Oh, the ride is great after years of 3/4 and 1 ton Ram diesels. I had to get bulk diesel today, the tank is in the back of a 2500 Ram and that was the first thing I noticed was how stiff and ruff it was and it's the best riding of my Rams. I've noticed that you can really get rolling across the prairie in the Lightning if you aren't paying attention because of the smooth ride.
Today I crossed the 10k mile mark in just over 5 months of ownership. So far it's been everything I was hoping it would be. The Lightning operates in almost the dead center of Montana, 100 to 130 miles from 4 of the major cities, Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. I'm a rancher, a cow/calf operation and this pickup is used daily in every kind of condition you can imagine. It will never see a garage, rarely see a car wash and be used as pickups used to be. I ordered it with Pro Power and have carried a pancake air compressor and portable mig welder during hay season this past summer and even took it to a music festival to power A/C's. All in all it's been great. My previous daily driver is a 6.7 Ram diesel that averages a whopping 13.5 mpg. I'm not keeping dead accurate records on energy used but my power bill is averaging $100 to $120 a month over previous years. The difference with this years diesel prices is in the neighborhood of $600 a month in savings, plus no 3 gallons of black oil running down my arm several times a year. I left trip 1 set from when I picked it up and it averaged 2.3 miles per kwh till about a month ago when the temps started to fall. It's now down to 2.1 miles per kwh but we also had a blast of winter with a little over a foot of snow and our first subzero overnights. I've DC fast charged it twice in Billings, currently the only place in range of my standard battery to try it. Bozeman EA is completed but not on line yet and nothing in Helena or Great Falls. I charge at home on a Grizzl-e which seemed like a good choice for my outdoor installation. I've been driving Dodge diesels since 1994, they've worked very well but the Ford Lightning engineers did a really great job on this truck. The best part is being an early adopter and seeing what these can do.
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good post. I just washed my truck for the first time since I bought it in September 2022. It mostly lives outside but I do bring it in to charge it once or twice a week. And if the weather looks like we might get a power outage I bring it in to back up our house (which it did this last weekend for a two day outage due to high winds here on the Colorado Front Range).Today I crossed the 10k mile mark in just over 5 months of ownership. So far it's been everything I was hoping it would be. The Lightning operates in almost the dead center of Montana, 100 to 130 miles from 4 of the major cities, Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. I'm a rancher, a cow/calf operation and this pickup is used daily in every kind of condition you can imagine. It will never see a garage, rarely see a car wash and be used as pickups used to be. I ordered it with Pro Power and have carried a pancake air compressor and portable mig welder during hay season this past summer and even took it to a music festival to power A/C's. All in all it's been great. My previous daily driver is a 6.7 Ram diesel that averages a whopping 13.5 mpg. I'm not keeping dead accurate records on energy used but my power bill is averaging $100 to $120 a month over previous years. The difference with this years diesel prices is in the neighborhood of $600 a month in savings, plus no 3 gallons of black oil running down my arm several times a year. I left trip 1 set from when I picked it up and it averaged 2.3 miles per kwh till about a month ago when the temps started to fall. It's now down to 2.1 miles per kwh but we also had a blast of winter with a little over a foot of snow and our first subzero overnights. I've DC fast charged it twice in Billings, currently the only place in range of my standard battery to try it. Bozeman EA is completed but not on line yet and nothing in Helena or Great Falls. I charge at home on a Grizzl-e which seemed like a good choice for my outdoor installation. I've been driving Dodge diesels since 1994, they've worked very well but the Ford Lightning engineers did a really great job on this truck. The best part is being an early adopter and seeing what these can do.
I’ve got three dents and the front bumper needs to be remounted after hitting something. The bed is all scratched up from hauling building materials and such, and of course the dump runs. Nobody knows it’s electric unless I open the Frunk in public. Every once in a while some smart Alec wants to race me so I oblige. I wish I could see their face better in the rear view mirror. I just took a trip to Steamboat and got there without stopping on a standard range battery in winter, and after a 28 minute charge I turned around and on the way home I picked up 40 miles of range coming down the “hill.” I couldn’t be happier with this vehicle, I don’t even remember what it’s like to go to a gas station and the thought of a tune-up or oil change is almost laughable. I could never go back to an ICE vehicle I’m so spoiled. Oh and my two axle dump trailer weighs way more than the truck is probably rated for, I never checked, but I still can’t feel it back there. I kind of feel sorry for the lightnings that are Garage Queens, these vehicles are like thoroughbreds just itching to work.
