Garage too small. Anyone park outside? In the snow?

[RocketGhost]

Is the back wall on an exterior, and do you have a soffit? Ask the contractor about bumping the wall out under the soffit and leave the roof as is. You'd need a beam where the existing wall is. The new exterior wall would not be load bearing.

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[Ragman]

Weird, better try some better deicer fluid. I have no issues, there are heat zones on my Lariat, the wires as you describe. Do your xlts not have that?

Wait… you have defrost wires here?

This is our Lariat, the xlts don’t to my knowledge however I’d need to check them. Something from 22 that’s disappeared?

 

[Monkey]

While I park in a warm garage while at home, I park outside when I’m at my mountain property — in Colorado. Parking outside is fine, but you will want to keep it plugged in when it’s below freezing out as that will allow you to precondition and increase your range. If you don’t drive that far on a daily basis, then it’s not as big of a deal, the truck will warm itself and the battery. But cold definitely makes a big impact on battery and range.

 

[rootusrootus]

I do want to park my Lightning in there but first I have to find a place for all the junk.

I totally feel this. I have a five car garage (three wide, two are 50ft long tandems) and we can fit exactly one car in there. Made a hole just big enough to keep the wife's Model 3 inside. One of my winter project plans is to clean out the third spot, which used to be mine, and make it mine again for the Lightning. Lots of dump runs, a garage sale or three, and creative reorganization and it could happen...

 

[DenverDan]

I live in Denver, CO and parked my Lightning on the street for the first year while my garage was getting supersized (35' x 28' with an 8' door and 9' ceilings). It was fine, no issues. Being able to charge on the Ford Pro Charger while it was outside would have been awesome. I don't think you will have a problem.

 

[SamStone]

I'm considering purchasing a Lightning, but my garage is a few inches too small. I could park it on the pad next to the garage and have the charger installed outside, but I live in MN. There will be snow to deal with. I wonder if anyone else has had to do this. Any comments on the experience?

Has anyone found a way to extend the garage that doesn't cost a ton of money? The contractor I talked to said that by the time he extends and blends in new construction, I might as well just tear down the garage and build a new one.

I'm trying to decide if I should wait for a smaller truck to come out, but I could use the Lightning next summer for powering a job site for a cabin build.

I live in Colorado and I park outside every day and night. Boulder, Colorado 5200 feet in elevation. There’s no doubt that truck likes to be plugged in and when it’s real cold, I set the warm-up timer to heat the truck up before I get in it. I think it’s called departure. The truck will actually remind me to plug it in, I don’t think it uses much power, but it will use the line and power to heat up the cabin and what not.

 

[bellyer]

I have parked my Lightning outdoors on the street in Chicago for the past two winters because it does not fit in my garage. My biggest fear is that a snow plow is going to scrape up the side of the truck when clearing out street. My Mach-E gets to stay nice and warm (we'll, at least not quite as cold) and plugged in and snow free all winter long, but my truck is stuck out in the elements. I have had no issues really. I do highly recommend getting a Snow Joe snow broom to help you clear snow more easily from this big truck. The only issue that I run into is that I always have to parallel park along my garage in the alley behind my house to charge (any time of year) and when snow piles up in the alley after heavy snow falls, my neighbors across the alley get cranky because it is harder for them to get out of their garage. The other thing that I ran into last winter during extreme cold (below zero temps and double digit below zero wind chills) was that my 12v got too low a couple of times and I almost ended up stranded because I had not been driving enough to keep the 12v charged. Somehow managing to disconnect and reconnect the 12v a few times (while hoping to not get frostbite) managed to get my truck running again. If extreme cold might be an issue in your locale, definitely plan ahead for keeping the 12v charged throughout the winter.

 

[Firn]

Inches?

There has to be a door design that can give a few more inches interior space.

 

[kdking]

I'm considering purchasing a Lightning, but my garage is a few inches too small. I could park it on the pad next to the garage and have the charger installed outside, but I live in MN. There will be snow to deal with. I wonder if anyone else has had to do this. Any comments on the experience?

Has anyone found a way to extend the garage that doesn't cost a ton of money? The contractor I talked to said that by the time he extends and blends in new construction, I might as well just tear down the garage and build a new one.

I'm trying to decide if I should wait for a smaller truck to come out, but I could use the Lightning next summer for powering a job site for a cabin build.

I have the same issue: garage slightly too small for my Lighting. Rather than spending thousands to expand the garage, I bought the Harbor Freight 20’ x 12’ portable garage for $450. Part of my driveway is protected by a tree line, so it is not an eyesore for my neighbors. It has been in place for 18 months and does a great job. There are a few tricks to keeping the sides tight - to avoid sagging over time. I did have an electrician run the underground wires for the Ford charger and installed a pole with a light for the charger.

 

[Upstate]

Sort of Upstate New York here (that is a point of dispute among a lot of New Yorkers!). Hudson Valley/Catskill Mountains area. We get snow, but not nearly as much as we used to. I park outside for the same reason. My 1947 garage was not made for a modern truck. It might fit, but I would be stuck with no way to get out of the truck!

Parking in the driveway has been fine. I caution, however, to be sure to keep it plugged in when parked outside overnight during the colder months. Even if you have a solid charge, keeping it plugged in assures that the charge does not deteriorate quickly or suffer some other strange cold weather effect. I've never had a problem, but there was an issue in snowbelt cities last year.

Clearing it off after a snow dump, well..................

 

[Jarratt]

I'm considering purchasing a Lightning, but my garage is a few inches too small. I could park it on the pad next to the garage and have the charger installed outside, but I live in MN. There will be snow to deal with. I wonder if anyone else has had to do this. Any comments on the experience?

Has anyone found a way to extend the garage that doesn't cost a ton of money? The contractor I talked to said that by the time he extends and blends in new construction, I might as well just tear down the garage and build a new one.

I'm trying to decide if I should wait for a smaller truck to come out, but I could use the Lightning next summer for powering a job site for a cabin build.

My almost 3yr old Lightning has never been in a garage. It's snowing now. No issues, but we don't have huge accumulation.

 

[Heliian]

… you have defrost wires here?

maybe I'm thinking about the ice f150, I'm not near the truck for a couple of days but I'll check.

 

[Zaptor]

We get feet of snow every winter. I have a 24x24 shop and a 22x38 shop, both capable of covering a truck, but mine has lived outside since 2022 when I bought it. FCSP mounted on an exterior wall with a small roof overhang, no problems other than having to brush all the snow/ice off. Wife got her 2023 this year, both will live outside (tractor, excavator, ATVs and raft take up all the shop that isn't my wood shop). It's a truck, not a sports car
Cheers
Zap

 

[StevenC56]

We started selling some things off and tossing quite a bit in our garage recently as I was going to buy a 2025 Maverick. But we decided the Maverick was just too small and utilitarian, so we purchased a 2024 Lightning Lariat on 9/30. I'm in the process of notching the front wall inward 1.75", and replaced 2 garage door hinges with lower profile hinges that are meant for rollup doors on truck and trailers. I also installed the Swarfworks front license plate relocation bracket to reduce to streamline the front bumper center area. Still a work in progress and I have a metal fabricator building a box and flange to seal off the garage wall modifications. But it fits-Barely.