New Electric F-150 and thoughts on electrification of Tow Vehicles

[Alex in LA]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for those who are into Fords and for those who are into electric cars - Ford revealed new F-150 Lightning which is their new electric truck scheduled to come out next spring.
The news are all over internet, I like autoblog.com coverage.
Electrifying the bestseller like F-150 will likely move us into new era and effect everyone including those who tow their fiberglass trailers.
Several thoughts come to mind, and here's one that I wonder about:
One of the features of new F-150 is actually PROVIDING power to people's house. Ford claims it can power an "average" house for up to 3 days. So if it can do that, than surely it can power a small fiberglass trailer and probably for much longer? If that's the case, EVERY primitive camp site will come with an electric hook-up! ... if your TV is Ford Lightning or a comparable electric truck. That would change camping for SO many people! What do you think?

[emers382]

So you're out camping far from power and use the power on your truck for your trailer. What do you do when it's time to leave and you've depleted all or most of the power in the truck and it's many miles to a recharging station? It's not like you can get somebody to give you a lift with a gas can to get fuel and get enough into your ICE truck to get to the filling station.

[Alex in LA]

Well, they have this feature that stops your use of battery when it causes to exceed the range to the closest fuel/power station. They have a lot of cool thoughtful features that would prevent this kind of thing, at least in theory. Obviously you'll need to exercise diligence in addition to all the electric nannies. I wonder if as the electric vehicles become more widespread manufacturers will come up with a portable battery that would work similar to a portable gas canister?

[David Tilston]

Originally Posted by emers382

So you're out camping far from power and use the power on your truck for your trailer. What do you do when it's time to leave and you've depleted all or most of the power in the truck and it's many miles to a recharging station? It's not like you can get somebody to give you a lift with a gas can to get fuel and get enough into your ICE truck to get to the filling station.

If you have some solar cells, then the truck becomes your battery, and a rather large one. I would not want to run the AC using the truck though. Solar would not be able to keep up.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Alex in LA

Well, they have this feature that stops your use of battery when it causes to exceed the range to the closest fuel/power station. They have a lot of cool thoughtful features that would prevent this kind of thing, at least in theory. Obviously you'll need to exercise diligence in addition to all the electric nannies. I wonder if as the electric vehicles become more widespread manufacturers will come up with a portable battery that would work similar to a portable gas canister?

batteries are as much as half the cost AND a significant portion of the weight of a electric car. a typical Tesla has 80-90 kW-Hour of battery on board... so a 3000VA generator would take 30+ hours for a full charge, hah. a HUGE solar setup might be 1000 watts (my escape has 160 watts solar, about the maxx I've seen has been 500 watts on RV solar), so 90 hours of full direct sunshine for that full charge, lets call that 2 weeks, using the 8 hours per sunny day rule for solar.

oh, they say that truck could power a house using 30KW/Hr per day for 3 days, so that's 90 KWH, about the same battery capacity of a Tesla.

I know a lot of the places I go camping are as much as 100 miles from the nearest 'civilization' where I might find a electric charging station, which oh yeah, is highly likely to be the tesla-only supercharger.

[Alex in LA]

Obviously there are tons of places off the grid where it would be hard to use this feature, but I can tell you that majority of campgrounds near greater Los Angeles area don't have hook ups, or only some sites have hook ups but most don't. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a similar situation around other megalopolis areas around the country. I would be pretty excited to add a bunch of campgrounds in my "backyard" to the list, as well as some from hotter area of the country where you wouldn't dare to go w/o being able to use AC. And what about all the national parks with their generator use restrictions? Won't care anymore!

[Jon Vermilye]

If you have this guy as a neighbor, I suspect he could recharge the Ford truck. He keeps the Class A & a Chevy Volt topped off from his 4000 watts of solar & 10 Battleborn lithium batteries on & in the trailer.

[thrifty bill]

As a first step, its a knockout. Lower price point than the others in this market. Its the sign of things to come. Its a big deal, to come out with a full electric version of the #1 selling vehicle in USA. Electric is no longer just a niche. Acceleration puts any gas version to shame.

My main question is fast charging stations. Without conveniently located fast charging stations, its not yet practical for my type of long trips. Those that go 200 to 250 miles a day, it could be adequate. We will have to see range when towing (they have two versions, one with an extended range around 350 miles +/-, but figure less when towing).

I'm waiting for residential solar to take another step downward price wise. And I wonder how much solar would fit on top of a truck camper top. I have a near perfect spot for solar at my home. roughly 15 foot by 60 foot garage roof, all facing south and no shade either.

Met a guy with 1800 watts of solar for his camper. About half was on the camper, the other half on the ground.

[emers382]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I know a lot of the places I go camping are as much as 100 miles from the nearest 'civilization' where I might find a electric charging station, which oh yeah, is highly likely to be the tesla-only supercharger.

But John by the time you're towing with your electric truck won't there be all kinds of chargers all over the place in your state. I thought CA was going all renewables and EV's

Adrian

[John in Santa Cruz]

ohgeez, reading that ford lighting f150 site...

The entry model starts at $39,974 MSRP (commercial-oriented). More-equipped mid-series (XLT) starts at $52,974 MSRP, offering additional comfort and technology, [fully loaded version] up to around $90,474.

footnote fine print says, assuming a federal $7500 rebate.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by emers382

But John by the time you're towing with your electric truck won't there be all kinds of chargers all over the place in your state. I thought CA was going all renewables and EV's

Adrian

we don't have enough electricity now, and most of it is natural gas.....

[emers382]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

we don't have enough electricity now, and most of it is natural gas.....

Yes I know that John, was just kidding you of course. But I am concerned about our daughter and family moving to Pacific Grove when he retires from the army in a few years. I understand a lot of people are fleeing CA on account of high taxes, high everything really, just the other day I noted on AAA gas prices site the average per gallon is now $4.15. And I thought our gas was pricey!

[Darwin Maring]

Great for short trips and you can carry a generator in the back to charge it overnight while you sleep in your egg.

[floyd]

Great for some applications, but...
Remember that...

1] Towing greatly reduces range.

2] Quick on road charges are only partial and take a lot of time!



Tedious to say the least.


Will the campgrounds "charge" a premium for hook-ups, or will all campers have to pay the freight?


One interesting point is that as you travel you switch power from nuclear,to hydro, to coal, to natural gas, even a tiny touch of wind and solar.


hmmm.... is that like second hand smoke?

[JStelly]

If anyone wants to get a real world taste of electric vehicles in remote locations I suggest this series. Two electric motorcycles and one prototype electric truck. The challenges they faced with limited range, cold temperatures, headwinds, limited charging options were a reality check for them and for me dispelled the utopia of electric vehicles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Way_Up

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by emers382

Yes I know that John, was just kidding you of course. But I am concerned about our daughter and family moving to Pacific Grove when he retires from the army in a few years. I understand a lot of people are fleeing CA on account of high taxes, high everything really, just the other day I noted on AAA gas prices site the average per gallon is now $4.15. And I thought our gas was pricey!

Costco gas is significantly less than about everyone else. I believe there's one in Seaside.

PG is a lovely place, I lived there from 1977 to 1985 or so.

the fleeing thing is actually more noise than fact. yes, some very rich people have noisily moved away, often to Nevada, but those people live all around the world anyways.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by thrifty bill

As a first step, its a knockout. Lower price point than the others in this market......

the stripped down single cab short bed standard range commercial model, probably with a vinyl bench seat, is $40000 after a hypothetical $7500 rebate.

the loaded 4 door Platinum edition shown in all the pictures is around $90,000 after said rebate.

oh, and these prices are all tentative, real numbers come out spring 2022, when the actual vehicles are released.

[jerrybob]

Wonder what the cost of a full hook up site in a campground will be per night when all the tow rigs are electric???

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by jerrybob

Wonder what the cost of a full hook up site in a campground will be per night when all the tow rigs are electric???

maybe they'll put power meters on the spaces

[Captleemo]

I suspect thata lot of people think this rush to electric vehicles is great. They tell us that Tesla is a bigger company than Ford. I have seen two Teslas in my lifetime. I think this new Ford is going to be a big disapointment as the towing won't be anywhere what people expect. The capacity may be good but the range won't be and then how long will it take to fully charge. Politicians want to outlaw fossil fuels and if they succeed electricity will be in short supply and be very expensive. That will not be good for the RV industry. Look at Califoronia, rolling blackouts are common there. I just think that a lot of people will be in for a very rude awakening.