Electric Trucks Can Finally Go Off-Grid — If You Plan Your Power Right

Electric trucks aren’t just mall-crawlers anymore. With serious ground clearance, torque for days, and built-in power outlets, they’re starting to look like proper adventure rigs. The trick is not getting stranded when the pavement runs out.

How to Plan Real Trips in an Electric Overlander

The newest electric trucks and SUVs post EPA ranges north of 300 miles in their highway-friendly trims—Ford quotes up to 320 miles for certain F-150 Lightning extended-range models, for example. That’s before you add big all-terrain tires, a rooftop tent, and a bed full of recovery gear. Real overlanders report that once you layer in dirt, altitude, and load, practical range looks more like the low-200s per full charge.

Hardware isn’t the weak link. A Rivian R1T, for instance, offers up to 14.9 inches of ground clearance and approach/departure angles in the mid-30s—numbers that hang comfortably with traditional hardcore 4x4s. The quiet, instant torque off-road is addictive.

The real constraint is energy. Out on the trail, your lifeline is slow but steady AC power: RV parks, state-park campgrounds, trailhead lodges, and the occasional ranch with a 240-volt outlet. In North America, that usually means either a 50-amp NEMA 14-50 pedestal or a 30-amp TT-30 “travel-trailer” outlet, which is a 120-volt, 30-amp plug designed for RVs. With the right adapter and a portable EVSE, both will feed your truck overnight—it just takes planning and patience.

This mid-story widget lets you plug in your truck’s rated range, daily trail distance, and campsite power type so you can see how many charging hours you need before you wander deeper off-grid. It’s basically a range-anxiety antidote in chart form.

Beyond shore power, think like any off-grid traveler: portable solar for your “house” battery, conservative daily mileage, loop routes instead of dead-end spurs, and a hard personal rule about never dropping below a certain state-of-charge before turning back. Overlanding guides are already folding EV-specific advice into classic planning checklists.

My Verdict

If your overlanding style is slow travel with plenty of camping, electric trucks are already in play. Build trips around known charging points, keep your days shorter than you would in a diesel, and treat every plugged-in night as part of the adventure, not a chore.

If your version of fun is crossing entire states on remote two-tracks with zero infrastructure, you still want internal combustion for now. But for long weekends, forest-road loops, and state-park exploring, an electric rig delivers a cleaner, quieter version of the same escape—just with a map that revolves around the next plug as much as the next viewpoint.