F150 Lightning Towing Test vs GMC Denali (not Ike Gauntlet) by TFL

[merek]

I think most F150 owners don't need towing beyond ~100mi on a routine basis, so I think that more or less meets their needs.

I think the issue with the Lightning is it's not the perfect truck, and people need just accept that distance towing is one of the limitations. I think it will be for quite a while, you'd need an EPA range of like 600-1000 miles for towing range to be decent, which is quite a ways off.

Or, they could have some sort of bed-mounted range extender or something. I doubt this is a big priority currently.

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[adoublee]

Know ya know.

And know ya know how much renergy resource it consumes to take a camper into the woods.

Wait, you are the water line from frunk to bed guy or gal?

 

[MostlySafeBear]

Know ya know.

And know ya know how much renergy resource it consumes to take a camper into the woods.

Wait, you are the water line from frunk to bed guy or gal?

It does take more energy to tow of course, but de-rating a 320 mile range to a hair over one quarter capacity is terrible.

And yeah, I did ask about a water tank in the frunk. It was just a thought exercise for me, and even then (before TFL released this video), I had suspicions that the towing range would be very bad.

 

[Aces_Over_Kings]

Physics doesn't take a day off, so this isn't terribly surprising I suppose. ICE trucks overcome this by sheer volume of energy applied, and the ease of which that energy is replenished.

A 36-gallon ICE F-150 loads up on what? 1200 kWh of energy? Almost 10 times the energy of a Lightning ER battery? and then gets to replenish in 10 minutes or so. But they still suffer greatly in their fuel economy and range.

People just need to understand there's no silver bullet solution yet. If you need that capability, you pay for it every day of ownership by feeding those twin turbos ~ $6/gal premium fuel.

Once we see EV's with 500+ mile range and even faster charging, we'll start to turn this corner.

 

[MostlySafeBear]

Physics doesn't take a day off, so this isn't terribly surprising I suppose. ICE trucks overcome this by sheer volume of energy applied, and the ease of which that energy is replenished.

I'm aware, but even though the Lightning is supposed to ask you about various trailer details to re-rate the available range, it failed to do that here, re-rating itself at 160 miles, and barely making over half of even that range.

I will be looking for a Powerboost hybrid F-150. It's not much better than your average gasoline fueled tow vehicle when towing, since of course physics cannot be cheated, but it does bring some advantages, especially for people who want to camp off-grid, like me.

 

[FlasherZ]

It really is about the aerodynamics. The payload testing done by the OOS guys demonstrated that the added weight really didn't make that much of a difference in range.

Some loads are going to be more aerodynamic than others, and so ranges are going to be all over the place. I imagine hauling 4 pallets (roughly 6k lbs) of solar PV panels on my 22', 14k GTWR trailer is probably going to be less of a range impact than the trailer they show above.

 

[adoublee]

Would have been nice if Tommy had given the miles/kWh on the downhill return trip home since all other conditions were presumably consistent and there was a consistrnt elevation gain in his 89 mile drive out. Wouldn't get OP easily pulling a camper across country, just good info.

 

[p52Ranch]

TFL did a video to see how far that a Lightning with an extended range (320 mile) battery could tow a 6,000 pound trailer, which is not an unreasonable use of a half-ton pickup truck.

Sadly, they only made it a whopping 85.9 miles.

Until battery technology greatly improves, I will have to skip this generation of Lightning and be content with a Powerboost hybrid F-150, since I want to tow an RV and camp in remote areas.

Next time, before you post please use the search function. This TFL video has been on the news feed for the past 10 days. https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-vs-gmc-denali-not-ike-gauntlet-by-tfl.10972/

Yes, range is disappointing but the trailer does have an 88 square foot frontal area. There's already been lots of discussion on this thread. An electric truck isn't suitable for all truck needs.

 

[Aces_Over_Kings]

I'm aware, but even though the Lightning is supposed to ask you about various trailer details to re-rate the available range, it failed to do that here, re-rating itself at 160 miles, and barely making over half of even that range.

I will be looking for a Powerboost hybrid F-150. It's not much better than your average gasoline fueled tow vehicle when towing, since of course physics cannot be cheated, but it does bring some advantages, especially for people who want to camp off-grid, like me.

I agree that the recalculation being so overly optimistic is quite unsatisfactory. That should've recalculated very quickly after the first 5-10 miles to compensate for the new vehicle dynamics. Luckily this is probably something they can refine with OTA updates.

I've got a deposit on a PowerBoost also (both it and the Lightning in "shipped' status), so I'm right there with you on the decision-making about when to make the jump to EV.

 

[Firestop]

TFL did a video to see how far that a Lightning with an extended range (320 mile) battery could tow a 6,000 pound trailer, which is not an unreasonable use of a half-ton pickup truck.

Sadly, they only made it a whopping 85.9 miles.

Until battery technology greatly improves, I will have to skip this generation of Lightning and be content with a Powerboost hybrid F-150, since I want to tow an RV and camp in remote areas.

I'm aware, but even though the Lightning is supposed to ask you about various trailer details to re-rate the available range, it failed to do that here, re-rating itself at 160 miles, and barely making over half of even that range.

I will be looking for a Powerboost hybrid F-150. It's not much better than your average gasoline fueled tow vehicle when towing, since of course physics cannot be cheated, but it does bring some advantages, especially for people who want to camp off-grid, like me.

My understanding is the F-150 Lightning’s version of Intelligent Range (e.g. MachE) is supposed to re-estimate from the initial range estimate provided when the trailer info is inputted, not only during the drive, but also “remember” for future drives???

If so, then the drop from the initial estimated range that TFL experienced should have been expected, not dramatized by them. Also if true, it would be interesting to see how the range estimates looked on a subsequent trip or towing using the same configuration……. That would provide users a better understanding of how Ford’s systems on the truck work (e.g., Are they ”smart”….and, if so, how well does that “learning work?). While the video provided some great useful information, I would have preferred just a little less drama and more information on how (if) the truck adapts/learns from preconfigured towing configurations…..

I don’t see any big disappointment here based on the Lightning’s preproduction reviews and test data that was available. As Dirty Harry said, “…(sic) you have to know your limitations….”

This truck was never going to be a mid- or long range heavy toy hauler…maybe Gen 3……. It would have been a pleasant surprise, but not a realistic one at this point in time.

 

[Slick68]

Yeah, the towing range in some cases is very disappointing. The fact is, this truck is not for everyone just like some ICE trucks are just not equipped to handle certain jobs. What I keep scratching my head about is some folks look at the lack of range like “Yup, it’ll only go 115 miles. This is a show stopper…”. Like “It’s outa juice, won’t work, not going anywhere!”
It just means you have to stop for a while and charge it! Take a break, get a sandwich, go pee and charge it. Is this convenient? Not really but there are chargers, albeit not as many as we’d like, but there are chargers.

 

[VTbuckeye]

Max tow is not just for towing, but also hauling and having more cooling capacity. Many tow heavy for short distances. Also, it isn't that expensive and you can't add it later. These are some of the reasons for max tow. The long convenient tow package comes with an internal combustion engine because 131kwg is the energy equivalent of 3.9 gallons of gasoline.

 

[Amps]

I took a long odds crap shoot and spent the $825 on the chance that software updates may upgrade the charging curve in vehicles with the dedicated compressor you get with Max Tow. As time goes on, I may have wasted the money. I knew I wasn't going to get a second chance to add it.

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