Adventures of our 2023 Carbonized Gray Metallic Lariat Lightning ER

We got our 2023 Carbonized Gray Lariat delivered to us on 12 April 2024. The dealer sent one of their rookie salespeople up the mountain from the Phoenix valley to drop off the Lightning and pick up our Tacoma.

With the 2022 Mustang CA Rte-1, we are now an all-EV household. That is if you don't count the tractors. Once the prices of the electric tractors come down, we'll replace those too.



We took the Lightning out to dinner and for a quick photoshoot.




Then on Saturday I took the truck out on a little backroad to play in the mud a bit.



And on Sunday, we did our usual new car Grand Canyon shakedown run. We didn't bother to take many photos and didn't bother to charge. We did get some excited exclamations from a kid who recognized the truck as a Lightning and made their family stop and watch as we pulled away.



During the week I drove it instead of the Mustang while my partner drove her Mustang. I did miss the Mustang a bit, especially in town.

I've found that I cannot treat the Lightning like a truck the way I treated the Tacoma--the Tacoma and every other truck I've ever owned has dog-tired slow acceleration and the Lightning is faster than the Mustang. More than once I had to remind myself, "This is NOT a Tacoma, you don't have to floor it just to get up to speed!"

This weekend, we did a bunch of ranch work.

We're planting trees and the elk really enjoy eating fresh leaves, so I had to put in some fencing. The Lightning provided a full day's worth of power for my demolition hammer to drive the fence posts.
(Ignore that first T-post in this video; it hit a rock and deflected so I had to pull it out and reset it later in the day.)




I got the fencing installed yesterday, and we planted the trees today.



The Lightning is going to be pretty awesome as a work truck. At one point I was backing up and was focused on one of the posts and didn't register another that the truck saw and did perform an autobrake to stop me from running into it. That was nice.

The tailgate step is wonderful for saving my old knees!

I do, however, have an issue with the touchscreen. I have to remove my work gloves every time I want to interact with the touch screen. So, I can't just flip a physical switch to engage the cameras. I had installed cameras on my Tacoma and had tapped into the rear camera so I could use it whenever I desired. It would be nice if the the Upfitter switch panel from other F-150 trims could be installed and programmed.

We have 650 miles on the truck, just over a week after we got it. Going to love driving this on camping trips!

SpaceEVDriver said:

This weekend, we did a bunch of ranch work.

We're planting trees and the elk really enjoy eating fresh leaves, so I had to put in some fencing. The Lightning provided a full day's worth of power for my demolition hammer to drive the fence posts.
(Ignore that first T-post in this video; it hit a rock and deflected so I had to pull it out and reset it later in the day.)

I got the fencing installed yesterday, and we planted the trees today.

The Lightning is going to be pretty awesome as a work truck. At one point I was backing up and was focused on one of the posts and didn't register another that the truck saw and did perform an autobrake to stop me from running into it. That was nice.

The tailgate step is wonderful for saving my old knees!

I do, however, have an issue with the touchscreen. I have to remove my work gloves every time I want to interact with the touch screen. So, I can't just flip a physical switch to engage the cameras. I had installed cameras on my Tacoma and had tapped into the rear camera so I could use it whenever I desired. It would be nice if the the Upfitter switch panel from other F-150 trims could be installed and programmed.

Click to expand...

You can get work gloves that work with touchscreens

Schroederhc1 said:

You can get work gloves that work with touchscreens

Click to expand...

I buy my leather work gloves by the dozen and go through them very quickly; not sure I could afford gloves with touchscreen compatibility. And my gloves are rarely clean enough for me to feel comfortable touching the screen. I'll be getting a screen protector soon, but still...

Also, I wouldn't have an excuse to play with the idea of adding some aux switches and getting the upfitter programming module.

SpaceEVDriver said:

I buy my leather work gloves by the dozen and go through them very quickly; not sure I could afford gloves with touchscreen compatibility. And my gloves are rarely clean enough for me to feel comfortable touching the screen. I'll be getting a screen protector soon, but still...

Also, I wouldn't have an excuse to play with the idea of adding some aux switches and getting the upfitter programming module.

Click to expand...

Which demo hammer do you use?

SpaceEVDriver said:

We got our 2023 Carbonized Gray Lariat delivered to us on 12 April 2024. The dealer sent one of their rookie salespeople up the mountain from the Phoenix valley to drop off the Lightning and pick up our Tacoma.

With the 2022 Mustang CA Rte-1, we are now an all-EV household. That is if you don't count the tractors. Once the prices of the electric tractors come down, we'll replace those too.

We took the Lightning out to dinner and for a quick photoshoot.

Then on Saturday I took the truck out on a little backroad to play in the mud a bit.

And on Sunday, we did our usual new car Grand Canyon shakedown run. We didn't bother to take many photos and didn't bother to charge. We did get some excited exclamations from a kid who recognized the truck as a Lightning and made their family stop and watch as we pulled away.

During the week I drove it instead of the Mustang while my partner drove her Mustang. I did miss the Mustang a bit, especially in town.

I've found that I cannot treat the Lightning like a truck the way I treated the Tacoma--the Tacoma and every other truck I've ever owned has dog-tired slow acceleration and the Lightning is faster than the Mustang. More than once I had to remind myself, "This is NOT a Tacoma, you don't have to floor it just to get up to speed!"

Click to expand...

We appreciate you sharing your adventure with us! We look forward to seeing more in the future.

Lightstone77 said:

Which demo hammer do you use?

Click to expand...

I bought this cheap 45 lb model from Amazon for one job back in 2017, thinking that even if it would die on me, it was cheaper than a single day's rental. It's still going...

SpaceEVDriver said:

I have to remove my work gloves every time I want to interact with the touch screen.

Click to expand...

Maybe a phone stylus in the cup holder for a quick and dirty solution?

invertedspear said:

Maybe a phone stylus in the cup holder for a quick and dirty solution?

Click to expand...

I may get exactly that as an interim option.

Beautiful truck., I have the same color. One word of advice: It will be much better for the trees and in this situation you would keep a lot more of the apple blossoms on if you lay the trees down after loading themn and before you transport them. I'd use those bags in the bed to support the trunks and lay the heads of the trees back against the tailgate. Then you can monitor your entire load as well with the bed camera. Standing them up and using racheting tie down straps is the worst way to load deciduous trees..

Source: I own a garden center and landscaping company.

ChrisCon said:

Beautiful truck., I have the same color. One word of advice: It will be much better for the trees and in this situation you would keep a lot more of the apple blossoms on if you lay the trees down after loading themn and before you transport them. I'd use those bags in the bed to support the trunks and lay the heads of the trees back against the tailgate. Then you can monitor your entire load as well with the bed camera. Standing them up and using racheting tie down straps is the worst way to load deciduous trees..

Source: I own a garden center and landscaping company.

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We drove less than a mile at <20 mph with the trees standing up like this. I usually lay them down just like you recommend.

Took a quick road trip and stopped at a Tesla supercharger listed as NACS compatible. Charging failed. Twice. Went to the nearby EVGo and it worked on the first try. Will have to troubleshoot at another time.

I didn't particularly care that it didn't work; we've had very few problems with CCS1 chargers in the hundred+ DCFC charging stops we've made with the Mustang. The NACS chargers were only ever going to be a backup.

The lower efficiency on the freeway is going to take some getting used to. In the Mustang on this trip, we get 3.7-3.9 mpkwh. In the Lightning, we got 1.9 mpkwh. We did leave in a snow/rain/wind storm (37 ⁰F) and though it dried up, the wind never calmed down. The speed limit is mostly 75 mph and we drive at about 73 mph. In some places, the speed limit was lower and we drove the speed limit.

The ride was AMAZING. My partner is prone to mild car sickness if she tries to read or do anything like that in the car. She was able to work on her computer for the entire five hour drive to our destination and again on the way back.

Slow, L1 charging at our destination wan't the most fun ever, but we're used to not worrying about charge speed when we're not going to use the vehicle very much for a few days. Hitting a DCFC on the way home wasn't an issue.

We love the Mustang for road trips. We love the Lightning even more. I think the Lightning is going to replace the Mustang for most road trips. We have a trip coming up with an elderly family member with nerve problems in their feet, and while I know the Mustang is better for entry and exit for them, or sure would be nice to take the Lightning.

Overall: Fantastic 600 mile road trip. Unimportant trouble with charging at a NACS supercharger. Not the best efficiency ever. But we will be taking the Lightning on many more road trips. 4.9 stars.

Ignore the 2.9 mpkwh in the photo. It's true and accurate, but we were still on our down-mountain leg of the trip.

If I still had the MME, I would use it when I need to make a long road trip where I don't have much to take, and speed is more important than comfort. Wedding or Funeral a couple states over? MME. Beach vacation trip? F150L. I haven't done a real long road trip yet in the Lightning, but I can already tell I'm going to be spending significantly more time at DCFCs just based on m/kWh difference.

invertedspear said:

If I still had the MME, I would use it when I need to make a long road trip where I don't have much to take, and speed is more important than comfort. Wedding or Funeral a couple states over? MME. Beach vacation trip? F150L. I haven't done a real long road trip yet in the Lightning, but I can already tell I'm going to be spending significantly more time at DCFCs just based on m/kWh difference.

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We rarely choose to rush on a road trip. If we need to be somewhere quickly (somewhere that's longer than about 10-12 hours of driving), and it's a sudden trip, we will fly. If we have the time to plan, we'll usually choose to drive, and the recharge time is built into our plans.