My partner and I recently took a trip up to Moab for a long weekend. We only have EVs, so I thought this would be a good time to test out how a long wheelbase, full-sized pickup does on trails I've done in a Tacoma. The F-150 Lightning is not a rock crawler. I don't think either the Traveler or Terra will be either. They're too wide, too long, too heavy, and the Lightning is too low. The Terra and Traveler will have better clearance, but... Anyway, they'll all make good offroading vehicles with their particular limitations. I think that if I could get a Tacoma-sized or smaller all-electric truck or SUV, I'd be going back to the trails in a hot minute. If Scout sold an all electric Scout Sport version of the Traveler, I think my partner would buy it in a second.
Distance traveled:
Day 1: 320 miles
Day 2: 186 miles
Day 3: 176 miles
Day 4: 328 miles
Total: 1010 miles
Cost: $130.27 ($0.129/mile).
Estimated cost of gas: $400
Day 1 of trip:
We left northern Arizona with 100% battery charge and 13,311.5 miles on the odometer. We stopped in Kayenta for lunch and to get a quick charge. We arrived in Kayenta with 60% charge. While eating lunch, we gained 39 kWh, so we left with about 90% charge. We didn't slow roll lunch, just ate at our normal speed and continued on. We didn't even really need the charge since Moab is almost exactly 320 miles from our home and we were getting 2.9 miles/kWh (377 miles range). We had plenty of charge remaining to get to Moab, but were eating lunch so figured we might as well charge too. After lunch, we headed north from Kayenta. From Kayenta, there are two paths to Moab. We decided to go through Monument Valley this time.
We arrived in Moab with 37% charge. We have the ER battery, so we used a total of 93% of the battery for the full trip or a total of about 120 kWh of battery used to travel 319 miles, so 2.65 miles/kWh. Decent efficiency. This included some elevation drops and then climbs. The speed limit most of the way was 65 mph.
We charged to 100% on the DCFC while eating dinner. It wasn't busy--no more than two other vehicles used the station while we charged, and the hotel we stayed at didn't have L2 charging.
Day 2 of Trip, Day 1 in Moab:
The next day we explored the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The Needles District Visitor Center is about 75 miles from our hotel. We checked in, got the info on road conditions, then headed up the Colorado River Overlook 4WD road.
The road starts off sandy, but easy. Nevertheless, I put the truck into offroad mode.
Aside: I relearned that this mode does not engage regenerative braking unless the brake pedal is engaged. Which... Hmm. I wish there was more control over that. The cameras are washed out and not nearly as useful for seeing the obstacles on a 4wd trail. I wish we had control over the contrast on the screen. That said, the zoom capability on screen was useful. As was the projection of the front tire location, which allowed precision placement of my front tires.
This truck is not and never will be a rock crawler. It is too long, too wide, too low, and too heavy. But the precision speed control with the electric motors makes off roading on mild obstacles a joy. And not having to listen to an engine for hours is wonderful.
After about 5 miles, we began encountering more difficult terrain and made the decision to back up, turn around, and hike the rest of the way in. I'm not dumb enough to let pride cause me to damage my truck. It could maybe have made it a quarter mile farther, but I was more interested in getting to the overlook than watching motor coolant stain the sand.
A short distance from where we parked the truck were some scrapes in the rock that included a layer of aluminum that doesn't belong to the geology of the area, immediately followed by an old pool of transmission fluid. Sigh.
We continued our hike and were rewarded with gorgeous views of the canyon and Colorado River.
Despite Moab being overcrowded and as busy as every other weekend, and despite the visitor center being crowded, we encountered only a bicyclist on the road. We had lunch at the overlook, and after we finished eating, sat around enjoying the views for a while. At which point another person arrived, and we took that as our cue that it was time to head off and do some more adventures.
This person had apparently been driving an old, modified Suzuki Samurai, and even they had decided not to go much more farther than we had. You can just make out the sand-colored little crawler in the upper right portion of the photo below. The section I'm standing on was too gnarly for that short wheelbase, high clearance crawler. We felt vindicated on our decision not to even bother pushing the Lightning.
Over the ~10-12 miles of mild offroading we got about 2.3 miles/kWh. I think that if I'd left in it normal mode and allowed regenerative braking, we would have had better efficiency.
After our hike, we explored the rest of the park's sites, only going offroad again to get to the Elephant Hill trailhead, which was overcrowded enough that people who had parked in the wrong places were being ticketed.
We had a pass to take the road to the confluence overlook, but after talking with the ranger, we were told that the width of the Devil's Pocket was 85 inches, which meant we would have 0.75 inches on either side of the truck with the mirrors folded in. Not enough margin.
We did a couple more hikes in the park, got some gorgeous photos and then headed back to Moab.
We headed back to the hotel and arrived with 45% SoC remaining (73 kWh used). Total distance driven was 186 miles, for an efficiency of 2.5 miles/kWh. Not bad for a day of exploring one of the four districts of Canyonlands National Park.
Day 3 of Road Trip, Day 2 in Moab:
On the second day in Moab, we decided to visit Arches National Park. However, the main entrance to Arches is always a CF and we didn't feel like being stuck in traffic for an hour or more. So we decided to do a drive that we'd previously decided against because the distance seemed too far to rely on the 21-gallon tank of a Tacoma moving at <5 mph for 8+ miles and still have enough gas for the rest of the day. Day 3's total drive was 176 miles. A truck getting 8 mpg offroading with a 21 gallon tank doesn't inspire confidence. For this trip, I was certain the Lightning's range far exceeded that of the Tacoma's when going at off-roading speeds. But I had some concern about the ruggedness of the terrain we'd be driving over.
I've said it before and feel like I should repeat it: the Lightning is not a rock crawler. It's really not. But it can handle slightly more rugged road than we encountered the day before. We took Highway 191 up to Willow Springs turn off, which had been closed and a new entrance opened to Utahraptor State Park a tenth of a mile farther up the road. The Arches National Park entrance is about 8-10 miles down dirt roads from there. Please don't take this entrance if you don't have an annual or other park pass, and do check in at the visitor center before you leave so they can track the number of visitors.
https://travel-curious.com/home/north-america/united-states/utah/moab/willow-springs-road/
This road is no trouble for a Jeep or 4Runner with decent clearance, or even a Tacoma or similar shorter-wheelbase pickup, or any of the several types of similar short wheelbase, high clearance vehicles. It's not really accessible to a Subaru, though I probably would have gone at least some distance in. A long wheelbase truck like a Lightning or Tundra really does require previous experience with offroading.
We made it just fine all 7+ miles to the gate where the National Park begins and ran into an 18" drop that I had to finess and a steep climb with a breakover that exceeds the breakover angle of 17 degrees the Lightning has. I scraped one of the steps on rock. So we stopped and I moved a couple of nearby loose rocks into place and managed to make it through. After clearing the aids, we moved on. Most of the rest of the dirt road was great. It was all quiet.
After we made it to the paved roads of Arches, we explored up and down the park, checking out the gorgeous landscapes, arches, and other formations. But the park was as crowded as it always is with almost no parking spaces, so we decided to go ahead to the visitor center, check in, and check out.
We then moved over to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. We drove out to Grand View Point Overlook, had lunch at the Orange Cliffs Overlook. We stopped at a couple other vistas on our way back.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision, we turned off the paved road and took Horse Thief / Mineral Bottom road to another overlook, this time over the Green River.
However, to get to the river it's necessary to descend a series of switchbacks from the rim down to the river. This road is often washed out. It was not this time, so we decided to go ahead and make the drive down.
(Google Earth Image from USGS/NASA Landsat data)
We went down to the Mineral Bottom boat ramp, stuck our toes in the mucky water, and explored a bit of the area.
Day's statistics:
176 miles driven
63 kWh used
2.8 miles/kWh (total range estimate with 2.8 miles/kWh = 364 miles; Ford advertises the Lightning with 320 miles range).
I haven't yet pulled together the statistics and photos of the drive home, but it was uneventful.
Distance traveled:
Day 1: 320 miles
Day 2: 186 miles
Day 3: 176 miles
Day 4: 328 miles
Total: 1010 miles
Cost: $130.27 ($0.129/mile).
Estimated cost of gas: $400
Day 1 of trip:
We left northern Arizona with 100% battery charge and 13,311.5 miles on the odometer. We stopped in Kayenta for lunch and to get a quick charge. We arrived in Kayenta with 60% charge. While eating lunch, we gained 39 kWh, so we left with about 90% charge. We didn't slow roll lunch, just ate at our normal speed and continued on. We didn't even really need the charge since Moab is almost exactly 320 miles from our home and we were getting 2.9 miles/kWh (377 miles range). We had plenty of charge remaining to get to Moab, but were eating lunch so figured we might as well charge too. After lunch, we headed north from Kayenta. From Kayenta, there are two paths to Moab. We decided to go through Monument Valley this time.
We arrived in Moab with 37% charge. We have the ER battery, so we used a total of 93% of the battery for the full trip or a total of about 120 kWh of battery used to travel 319 miles, so 2.65 miles/kWh. Decent efficiency. This included some elevation drops and then climbs. The speed limit most of the way was 65 mph.
We charged to 100% on the DCFC while eating dinner. It wasn't busy--no more than two other vehicles used the station while we charged, and the hotel we stayed at didn't have L2 charging.
Day 2 of Trip, Day 1 in Moab:
The next day we explored the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The Needles District Visitor Center is about 75 miles from our hotel. We checked in, got the info on road conditions, then headed up the Colorado River Overlook 4WD road.
The road starts off sandy, but easy. Nevertheless, I put the truck into offroad mode.
Aside: I relearned that this mode does not engage regenerative braking unless the brake pedal is engaged. Which... Hmm. I wish there was more control over that. The cameras are washed out and not nearly as useful for seeing the obstacles on a 4wd trail. I wish we had control over the contrast on the screen. That said, the zoom capability on screen was useful. As was the projection of the front tire location, which allowed precision placement of my front tires.
This truck is not and never will be a rock crawler. It is too long, too wide, too low, and too heavy. But the precision speed control with the electric motors makes off roading on mild obstacles a joy. And not having to listen to an engine for hours is wonderful.
After about 5 miles, we began encountering more difficult terrain and made the decision to back up, turn around, and hike the rest of the way in. I'm not dumb enough to let pride cause me to damage my truck. It could maybe have made it a quarter mile farther, but I was more interested in getting to the overlook than watching motor coolant stain the sand.
A short distance from where we parked the truck were some scrapes in the rock that included a layer of aluminum that doesn't belong to the geology of the area, immediately followed by an old pool of transmission fluid. Sigh.
We continued our hike and were rewarded with gorgeous views of the canyon and Colorado River.
Despite Moab being overcrowded and as busy as every other weekend, and despite the visitor center being crowded, we encountered only a bicyclist on the road. We had lunch at the overlook, and after we finished eating, sat around enjoying the views for a while. At which point another person arrived, and we took that as our cue that it was time to head off and do some more adventures.
This person had apparently been driving an old, modified Suzuki Samurai, and even they had decided not to go much more farther than we had. You can just make out the sand-colored little crawler in the upper right portion of the photo below. The section I'm standing on was too gnarly for that short wheelbase, high clearance crawler. We felt vindicated on our decision not to even bother pushing the Lightning.
Over the ~10-12 miles of mild offroading we got about 2.3 miles/kWh. I think that if I'd left in it normal mode and allowed regenerative braking, we would have had better efficiency.
After our hike, we explored the rest of the park's sites, only going offroad again to get to the Elephant Hill trailhead, which was overcrowded enough that people who had parked in the wrong places were being ticketed.
We had a pass to take the road to the confluence overlook, but after talking with the ranger, we were told that the width of the Devil's Pocket was 85 inches, which meant we would have 0.75 inches on either side of the truck with the mirrors folded in. Not enough margin.
We did a couple more hikes in the park, got some gorgeous photos and then headed back to Moab.
We headed back to the hotel and arrived with 45% SoC remaining (73 kWh used). Total distance driven was 186 miles, for an efficiency of 2.5 miles/kWh. Not bad for a day of exploring one of the four districts of Canyonlands National Park.
Day 3 of Road Trip, Day 2 in Moab:
On the second day in Moab, we decided to visit Arches National Park. However, the main entrance to Arches is always a CF and we didn't feel like being stuck in traffic for an hour or more. So we decided to do a drive that we'd previously decided against because the distance seemed too far to rely on the 21-gallon tank of a Tacoma moving at <5 mph for 8+ miles and still have enough gas for the rest of the day. Day 3's total drive was 176 miles. A truck getting 8 mpg offroading with a 21 gallon tank doesn't inspire confidence. For this trip, I was certain the Lightning's range far exceeded that of the Tacoma's when going at off-roading speeds. But I had some concern about the ruggedness of the terrain we'd be driving over.
I've said it before and feel like I should repeat it: the Lightning is not a rock crawler. It's really not. But it can handle slightly more rugged road than we encountered the day before. We took Highway 191 up to Willow Springs turn off, which had been closed and a new entrance opened to Utahraptor State Park a tenth of a mile farther up the road. The Arches National Park entrance is about 8-10 miles down dirt roads from there. Please don't take this entrance if you don't have an annual or other park pass, and do check in at the visitor center before you leave so they can track the number of visitors.
https://travel-curious.com/home/north-america/united-states/utah/moab/willow-springs-road/
This road is no trouble for a Jeep or 4Runner with decent clearance, or even a Tacoma or similar shorter-wheelbase pickup, or any of the several types of similar short wheelbase, high clearance vehicles. It's not really accessible to a Subaru, though I probably would have gone at least some distance in. A long wheelbase truck like a Lightning or Tundra really does require previous experience with offroading.
We made it just fine all 7+ miles to the gate where the National Park begins and ran into an 18" drop that I had to finess and a steep climb with a breakover that exceeds the breakover angle of 17 degrees the Lightning has. I scraped one of the steps on rock. So we stopped and I moved a couple of nearby loose rocks into place and managed to make it through. After clearing the aids, we moved on. Most of the rest of the dirt road was great. It was all quiet.
After we made it to the paved roads of Arches, we explored up and down the park, checking out the gorgeous landscapes, arches, and other formations. But the park was as crowded as it always is with almost no parking spaces, so we decided to go ahead to the visitor center, check in, and check out.
We then moved over to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. We drove out to Grand View Point Overlook, had lunch at the Orange Cliffs Overlook. We stopped at a couple other vistas on our way back.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision, we turned off the paved road and took Horse Thief / Mineral Bottom road to another overlook, this time over the Green River.
However, to get to the river it's necessary to descend a series of switchbacks from the rim down to the river. This road is often washed out. It was not this time, so we decided to go ahead and make the drive down.
(Google Earth Image from USGS/NASA Landsat data)
We went down to the Mineral Bottom boat ramp, stuck our toes in the mucky water, and explored a bit of the area.
Day's statistics:
176 miles driven
63 kWh used
2.8 miles/kWh (total range estimate with 2.8 miles/kWh = 364 miles; Ford advertises the Lightning with 320 miles range).
I haven't yet pulled together the statistics and photos of the drive home, but it was uneventful.
Last edited:
