Is an Electric Pickup Truck A Terrible Idea? (My 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Build Thread)

I haven't been home much for the past month, but now I'm back and that means it's time to pile more miles onto the F-150. 

First, though, I need to complete the 30,000 mile service (current mileage is 30,761). This is just an inspection and a tire rotation, so I decided to do it at home. I was pleasantly surprised by the service at my local dealer, but doing this at home is free and it's the same amount of time as driving to and from the dealership.

As usual, the truck is perfectly healthy. The only thing that caught my eye was the left rear shock, which seems a little moist. The internet seems to think all OEM Ford truck shocks are all prone to leaking, and claims Ford won't warranty them until they get pretty bad. Still, I'll email my service advisor and ask if this would qualify for warranty replacement. 

The truck's tires are finally showing some wear, too--the front and rear centers are at 6/32 and 7/32 respectively, but the front shoulders are nearly bald, likely because I've spent thousands of miles in this truck driving twisty mountain roads chasing modern Porsches. Every Classic Motorsports Road Tour is basically a week-long grinding session for the front shoulders. I'll try upping the tire pressures and see what happens. Time for more front camber, maybe? 

I haven't started researching replacement tires yet, but shockingly my first instinct is to put the exact same thing on it again. These are quiet, comfortable, efficient, sticky enough, and tow well. And as hard as I drive and as often as I tow, I'm not that unhappy with this rate of wear, either.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

For an ICE F-150 tire wear comparison, I'm getting ~45k of perfectly even wear out of each set on my '21 F-150. I'm maybe halfway through second replacement set of tires. We've stuck with factory Pirellis, but mechanic at work said he'll probably put Toyo's on when I wear these out.

I've chased exactly zero Porsches through the twisties, but it has included a fair amount of towing a variety of loads.

On my 22 I got 79,000 out of the factory pirellis; I switched them for the Goodyears that I got 80k out of three times on my 18 but immediately lost 2mpg. I'll go back to the Pirellis next time

In reply to Tom Suddard :

I'm taking my Lightning up to the Glen next weekend!   There appear to be very little in the way of chargers up there, though our hotel in Owego shows it has 12!  None of the apps show chargers in/around the Glen, if you used any during your time there please advise.  Thanks!

I plugged into the level 2 at the park by the marina downtown, since it was next to our lunch stop. Otherwise, I just used the level 3 near our hotel in Ithaca. 

Well this is an interesting way to let people know who is supposed to use this charger. 

I'm sad to share that my 2023 Lightning, with a whopping 1800 miles, suffered what I believe is a catastrophic failure right after leaving the house for Watkins Glen last weekend.  Shortly after leaving I got the dreaded "powertrain malfunction, service soon" light.  I returned home with no issues thankfully.

Monday I went to drive it to the dealer when I got many more warnings including "steering system fault" followed by "charging system fault:  service now".  It literally died on the (busy) road in front of the dealership.  I barely managed to glide into their lot.

I don't have high hopes.

In reply to Loweguy5 :

That blows. It's also why I feel reluctant to buy an EV. Lease for a few years under warranty? Yes. Buy - not so much. 

Whelp, the Lightning had its first bit of expensive maintenance--up until now it's just been wiper blades and one cabin air filter, but I've known a tire purchase was coming for a while now. I'm up in Kentucky running one of our sports car tours, and was pushing the truck pretty hard going through the mountains of Georgia on the way up here. Hard enough, apparently, to flat-spot the inner shoulder of one tire down to the cords. Oops! The truck currently has 33,052 miles on it, and to be fair the rest of the tire's circumference has tread, but is at the end of its life. I don't remember when/how I flat-spotted this, but I must have drug a wheel along at some point to create a 2-3/32 depression.

I've mentioned in the past that I've been seeing accelerated shoulder wear on both the inners and outers of all four tires, which is apparently common on these trucks with the OEM General Grabber HTS60s, but 1000 miles from home with cords showing isn't really ideal. I checked the alignment and didn't see anything crazy (1/8" of total toe in in the rear across these huge tires and 1 degree of negative camber is fine), so I'm going with "it's a ridiculously heavy truck with way too much power being driven aggressively." I'm also going to bump the inflation pressures up in the future, in hopes of more even wear. (From 42 to 47 psi to experiment). 

So, what tires did I install? Since I needed tires instantly, I picked the most appropriate thing the local store had in stock, which happened to already be on my short-list: Michelin's Defender LTX M/S2. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin-defender-ltx-m-s2

The truck's size is 275/60 R20 116H XL, if you're curious. The XL means "extra load," which I believe comes from the "Max Tow" option on this truck's window sticker. 

In theory, these should be an upgrade from the Generals, with longer tread life and a better ride. After a hundred miles today, I'm quite pleased--quieter and seemingly more confident handling, with no observed impact on range. I've talked to tire engineers about this sort of thing before, and sadly street tires are really an area where money = performance. Basically, bigger, richer companies can throw more resources, more testing, more experimenting, and more refining at every step of the tire design process, and it results in tires with better performance and fewer compromises. I've written before about the fact that I get A LOT of tires for free from big and small companies. But I paid full retail price for these and am still happy with the decision. 

So let's talk about the bad part: I spent $1194 plus $71 of sales tax for four tires, mounting and balancing, and disposal fees. Yeah, this isn't an old truck on 15" wheels. Hopefully these last more than 33,000 miles, but today my wallet learned the downside of driving a 6800 lb. truck that runs 12-second quarter miles. 

It's been nearly 2000 miles on the new tires, and so far so good. Range seems to be unaffected, while they seem to have a stiffer sidewall and handle better. Towing manners are slightly better, too. They're even good enough off-road, at least good enough to keep me from getting stuck in my yard during hurricane cleanup. That's pretty impressive while hooked up to 7000 lbs. 

Random photo dump of my truck's week:

My 2014 f150 tows a boat every weekend, hauls trash, and used to be the commuter prior to my working from home.

The original Goodyear Wranglers were junk.  I'm a HUGE believer in the michelins and have run them ever since. 

 The ecoboost is at 118k miles and, just got it's fourth set of tires. 

stock goodyears lasted me 18k miles miles at my driving.

I then bought used sport wheels with prior mileage unknown michelin's which lasted me 30k miles or so. 

Bought costco version of Michelins (the Michelin X?)  these lasted me until 115k miles last year when i bought a new set of four Defenders.  

so 18k miles factory, who knows how many miles michelins, 65k costco michelin branded, and will see.

My father in law was a salesman before retiring and always used the michelins. Stock tires lasted him 40k miles on his 2015 v8 f150.  He's still on the michelins that he replaced those with at 150k miles.  (He did a LOT of highway driving before retiring.)  

This thread has had me thinking of a lightning as a truck replacement.  I've got three kids, we water ski every weekend in the summer (thus towing a lot).  At least once a year we do a major beach trip for a week including a 6 hour drive through nowhere sc/nc to the outer banks from charlotte nc.    The boys are growing like weeds, so i do  pause and wonder if maybe an expedition might not be a better purchase... Save taking the trash and having to smell it. 

It's also good to see that you USE your truck.  How does it handle a potential bed overloading?  I vistied two lowes this weekend and ended up with 44 pavers at 53 lbs each plus the family.  The tailgate was down 6" from normal ride height and we took back roads home never going over 35 mph.  Would the lightning just tell me to pound sand and empty the bed? 

I know from experience that even though my truck has the built-in scales, it has no nannies and will quietly take whatever abuse you'd like to throw at it. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Don't give it too much abuse!! 😉

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

My Lightning XLT standard range did exceedingly well with a pallet o heating pellets in the bed.

Also, the back seat is FAR roomier than our 2011 Expedition that we still have.  My kids (age 16 and 10) only want to travel in the Lightning because of the quiet and the immense space in the interior. 

https://youtu.be/6JyTjsVP2Ts?si=4X2dkPUt8lVfAqtf

Video of the Lightning being loaded for a better perspective on how it handles 2000#.

In reply to Loweguy5 :

That handles WAY better than my dad's 94 did with a ton of pellets in the bed, and we had those spread out because he had a cap. 

That acceleration even with the load in the bed was just wow. 

I don't drive this for the environment--I drive it because it's fast, comfortable, and cheap to run. Any positive environmental benefits are just a happy accident, though most of my energy comes from natural gas, nuclear and solar at home.

I buy my power from a for-profit corporation, and renewable energy is now somewhere between equal to and cheaper than fossil fuels, so I'm sure they'll figure out a system to get it to me in order to make more money. 

In reply to Drewkit :

Is it? EVs have the ability to charge when the demand on the grid is low, so they can actually help even out demand and improve grid utilization. Colorado has some programs in place to encourage this but the simplest one is time-of-day metering. Make it cheap to charge your EV at night, and that's when you'll charge it. You can tell the vehicles to manage this, it's very low effort.

Also, while US energy production is still mostly fossil fuels more than 20% of it comes from renewable sources (based on 2023 production). Worldwide is about 30%. That's going to keep rising, as almost all new capacity is from renewable sources and all retired sources are burning fossil fuels. The increase in grid-scale solar in 2024 is projected to be double the increase from 2023. Interestingly, Florida and Texas are leading the way. Solar is turning out to be the cheapest way to make power.

And, of course, 100% of non-EVs are powered by fossil fuels. But they're powered by small scale powerplants that are operated intermittently and under a wide range of loads and conditions, making them less efficient and harder to keep clean than a large scale generation station that is running at an optimized and consistent power level.

My personal EV is 98% powered by my home solar array - that's the actual breakdown for the past 12 months. The only time I use energy from other sources is when I go on a road trip that's far enough that I have to top up. Since Tom uses his pickup to tow to race events, his percentage of charging away from home is obviously going to be higher.

Don't worry about powering them. We'll be able to manage.

Picture picked up off FB.  Hilarious.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Those are a riot!  A giant wall plug would be funny too!

In reply to Loweguy5 :

I assume these won't be outlawed either...

I do enjoy the trucks with these, bonus if they are functional tow strap points. 

Thinking about trading my 2014 ecoboost in on one of these after seeing a ton of people post huge discounts from dealers over the last few months.

my biggest concern: Every used lightning I look at is worth pennies on the dollar and is a lemon law or "manufacturer buyback" (shown two different ways on the carfax). 

My wife's concern "when we get back to the landing after a day of skiing, is it going to be bricked?"  I think based on the thread here, that's a non-issue. right?  This isnt the first year of ecoboosts that have all the timing chain issues etc? 

Looking at Lariat, would LOVE red but not a single dealer local has anything other than black, grey, white. (though one does have the antimatter blue which I'm partial too after my years of Blue Jeans Metallic).   The bright blue is discontinued which drives me bonkers.  side note: i hate the huge screen, and I'd love Tom's screen in a lariat but that was cut for 2024 models that i can see.  

I did glance at F250's and F150's but have similar issues (250's are too expensive for the options i want and overkill for towing a ski boat. they do look kickass though.  F150's it's all black/white/grey and insane for anything that is optioned how i'd like i.e. Tremor.) 

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

To be fair, it's not a non issue.  While i don't think Tom has experienced any major issues, mine darned near left me stranded once.  We were headed for the races at Watkins Glen when I got a warning light.  I elected to turn around and head back to my house (we had just left).  I got home and we took our Expedition.  When we returned i drove the truck to the dealer (in my town), and along the path I got more and more warning lights until it died (as I rolled into the dealership thankfully).  Completely dead.

However, the dealership did a good job of diagnosing it (i think it was some sort of battery controller).  The truck completely dying was absolutely scary and disheartening for sure.  However, since then I've had zero issues and have every reason to think it will be trustworthy from here on.

We absolutely love it and it is our family's preferred ride (of the 6 we own) because it's roomy, incredibly efficient, powerful and ultra quiet.  The biggest downside to be fully aware of it limited winter range.  As an example of this, last night we left my home to visit my father in law 32 miles away.

The truck was at 95% charge (my max when home charging), showing about 200 miles of range.  It was around 20 degrees.

Hauling a family of 4 at speeds 70-75 mph and blowing the heat the entire way, we got back to my driveway with 85 miles of range available.  So we went 64 miles and lost 115 miles of range.

None of this is offered to scare you.  If I had it all to do over I would buy it again in a heartbeat.  I would also do the same again:  look for a smoking deal on a NEW one.  Mine is a 2023 SR XLT and I paid about $46k for it.  Today with 3500 miles on it I would bet i can get around $40k for it sold privately.  I don't think that's unreasonable depreciation for close to 1 year later as you'll always lose money on a new vehicle purchase.

I personally think Ford as a company is more inspired to fix the vehicle for the original owner, but that's just my opinion of course.

I have a lot of videos on my Lightning on YouTube including towing, hauling, range testing, general observations, etc.  On YT search for "@ThingsWithWheels1" and it will put you on my channel.

Good luck!

Ford seems to have the bugs mostly worked out, and mine is now closing in on 38,000 miles without any issues before or after that battery cell replacement that a bunch of early trucks seemed to need. It's my understanding that software updates have changed the fault mode if an issue does happen, too. Fewer "bricked" conditions, and more "only has 300 hp" conditions, so you can finish your trip and then drive to the dealer like I did.

As far as why so many are lemon lawed: IIRC repeated attempts and/or extended time at the dealership can trigger that. The EV-specific stuff is specialized, meaning I had to wait a week for the single EV tech at my quite large Ford dealership to be back from being out sick, then a month for the battery to arrive and be installed. I had a nice loaner the whole time, but my truck was stuck at the dealer.

And for the first two years of production, these were being bought at hugely inflated prices and financed for infinity in a weird used car market that made people forget that new cars are supposed to rapidly depreciate. Then the market went down, and I suspect as many people as possible who suddenly felt depreciation for the first time in years took advantage of the lemon law process as soon as their truck broke. But that's just a hunch.

Meanwhile, I couldn't be happier with mine! I'm still planning to drive it into the ground, then buy another one if/when it's used up.