Newbie Questions

[Grant]

Hey everyone.

I have yet to buy a Lightning (but one will probably be in my driveway in the next few months) and I have been doing a lot of research- in fact, I have been following the development of the full size EV pickup since Ford was considering partnering with Rivian. That having been said, I am very interested to hear what actual results everyone is getting, and I have amassed a few questions.

Before I get to the questions, some info about me- I currently drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, and I work out of my vehicles. I am a Construction Inspector, and spend a lot of time driving off road, or at least on roads that aren't roads yet. I also live in Canada, which means I depend on heat in the vehicle an awful lot.

So, that leads me to a number of questions that I hope you folks can help with:

Tires:
How much do off road tires such as the BF Goodrich All Terrain or Goodyear Wrangler tires affect mileage?


Roof Rack:
Does a roof rack affect range significntly?
Does anyone carry kayaks on top, and if so, is there any significant effect?


Bed:
How much (if at all) do hard/soft tonneau covers affect range?
What about truck caps?


Heat:
Does running the heater for an extended length of time affect range significantly?


Adaptors:
What adaptors are included?
What adaptors are a good idea to have?

Oh yeah, when not working, I am usually fixing stuff around my income property, kayaking, shooting, camping etc, which also means lots of gear hauling and off road stuff.

Thanks for any help you all can give!

Grant

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[sotek2345]

Hey everyone.

I have yet to buy a Lightning (but one will probably be in my driveway in the next few months) and I have been doing a lot of research- in fact, I have been following the development of the full size EV pickup since Ford was considering partnering with Rivian. That having been said, I am very interested to hear what actual results everyone is getting, and I have amassed a few questions.

Before I get to the questions, some info about me- I currently drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, and I work out of my vehicles. I am a Construction Inspector, and spend a lot of time driving off road, or at least on roads that aren't roads yet. I also live in Canada, which means I depend on heat in the vehicle an awful lot.

So, that leads me to a number of questions that I hope you folks can help with:

Tires:
How much do off road tires such as the BF Goodrich All Terrain or Goodyear Wrangler tires affect mileage?


Roof Rack:
Does a roof rack affect range significntly?
Does anyone carry kayaks on top, and if so, is there any significant effect?


Bed:
How much (if at all) do hard/soft tonneau covers affect range?
What about truck caps?


Heat:
Does running the heater for an extended length of time affect range significantly?


Adaptors:
What adaptors are included?
What adaptors are a good idea to have?

Oh yeah, when not working, I am usually fixing stuff around my income property, kayaking, shooting, camping etc, which also means lots of gear hauling and off road stuff.

Thanks for any help you all can give!

Grant

I can answer a few of those.

Tires:
How much do off road tires such as the BF Goodrich All Terrain or Goodyear Wrangler tires affect mileage?

- It varies by tire, but plan for 10% range hit. There are some EV specific off road tires coming out that may be better.


Roof Rack:
Does a roof rack affect range significntly?
Does anyone carry kayaks on top, and if so, is there any significant effect?

- At highway speeds, this will have a HUGE impact due to the increased wind loads. I have never done it, but I would expect 30+% loss on the highway with kayaks on top. a good comparison is how much mpg do you lose in your current truck.


Bed:
How much (if at all) do hard/soft tonneau covers affect range?
What about truck caps?

- no meaningful impact.

Heat:
Does running the heater for an extended length of time affect range significantly?

- This will depend on the temperature of course, but every hour of heater use will use somewhere between 2 miles and 12 miles of range. Heated seats are very good for minimizing this impact.

Also note, that cold weather will reduce range in an of itself due to the need to keep the battery warm and push through thicker air. Pre-conditioning the battery can help with this a lot. Search "winter range loss" to get lots of good, and not so good, threads on the topic.

 

[Tom Jensen]

Hey everyone.

I have yet to buy a Lightning (but one will probably be in my driveway in the next few months) and I have been doing a lot of research- in fact, I have been following the development of the full size EV pickup since Ford was considering partnering with Rivian. That having been said, I am very interested to hear what actual results everyone is getting, and I have amassed a few questions.

Before I get to the questions, some info about me- I currently drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, and I work out of my vehicles. I am a Construction Inspector, and spend a lot of time driving off road, or at least on roads that aren't roads yet. I also live in Canada, which means I depend on heat in the vehicle an awful lot.

So, that leads me to a number of questions that I hope you folks can help with:

Tires:
How much do off road tires such as the BF Goodrich All Terrain or Goodyear Wrangler tires affect mileage?


Roof Rack:
Does a roof rack affect range significntly?
Does anyone carry kayaks on top, and if so, is there any significant effect?


Bed:
How much (if at all) do hard/soft tonneau covers affect range?
What about truck caps?


Heat:
Does running the heater for an extended length of time affect range significantly?


Adaptors:
What adaptors are included?
What adaptors are a good idea to have?

Oh yeah, when not working, I am usually fixing stuff around my income property, kayaking, shooting, camping etc, which also means lots of gear hauling and off road stuff.

Thanks for any help you all can give!

Grant

This won’t answer all your questions but it may add to other responses. I have a 2023 Lariat ER. I love it. I’ve carried full loads in the bed, including kayaks that were long enough (15 and 17 feet) that they had to be propped onto the cab roof to avoid risk of see-sawing on the edge of the tail gate (lowered). I’ve also pulled a small boat and trailer. The effect of these loads on mileage have been modest (a few percent less efficiency). But things get pretty ugly when driving into a headwind, in the cold, with a load. I recently saw about a 20 percent loss of range driving north up the Outer Banks into a 20-30 mph near-freezing headwind. Net speed was probably 75+. The same range loss happens without a headwind when driving at 70 mph or faster. Speed kills. Check out the performance curves posted on this site. It’s easy to anticipate range loss when you’re the one dictating how fast you’re going. But a headwind can sneak up on you and bring an unwelcome surprise. Especially in the cold. So, it’s an easy fix: drive only downwind in winter. You’re welcome.

 

[BennyTheBeaver]

Use the search option at the top right. All these questions have not only been answered, but most also have lengthy discussions.

 

[Adventureboy]

I agree with @sotek2345 's numbers. A canoe on the roof rack takes about 30% hit on the highway. Less on slower roads but still noticeable. An empty rack is nearly negligible with my Thule rack.

For your role, the Lightning is perfect. You can sit in it working with the heater on for quite a while for very little impact. I have the Lariat ER with the fold-out workspace - great for a laptop.

Tires
I noticed about a 5%-7% hit going to winter tires from the factory AS although it is hard to quantify since I didn't measure explicitly and dropping/raising seasonal temperature has more impact.

Adapters
This depends on quite a few factors. I have a variable amperage mobile charger so I have the flexibility to plug into various amperage circuits. I carry a few adapters (some may laugh but I use some of them weekly and have used most of them in a pinch):

• 6-50p to 14-50r - to charge from 50amp welder circuits
• SS2-50p to 14-50r - to charge from 50amp marine circiuts
• 6-20p to 14-50r- to charge from 20amp 240v circuits
• 14-30p to 14-50r - to charge from dryer circuits
• 5-15p to 14-50r - specialty adapter to charge from 120V - there are two different kinds so you need the right one that puts 120V across the two hot conductors - The RV type will not work since it puts 120v across the hots and common in parallel. This one is nearly useless since it only gives 1.2-1.5kw - only good for multi-day stays like camping
• L6-30p to 14-50r - this has two purposes - one to charge from a generator supply or industrial circuit if needed, and two, to connect the Onboard Pro Power to my EVSE to charge another EV in distress. In a pinch, you can also daisy chain the EVSEs this way.
• L6-30p to 6-50r - to plug in my welder to the OBPP
• I also carry a custom-made (unapproved) adapter that allows me to plug into two oppositely phased 30 amp 120v marine circuits (two L5-30p) and get a 30amp 240v circuit for charging at 5.7kw at a marina with only 120v 30 amp circuits. (this one is very useful for me since I spend lots of time at marinas)

Note: Never draw more than 80% of the circuit rating to be safe.

 

[Dom630]

In regards to the range impact of running the heater, It's worth pointing out that the 2022 and 2023 model years use resistive type heaters. 2024 model years will ship with heat pumps instead which should provide a slight improvement in cold weather range.

 

[Tony Burgh]

Quick smart ass answer - if you think it hurts range, it does, if you think it improves range, it doesnt

 

[sotek2345]

Quick smart ass answer - if you think it hurts range, it does, if you think it improves range, it doesnt

Except driving slower. That does improve range, but few want to do it.

 

[Newton]

The truck will (probably) come with a Ford-branded Webasto Go adapter which fits into a 110V/15A outlet (regular wall plug) and a NMEA 14-50 (some dryers) at 240V/32A. That's right, it plugs into a 50A adapter but only produces 32A.

I have a Grizzl-E mini which comes with a bagful of adapters and can produce up to 40A, but the biggest reason that I got it is so that I can dial down the amperage to work with lower amperage outlets that I might find. It seems pretty solid, it has no screen to break but it does mean that it is a bit fiddly to configure, using its built-in wifi and a hard coded web address.

 

[JRT]

The more important info you need to know is can you do your job in the winter with no more then 200 miles (ER) of driving? The truck will have much less range in winter and will never see the advertised range. 8k mile and my m/kwh is 2.1, that times the 131 kwh battery means my max range us 275 miles to 0 battery. You never want to go this low so I'd plan no more then 200 to 220 miles max. Winter will be rough, you will probably be below 2 m/kwh with heat and highway speeds. Also running over 65 is a big range impact and head winds compound range too, 20mph head wind at 70mph is equivalent of 90mph drag

 

[invertedspear]

The truck will (probably) come with a Ford-branded Webasto Go adapter which fits into a 110V/15A outlet (regular wall plug) and a NMEA 14-50 (some dryers) at 240V/32A. That's right, it plugs into a 50A adapter but only produces 32A.

I thought the lighting mobile charger was 30A, the MME was 32A. 30A so it can be powered by the PPOB outlets in the bed to "rescue Teslas" or whatever joke they were making.

 

[grange]

Quick smart ass answer - if you think it hurts range, it does, if you think it improves range, it doesnt

and if you are worried about range.....stick with an ICE. Range is the only disappointment and it is a real concern. cold weather alone reduces my milage by nearly 50%. dri ing over 55mph, any hint of a headwind, etc....

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