Florida man uses F-150 to power appliances, phones, computer after hurricane
Wife skeptical of truck left stunned
Floridians trapped for days after Hurricane Milton suffered loss of life and property damage, and survival in darkness — after high winds knocked out electricity needed to run refrigerators and air-conditioners in the sweltering heat and humidity.
But Jeremy Gilmore, 46, who served in the U.S. Marines and retired from the U.S. Army after deployments in the Middle East, turned to his 2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid truck with Pro Power onboard, using his pickup to power his home in Tampa during brutal weather affecting millions earlier this month in the Sunshine State.
“From Wednesday to Saturday night, my truck didn’t move. We had it plugged in the entire time” in generator mode, Gilmore told me. “The longest time we ran it straight was about 48 hours with no issues whatever. We plugged in our refrigerator, stand-up deep freezer, a power cooler freezer, a large industrial fan, a small oscillating fan, our cell phone chargers and the internet.”
He added, “We moved our internet box to the garage and had the WiFi point plugged in. I used maybe 20% of the truck’s capability. I had a whole tank of gas last me four days, a 36-gallon tank, and a 1/4-tank left.”
True confession: Gilmore forgot to turn off the truck’s air-conditioning, so that ran the whole time, too.
“I was an idiot,” he said, laughing with relief, knowing his wife and Great Danes are safe now.
The family does need a new roof and all new floors on the home’s first level, hardwood and carpeted.
But, somehow, the F-150 made the whole terrifying situation a little bit less terrifying.
Saved $1,000 worth of food this hurricane
An F-150 Hybrid has a built-in battery that powers the truck, then when the battery runs down, gasoline runs the truck and recharges the battery.
“The truck would use the battery for 20-30 minutes and then the engine would turn on to recharge the battery,” Gilmore said. “My engine was so much quieter than the generators around us. We could hear their generators with our front door closed, but we couldn’t hear the truck. We also didn’t lose any of our food, which could have cost $1,000 or $1,500.”
F-150 Hybrid: Apprehension turns to love
Catherine Gilmore, 44, an elementary school teacher, drives a Dodge Durango R/T and didn’t much like the idea of an F-150 Hybrid. She said she was “leery” about the new technology and worried something would go wrong.
She wasn’t thrilled with the handling of the vehicle, saying it was “sensitive” and “highly responsive” compared to her old “rough and tumble” Jeep Wrangler.
That said, Catherine Gilmore explained that she comes from a family that drove Fords, so she understood the loyalty and appreciated those memories.
Then Milton arrived.
A $45,000 bargain
“Jeremy said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Our truck will act as a generator. I have everything in place to make sure we don’t lose our food and we have some comfort.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. Let me see this in action,’” Catherine Gilmore said.
“Having been through hurricanes before, I’m used to just having to throw away all our food,” she said.
This week, a coach at school asked about the truck, because everybody is saying great things about the F-150 Hybrid, Catherine Gilmore said. “I told him, ‘I don’t like the truck. I kind of love the truck, now.’ I told him I was able to cook in the kitchen and feel semi-normal. We didn’t have the loud, obnoxious generator sound.”
Definitely worth the sticker price of $45,000 paid back in 2021, Jeremy Gilmore said.
State and federal officials told homeowners to stay put, so not moving the truck wasn’t a problem from Wednesday, October 9, through Saturday, October 12.
Things in the Caribbean are swirling again, and it’s a concern, Catherine Gilmore said. “If we’re going to have damage, let’s please have all the damage before we start all the repairs.”
Spike in use of F-150 Hybrids after storms
Every day, owners are using the F-150 Hybrid and all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup for their Pro Power Onboard systems, Mike Levine, Ford North America product communications director, told me.
“What’s interesting is that we see increases of up to six times the typical daily usage in areas suffering from power outages following recent hurricanes,” he said. “That’s using at least 1,000 kilowatts of power for more than three minutes, indicating a number of appliances or tools being powered.”
The F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid accounts for about 22% of F-150 sales, year-to-date through September of this year compared to full year 2023 of 13%, Levine said.
Ford builds the only hybrid pickup truck that can power a home. Its unique recharging capacity is a trusted technology now.
The all-electric Chevy Silverado turns into a mobile generator, while Tesla offers as an option a generator in the front trunk of its Cybertruck. Green Car Reports called this feature “Apocalypse Ready.”
Zero panic with power on demand
Meanwhile, Jeff King, vice president and general manager at Bozard Ford Lincoln in St. Augustine, Florida, set aside 20 F-150 Hybrid pickups to be ready for use after Hurricane Milton.
But it ended up tearing up the area just south of his dealership in northeastern Florida.
King’s team wasn’t so lucky when Hurricane Helene touched down on September 26.
“Helene knocked our power out of the dealership,” King said. “We were open with all our F-150s running the store. All the computers, the shop was open, running our equipment. We know how to run the store using our F-150 Hybrids and EVs.”
Bozard Ford posted a video on its Facebook page to promote a “no power sales event” on Sept. 27, 2024 after Hurricane Helene hit.
While hybrid trucks capture headlines, the all-electric Lightning works just like a generator, too, King said. “We have everything all gassed up and charged up and we’re ready if we need to deploy. The day Helene came through, the power was out until 11 a.m. (from 1 a.m.) and we sold 26 cars that day.”
A 2024 F-150 Hybrid XLT 4x4 starts at $59,445, including option pricing and destination fees. That truck comes standard with 2 kilowatts of Pro Power. Getting the maximum 7.2 kilowatts of power costs another $850 for a total of $60,295.
Gilmore went all in, purchasing a pickup with 7.2 kW.
Finding gratitude after crisis
Looking back over the past three weeks, Jeremy and Catherine Gilmore are surprised by the strength of recent storms. They had heated discussion just before Milton hit because the husband was certain his wife was wrong or confused about the threat level.
The timing was a bizarre nightmare, he said.
“I was moving all my mother’s stuff up from Florida to Hickory, North Carolina and we actually had to delay our trip a week because of Hurricane Helene,” Jeremy Gilmore said. “We saw the storm system and it was a low probability of forming anything. So I continued on with the trip, leaving Tampa on Friday, October 4.”
Within 36 hours, the storm grew into a Category 3 hurricane.
“We argued and I looked it up, and, yep, sure enough,” Jeremy Gilmore said.
So he raced back to Florida to get prepared and, by then, stores were out of storm supplies and Amazon couldn’t deliver what was needed fast enough.
“We ran extension cords, plugged into the truck, ran them underneath the garage door and had the truck pre-set and ready to go. When we did lose power, we could turn on the truck,” Jeremy Gilmore said.
“The majority of us had generators,” he said. “Those who didn’t actually evacuated. The truck allowed us to stay in the house, where we’ve lived since 2008.”
After our interview, Gilmore wrote me, “The Powerboost is proving that it is not just a truck for the job sites. It is helping to save the lives of Americans in times of crisis.”
As a former reporter at The Des Moines Register and lecturer at the annual Okoboji Writers Retreat in Iowa, Phoebe Wall Howard is part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
These are awesome for someone who wants to tour with a camper and not have to haul a generator along too.
In the thrall of “what will this election bring” but the Fords are top of my list for “Xmas” shopping! (For me, I’m more of a hybrid seeker, my DM trips and “fueling” at the farm make a bit of worry about EV only)