I’ve had my Lightning since just before Thanksgiving (which my kids have since named ‘Voltamort’ and ‘The Truck That Shall Not Be Named’ because of the lightning emblem… even though Harry was the one with the scar, but whatever). Anyway, figured I’d share my first public charging experience.
We took a 160-mile trip, so I needed to fast charge to get back home. First, I tried a Ford dealer listed on the map, but it turned out they had moved, so no charger. Then I found a Chevy dealer with a ‘120kW’ charger that was actually just 60kW. It was going to take over an hour to get from 30% to 90%, so I left after 10 minutes—only to find out later they charged me $67.
Next, I went to a set of 250kW Tesla chargers. Had to park sideways just to reach the plug, but when I activated the charger… charge fault error. Moved to another stall, same issue. At this point, I was wondering if my adapter was bad (brand new from A2Z). So I found a set of 350kW CCS1 chargers further up the road, but by now it was 9 PM. Plugged in, red ring. Tried activating the charge from the truck, nothing. Same error. Moved to another stall, same thing. Now I’m getting a ‘service soon’ warning.
Called Ford Roadside—they said they could tow me, but only to the nearest dealer, which was 2.5 hours away. If I wanted it towed to my preferred dealer? $900. My insurance roadside assistance wanted $280 but couldn’t send anyone until the next morning.
Meanwhile, I had my wife and two kids (7 & 8) with me, all exhausted. No rental car places were open, and tow trucks wouldn’t take my whole family.
Finally, as a last-ditch effort, I drove back to my sister’s house and used her Level 2 charger overnight (8kW per hour). Made it home the next morning. Plugged into my Ford Pro charger, and everything seemed normal again, but I’m still taking it to the dealer tomorrow. The ‘service soon’ light turned off, but hopefully, the error is logged somewhere so they don’t think I’m making this up.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Didn’t mean to write a novel, but wanted to share my experience. Honestly, this whole thing soured me on the EV road trip idea. My wife has already said we are NEVER taking this truck on a long trip again.