Hauling Ass: Towing and Hauling with A Ford Lightning EV

We own a Ford Lightning EV and live in an area with an austere environment and extreme temperatures.  But that hasn’t stopped me from long road trips, heavy hauling and towing horse trailers.  Read about our December road trip to do some cold weather camping and test the long distance range of the Ford Lightning..at this link.

The Ford Lightning EV is an impressive truck, with lots of features that I like.  One of the features that helped to steer me toward buying a Ford Lightning EV specifically was its towing and hauling capacity…with an advertised towing weight of 10,000 pounds.  I think you would be hard pressed to find that capacity on many regular vehicles, much less an EV.  Along with the towing capacity comes very fast pickup, impressive safety features, towing data and a rock solid ride once towing.  But there’s a trade off you don’t really hear about from Ford or the dealer but you can read about on forums or blogs/websites like mine.

Once you get a trailer attached to the truck…I’ve found the truck loses about HALF of its stated distance mileage right up front.  So what does this mean?  For me, if the truck says I have a full 320-mile charge pulling out of the garage, the truck will do a quick mileage calculation once I hook up the trailer and turn on the towing computer….taking that charge down to 150 miles automatically.  Yep, I lose half my mileage/distance capacity right off the bat before even leaving the ranch.

A trailer story: A year ago when we first got our donkey’s from BLM Ridgecrest, Ca….we didn’t own a trailer and didn’t want to buy a new, light two-horse trailer.  So I continually looked for a decent trailer for sale in the local area.  Finally I found one we could afford and it was in decent shape.  So we bought it.  But I didn’t really know much about horse trailers and didn’t understand the size or weight of the monster I bought.  At 7400 pounds, it would turn out to be a great trailer but very heavy….it turned out to be a four horse trailer from the early 2000’s, very heavy.

Fast forward to our first donkey race in Inyokern, Ca in spring of 2024.  We hooked up and hauled the donks and trailer to Inyokern…our first long drive with the trailer and the Ford Lightning.  Right away we lost half our mileage, so we were at 150 miles of EV charge to do a 185 mile, three hour drive (normally).  We had anticipated this, but knew we would need to charge on the way.  So we stopped in the desert city of Barstow on the way and charged, then rolled on to the race.  Once there, the staging area for trucks and trailers was large enough to get into and we were able to unhook the trailer and separate the truck to charge easier.  This worked well.  But charging in Ridgecrest and Inyokern is sparse with only slow chargers (we didn’t yet have our Tesla NACS adaptor).  We were thrown a lifeline when I found a series of fast chargers at an abandoned gas station along the 395 corridor just outside of Inyokern.  They worked!  We changed here early in the morning before the race and then right after the race to get enough juice to get back to Barstow, where we had to change again with the trailer on to get enough juice to get home.

This trip to Inyokern is the longest tow we’ve done with my Ford Lightning EV.  Since then, I became convinced to get a lighter, smaller trailer and traded down for a lighter trailer that needs some work but should work for us.

The truck isn’t a garage queen.  I use it all the time for hauling lumber, fencing and hay for the ranch.  Hauling isn’t an issue, the truck hauls with gusto and tows well, but loses the mileage when towing.  Hauling loads doesn’t seem to affect the mileage like towing. 

Towing and Hauling Thoughts:

-I’ve tried to match the towing capability of the F-150 Lightening with a normal gas SUV but I can’t so far.  Obviously, there are lots of trucks with large towing capacities but I think the Ford Lightning EV is the strongest on the EV market so far. 

-Towing and Hauling capacity and capability are not an issue in the Ford Lightning.  Range is a definite issue and must be planned for.  We build in a safety range and normally don’t go below 35-40 miles of range before we stop and charge.

-I’ve continually researched how to get more range out of the truck and portable EV charging options.  Turning off heat and A/C along with steady, consistent speed help mileage in this EV.  Environmental factors like wind and trailer tow weight/ergonomics kill mileage faster than anything.  I have not found many good EV charging options so far, but still researching.  The best would be solar panels that would charge anytime I’m on the road, but that system hasn’t gotten past Ford engineers yet.

-For long road trips, I’m a huge fan of DC fast chargers.  Smaller chargers just won’t charge fast enough to have an effect while traveling and the most folks want a GAS station experience.  Sitting and waiting for hours while the EV trickle charges just won’t do it.  On a DC fast charger, the Lightning can be back to 80-85% in about 30 minutes, which is time to use the bathroom, get a soda and figure out directions.  Ok by me.