Ford Says NEVER EVER Put a Camper On The EV F-150 Lightning… So That’s Exactly What We Do - Ep.2 

Ahhh, I remember riding on the top bunk of my grandpa's cab over camper back in the 70s. Every time he went around a corner that old truck would sway back and forth from the weight of that giant camper. Too young to realize that thing would disintegrate in an accident but, that's how we rolled back then..

I love that you can just drop in any normal f150 accessories into the lightning.

Now you'll have a place to nap every hour or so while recharging! 🤠

Great project! I can’t wait to see how your journey turns out. Brilliant job on the table, David! Loving those BFGs on the Lightning. Please take a drone with you to capture some aerial shots of the landscapes along your camping trip. Also, please talk about your off-grid experience as much as reasonably possible. Good luck to all of you guys. I hope the Lightning does well!

So excited for this series! Glad you guys get another shot at a long trip after the original no pavement needed

Sorry guys but this video is nothing but a hidden ad for ****campers.

Dave could have made this whole pop up camper by himself for under 1,000$. Very ingenious man

Awesome video. I love that camper. It's more affordable than I thought. Four wheel campers, you may have just caught a future buyer from this video. Pulling a camper can be a real chore. This would be so much easier and affordable. Thank you for sponsoring TFL and please keep the $11,000 version available. It makes it more accessible to a lot of us.

I really like the respect that you showed that knowledgeable woman despite your research. You are a good man among great company. You are a person worth watching as you show what people should be, smart and kind.

Based on testing that Kyle with Inside EVs did on weight in the bed of the Lightening and the Rivian, the weight of this camper is not a problem. The aerodynamics of the truck will be affected though which is probably going to significantly reduce the range. Any thoughts about using an aerodynamic faring in front of the pop-up to minimize the air drag effects at highway speed?

I gotta say, I don’t think I would like drilling holes into my brand new truck bed.

Paying that much money for a truck and being told you can't use a truck for truck things . Pass !

For those prices you can get an entire travel trailer with better accommodations.

I can understand why Ford dissuades the masses in general from putting campers on the Lightning: 95% of truck campers on the market exceed the payload rating, except a handful of boutique shops like this that make a barebones setup. They don't want folks thinking they can just swap their 3500lb+ Lance camper sitting on a 2500 diesel dually directly over to the Lightning.

Great video Andre, excited for this series and can't wait to see how adding the camper affects the truck. Loved the tour of 4 wheel campers, it was great to see behind the scenes

So good to see a small manufacturer doing so well.

I love the whole “How It’s Made” aspect to this episode!

I have a feeling the upcoming videos are going to be a lot of downtime for charging. This is going to drain the batteries fast probably down to 150 to 200 range. Cool campers but do to inflation those prices have gone up a lot from a couple years back.

Those are some beautiful and functional camper setups. Thanks for the tour of the process. It looks swell on that F150. 👍👍

Love TFL for the". Ford Says NEVER EVER Put a Camper On The EV F-150 Lightning… So guess what we did". wonder what the result will be. Four Wheel Campers has some serious build quality. Most "campers" are cheap things. The project M is first class all the way. The project M will work, but I think that table is the straw that will break the camels back. That table is responsible for 1-2 miles of range right there. Great sturdy build though kudos to the builder for building it sight unseen.

Lol 44k for a tiny truck bed camper 😂

I know this trip is already done but skipping the drive up through the Canadian Rockies was a mistake. Lots of charging places heading up to Jasper from Colorado.

Thirty minute ad placement.

Lots of negative nannies! You guys are pioneers!!! Way to go and keep it up 👍

I think y'all should definitely try to make some sort of spoiler from the windshield up over the top of the camper, it doesn't look very hard at all to do, rather than have a huge air pocket to catch wind, just a thought.

Nicely done video, Andre, thank you! Very innovative camper design. Not sure I'd want to try taking the Lightning as far as you will be going - unless I brought along a generator! Sorry, I still don't buy into the whole electric vehicle concept, they are, as the saying goes, not quite ready for prime time, and as more and more people buy them, neither is the nation's electrical grid! Without a plan to massively upgrade the electrical grid - and build more robust, faster charging, longer range energy storage capacities AND recyclable components, it's putting the cart before the horse.

Have fun! Alaska is a beautiful state. Now for the most important part! Make sure they make the camper mosquito, black fly, and no seeum proof! Also get plenty of deep woods off bug spray! You are going to need it! 🙀😂

if you can't put a camper on a lightning. then its not a good replacement for a gasser.

30 minute infomercial. Guessing TFL got the camper for free.

I like the table built by David.

There goes the Warranty :)

Beautiful campers. Wow. Melanie is amazing with her interaction. Very impressive how well she verbalizes and conveys the information. She definitely is a great representative for the company.

For $150k you can live in a truck down by the river

I don't like the truck BUT the campers are great. I have owned two slide ins in my life time, at 77 years old may not own another. The lady guide was very pleasant. I enjoyed this video very much.

Welcome to California amigo

I was just at the Rancho Cucamonga show room yesterday! been eyeing a pop up camper for a long time now

So now I have a 100 k truck that can go 150 miles lol

Lol the employees have to wear face diapers but the boss doesn't, just like California politicians 🤣😂🤣

Very cool and enjoyed the factory/how's it made tour too! Really quite an assembly line and their taking orders into 2023, wow. Demand is still high! Can't wait for the next episode, we need them more frequently :D

While not as dust proof as a slide in, the canopy version of the FWC eats up significantly less payload and the reduced width means less over hang / a better rearward view via the side mirrors. Thank to everyone involved for the tour of the FWC assembly process. It's good to know a quality build is still available in the US. For a build that will not rattle apart while overlanding over rough roads - $26K about right for the base Hawk, which includes a propane furnace, cook stove and a sink.

I understand the reasoning behind the video, but it was kind of annoying to watch one big advertisement for the camper company

Virus theater? Still? Cmon man

Ran into Eric from Brazil in Parachute, CO yesterday. He’s taking his 110 LR TDi on the same trip and you may run into him. About as opposite a conveyance as one could have! His dark blue and white 110 with stickers from all over is quite distinct. If you see him, maybe give him one of your caches. I’m guessing someone else will also find him posted-up somewhere on his way back down the west coast. Truly, a world traveler.

My wife and I are scheduled to get our Hawk model 4wheel pop up in September. Ordered it in February. The tail does more to create drag on a camper or trailer. That is why the airstreams are relatively easy to tow. We already have a 27ft travel trailer. But most of the places that we want to go, the trailer will not fit. Also the high winds out West, the high wind restriction is 9ft in height on many highways. So the pop up design can travel safely. My pickup is a Ram1500, my wife has a Ram 2500 with twice the payload.

So you’re going to take a ferry for half of the journey? Haha man up TFL

Thought it was really weird that so many of them are masked.

No ppe required at the factory.. interesting.

Overlanding is insanely expensive.

FYI you could have went 120v to 12 v DC converter and plugged in directly to the pop up camper wiring and it would free up space in back and lower the cost. The lights and fans would probably pull a kilowatt a day, so it would not change battery percentage much on the lightning

44k for a pop up camper is just dumb, you can buy a 30' travel trailer with slide outs, living room, full bathroom and kitchen for that. These guys will be lucky to go 220 miles with that camper on the Lighning.

I think this is going to be a fun series. But nothing to learn though. I mean, it's gonna do great riding on a ferry!

The Fast Lane Truck, this video was an instant thumbs up 👍🏾 Ever since the Ford Lightning came out I’ve been wondering about ultra-light campers 🤔 Four Wheel Campers make a great product!

So it’s a truck that can’t do truck things 🤔

Been driving all electric for 3 years now. Really have enjoyed it, and the needs of towing and hauling big, heavy things is the bastion of my needs for an ICE vehicle. I am excited to see more heavy duty EV's in the coming years. Love this build and your planned journey, will be following along.

I wonder if there can be a slide out system to make it more like a cap by eliminating the need of the forward section while driving. It would probably need exterior struts. The exterior struts would just be longer, and there would need to be a rail system out the front for the sleeping compartment. The canvas would be lower with the upper shell protecting while storing. The rail system would need to be able to lock like a towed camper's slide out. That should positively affect the range of the truck hauling it unless the weight of the slide out system and struts is too high. The struts would increase drag, but I doubt it would be anywhere near what the portion above the truck would do. Typically, the slide outs would need another brace though, and I am not sure how that would work other than attaching it to the forward exterior struts with a support beam across the front of the slide out which the rails for the sleeping compartment would attach to. A support beam could be added from front to back structs as well to distribute the weight. The windows could be problematic, and it would be good to have interior struts to use the bed of the truck as well. The weight of the camper is not too much as exterior struts were the original way to actually level a truck camper, and this camper weighs less than that. Those exterior struts could actually level those campers so that the truck bore almost no weight at all while the camper is parked and those struts are also the storage method for the camper. My father used sawhorses under the camper while storing as well to make the struts last longer. Hookups would also be higher if cabinets with water were included, but considering there are flexible hoses, that might be doable with a rail system as well. The rail would let the hookups to the cabinet and to the outside float with the exterior camper wall, and it might be possible to have a floating sink. A range top could also be a smaller unit that attaches to the wall. Storage while hauling would be the sleeping compartment slide out, and there could also be cabinets that attach to the upper exterior wall, which would raise and lower with the wall. This would also have been part of the problem of the exterior struts so again these should not be a problem. The electric truck would also have the advantage of a forward storage compartment, which should be utilized as well. The refrigerator would easily be placed in that area, and that area would also have an electrical outlet for the trip, which eliminates the need to haul propane for the trip.

Nicely Built Stuff. If we were still in our 20/30's it would be a NICE UNIT to have. Good Luck on the TRIP. Let's see how "FAR" you get B4 Having getting Nervous about the Charging on the Lightning??? Be Interesting to say the least.

Thumbs down for the sheep diaper.

Seems like a large portion of the trip is just hauling the truck on the ferry. So really it's not a true driving trip up to Alaska.

To bad your not going to get the whole Alaska Highway experience and will be missing 1500 miles of the trip…but we will welcome you to the Yukon Territory!

I got a pro tip for you guys, get yourself a small hand held vacuum that charges off of 12v or USB. As you get up north, you’re going to start to see a lot of mosquitoes. After your all in the camper for the night the vacuum is to suck up all the bugs.

Really misleading statement by TFL saying they're driving a Lightning with a camper to Alaska when the manufacturer calls it a "Topper".

I am guessing you are doing something about the gap above roof of truck and camper. Major resistance there. Even a decent light bar there would be an improvement in aerodynamics.

Cool camper. Enjoyed the tour of the California manufacturing facility.

I was able to get the Tupperware with shirt and belt buckle, awesome thanks guys!!!

"The Lightning is so new we did not want to open any wires," but you didn't mind drilling holes in the bed rails?

Cool series idea!! We have a "vintage" pop-up camper on our 2013 FX4 that we enjoy. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how you guys handle the charging requirements.

I enjoyed the 4 Wheeler factory tour, nice going!

Didn’t expect the tour of the facility. These units look to be very well built. This whole series has been great so far. Well done Andre

I feel like you can build acrylic panels that slot into the back door windows on the truck that can increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the truck without affecting visibility

I found this video to be very informative and interesting!!!!!!!!!

I have four AGM batteries in my 2021 Embassy Traveler Sport class B Transit 350HD and was advised not to discharge them less than 50% to maintain life span it was designed for. They are not like lithium that can go almost to nothing, as well as maintain a steady voltage as they discharge. Be advised on the AGM's, unless you don't mind buying another battery. Been there and done that...

EXCELLENT AND VERY INFORMATIVE VIDEO ! Very well done and their g.m., did a fantastic presentation. Simply epic video !

By the title I was expecting you to explain why Ford said they didn't want you to do that. So unfortunately you didn't say anything about it in the video, so I have to ask now. Why doesn't Ford want you to put a camper on top of your lightning?

With the thumbnail I expected to see some EV camping instead I got a 30-minute advertisement for the camper company

really nice set up

I’ve had one for about 6 months, its been good so far but I use it in the Pacific Northwest. I haven’t needed to apply any aftermarket measures.

Great video. Really surprised they didn't go with a 100ah or higher lithium battery, both weight advantage AND output advantage. 100ah lithium are not much more than the AGM battery they are using.

Wow I went to the show room and looked at them when I had a Tacoma in 2018. The prices have gone up significantly. I’m sure the price of aluminum which has quadrupled since the pandemic has played a big part in it. Other materials are outrageous also. Still a good camper but the small door was why I decided against it. I’m tall. The topper was just a prototype back then.

I see there are still a bunch of zombies in California

Go Norweld! @24:14 We invented the 'Ute' in Australia! :)

What an interesting setup for your upcoming “to Alaska” series - I’m looking forward to watching each and every episode! I might have missed it, but did you quote the total weight for the camper, batteries, solar units, etc.?

Nice review of the factory and the different campers, very informative.

Chapter 2 here we go 🚶‍♀️ The Banks Family 👪

We no longer camp. We usually rent an Airbnb or perhaps a nice hotel near hiking trails or fishing holes.

I'm betting that camper costs at least 25% range penalty as is. Andre mentioned doing something to improve aero so will have to wait and see what all he has planned, but in the current config, my guess is 25% reduction at highway speeds.

So manufacture says do not do it, insurance will insure everything until something happens then they deny your claim since it was out of manufacture spec...and you are now holding the bag, including any personal injury you caused to someone else...a dangerous game.

Great video, absolutely love the journey I'm sad I missed you guys coming through BC 🇨🇦 would have loved to see you guys, dad would have been super excited. One thing I gotta say though with the camper frames.... The welding.. how are those getting passed?

We just use our pickup for work around our or going to a few good fishing spots. Last summer we had to take the truck to MT to get some tings from the family farm. The pickup is a 11 Ford Ranger XLT super cab 4X4. I added a K&N intake and a 3” FlowMaster exhaust and air shocks. Fully loaded with 70# of air in the shocks and 50# of air in the tires, we got 25mpg with the cruise set on 85mph in MT and then got 26mpg with the cruise set at 75mph in WA. We only have 34K miles on the Ford, so we’ll just keep driving it…, until it drops, (which on a Ranger with the 4.0 V6 is about 250-300K miles). We know this because this is our 4th Ranger.

So the Lighting can't pull a trailer long range and per Ford can't install a on it that's two strikes so far looks like a very short term item a lot of improvements to make for sure and a lack of decent charging stations so basically that's strike three I'm not impressed with the ev

I’d just buy a topper for all the gear, remove rear seats and sleep in the cab with a/c…

All this is is a 30 minute advertisement for the campers.

Your statement that the primary consideration for selection of camper top was range is very telling that EVs still fall short of the flexibility of ICE's or even hybrids. Very informative of how all the installers and builders must wear face diapers, but not the hosts or managers, Elites > peons.

DAVID DID A GREAT JOB ON BUILDING THAT CAMPER....

David's dining room table is great. I might make it about 2-3 inches narrower so people can move around easier, but that's a matter of opinion. Make having conversations or a meal on a cold drizzling day a lot nicer at a campground. David's truck bed organizer is a great way to keep gear stored, but easy to access as long as you can give up a few inches of headroom. The fact he did it without a Project M topper around just shows how sneaky smart he is. Going up the Dalton Highway is rough on any vehicle. I've seen plenty of videos and read plenty of stories of people needing to carry jerry cans of fuel and a spare tire or two to deal with the terrible conditions. Traversing that road with an electric vehicle is a worst case scenario for a Lightning, but that's what will make this series so interesting to watch. It'll test the F-150 hybrid support vehicle as well, and honestly that'll be more relevant to me as my next truck in a few years will likely be a hybrid. After this epic road trip I can't wait for the sequel in 5-7 years with the next gen Lightning to see what will have changed.

That was a great advertisement, nice stuff

Why on earth did they use a AGM battery? Twice the weight and half the useable power compared to a Lifepo4 batteries. Newer Lifepo4 batteries have heaters and low temperature disconnect.

Will be a great truck to replace the family crossover... and do the same amount of work too🙃

Honestly this series might determine if I buy a Lightning or not. Absolutely love the potential of these trucks.

The camper turned out well. David did a good job and I like what he did.

Thinking of getting the latest 8-ft (bed) Tundra and this project M camper.