Boat Towing Advice

[Blogger11]

Hello All,

I recently joined this past week buying the 2023 Lightning Lariat Standard Range. I was really impressed with the technology and driving experience. The only thing that I have doubts about is the ability to tow my Tritoon boat. I accounted the weight of the boat + trailer + 250hp engine to be ~5,060lbs. I traded in my 2013 F150 that had a towing capacity around 9k lbs and it towed fine but was thinking a little more power would be nice. Never really imagined going down in towing capacity. Is there anything I really need to be aware of towing with the lightning vs. my old 2013 f150? I will be mainly towing around local lakes, so I'm really hoping full charge would give me more than enough range to get around without sweating.

I guess my main concern would be I'm assuming I'll be able to get about 50% range when towing just around locally (very little highway, not much hills). Is that a good assumption?

Towing to the Lake of the Ozarks seems like it'd be a pain. I'd def have to stop and get a full charge half-way there. Not sure if it'd even be worth it but we only do that 1x a year.

I am in Kansas City, MO for the record.

Thanks for the advice!

Sponsored

 

[FinsNBolts]

You’ll be just fine towing around town.

I get about 50% highway towing a 23 center console which is like pulling a parachute. I’ve only ever towed distances or less than 20 miles and I didn’t keep track of the short towing distance.

You’ll love the truck for towing. The lightning tows incredible, can hardly feel the boat behind me.

The charging infrastructure leaves some to be desired. I’ve routinely had to drop the boat to get a charge. I invested in a hitch lock just for the few times I’ve had to drop the trailer in the middle of a mall parking lot to get to a crowded EA charger.

 

[Blogger11]

You’ll be just fine towing around town.

I get about 50% highway towing a 23 center console which is like pulling a parachute. I’ve only ever towed distances or less than 20 miles and I didn’t keep track of the short towing distance.

You’ll love the truck for towing. The lightning tows incredible, can hardly feel the boat behind me.

The charging infrastructure leaves some to be desired. I’ve routinely had to drop the boat to get a charge. I invested in a hitch lock just for the few times I’ve had to drop the trailer in the middle of a mall parking lot to get to a crowded EA charger.

You have an estimate what the weight is on that? A quick google search suggests a center console boat weighs pretty close to a tritoon. If so, that def makes me feel better.

Never even thought about that as an option dropping the boat off in a parking lot to go charge! haha I suppose that's much more realistic than trying to pull up to a charger with boat in tow. Have had a hitch lock from day one so not worried about that.

 

[FinsNBolts]

I’d guess about 5,500 depending on gear and amount of fuel. I’m also in Florida, so hotter climate and flat land may definitely be a factor in my favor, too.

There are a few times you can pull up to a charger without dropping the trailer but it’s far and few between. I think more and more charging stations will add pull through chargers for trailering. Especially with Tesla and the cyber truck, I expect many more tow friendly stations in the future.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Do some dry runs in the direction of your lakes, get a feel for how the route and lightning perform.

 

[RickKeen]

Have not pulled our 26' Bennington far enough to get good stats, but with the 21' Nautique wake boat, highway mileage is around 1.1 mi/kWh, less if its cold.

The truck pulls great. Walks right out of the lake with zero effort. With the weight of the truck and rear suspension, you will hardly know a 6000 lb boat is back there.
My only nit pick being I wish there was a button for engaging the locking rear differential easily on the boat ramp without having to dig in the menus to find it.

My plan for road tripping the boat was to rent an ICE truck for towing them.
https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/tr...s/ThreeQuarterTon4WDPickupTruck-personal.html

The reality so far has just been to rent a boat at the destination or stay with friends with a boat.

 

[Blogger11]

Do some dry runs in the direction of your lakes, get a feel for how the route and lightning perform.

Yeah I will. Just the boats in storage for the winter so won’t be able to for at least 4 months haha

 

[Blogger11]

Have not pulled our 26' Bennington far enough to get good stats, but with the 21' Nautique wake boat, highway mileage is around 1.1 mi/kWh, less if its cold.

The truck pulls great. Walks right out of the lake with zero effort. With the weight of the truck and rear suspension, you will hardly know a 6000 lb boat is back there.
My only nit pick being I wish there was a button for engaging the locking rear differential easily on the boat ramp without having to dig in the menus to find it.

My plan for road tripping the boat was to rent an ICE truck for towing them.
https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/tr...s/ThreeQuarterTon4WDPickupTruck-personal.html

The reality so far has just been to rent a boat at the destination or stay with friends with a boat.

Ok, I do not know what that means “engaging the locking rear differential” I never did that in my old f150. What’s that mean and what’s that do?

 

[RickKeen]

Ok, I do not know what that means “engaging the locking rear differential” I never did that in my old f150. What’s that mean and what’s that do?

When on a boat ramp, I always want the truck in the most 4WD mode as possible. Don't want to slide down a slippery ramp. On the Lightning, engaging the off-road mode with the locked rear differential is buried in the menus.
Wish it was just a button near the shifter for convenience. You DON'T want it engaged while trying to make some of the tight turns required to get lined up at some ramps -only while actually backing down and/or retrieving the boat.

 

[CavRider]

When on a boat ramp, I always want the truck in the most 4WD mode as possible. Don't want to slide down a slippery ramp. On the Lightning, engaging the off-road mode with the locked rear differential is buried in the menus.
Wish it was just a button near the shifter for convenience. You DON'T want it engaged while trying to make some of the tight turns required to get lined up at some ramps -only while actually backing down and/or retrieving the boat.

I realize this is an older thread but I just saw this. I own a late model BMW K1600 (two wheeled contraption) that comes with a shiny 10.5" TFT screen in lieu of all the traditional gauges and indicators. In their case they have provided four user programable weatherproof buttons on the left side of the cockpit that can be set to shortcuts into the menu system for just the kind of purpose you suggest.

What do you say @Ford Motor Company ? I bet you can OTA that to our beautiful touch screens no?

 

[Henry Ford]

I realize this is an older thread but I just saw this. I own a late model BMW K1600 (two wheeled contraption) that comes with a shiny 10.5" TFT screen in lieu of all the traditional gauges and indicators. In their case they have provided four user programable weatherproof buttons on the left side of the cockpit that can be set to shortcuts into the menu system for just the kind of purpose you suggest.

What do you say @Ford Motor Company ? I bet you can OTA that to our beautiful touch screens no?

Don't hold your breath. To be fair, the drive modes and locker are all on the settings page, which is the second button from the left on the top of the screen and always available. If I were in a situation where I might need to switch back and forth I'd probably bring up that page before starting.

 

[CavRider]

Don't hold your breath. To be fair, the drive modes and locker are all on the settings page, which is the second button from the left on the top of the screen and always available. If I were in a situation where I might need to switch back and forth I'd probably bring up that page before starting.

I was just throwing it out there as a general improvement suggestion and I'm sure there are too many other things in the queue to get something like that anytime soon. But one can always dream eh?

Your suggestion of pulling that screen up first is a solid one. There are other things though that it would be nice to access very quickly and at random. For example I frequently have to revert from Super Fantastic Turbo 2000 Cruise Control to regular old Normal Cruise Control because the truck does not always seem to be able to discern that my hands ARE on the steering wheel and I AM looking at the road. So that would be nice. Or just fix the SFT2k CC.

 

[invertedspear]

I realize this is an older thread but I just saw this. I own a late model BMW K1600 (two wheeled contraption) that comes with a shiny 10.5" TFT screen in lieu of all the traditional gauges and indicators. In their case they have provided four user programable weatherproof buttons on the left side of the cockpit that can be set to shortcuts into the menu system for just the kind of purpose you suggest.

What do you say @Ford Motor Company ? I bet you can OTA that to our beautiful touch screens no?

The XLT/Pro screen has one soft button across the bottom row of soft buttons where you can "favorite" something that's deeper in the menu. Since I lack the SOC on my gauges, I currently have it set to the charge settings app for when I want to know the exact SOC for some reason. I could easily set it to the drive modes settings. One more reason XLT is the superior trim

 

[Henry Ford]

For example I frequently have to revert from Super Fantastic Turbo 2000 Cruise Control to regular old Normal Cruise Control because the truck does not always seem to be able to discern that my hands ARE on the steering wheel and I AM looking at the road. So that would be nice. Or just fix the SFT2k CC.

BlueCruise has to sense torque on the steering wheel every 15ish seconds. A slight jiggle of the wheel will do the trick.

I don't have the sight issue with my truck but my wife's Navigator hates my sunglasses. There is an update that supposedly makes erroneous "look at the road" messages. Hopefully that fixes it. If not, try different sunglasses.

 

[CavRider]

BlueCruise has to sense torque on the steering wheel every 15ish seconds. A slight jiggle of the wheel will do the trick.

I don't have the sight issue with my truck but my wife's Navigator hates my sunglasses. There is an update that supposedly makes erroneous "look at the road" messages. Hopefully that fixes it. If not, try different sunglasses.

I was theorizing that the sunglasses are an issue for the image capture sys. But I LIKE my sunglasses and I'm not changing! Seriously - I'm pretty sure I received multiple of these warnings driving down an Interstate highway during a rain day - no sunglasses.

I'll try giving the wheel a tug every now and then to see what diff it makes.

Also just received 6.1.0 OTA yesterday so perhaps that will make some slight diff as well.

Sponsored