Down Range: the Impact of Off-Road Wheels and Tires on the Ford F-150 Lightning

When someone purchases a new truck, one of the most popular upgrades is a set of new wheels and tires. Whether it is for looks or increased functionality from a more aggressive tread, wheels and tires are a way to improve and personalize your truck. With all the hype and interest surrounding the all-new fully electric F-150 Lightning, we have been experimenting with the platform to find out how much real-world range it has, how towing affects range, and evenif you can lift one.

We were also curious what an aftermarket set of wheels and tires, biased toward off-roading, would do to the Lightning's range. The Lightning benefits from stock wheels with a flat, aerodynamic face and General Grabber HTS 60 tires designed with low rolling resistance in mind. However, the customization trend is for a negative-offset wheel with an aggressive tire tread that looks good and provides improved traction for enhanced off-road performance.

The Plan

Our plan was to take off the factory P275/60R20 General Grabber HTS 60 tires mounted on Ford's aerodynamic rims and replace them with a more aggressive aftermarket wheel and tire package of similar size to remove any variables in diameter and to ensure our odometer remained accurate. We devised a 177-mile loop in Southern California that would minimize the impact of elevation change and traffic, and would allow us to run at night to avoid the need for excessive climate control use.

Our 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning was an XLT model with dual motors, rated at 580 horsepower, and the optional extended-range 131-kWh battery pack with an advertised range of 320 miles. The base price for our tester was $52,974, and with our options and a $1,695 destination fee, the as-tested price came to $76,384. It is worth noting that '23 Lightnings will see a significant price increase across the board.

Because we only had the Lightning for a short amount of time, we were only able to do a baseline run, then swap out wheels and tires and do a modified run. We tried our best to make everything as apples-to-apples as possible, including keeping to the posted speed limits, minimizing traffic lights, and using adaptive cruise control whenever possible.

Wheels and Tires

Before we could hit the road, we had to source our upgraded wheel-and-tire package, which we had installed at Adventure Offroad in Huntington Beach, California. The team at Adventure Offroad worked around their full schedule to fit us in to meet our abbreviated timeline. We couldn't be happier with the support and incredible service they gave us to make this story possible.

Welcoming our request, Raceline offered up a brand-new wheel design for our experiment, the 955M Warp. The Raceline brand, known for high-quality specialty wheels, sent us a set of gloss-black and milled-aluminum 955M Warp wheels. The design of the 955Ms is a head-turner and garnered many comments from onlookers while installed on our Lightning tester. The Warps came to us in the F-150's standard 6x135 bolt pattern, in a 20x9-inch size with a +18mm offset, and are constructed from heavy-duty but light (these wheels weigh in at 33 pounds each), A356 aluminum. Raceline wheels meet or exceed all DOT standards for load rating and Raceline backs these wheels with a lifetime structural warranty.

For tires, we partnered up with Mickey Thompson and ordered up a set of the relatively new Baja Boss A/T in the Lightning's stock size—which works out to be a floatation equivalent of 33x11.0 inches—weighing in at 47 pounds. In our tire testing, we've found the M/T version of these tires to be very durable, with good off-road performance and on-road manners.

The Baja Boss A/T competes in the competitive "extreme all-terrain" category, which means it has close to mud-terrain looks and performance, with all-terrain handling and ride characteristics on-road and better grip and durability off-road. In fact, Mickey Thompson says the Baja Boss is the company's best A/T to date and was designed with the aforementioned attributes in mind, along with long-lasting silica-reinforced tread compound and a severe-weather rating. The Baja Boss A/T features Mickey Thompson's extreme Sidebiters for sidewall protection and extra traction on the trail. A 60,000-mile treadwear warranty is standard, with a 50,000-mile treadwear warranty on LT sizes, which should be a nice match for an EV truck with 775 lb-ft of tire-wearing torque.

An LT-metric version of the Baja Boss A/T in the 275/65R20 is also available, which increases the load rating from 2,679 pounds per tire to 3,415 pounds per tire and adds Mickey Thompson's Powerply XD technology. The Powerply XD adds a 50-percent-heavier denier cord to the angled third ply, providing better puncture resistance, quicker steering response, and greater stability.

Testing

Before starting our test we weighed both sets of wheels and tires, and we were surprised to find out that our aftermarket wheel-and-tire package wasn't as heavy as we expected. The factory wheels and tires came in at 79 pounds on our scale, while the Mickey Thompsons mounted on the Raceline wheels came in at 82 pounds, just three more than factory wheels. Drivability between the two sets of wheels and tires was nearly identical, and the Mickey Thompson tires were shockingly quiet, adding a slightly different tone to the road noise but hardly any increase in volume, and certainly nothing objectionable.

Due to the way the Lightning charges on a fast charger and the amount of time it takes to go from a 90-percent charge to a 100-percent charge, in the interest of time we started at 95 percent of charge for our baseline and our modified runs. Our testing was performed on two different dates with identical weather and road conditions. During our 177-mile loop we did our best to maintain the posted speed limit, used adaptive cruise control whenever possible, and spent most of our time at 68-70 mph. Climate control was set to the same temp as the outside air to maintain comfort, while minimizing the impact to range.

Results

At the end of our testing, we finished our loop on the stock wheels and tires with efficiency of 2.1 miles per kilowatt hour (mi/kWh) and an estimated remaining range of 79 miles with 33 percent of the battery charge remaining. After swapping our wheels and tires at Adventure Offroad, and completing our second loop, we ended with an efficiency of 1.9 mi/kWh, 56 miles of range remaining, and 25 percent of battery life.

These numbers show a reduction of 9.6 percent in efficiency, 23 miles in range, and 8 percent in remaining battery charge. So, while we can safely say that more aggressive wheels and tires will have an impact on EV range, it wasn't as much as we had anticipated. Also, it is important to note that although we did our best to remove any variables from our experiment, this testing wasn't completed in a vacuum, so your mileage may vary. As with all wheel-and-tire packages, tread compound, weight, pattern, and even wheel aerodynamics can further skew results.

At the end of the day, only the end user can decide if a nearly 10-percent hit to efficiency is worth the tradeoff for a more durable tire with better traction for off-roading and arguably better looks. In our minds, it is a bit of a no-brainer.

Sources

• Adventure Offroad Huntington Beach: 714-594-7718; www.adventureoffroad.com
• RacelineWheels: www.racelinewheels.com
• Mickey Thompson Tires: www.mickeythompsontires.com

Our 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning came to us in XLT trim, with the dual motor and extended battery options. The as-tested price was $76,384 and represents Ford highest-range model in the Lightning lineup.

The Lightning's stock 275/60R20 General Grabber HTS 60 tires are great for ride comfort, quietness, and range, but don't offer the same protection or off-road durability as an aftermarket all-terrain tire.

We measured the tread depth of the factory General Grabber HTS 60 at 10/32. The Grabber is optimized for long-mileage life and on-road touring truck applications.

The sidewall of the General Grabber is great for an on-road truck, but for those who want to take their truck a little farther off the highway, an upgraded tire is highly recommended.

Here is a closer look at the direct-replacement Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T in the Lightning's 275/60R20 size. The asymmetrical tread pattern and Sidebiters are designed with traction in mind, and the long wearing compound has been engineered to avoid chipping and chunking. Despite big, open voids and a tread depth of 16/32, the Baja Boss is incredibly quiet.

Raceline's 955M Warp wheel is a completely different design than the flat-faced factory Lightning wheel. This dished aluminum wheel is made from A356 alloy, painted in gloss black with machined edges, and was sized in a 20x9 with a +18mm offset.

The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and Raceline 955M Warp wheel-and-tire package, despite their beefier appearances, weighed in at 82 pounds, just three pounds more than the staid factory offering.

The Mickey Thompson and Raceline wheel-and-tire package fit the Lightning perfectly and really bumped up the looks of our Lightning tester, while enhancing capability for the AWD truck without compromising handling and ride comfort.

In our initial test, we ended up with 2.1 m/kWh of efficiency and 79 miles of range left after 177.8 miles. Ford's F-150 Lightning, which reports remaining battery charge percentage as a number on a different screen, was documented at 33 percent.

Our second time through the test loop with the aftermarket wheels and tires, you can see that we traveled 178.1 miles and ended up with 56 miles of range remaining. Remaining battery charge was at 25 percent.

We have to thank our friends at Adventure Offroad in Huntington Beach, California, who were able to free-up a bay on short notice on multiple days to make this story happen. Adventure Offroad was instrumental in sourcing the wheels, as well as professionally mounting and balancing and installing our wheels and tires.

We think the Ford F-150 Lightning's looks can be dramatically improved with a good set of wheels and tires, and knowing what the tradeoff with range is, we'd still do the swap and enjoy the improved capability.