Sad Day, our great new Lightning is physically a bad fit for garage ... (dumb dumb dumb)

[metroshot]

I am in a similar parking situation as well.

I can't fit my Lightning in the garage and can't park it overnight outside so what I do is charge once week during the day on the weekend just outside the garage which shares a L2 charger between my wife's and my vehicle.

This arrangement works out for me and I don't mind parking her outside since the street parking is private, security patrolled, and behind a motorized security gate.

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[LightningShow]

Maybe a dumb question, but is leaving the garage door open not an option?

 

[F150ROD]

That sucks! Let us know how much you get from your local dealer. I am always curious to know the Dealer Market value.

 

[RickLightning]

I am in a similar parking situation as well.

I can't fit my Lightning in the garage and can't park it overnight outside so what I do is charge once week during the day on the weekend just outside the garage which shares a L2 charger between my wife's and my vehicle.

This arrangement works out for me and I don't mind parking her outside since the street parking is private, security patrolled, and behind a motorized security gate.

So where is the Lightning parked at night?

 

[RickLightning]

Maybe a dumb question, but is leaving the garage door open not an option?

Yes.

1) Leaves items in garage, and vehicles, open to ransacking.
2) Removes a deterrent to breaking into home.
3) Lets animals / rodents in.
4) In most HOAs, is not allowed.

 

[bmwhitetx]

Its hard to creep with precision.

This. We have a MachE and like to park as close as possible to a wall. With an ICE engine it is easy to approach by just riding the brake. But with the EV there seems to be no creep mode. I have used both One Pedal mode (ride the accelerator) and regular mode. Either way the car stops moving on it’s own and you have to press the accelerator to get it going again. My eventual Lightning will have less room to spare and this will take more effort. I have the lasers also. I can park my ICE F150 quickly now, hopefully just a learning curve.

 

[LightningShow]

Yes.

1) Leaves items in garage, and vehicles, open to ransacking.
2) Removes a deterrent to breaking into home.
3) Lets animals / rodents in.
4) In most HOAs, is not allowed.

Well, those are all things I'm not terribly worried about. That's why I asked.

 

[RickLightning]

For every vehicle I buy, we first pull in and park it in the intended spot, and then measure and setup a 4x4 with bracing to the wall, to prevent it from going in any further. For the F-150, this means the bumper is basically touching, but not pushing, on the wall. This lets me have about 3 1/2" on the door closing. As noted, no trailer hitch.

About a month ago when the Mach-E got the recall software update, we borrowed the dealership's F-150L demo and brought it home and re-verified that it would fit similarly. Wheelbase is slightly different, so the wood would have to be moved out further, but the vehicle is exactly the same body length as our 2013 F-150 SuperCab, within an inch. Door closes fine.

My wife cannot pull the truck into our garage, because a boat fills the next bay, and a riding mower, with inches to spare on the truck's front tire, and a mirror (manual fold) on the right that could hit. I can pull in fine. On the rare occasions when she needs the truck or has to use the truck, I pull it in.

After all the verification, due to the likely loss of the tax credit and the price hike, we'll probably not order when our reservation slot converts to ordering, but haven't cancelled it yet because of the possible tweaking of the tax credit. I wasn't thrilled with paying $80k plus tax for a Lariat, less tax credit is ~$73K (A-Plan). Now it would be about $15K more, and that's a non-starter for me.

 

[RickLightning]

This. We have a MachE and like to park as close as possible to a wall. With an ICE engine it is easy to approach by just riding the brake. But with the EV there seems to be no creep mode. I have used both One Pedal mode (ride the accelerator) and regular mode. Either way the car stops moving on it’s own and you have to press the accelerator to get it going again. My eventual Lightning will have less room to spare and this will take more effort. I have the lasers also. I can park my ICE F150 quickly now, hopefully just a learning curve.

Turn off auto-hold.

 

[metroshot]

So where is the Lightning parked at night?

At night the Lightning is parked on the private street or small parking lots that are surrounding our neighborhood.

Since it's inside the private secured gate, in a private community, we have not had an issue with any of our vehicles.

Private patrol regularly tows vehicles that don't belong to the community so it keeps out the short term renters, couch surfers, and homeless.

Our house we have 4 drivers and 4 vehicles so 2 stay outside.

@LightningShow we can leave the garage doors open during the day (it's safe) but at night they have to be all closed.

 

[VTbuckeye]

With my 2011 I used a hanging tennis ball, but the garage is unfinished, and I could also pull up until the bumper touched. I'd consider placing a pool noodle or two on the wall and when you touch with the bumper the top would move a bit and you could see this out the windshield. For another car I use a 4x4 on the ground braced to the wall so that when the tires touch you know that you are in far enough. I read somewhere about someone using a sandbag the same way and I tried it. Works great, just requires a little bit of adjustment to get it right.my garage will have a little over a foot of extra space, so I anticipate placing a sandbag on one side and a 2x4 on the other so that I have parking stops for drive in and back in. If you like the truck, keep it and engineer a solution.

 

[bmwhitetx]

Turn off auto-hold.

Perfect, that works.

 

[kbuicker]

Dude, mine is the SAME EXACT way. I laid down a 2x4 board, and use it to stop me, and let it roll back to ease the tension. The garage door closes just fine, but is inches away. you get used to it! It's not a problem!

 

[TTT]

For every vehicle I buy, we first pull in and park it in the intended spot, and then measure and setup a 4x4 with bracing to the wall, to prevent it from going in any further. For the F-150, this means the bumper is basically touching, but not pushing, on the wall. This lets me have about 3 1/2" on the door closing. As noted, no trailer hitch.

I understand some dealers may not even let you drive your truck before signing for it, much less take it home,e. There are currently no F150s available to take home - Lightning or otherwise. of course the dimensions are available and I measured to make sure it fit, but I didn't apply the same due diligence to the issues that I might at work.

Not being able to creep is defiantly an issue. Not being willing to hit the wall is part of it too. Long term hitting the wall every day would lead to issues I don't need. Touching the wall means hitting the wall. Adding sufficient padding means losing the clearance as you'd need a significant amount of compressed material to absorb and spread the weight of the truck, and any failure to fully compress said material would mean the garage door could damage the back - too many variables.

As asked above - the cameras are great, but not down to half-inch or quarter-inch precision. Even if they did, you just don't have that kind of control with this truck without taking considerable time and eventually, overconfidence would either cause damage to the truck or the house.

Even with a reliable, workable solution here I've effectively walled off the rest of the garage.

Given that a hybrid Maverick will meet our needs, its a better choice even with a 3-5k DMA.

 

[PiMatrix]

I think I'd need the ablative ceramic clearbra on the front to keep the paint nice if I was going to drive it that fast... (Actually since you like the math, is there enough juice in the battery to get it going that fast - if we cheat and assume that air resistance didn't increase with speed - just math out the 0-60 time, acceleration, current draw, and battery capacity?)

Of course the problem is I'd like it shorter when parked...

I thought about wheel chocks, that could potentially solve the positioning problem but we've still lost access to the entire garage unless we open the door, kinda like the photo above except everything you would want to get to is on the other side of the truck.

I use lasers like that at work, but they would;ldn't solve the problem where the wife won't park the truck... its as much a control issue as a position/information one. Its hard to creep with precision. wheel chocks with pads you drive onto before you hit the stop could work if I could be sure they could never move.

As noted above I'm feeling dumb about this because I let the length become a binary decision, "will it fit.?" I didn't follow on with the question of "will it work once its in... ?" and I know better. I let the truck seduce me with its charms.

Well if ignore air and ground friction, motor losses, etc and assume the potential energy of battery is totally transformed into kinetic energy you are limited to E=1/2 mv**2, so for a 135 kW-hr battery and estimated weight of 6,750 lbs (3,062 kg), we get best case 0.4 mi/sec or 1,440 mi/hr which doesn't make the 66 mi/sec required to shorten the car 14 inches.

@LightningShow solution shows dedication. After all your truck can be your office.

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