Nine thousand pounds of boat behind an electric truck, crawling home with 7% battery, and the guy's posting about how much he loves the truck. That says something profound, about both EV ownership psychology and how far used Ford F-150 Lightning pricing has fallen.
Reddit user jhez94 took his 2023 F-150 Lightning XLT Extended Range on its first real towing run last weekend: 92 miles to a boat launch in Washington state, two days of shrimping, then 60 miles back with a 20 mph headwind trying to push him into the Pacific. His Sea Ray Sundancer 260 and trailer combo weighs roughly 9,000 lbs depending on fluids. That's 90% of the Lightning's 10,000-lb max tow rating. No small ask.
I've tracked Lightning towing stories since 2024, they all follow the same arc. What makes jhez94's trip worth your time is the math.
The Numbers Nobody Wants to Talk About
Outbound at 60–65 mph, he saw 1.0 mi/kWh. The 131 kWh pack, EPA-rated for 320 miles unladen, burned 65% of its charge in 92 miles. After two days at the launch, he drove 22 miles to an IONNA station in Mount Vernon, arriving with 17%. He plugged in with a NACS adapter, pulled 180 kW peak, averaged 136 kW, added 63% in 38 minutes. Planned to leave at 73%, enough, by his calculation, to get home with a 20% buffer.
Then the baby needed attention. He left at 80% instead of 73%. That 7% "accident" saved his trip.
The return run faced a sustained 20 mph headwind. Efficiency collapsed to 0.6 mi/kWh. At that rate, 60 miles burns ~100 kWh. Starting from 80% meant ~104.8 kWh available; from 73%, only ~95.7 kWh. He rolled in with 7%, about 9.2 kWh left. Had he stuck to his plan, he'd have been hunting for a charger at 2% or less, boat in tow, in Washington headwinds.
Mainstream tests never capture this. Car and Driver got 0.8 mi/kWh with a 6,100-lb trailer. Grassroots Motorsports saw 1.0 at 8,000 lbs. None account for weather randomness. A gas truck loses 2–3 MPG in a headwind. An EV loses miles you cannot get back.
The Price Revolution Changes Everything
Here's where I get annoyed with mainstream EV coverage. Every outlet evaluates the Lightning at sticker, "$75,094 for an XLT ER with Max Tow", and runs TCO math from there. Nobody's buying new Lightnings in 2025.
jhez94 paid $39,000 for his used 2023 XLT ER. Big battery, Max Tow Package, the works. Edmunds shows used 2023 Lightnings averaging $43,437, some dipping to $34,681. Depreciation has been brutal, Ford flooded the market, early issues cooled hype, the EV narrative shifted after 2022.
At $39k, this Lightning competes with a used gas F-150 XLT, a 5.0-liter V8 that gets 12 MPG towing and costs $60–70 per fill-up.
jhez94's on-road charging bill? $18.81. He charges at home at $0.07/kWh. Total trip energy cost, maybe $30 for 184 miles of towing. A gas F-150 towing 9,000 lbs gets 10–11 MPG, that's 16.7–18.4 gallons. At $3.50/gallon, call it $58–64. Double the fuel cost, before oil changes or transmission service, and the Lightning's 775 lb-ft of torque makes the V8 feel lazy off the line.
IONNA deserves mention too. That $0.20/kWh was a promotional weekend rate, they've been running these aggressively, now over 100 stations and nearly 1,000 stalls nationwide. Standard rate runs $0.33–$0.39/kWh, undercutting Electrify America's $0.48. The NACS adapter pulled 180 kW peak. None of this existed two years ago. Infrastructure is improving faster than most realize.
The Actual Towing Experience
jhez94 said it almost as an aside: "Towed great though, plenty of power and torque." That sentence gets lost in every EV towing debate. We obsess over kilowatt-hours and forget the actual act of towing electric is genuinely better, no transmission hunting, no 4,000 RPM scream up grades, no brake fade because regen handles it. TFL Truck's Ike Gauntlet proved it: zero brake applications downhill, regen added 11 miles of range to the Lightning.
The tradeoff is time. jhez94 spent 38 minutes charging. A gas truck spends 8 at a pump. If that breaks your trip, don't buy an EV for towing.
What It Validates
This Reddit post validates what I've suspected: the used Lightning market created a stealth value proposition nobody is tracking. At $39k with $0.07/kWh home charging, the math works, even for serious towing, even with headwinds, even with the occasional 7% arrival. The early-adopter tax is gone. What's left is a 580-hp truck that tows like a luxury car and fuels for half the price of gas. You just have to plan.
WHAT TORQUE NEWS CHECKED
- Primary source: Reddit post by u/jhez94 in r/F150Lightning, dated May 2026
- Cross-reference: Independent towing tests from Car and Driver (June 2022), Grassroots Motorsports (Nov 2022), TFL Truck (June 2022), and EV Pulse (Aug 2022) confirm 0.8–1.2 mi/kWh range for 6,000–9,000 lb trailers at highway speeds
- Used pricing: Edmunds, TrueCar, and CARFAX listings as of May 2026 confirm 2023 Lightning XLT ER models trading in the $35,000–$45,000 range
- IONNA pricing: IONNA official blog (Jan 2026) and InsideEVs (Mar 2026) confirm $0.20/kWh promotional pricing and $0.33–$0.39/kWh standard rates
- Charging specs: 180 kW peak via NACS adapter aligns with Lightning's documented 150–200 kW real-world DC fast-charging curve on 350 kW dispensers
- Weather impact: 20 mph headwind at 65 mph increases aerodynamic drag by ~30–35%, consistent with the observed 40% efficiency drop from 1.0 to 0.6 mi/kWh
What It Means For Owners
If you're considering a used Lightning for towing: buy the Extended Range, confirm the Max Tow Package (adds battery and motor cooling, not just a hitch), and assume 0.8 mi/kWh in bad conditions. The TCO case is real, but only with home charging. Without it, public charging at $0.33–$0.50/kWh narrows the gap. Always charge 10% higher than your calculator says. The buffer is for survival.
One question for Lightning owners who tow: What's the lowest state of charge you've rolled into home with, and what caused it, headwind, speed, weight, or something else? Drop your numbers in the comments. Real data beats EPA estimates every time.
Images Sourced from jhez94 on Reddit
About The Author
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, covering sports cars, luxury vehicles, and performance culture. His reporting focuses on explaining the engineering, design philosophy, and real-world ownership experience behind modern vehicles.
Noah has been immersed in the automotive world since his early teens, attending industry events and following the enthusiast communities that shape how cars are built and driven today. His work blends industry insight with enthusiastic storytelling, helping readers understand not just what a car is, but why it matters.
Noah is also a member of the Southeast Automotive Media Association (SAMA), a professional organization for automotive journalists and industry media in the Southeast.
His coverage regularly explores sports cars, luxury vehicles, and performance-driven segments of the automotive industry, including the evolving culture surrounding Formula Drift and enthusiast builds.
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