Here’s What We’ve Fit in Our Ford F-150 Lightning’s Frunk
The frunk of the electric F-150 Lightning we bought has proven to be infinitely useful.
For pickup owners, covered storage is a precious commodity. For years we thought Ram's RamBox solution couldn't be touched, but the advent of electric pickups has changed the game. Without a bulky engine under the hood or a drivetrain to deal with, electric pickup trucks have opened up vastly new packaging option to designers. While the Rivian R1T features a small frunk, small bed-mounted trunk, and an innovative transverse gear tunnel behind the cabin, our 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat instead features a massive 14.1-cubic-foot trunk where you'd find a V-6 or V-8 in gas versions of the truck. This cavernous frunk has been infinitely useful; here are some of the things we've crammed in the frunk of our Lightning over the past year.
Pickup Essentials
Like most pickup owners, we never leave home without a set of ratchet straps and a bed net. In internal-combustion-powered pickups, we often stash these items wherever we can, which is typically underneath the rear bench seat, in the rear door pockets, or in seat-back pockets. In the Lightning, they live underneath the frunk's false floor alongside our portable charger and various charging adapters.
Groceries
As any pickup owner can attest to, placing groceries on the back-seat floor of a pickup is only slightly more ideal than leaving them loose in the bed because it eats up passenger space and items tend to roll around (or in my case, occasionally go missing when the dogs accompany me to the store). We're thankful to not have to worry about that anymore, as the Lightning's frunk is large enough for a week's worth of groceries and then some.
Plants
Our Lightning's frunk is also often called into duty to haul plants from local nurseries to editors' homes.
Paging Dr. Greenthumb
While these could easily go in the bed, the frunk protects more delicate species, eliminates the need to tie anything down, and thanks to its plastic liner, is easy to clean.
Weekend Getaway
Despite the headaches inherent in EV road trips, our Lightning is frequently pressed into duty for weekend getaways. It swallows up multiple roll-aboard carry-ons with plenty of room to spare …
Loaded Down for Vacation
… as evidenced by this shot of the frunk fully loaded for a vacation. In this picture the Ford is hauling two carry-on suitcases, a laptop bag, a backpack, dog food, blanket, beach towels, and an electric guitar gig bag.
Other Odds and Ends
The frunk is also great for carrying various odds and ends we don't want bouncing around the cab, like its 2023MotorTrendTruck of the Year trophy.
An Axe to Grind
Or an old guitar on its way to a shop for a setup.
Pickup Hockey
Although an adult hockey bag could easily be chucked into the bed, the Lightning's frunk is large enough to swallow it. Sticks don't fit, however. Those wind up in either the bed or cab. A "passhole," like the one previewed on Ram's electric 1500 Revolution concept or the Bollinger B1 would be useful add-on future electric pickup trucks, both for hockey sticks and longer items such as two-by-four-by-eights.
Rescue Wagon
In one of its odder use cases, we volunteered our Lightning's frunk to help a cat rescue in rural Northern California. We used the frunk floor as a divider to keep bags of cat food and jugs of water upright, and to prevent cans from rattling around. As an added bonus, our quiet electric pickup didn't send strays scrambling for cover when pulling on-site.
Hot Dog
Lastly, purely for scale/because we think it's funny, here's a small 25-pound dog in the frunk.
Big Dog
And a 60-pounder. You should never drive with pups in the frunk, but when parked it makes a great shelter for them to sit and hang out in after a hike
For More on Our Long-Term 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat:
- We Just Bought a Ford F-150 Lightning
- An OTA Update Gets a Thumbs-Up From Glove Users
- Winter Road-Tripping in Our Long-Term EVs Has Been … Interesting
- For Us, It'll Cost $18K to Power a House With Our F-150 Lightning
- Ford F-150 Lightning OTA Tracker: Keep Up With Software Changes
- Can You Charge a Ford F-150 Lightning at a Tesla Supercharger?
- Time to Scale Back Expectations?
- We Charged Our F-150 Lightning at 7-Eleven and All We Got Was This Stupid Hat
- Too Fast For the Dragstrip
- Is the F-150 Lightning Better Than a GMC Hummer EV Pickup?
- We're Paying $650/Year to Subscribe to Our Ford F-150 Lightning
- Battery Troubles for Our Electric Pickup
- Road-Tripping Our F-150 Lightning Is Hard—Ford Doesn't Make It Any Easier
- An EV Novice Takes Our Electric Pickup Off-Road
- The Cheap Way to Power a Home With Our F-150 Lightning
- Okay, the Road-Tripping Part Really Is Something
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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