10000 Miles in the middle of Montana

[hturnerfamily]

with 37,000 miles since August '22, and 1/2 of that towing our camper... I use my truck for 'truck things', too, just not quite off-road and as 'dirty' a deal as yours... but, that's WHAT a truck is for... dirty or not.
My ProPower keeps the mini-frige in the bed powered, my microwave next to it, and the coffee maker next to that. I like to travel with 'options'.
My ProPower also keeps our CAMPER powered WHILE we tow it, so no more 'waiting' for it's fridge to get cold AFTER arriving, it's ALWAYS ON. In the summer, we can run the roof air conditioner in the Camper, too, especially when at the beach. Watch tv. Charge the laptops and phones. Make bagels. Nuke lunch. It's all good.
240v Outlet provides great 'off-grid' power when the local grid goes down, too : )

Just came back up from Tallahassee(FSU) to home, 140 miles, standard range battery pack on my PRO, while TOWING THE CAMPER. No stopping needed.

 

[mme_and_lightning]

There's is only one word for this thread: Great !!!

 

[MTcowpoke]

I thought I read this was not possible? Care to share what welder it is? For the record I know nothing but have wanted to get into it.

You are right, I carried the welder around this summer but never had to use it. I made an assumption that since it could start an RV a/c unit it could run a small mig. So today I tried it and sure enough I could only weld about an inch and the welder or inverter would stop and 3 to 4 seconds later if I kept the trigger pressed it would weld again, repeat, repeat. I then plugged in my Miller Renegade with no digital controls thinking that might be it but the fan never even started. The Pro Power never tripped out so I guess I need to do some research. The other mig is a cheap Amazon Azzuno. Thanks for pointing that out.

EDIT: Turns out it runs a 240v mig just fine. The 240v extention cord from Amazon is wired incorrectly and only provides 120v. Quite a few ticked reviewers.

 

[MTcowpoke]

Very impressive! We love seeing what people are getting done with their Lightnings. Congrats on the 10K miles milestone as well (no pun intended).

Thanks FoMoCo! Now if you want to build me the perfect ranch pickup I need an extended range Pro with a regular cab!

 

[bmwhitetx]

The Lightning operates in almost the dead center of Montana, 100 to 130 miles from 4 of the major cities, Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls.

The good news is that next year you will have access to the four Tesla V3 SC locations in Great Falls, Bozeman, and Billings (x2). Also the site under construction in Butte *might* have MagicDock so you *might* get that any day now.

 

[MontanaLightning]

I'm looking forward to gaining access to the super chargers in Great Falls!

 

[MTcowpoke]

The good news is that next year you will have access to the four Tesla SC locations in Great Falls, Bozeman, and Billings (x2). Also the site under construction in Butte *might* have MagicDock so you *might* get that any day now.

I check Plugshare every few days thinking some magical new sites will appear. I'm looking forward to having SC access when it happens. The closest SC is only 44 miles away.

 

[davehu]

Today I crossed the 10k mile mark in just over 5 months of ownership. So far it's been everything I was hoping it would be. The Lightning operates in almost the dead center of Montana, 100 to 130 miles from 4 of the major cities, Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. I'm a rancher, a cow/calf operation and this pickup is used daily in every kind of condition you can imagine. It will never see a garage, rarely see a car wash and be used as pickups used to be. I ordered it with Pro Power and have carried a pancake air compressor and portable mig welder during hay season this past summer and even took it to a music festival to power A/C's. All in all it's been great. My previous daily driver is a 6.7 Ram diesel that averages a whopping 13.5 mpg. I'm not keeping dead accurate records on energy used but my power bill is averaging $100 to $120 a month over previous years. The difference with this years diesel prices is in the neighborhood of $600 a month in savings, plus no 3 gallons of black oil running down my arm several times a year. I left trip 1 set from when I picked it up and it averaged 2.3 miles per kwh till about a month ago when the temps started to fall. It's now down to 2.1 miles per kwh but we also had a blast of winter with a little over a foot of snow and our first subzero overnights. I've DC fast charged it twice in Billings, currently the only place in range of my standard battery to try it. Bozeman EA is completed but not on line yet and nothing in Helena or Great Falls. I charge at home on a Grizzl-e which seemed like a good choice for my outdoor installation. I've been driving Dodge diesels since 1994, they've worked very well but the Ford Lightning engineers did a really great job on this truck. The best part is being an early adopter and seeing what these can do.

NICE! try that with a Cybertruck!

 

[Jseis]

Nice post! I’ve been to Missoula and Great Falls from here on the Pacific coast. I drive about 2300 miles a month and the LT is a great value charging from home. I figure my annual net savings at $5,000-$5,500. Our power is at $.0634/KWh.

 

[Lolat]

MTcowpoke, great post. Do you ever have air dam problems? Mine tends to freeze from road slop when temp gets well below freezing here in Oregon Cascades. This winter I removed it as I do garage mine and don’t like all the ice and mud from the front thawing and making a real mess. All else ok and very satisfied with the truck. Just at 10,000 miles and about same performance numbers as yours.

 

[kstevens]

More truck stuff: yes the loaded range is only 120ish miles, but that's more than I need to make a few 10-20 mile firewood deliveries. 6k in and I LOVE this thing. Juuuuust the right amount combination of tech and functionality. Can't wait to see what this thing can do once the snow really starts flying, and looking forward to pulling Jerry out of some snowbanks

Love to hear about other great experiences. There is definitely a very satisfied (but quiet) majority of owners out there.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

Great story, thanks for sharing! In July 2022, I picked up my Mustang Mach-E GTPE in North Dakota and drove it home across the entire state of Montana.

At that time, the only way I could charge was to camp at KOA campgrounds and plug in overnight to the 50 amp RV hookups. And the only DC fast charger I could find was at the Audi dealership in Bozeman. I also charged at the Level 2 chargers at the Billings airport.

It sounds as if Montana is finally going to get some Level 3 chargers, albeit few and far between. While that will help the traveling EV owner, as you point out ranch trucks don’t really need them; they can charge at home every day.

Nice to see that the Lightning can serve as a bona fide ranch truck and save a lot of money on gas or diesel! While I loved my diesel F150, I don’t regret trading it in on the Lightning. The main difference is range, but I don’t find I really need the 600+ mile range of the diesel.

 

[MTcowpoke]

MTcowpoke, great post. Do you ever have air dam problems? Mine tends to freeze from road slop when temp gets well below freezing here in Oregon Cascades. This winter I removed it as I do garage mine and don’t like all the ice and mud from the front thawing and making a real mess. All else ok and very satisfied with the truck. Just at 10,000 miles and about same performance numbers as yours.

I haven't had any problems yet with the air dam. As I waited to be able to order I noticed quite a few threads on the air dams so I assumed I would have problems too. I don't have to drive in a lot of traffic so I wonder if the lack of slush spray hitting the front will help. I was worried about grass seed heads building up on the radiator and condenser laying at the angle they do but didn't see a problem there either. Now if you want to go tearing through tall grass turn your park sensors off or you'll be hanging in the seat belt... ask me how I know.

 

[MTcowpoke]

Great story, thanks for sharing! In July 2022, I picked up my Mustang Mach-E GTPE in North Dakota and drove it home across the entire state of Montana.

At that time, the only way I could charge was to camp at KOA campgrounds and plug in overnight to the 50 amp RV hookups. And the only DC fast charger I could find was at the Audi dealership in Bozeman. I also charged at the Level 2 chargers at the Billings airport.

It sounds as if Montana is finally going to get some Level 3 chargers, albeit few and far between. While that will help the traveling EV owner, as you point out ranch trucks don’t really need them; they can charge at home every day.

Nice to see that the Lightning can serve as a bona fide ranch truck and save a lot of money on gas or diesel! While I loved my diesel F150, I don’t regret trading it in on the Lightning. The main difference is range, but I don’t find I really need the 600+ mile range of the diesel.

Bozeman is only a 100 miles away and several times I thought about giving it a try this summer but the Audi dealer was the only game in town, still is, since the new EA at Target is just sitting there looking pretty. I go to Missoula several times a year and EA shows a new site scheduled for Target in Helena which will be perfect for me. Construction never started this year though so a good chance I'll get to use the SC's there first. I'm lucky in that I'm not tethered to just the Lightning, which is a major investment for the folks that can only have a vehicle or two, although I have barely driven any other of my rigs since I got the Lightning.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

Bozeman is only a 100 miles away and several times I thought about giving it a try this summer but the Audi dealer was the only game in town, still is, since the new EA at Target is just sitting there looking pretty.

As I recall, the Level 3 chargers at the Bozeman Audi dealer were a real pain to use. They either wouldn’t start or took several tries to get going. If anything, worse than a typical EA charger.

In addition to range, the other big difference between the Lightning and other F150s I’ve owned is the smooth ride. That would be thanks to independent rear suspension, mandated by the big motor attached to the rear axle. Perhaps not that important in a ranch truck but nice if you have to drive a lot of highway miles.

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