Can a Ford F-150 Lightning Power a Welder? We Tested By Welding a Flamingo

Running two Ford F-150 Lightnings in our fleet over the past year has taught us a lot about electric trucks. There’s been some good and some bad, but regardless, there is no reason to believe you can’t get some serious work done with one. Beyond hauling stuff around, the Pro Power Onboard system available on our Ford pickups lets you power almost any 240- or 120-volt electric accessory, and that opens a whole new level of getting work done.

We’ve tested Pro Power Onboard before. After an eye-watering cost estimate to use our LA-based Lightning to power a whole house, we used Pro Power to keep a home office on the grid and a few beers cold during a power outage—a thriftier and highly effective choice. Our Detroit-based Lightning has some experience with an electric chainsaw in the woods, but we hadn’t really found the limits of Pro Power Onboard yet, so we grabbed a 120-volt Lincoln Electric welder and a maimed flamingo to see if the dream of a mobile fabrication shop could be realized. We suspect the flamingo will be no problem, but can Pro Power Onboard and the Lightning really support an entire job site?

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What is Pro Power Onboard?

The Lightning has two options for exportable power: Pro and XLT trims come standard with 2.4-kilowatt capability, with an option to add the 9.6-kilowatt Pro Power Onboard package. Lariat trims, such as our Los Angeles–based Lightning, get the 9.6-kilowatt capability as standard equipment. Our long-term XLT has the upgraded 9.6 kilowatts as part of the 312A equipment group option, but it is available as a stand-alone $1,200 option.

The standard offering has two 120-volt outlets in the cab, two 120-volt outlets in the bed, and four 120-volt outlets in the “Mega Power Frunk.” Each outlet supports a maximum 20-amp draw, with a total system capacity of 2.4 kilowatts. Upgrading to the 9.6-kilowatt package adds two additional 120-volt outlets and one 240-volt, 30-amp outlet (7.2 kilowatts) in the bed.

Why Welding?

Of all the suggestions Ford has for what to plug into the Pro Power Onboard outlets—coffee makers, printers, saws, work lights, jack hammers, etc.—a welder has a variable operating range and seemed like the highest draw component that most customers are likely to have, especially compared to, say, a jackhammer.

Even though our Lightning has a 240-volt outlet, we opted for a 120-volt Lincoln Electric Handy Mig machine with a 20-amp maximum draw. One reason is because it's what we had, and it is probably what most people have, too. Additionally, a 240-volt, 30-amp circuit would need a bigger job to really push it. Our Handy Mig can weld up to eighth-inch steel plate or tube, and that should capture the lighter-duty projects that most people might work on with their trucks. A 240-volt welder would draw less current than our Handy Mig to weld the same thickness steel. Voltage in the welder is rectified internally from AC to DC for much lower voltage but higher current outputs, up to 70 amps for our Lincoln. With a higher voltage input, less current would be needed for the same 70-amp DC output.

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The Project

Technical director Frank Markus had a lingering repair job that called for the use of our welder: an ornamental flamingo that had lost its beak. As happy as we all were for the prospect of bringing the flamingo back to its former glory, a few tack welds weren’t going to do the trick. So we grabbed some 16-gauge 1-inch square tube and plate to build a small working surface for the bird and 8-inch steel plate to really push the limits once we were done with the repair. Since we would need to cut our material to size, a chop saw was added to the mix, too. We opted for self-shielding wire because it is better outdoors where shielding gases can get blown away, and it better tolerates materials that aren’t perfectly clean.

With our welder and saw staged in the bed, we needed to get power to the outlets. With the truck powered on, they can be turned on inside the cabin with a physical button on the left side of the dashboard or through the touchscreen. (Trucks with the larger infotainment display, such as our Lariat, lack the hard button.) Using the touchscreen, head to the “features” menu from the bottom ribbon and select “Pro Power Onboard.” From there, you can turn on the outlets, see which outlets are in use, test the outlets, monitor power draw, and set the reserve range for when to turn external power off to reach a charger. Our reserve was set to 85 miles. With 115 miles projected to be left, we would have plenty of battery capacity. On the left side of the bed where the outlets are, there is also a green button to activate the outlets.

Doing the Work

We bought two 16-gauge, 12-inch square plates to build our working surface and would need three lengths of our square tube. We fired up our saw and got to work after measuring the tube with the scale on the tailgate’s edge. While cutting, we saw a peak of 1,240 watts on the meter inside the truck when the saw started to spin, and it fluctuated between 700 and 1000 watts from there. Dividing watts by volts will give you current, so at its peak, our saw put a 10-amp load on the circuit.

Once we had our pieces cut, we were ready to start welding. To start off with our 16-gauge plate, we set our Lincoln to its low setting. We would put one square tube at the edge of each plate and then one in the middle to join the two plates together. The monitor inside the truck showed as high as 2,570 watts at the initial arc strike and as low as 1,700 watts during continuous use. That would give us a range of 14 to 21 amps. But if the welder was using 21 amps, why didn’t the breaker trip?

When a circuit is rated for a specific current, it needs to be able to handle said current for extended periods of time. Circuits can typically handle temporary spikes in current (amps) and rate of consumption (watts), often as much as 50 percent for short periods of time. Breakers will vary based on design and intended use, but small spikes can be sustained for anywhere from minutes to days. Those 50 percent higher spikes or more are what will trip a breaker right away. So 21 amps is no big deal for the Pro Power 120-volt circuit, and this is the same reason our monitor inside the truck shows a maximum of 3,600 watts when the circuit is rated for 2,400 watts. The 2,400 watts is the safe continuous use rating, and the maximum 3,600 watts is leaves room for the spikes common with electrical equipment.

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The peak we saw represents the extra power needed to overcome the inertia of the saw to get it moving, and for our welder, it is the extra power needed to strike the arc across an air gap and cold metal. If we were to run the saw and welder at the same time on the same circuit, we would run into issues. But because the system can handle a total of 9,600 watts, if we run one on the A circuit and one on the B circuit, we won’t have any problems.

We finished up our miniature fab table and ended up with a great working surface for the flamingo. We clamped the bird to it to keep it stable and reattached the beak with no issues. But now we really needed to push the limits of the Pro Power system, so we moved on to our 8-inch plate—nothing fancy this time, just some lap joints to give us something to work with.

We switched the Lincoln to its high setting and went for it. We started running a bead with the intention of going as far as we could before something quit. After a 2-inch weld, we tripped the breaker on the truck. You can hear the breaker over the welder, but we were surprised to see that there was no message inside the truck. Working in a loud area, it might not be immediately evident whether the tool or the truck is the problem. Because we heard it, we knew to head straight for the white buttons to reset it. We kept going and found that if we kept the welds to 1 inch or less, heat in the circuit dissipated quick enough to keep the breaker from tripping.

Can it Support an Entire Job Site?

Ford says the 9.6-kilowatt system can support a residential construction job for three days on a single charge. But can it really? As far as battery capacity goes, that claim checks out. We weren’t at it long, but we didn’t even lose 1 mile of range. Ford has suggestions for tools to use for specific situations and calls out a list for a mobile metal shop slightly better equipped than ours. Its list has a plasma cutter (1,800 watts), TIG welder (1,700 watts), chop saw (1,500 watts), 1.5-hp air compressor (1,200 watts), angle grinder (800 watts) and work light (200 watts). Add it all up, and you get 7,200 watts.

Ford refers to that number as the “simultaneous use total.” In theory, that is true. In practice, you’ll have to be strategic about how you plug everything in, and you won’t be able to use everything at the same time. Ford’s 1,700- and 1,500-watt figures for a welder and saw match ours, but remember where they peaked? For short periods of time, the higher-current tools have potential to overload the 2.4-kilowatt circuits. Each circuit has two plugs, so pair up tools accordingly.

We’ve proven that using real power tools is possible, but would you even want to? For us, absolutely. It isn’t uncommon for people to have additional freezers or refrigerators in their garage, and a residential 20-amp circuit won’t support an appliance and something like a welder. Just pull in the driveway and go to work like we did. Using the Lightning on a farm for repairs or building something where electricity isn’t readily accessible is not only practical but also a clean and easy solution. You can get Pro Power Onboard up to 7.2 kilowatts in ICE and hybrid F-150s, but the Lightning can provide more power and do so silently. Even if the tools aren’t quiet, you won’t have to listen to a generator droning on in the background or leave your truck idling for extended periods of time.

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