Adventures of our 2023 Carbonized Gray Metallic Lariat Lightning ER — Now 2024 Silverado RST

[SpaceEVDriver]

Did a quick, 800 mile road trip to ABQ to visit with the Spawn, relax in the nearby hot springs, and back the next morning.

There are so many more fast chargers on the I-40 than the least year, it's fantastic. It's almost as embarrassment of riches.

The day before our trip, we charged to 100% while the sun was shining.

After 200 miles and 63% of the battery drawn down, we needed to stop, use the restroom, and take a quick walk. We stopped at a GM/EVGo charging station colocated with a Flying J truck stop. The charger is expensive, but the restrooms are clean. And the charge rate is great. After 21 minutes, we were ready to go, the truck was at 69%, which was plenty to get us to ABQ

Next we stopped at a Walmart in ABQ to get a quick restroom break and a quick charge.

We picked up the kids and headed to the Jemez hot springs for the rest of the afternoon.

After dinner, we dropped them off and went to our hotel. There was no L2 charger--ABQ doesn't have very many lodging choices with L2 charging, which is annoying.

Next day we grabbed breakfast that happened to be next to an L2 charger, so we plugged in and got a small charge while eating. It wasn't much, but it was more than 0%. We left town with 45%.

We headed out on the highway. Our first stop was at the EA charger at Walmart in Grants to get a charge and make a restroom stop. We ended up doing some shopping as well. Left at 80%, which was more than I'd intended, but whatever.

The final charge stop was to try a new Rivian charger in Holbrook. Fast charger, gross restrooms, high price. Probably won't stop there again. Left with 51%, which was, again, more than necessary.

Got home with 15%.


Charging to 100% on solar: $0.00
Flying J / EVGo: $41.18
EA Plan+: $7.00
EA at Walmart in ABQ: $31.23
ChargePoint L2 in ABQ: $2.46
EA at Walmart in Grants: $47.07
Rivian: $23.46

Total for ~800 miles: $152.40
Total energy use: 258 kWh
Average efficiency: 3.1 miles/kWh
Elevation change (max - min): 7271 - 4844 = 2427 ft.
Total elevation change: 8993 ft
Max slope: 4.4%

We set our cruise speed to 72-75 mph on the freeway, but were also doing in-town driving and mountain/canyon twisty road driving.

In our Tacoma, this would have been about: $3.40/gallon * 800 miles / 16 mpg = $173.61

A couple years ago, the price for driving the Lightning would have been closer to $0.32/kWh * 258 kWh = $82.56.
If we had used only the cheaper EA chargers on this trip, it would have been $0.42*258=$108.36.

We chose the more expensive chargers to see where they are, how they work, how clean are the restrooms, etc. The Flying J is at a nearly-perfect distance between our home and ABQ, and the restrooms are clean, so we’ll probably stop there more often. The Rivian Adventure Network is in an awkward location, next to a Pizza Hut and Taco Bell with gross, gross restrooms, and is very expensive, so we will only use that if we really need a charge.

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[SpaceEVDriver]

In 2025, we did at least 23 road trips of more than 300 miles, most 1200 miles or longer.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Took a 2508 mile road trip from northern Arizona to northern California (with a side trip to the Los Angeles Valley on the way up).

Stats:
Total miles: 2508
Total energy use: 1201 kWh
Average efficiency: 2.1 miles/kWh
Total elevation gain: 42,681 feet
Total elevation loss: 42,681 feet
Minimum elevation: 0 feet
Maximum elevation: 7364 feet
Maximum wind gusts: 65 mph crosswinds
Minimum temperature while driving: 37 ℉
Minimum temperature recorded: 27 ℉
Total cost: $376.58
Cost per mile: $0.15/mile
Total DCFC charging stops (while on the freeway—we charged at a couple DCFCs when at our hotels because of cost or because the L2 chargers nearby weren’t working): 11

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Year-end Review:

2025:
We drove approximately 15,000 miles in 2025. The truck’s average efficiency is 2.4 miles/kWh. That’s about 6,250 kWh of energy.

In 2025, we did more than 23 road trips that required DCFC charging. A large fraction of those trips were more than 1200 miles round trip. This includes trips in the Mustang Mach-E, but the vast majority of our trips were in the Lightning because it’s far more comfortable.

Lifetime:
Total miles:
Lightning: 26,281 miles
Mustang: 53,245 miles
Total BEV driving since Feb 2022: 79,526 miles.

DCFC Sessions:
We recorded 152 DCFC sessions at EA, 51 at brand-T; 33 at ChargePoint; a dozen or so at EVGo; and a dozen or so combined at the smaller networks. We have more charging sessions at the top three networks that weren’t recorded. All-told, I would say we’ve charged around 300 times at DCFC chargers.

Home charging sessions: Too many to count. Just on the ChargePoint (Mustang), we have over 1000. I don’t have good records for the Lightning.

Road trip L2 charging sessions: At least 100.

Here’s a map of all of our road trips (since Feb. 2022); this also includes trips we took in the Mustang. Many of the routes shown here were driven multiple times.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I’m heading back to Moab, Canyonlands, Arches, etc., to lead a geology and photography field trip. It’ll be about 1000 to 1500 miles round trip. The group is small enough to fit into the Lightning, so we’ll just take it. We’ll charge overnight at hotels and only use DCFC if necessary.

Here’s a bit of a preview of the trip, though not everything is fully confirmed.

The elevation profile. The total elevation gain will be about 73,582 feet, total elevation loss will be about 73,954 feet.

This map shows several different bits of information.
The orange polygons are census tracts with population density as the color; higher densities are darker. The light blue hash layer are 50 mile driving distance to a DCFC. The red lines are the driving routes we may take. where there’s aerial photos are where there’s no DCFC within 50 miles driving distance and there are fewer than 1 person per square km according to the 2020 census.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Spent a week leading a photography + geology trip to Canyonlands, Arches, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, and etc.,

Some brief statistics:
Total miles Driven: 1277 miles
Total energy used: 450 kWh
Average efficiency: 2.8 miles/kWh
Average range on a full battery: 367 miles (2.8 * 131)
Maximum speed limit: 65 mph
Total cost for energy: $83.04, including one-month charger network subscription
Cost per mile driven: $0.07/mile
Off-road miles driven: 102 miles
Number of photos taken: Thousands
Number of photos processed: 0

Here’s a cellphone photo of one of us pulling a camera out of a bag stored in the frunk. And also the magnificent Monument Valley.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Just went over 30,000 miles on the truck.

On the way to that, I was driving from central northern Arizona to the Los Angeles valley via interstate 40. On the drive out, I was feeling good so didn’t feel the need to stop at the first charging stop. Nor the backup for the first stop, which was about 40 miles farther along the road. So I ended up going an “extra” 77 miles farther along I-40 to Essex, CA.

There, I encountered a situation that’s fairly common on I-40 in the middle of nowhere desert: Broken refueling pumps. No, not the Electrify America charging posts. Those were in great condition with four usable of the four available.

Most of the fuel pumps were out of order.
One pump had been removed—it looked and smelled like it had been burned.
Two other pumps were wrapped in caution tape.
Of the eight nozzles usually available, only two were usable. And because of the price, people were only buying a few gallons just to make it to the next stop.

The cost for fuel?

$8.20 to $8.70 per gallon.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Beginning tomorrow, we’ll be at two years of ownership of the Lightning.
tl;dr:
It’s been the best vehicle we’ve ever owned.

But we still have no plans to buy another Ford. This is because we’re all BEV and will stay all BEV and I don’t believe I can trust Ford’s C-Suite to lead their engineers in the right direction.

We have approximately 32,000 miles on the Lightning (31,458 to be exact, but I’ll be driving about 300 miles today).

Here’s my two-year review:

First, the problems with the Lightning:

• Every very hot day, we would get a powertrain error and DTC. This is because of the idiotic motorized shifter. I finally got around to replacing it with a dial shifter and a printed mount. I never did take it in to the dealer to replace the shifter.
• The local dealer is anti-EV, unreliable, and untrustworthy. They claimed to do some recall work on our Mustang Mach-E but never actually did. We had to take the Mustang to another dealer two hours away to get that recall work done.
• I wish the Lightning were the size of the Ranger instead.
• That’s it with problems with the Lightning.

The Lightning's lifetime average efficiency is just over 2.5 miles/kWh. It would be higher if we stayed home more often, but we do a LOT of road trips in the Lightning. We’ve done about 28,000 miles of road trips, or about 88% of the miles are road tripping. This map shows most of our road trips, including both the Mustang Mach-E and the Lightning. I do an ~monthly NAZ to LA trip that’s about 1100-1200 miles round trip. We also like to go camping in remote areas of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. If the trip is 12 hours or less of driving, it’s likely we’ll drive instead of fly.

Here are some photos from some of our adventures:

Playing with the drone and 4x4 performance of the Lightning.

Giving a friend’s EV6 some “roadside” charging in the cold winter.

Sneaking into Arches National Park via the “secret entrance.” We have a yearly pass to the National Parks, and we checked in when we left through the main entrance. They still got to count us as a visitor.

Camping at Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Playing with the installation of a 270 degree awning. I don’t like the placement, but to move it forward, I have to raise it a bit so it doesn’t hit the cab.

Visiting Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Yes, those are solar panels on the bed cap. Yes, they were useful for our 10-day trip. We were able to charge a little bit every day while going out to do photography. We were also able to keep the fridge and freezer running without using the Pro Power plugs.

The funk is a fantastic camera equipment secure storage space.

Practicing a little with the snow plow. If we ever get more snow, I’ll probably add a front-mounted hitch and use it in the front.

 

[21st Century Truck]

Agree on the Ford Ranger comment... that would have given a lot of people a lot more choice. Including me.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My partner sent me on a 600 mile errand yesterday to buy a popup tent trailer.

This is a used 2021 Rockwood 1910 ESP (“Extreme Sports Package”) camper. It has “upgraded, off-road” suspension, which really just means the spring/axle mounts are on top of the axle instead of below, and it has silly-looking, 15-in “AT” tires on it. The frame is a good frame, though.

The trailer has a GVWR if about 2900 pounds, so 290 pounds tongue weight when loaded properly. The

Having “AT” tires on a trailer of this size is silly. They’re just there for looks and to reduce efficiency. I’ll be replacing these with skinnier, proper trailer tires that have decently low rolling resistance before our next trip. The tires that are on there are 3-peaks winter tires and are stud-ready. What a nonsense tire to have on a trailer.

I’ll probably flip the axle so the trailer doesn’t stand up so high. There’s no need for such high clearance with a truck like the Lightning. And dropping it lower reduces the wind resistance a bit.

I’ll probably add a set of shocks to the trailer; these trailers are generally built as cheaply as possible and the lack of shock absorbers means the trailer likes to bounce on our heat-stressed highways in the US Southwest.

Because of the flipped axle and tall tires, the hitch ball I brought with me to pick up the trailer is low, so there’s more like 300-320 pounds on the tongue. Still not enough to be of concern. I do want the trailer to be better balanced, though, so if better tires and a flipped axle doesn’t fix it, I’ll use a hitch with a higher ball.

I’ll be removing all of the propane appliances (cook top, griddle, water heater, furnace) and replacing them with electric (induction cook top, no griddle, water heater, heat pump).

I will add 7-15 kWh of battery to the trailer. I will add an updated inverter with a 240 volt outlet. I will also cover the roof with solar. Overall I think I can fit 1.2-2.0 kW of solar, including some portable solar that can hang off the awning / side of the trailer while parked.

How did it tow?

Handling: The Lightning didn’t know there was anything behind it. It’s only 2900 pounds GVWR, so it’s not exactly a tough tow for the Lightning.

Effeciency?

TL;DR:
Drive out: 2.44 miles/kWh, almost exactly the EPA estimated range.
First leg home, towing the trailer: 1.4 miles/kWh up a 4500 feet climb, driving into mild winds (15 mph winds).
Second leg home, towing the trailer: 2.0 miles/kWh, descending from 7911 feet to a low of 3490 feet back up to 7149 feet and then down again a little bit.


Doing the drive without the trailer:
On the trip out, I drove around 265 miles over 4.5 hours (average of 60 mph). I got 2.44 miles/kWh average efficiency, which is the EPA estimated efficiency (320 miles range).

I got that 2.44 miles/kWh with a mix of hill descents, hill climbs, 65 mph driving, a couple of higher-speed passes, and slower driving in lower speed limit zones. I did some around town driving because I got lost. The elevation profile below shows just from my home to the charger. After I’d picked up the trailer, I drove 11 miles to the charger. My efficiency of 2.44 miles/kWh includes towing the trailer to the charger.

I left home with 98% state of charge and arrived at the purchase location with 21% state of charge. I drove from the pickup to the nearest DCFC, a supercharger about 11 miles away over a bit of a climb.

At the SC, I charged from 13% to 86%. That took 47 minutes. I was using the restroom, grabbing snacks and breakfast for the next morning, correcting the trailer's tire pressure, draining the trailer’s water, and other chores, so I didn’t notice the time. Average charge rate was 125 kW.

Then I headed off to my campground, climbing back up from the low elevation (3369 feet elevation) on the right side of the elevation profile to the peak indicated (7911 feet elevation). The campground is 95 miles from the charging station, and as you can see it’s almost entirely climbing up in elevation. I arrived at the campground with 34% charge. That’s 68 kWh used to go 95 miles, or an efficiency of 1.4 miles/kWh. That’s climbing 4542 feet start to stop (more elevation climb overall—remember that going downhill doesn’t recover as much as it costs to climb that hill). The winds weren’t too bad, just 15 mph. The average speed over those 95 miles was 48 mph. The twisty, windy roads up this climb have speed limits as low as 30 mph, and if you understand averages, you know just 20 minutes at 30 mph crashes the average speed even if you can go to 65 mph for longer sections.

I charged on the 50 Amp RV outlet at the campground. The power was pretty noisy so the EVSE only gave me an average of 6.3 kW. Not terrible, but not as good as 7.2 kW the EVSE is capable of, nor as good as 9.6 kW a healthy 50 Amp RV post would be capable of.

I left the campground at 11:00 with 95% state of charge and began the rest of my journey, another 165 miles. This involved going down off the plateau to the bridge crossing the Colorado River and then climbing back up the mountain. I arrived home at about 14:00, a total of 3 hours later (55 mph average), with 32% state of charge. I used 63% of the battery, or about 2.0 miles/kWh (262 miles range). This was climbing two mountains, towing a trailer, and heading into the wind.

As a comparison: We did almost exactly the same trip a few days prior, but with no trailer. We traveled 211 miles on 80% charge (2.0 miles/kWh), no trailer, into the wind. See the elevation profile below. The 211 mile marker shows the trip we did (from the 211 mile mark to the 0 mile mark).

In other words, the trailer didn’t do a whole lot to decrease our overall efficiency on this particular drive, though it did reduce it some.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Traded the Lightning with 35,600 miles for a Sliverado with 10,000 miles.

First impressions:
It’s only slightly smaller, but handles city driving much better. It’s more maneuverable with the rear steering, but I’m not sure how often I’ll leave that on since it’s more squirrely on the freeway.
It’s quieter inside on the freeway. And the Lightning was already pretty darn quiet.
The midgate means the rear seat structure takes up more of the rear seat, which means less space for storage.
The frunk is smaller, which means there’s less space for storage.
The HUD is interesting, but I’d leave it off when driving at night—it’s too distracting at night.
The implementation of Android Automotive is superior to any other Android Automotive implementation I have seen so far. I was able to install Libby without trouble and can listen to my audiobooks direct from the vehicle without the phone playing a part.

The 24” wheels are nonsense. I’ll be replacing those ASAP.
I haven’t had to charge it on DCFC yet. That’ll happen this weekend on a 1500 mile road trip.
The truck was charged to 68% when I picked it up. I put it through its paces on the drive up the mountain, so got home with only 20%. If I was new to EVs, only getting 170 miles on 48% of the 200 kWh battery might worry me. But I was testing things out, so it’s not a surprise.

I hate the lack of a start/stop button. I’m trying to accept it. But within four hours of ownership, I had already run into a stupidity with that while backing up to the tent trailer and getting out to check the hitch alignment. Hoping to find a way to disable the dumb algorithm that shuts the vehicle off whenever I leave my seat. I expected better from an established, experienced vehicle manufacturer.

I expect to hate the rear charge port while towing. But the longer range will reduce the number of charge stops we do on camping trips, so it’ll probably come out in the wash.

 

[halfbakedenchilada]

Traded the Lightning with 35,600 miles for a Sliverado with 10,000 miles.

First impressions:
It’s only slightly smaller, but handles city driving much better. It’s more maneuverable with the rear steering, but I’m not sure how often I’ll leave that on since it’s more squirrely on the freeway.
It’s quieter inside on the freeway. And the Lightning was already pretty darn quiet.
The midgate means the rear seat structure takes up more of the rear seat, which means less space for storage.
The frunk is smaller, which means there’s less space for storage.
The HUD is interesting, but I’d leave it off when driving at night—it’s too distracting at night.
The implementation of Android Automotive is superior to any other Android Automotive implementation I have seen so far. I was able to install Libby without trouble and can listen to my audiobooks direct from the vehicle without the phone playing a part.

The 24” wheels are nonsense. I’ll be replacing those ASAP.
I haven’t had to charge it on DCFC yet. That’ll happen this weekend on a 1500 mile road trip.
The truck was charged to 68% when I picked it up. I put it through its paces on the drive up the mountain, so got home with only 20%. If I was new to EVs, only getting 170 miles on 48% of the 200 kWh battery might worry me. But I was testing things out, so it’s not a surprise.

I hate the lack of a start/stop button. I’m trying to accept it. But within four hours of ownership, I had already run into a stupidity with that while backing up to the tent trailer and getting out to check the hitch alignment. Hoping to find a way to disable the dumb algorithm that shuts the vehicle off whenever I leave my seat. I expected better from an established, experienced vehicle manufacturer.

I expect to hate the rear charge port while towing. But the longer range will reduce the number of charge stops we do on camping trips, so it’ll probably come out in the wash.

Congrats on the new rig, sorry to see the Lightning go, I've loved your travel stories over the years! Thanks for posting them, and hope you love the Silverado!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Congrats on the new rig, sorry to see the Lightning go, I've loved your travel stories over the years! Thanks for posting them, and hope you love the Silverado!

I will remain on this forum for at least some time until I’m kicked off for posting the Silverado instead of the Lightning. The travel stories will continue, just with a different rig.

I’m at about 75% certainty the Silverado will work for us. There are some UX decisions that are dumber than the Ford UX decisions. But we live and play in a charging desert and there are certain things the Silverado’s longer range will help us feel more comfortable doing. It’s not exactly enabling, just more comfortable. We call it our “emotional support battery."

 

[halfbakedenchilada]

I will remain on this forum for at least some time until I’m kicked off for posting the Silverado instead of the Lightning. The travel stories will continue, just with a different rig.

I’m at about 75% certainty the Silverado will work for us. There are some UX decisions that are dumber than the Ford UX decisions. But we live and play in a charging desert and there are certain things the Silverado’s longer range will help us feel more comfortable doing. It’s not exactly enabling, just more comfortable. We call it our “emotional support battery."

Yup, I get it. I drive in the west a lot, too, and it can sometimes be ... difficult. It's getting much better of course, but when I was last through Kayenta and the supercharger was down, it took a bit of white knuckling it to make it work. Would have (perhaps) been easier in a Silverado, although I have no plans to move on from the Lightning anytime soon.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Yup, I get it. I drive in the west a lot, too, and it can sometimes be ... difficult. It's getting much better of course, but when I was last through Kayenta and the supercharger was down, it took a bit of white knuckling it to make it work. Would have (perhaps) been easier in a Silverado, although I have no plans to move on from the Lightning anytime soon.

Yep. Kayenta, Kanab, and Page are three charging locations that we often experiece as potentially problematic. And the 125 kW chargers in Bluff don’t always help much.

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