2024-25 for the heat pump. Charging on DC is very fast, charging at home is over-night so it doesn't matter how fast really it will be charged by morning.
Welcome to the forum.

Thanks Robert . Appreciate the reply .

 

[MattVT]

Hey everyone! I've been lurking in the forums reading through lots of the posts here for a few weeks now - just over 2 weeks ago I picked up my 2025 F-150 Lightning Lariat. Found one specced with the Max Towing and ProPower packages which are both important to me.

We live in Vermont, and are building our own all-electric Passive House. It was finally time to replace my 2016 Ford F-150 Platinum, and after weighing up lots of options, decided that the Lightning was the best all around option for me. I've learned a ton from this forum already, and it was absolutely a factor in the choice of truck.

I do have a couple of questions that I've not yet found answers to in the forums so I'll browse a little more but probably post in the relevant sections.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and say thanks for the awesome information everyone is sharing!

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

I came here along a similar path - rural - solar - heatpumps - off grid living - great big battery that looks like a truck was a natural progression !!
If your planning the whole V2H via the charge port - read over the long discussions on this topic.
I can't tell you how many hours I poured over the details, but landed with: Truck outlet -to AC/DC charger - to Solar battery as the simplist, safest and no grounding loops solution.

Hope it all works out, enjoy the forum, a lot of great members here that love to help each other out.

 

[MattVT]

I came here along a similar path - rural - solar - heatpumps - off grid living - great big battery that looks like a truck was a natural progression !!
If your planning the whole V2H via the charge port - read over the long discussions on this topic.
I can't tell you how many hours I poured over the details, but landed with: Truck outlet -to AC/DC charger - to Solar battery as the simplist, safest and no grounding loops solution.

Hope it all works out, enjoy the forum, a lot of great members here that love to help each other out.

Yeah, I've seen some great discussions on the V2H stuff. We're taking a slightly different approach. Our years living in the RV, completely off-grid with solar panels and a lithium battery / inverter install taught us a lot about what works for us, and we're essentially scaling that up for the house.

We're building a small, 400sqft guest house first (which we hope to move into in a couple of months) before building the main house. Long term the plan is solar + a modest house battery system (~20kWh) with an instant switchover automatic transfer switch and inverter (we've been spoiled by the Victron Multiplus in our RV) which will give us seamless failover and tide us over for a modest outage.

Short term we're going for a simpler option - a manual transfer switch with a few critical systems on a UPS. It's not perfect, but it'll do for now. If there's an outage, we can flip the manual transfer switch over to a 50A inlet port outside, then connect the truck's 30A/240V outlet to that. We've been very deliberate in our appliance selection to keep things as low power as possible, and have a fairly robust home automation system that handles load monitoring and shedding, so the truck's 7.2kW output will be more than sufficient to keep us running comfortably. Longer than that, we have a couple of portable generators we can use too if we need them.

With the house and solar solution, the truck will fit in much the same way - acting as a failover AC source that will predominantly be used to keep the house batteries charged. This is pretty much what you described anyway.

What I like about this system is that there's no special V2H interoperability required - it's all stuff we can manage ourselves. Yes, we're complete geeks - probably should have led with that

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

yup !
Complete geeks - with power always on LOL.

 

[teejinca]

Hi all I've been around for a few weeks now and picked up a CPO '22 Platinum on 9/5. Its great to have a community with so much knowledge and experience to tap into. I've already found answers to all my questions so far and I will try my best to pay it forward! Love my first truck ever, just wish I had gotten it sooner!

 

[Kenstjohn]

Greetings!!

Just made the switchover from a '22 F-150 high spec XLT to a new, '25, Lightning Flash. Both were/are Red Metallic with gray interiors. Took advantage of the soon to end rebates, discounts, and a strong used car market to make the $$ work.

Although new to full EV's, we've had a '22 Lincoln Corsair PHEV for almost three years now and absolutely love it!! Other than taking long road trips, I have to visit the gas station about every 2-3 months for a few gallons of gas. Other then that, we're always running on the battery.

Do have a couple of newbie questions I will post in the proper forums.



Cheers!!

Ken

 

[GoldenEye4ever]

Thanks for making this site.

My 2025 lightning pro is being built at the end of November, so I've been on the forum a lot reading interesting threads.
I figured I should join now so that I can ask questions as soon as I have them

I'm in Canada and am really excited about getting my new truck.

 

[annie]

Welcome all! ?

In the spirit of creating a welcoming and friendly environment, please introduce yourself and/or give a warm welcome to new members!

Hi Annie, here I have a 2025 F150 lightning lariat

 

[annie]

Greetings!!

Just made the switchover from a '22 F-150 high spec XLT to a new, '25, Lightning Flash. Both were/are Red Metallic with gray interiors. Took advantage of the soon to end rebates, discounts, and a strong used car market to make the $$ work.

Although new to full EV's, we've had a '22 Lincoln Corsair PHEV for almost three years now and absolutely love it!! Other than taking long road trips, I have to visit the gas station about every 2-3 months for a few gallons of gas. Other then that, we're always running on the battery.

Do have a couple of newbie questions I will post in the proper forums.



Cheers!!

Ken

Actually, yes, I have a moldy smell for about 30 seconds coming out of all the vents. It’s only five months old last month. I brought it in for service and all they did was deodorize. I spoke to the service director and he said well. Let me check with my engineer and the report came back to find the source and eliminated to dry it out. They did not give me a new air filter. They basically don’t wanna deal with the issue. That’s the only thing they did to the truck. They did no other troubleshooting for the smell except to deodorize it so I had a smell deodorizer for a week coming out of the vents.

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