Early Pebble Flow trip notes with an F-150 Lightning

My wife and I and our 15 lb Yorkie mix have completed two short trips in our Pebble Flow, towed with our 2023 F-150 Lightning Lariat Extended Range with the Tow Package.

Overall, we love it and would gladly buy it again. We’ve tent camped a few times (less than once a year), and I’ve only occasionally towed a trailer, so we do not have experience with a camper trailer.

At both campsites, which had concrete pads, we pulled up in front of the pad, unhooked the Pebble, and drove it into the campsite. We used InstaCamp to set up the Pebble, Magic Hitch to hook back up to the truck, and Auto Dump before leaving to dump the black and gray tanks. Auto Dump is a bit slow (takes a few minutes), but I can’t complain.

We had water available at both sites, so we didn’t fill the clean-water tank. The hot-water heater worked fine for washing dishes and taking a shower, but not at the same time.

My wife and I are on the shorter side and found the bed and shower to have plenty of room. I find the toilet area a bit cramped. It was easy to accidentally poke the buttons on the wall for toilet water/flush, lights, vent, and windows when reaching with my right hand for toilet paper while seated.

It would be better if the medicine cabinet were to the right of the sink instead of directly behind it. The mirror could remain behind the sink, but the wall to the right of the mirror is underutilized and would be a good place for the medicine cabinet or open shelves.

Regarding the toilet, the Fill button doesn’t provide much water even after pressing it several times, and my wife and I both had issues with solids not flushing. We now keep a small plastic measuring cup in the medicine cabinet that we fill from the sink to add water to the toilet in these situations.

It rained both times we were camping. The first time it started raining, we had the windows open and discovered rain would come into the trailer between the top of the window glass and the frame, so we had to keep the windows closed. Also, the open door is not under the awning and would get wet, so we had to keep the door closed too.

We thought we could sit under the awning and stay dry near the kitchen window, but there is a sizable gap between the awning and the frame and rain would splash/drip on us. I’m contemplating using pool noodles to fill that gap. This would also allow us to keep the kitchen window open while it is raining.

We also had water dripping in the open storage area above and to the right of the kitchen. After the first trip, I figured out it is right where the awning is mounted. I used clear silicone caulk around all the bolts and brackets for the awning, and it did not leak on our second trip.

Our first trip was close to home (about 15 miles), so we didn’t need to charge on the way there. Our second trip was about 200 miles away, and I planned a stop about halfway both going and coming home. The Pebble didn’t charge overnight because I only have 110V outlets on that side of the house and the new charger doesn’t seem to like the GFCI outlets. We stopped at a Tesla Supercharger and tried a NACS-to-CCS adapter, but the Pebble would not charge. I saw that it only works if the Tesla charger has a Magic Dock.

When the Pebble was charged and assist was turned on, we were getting about 1.4 mi/kWh at 55–65 mph. It was windy both going and coming back. I normally get 2.0–2.2 mi/kWh and was hoping for less range impact.

We had a panic moment when I thought I had locked the iPad in the cargo compartment while charging. Luckily it was in the truck. But if anything happened to the iPad, it seems like a single point of failure for a lot of features. What if we had been camping with InstaCamp deployed and the iPad broke or was lost? I know we can use the buttons at the front of the trailer to raise/lower the jack and engage/disengage the parking brake. Could we get the stabilizers/levelers retracted so we could get the trailer home?

We tried attaching hooks to the outside of the cabinet with the clothes bar using 3M Command Strips, but the adhesive wouldn’t stick to the cabinet surface.

On our second trip, we had the A/C on the first night and the heater on the second night. Both worked fine.

There were some other minor maintenance issues. Two screws holding the rear window frame popped out. The screw closest to the mirror holding the shower-curtain track popped out, and the track partly separated from the ceiling. The cabinet-door panel attached to the fridge door keeps coming detached. The fridge door is a bit hard to open.

The Lightning has no problem towing the Pebble. My wife drove part of the way, and we both had to keep an eye on our speed to avoid going too fast. We also didn’t experience any braking issues. I added snap-on towing mirrors, and they worked great. They helped me see better behind the trailer, and I could also see where the tires were within the lane.