It's perfect for quietly sneaking up on unsuspecting Land Rover Defenders.
When you think of Overlanding, a few things probably come to mind. Maybe it's a Land Rover Defender bounding across sand dunes or camping hundreds of miles away from home in a rooftop tent atop your specially equipped Ford Bronco. These self-sustaining vehicles exemplify ruggedness and give owners the freedom to spend extended periods of time off the grid. What probably doesn't spring to mind for an extreme Overlanding mission is an electric vehicle, but this lifted Ford F-150 Lightning may just shatter your preconceived ideas that EVs aren't suited to the job.
In a video shared by The Bronco Nation, we get to see this Lightning overland build take place and what the end result looks like. If your attention span isn't a long one, you can scroll ahead to around the 12:20 mark to see the finished product. Garrett from GRT Offroad is more accustomed to working with Broncos, so the electric pickup represented a unique challenge. Replacement Fox coilovers give this Lightning a decent lift and this, together with chunkier off-road rubber, instantly makes the truck look a lot more aggressive than the stock model. The Nitto Recon Grappler 295/70 tires measure 34.8 inches in diameter.
The front bumper had to be cut and the front crash bar removed entirely to make the bigger tires fit without rubbing against the body. Finally, the Go Fast camper with the rooftop tent was added to the back to complete the truck's transformation. Garrett admits that at around 65 mph, the combination of air rushing over the camper and the bigger tires increase the noise in the cabin, especially since there is no engine to drown it all out. It would be interesting to see the impact on the truck's maximum range of 320 miles with these add-ons. We already know that when towing a 6,000-pound caravan, the Lightning's range is effectively halved. But if you aren't venturing too far from the nearest charging point, the F-150 Lightning makes for a pretty awesome overlander.
Sweaty-palmed hot laps are fun, but Karl is a gearhead cut from a different cloth - or is that finely stitched Nappa leather? An E23 BMW 7 Series was the first car he fell madly in love with three decades ago, and this affection for Autobahn-conquering luxury sedans has persisted. Following studies in copywriting and journalism, along with stints in TV scriptwriting and marketing that had far too little to do with cars, Karl kept the fire burning by writing for automotive websites on the side, including a Florida-based auto repair shop and another for Porsche enthusiasts. It all came together when he joined CarBuzz in 2019. He has penned some of the latest news, reviews, and features ever since.