A general rule with EVs is that they work best when you can charge them at home. When you leave home fully charged, you will have 200-300 miles to cover your day’s travel, and when you get home, plug it into the home charger and do the same the next day. But deep in the rocky mountains, Ben Westby and his family have turned that completely around. Ben has an F-150 Lightning and lives in a house off the electric grid. This Benna Ford post describes his experiences, and explains how this truck fits into his lifestyle.
Ben is an elementary school teacher who also worked in China for seven years. In addition to his wife and two pre-teen daughters, the family has fostered 13 children over the years and raises goats and chickens. Finding a big enough house and plot of land for their large family that was also affordable sent him 9,000 feet into the mountains to a home outside the electric grid. A previous Tesla owner and EV enthusiast, Ben set his sights on the F-150 Lightning from its first reveal and finally traded in his ICE vehicle for one in September 2023. He wishes he could have made the move sooner.
“[We get] the utility of the F-150 plus the benefits of the battery. Being off-grid in the Rockies is an extreme case for owning an EV, but we’re maximizing it. We’re absolutely loving it.”
Obviously, Ben doesn’t charge his Lightning at home, but he can charge it at work. Since his round-trip commute is significantly shorter than the Lightning’s range, Ben has plenty of electricity from his truck to use at home.
It isn’t the home’s sole source of electricity. The home is fitted with solar panels and an additional propane generator. Days can go by without sunlight or with snow covering the panels, and the propane generator is expensive to run and quite noisy in the otherwise silent mountain woods.
Ben speaks of when one of his solar inverters failed. Using the Pro Power Onboard system, he was able to run the “refrigerator, microwave, coffee machine, all of our essential devices off the F-150 Lightning.”
He is also a fan of the truck’s Zone Lighting. Deep in the woods, there are no street lamps, and Colorado can get dark early in the winter. The vehicle’s lighting helps him with the outdoor after-work chores that come with raising goats and chickens. He also uses the Pro Power Onboard system for various cordless electric tools, such as his electric snow blower and chainsaw. He has even used it to charge the kids’ phones and devices before a significant snowfall.
Ben Westby and family may not be typical EV owners, but they demonstrate how versatile the F-150 Lightning can be and that you don’t need to have the perfect setup to be a happy EV owner.
If you think there is even a chance that the F-150 Lighting can become a companion in your life, come to Benna Ford, take one for a drive, and learn all of what Ford’s big, versatile EV can do for you.
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