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3,500 Mile roundtrip, Indiana, Texas, New Mexico and back.

SingleMalt

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Jon
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Rivian R1T
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Soon to be retired
This is a long post, and I don't post very much, so forgive me if I violated any posting protocols.

We took a 3,500 mile round trip in our R1T (with a Tepui Kukenam tent) from Indiana to Palo Duro Canyon in TX, then to Oliver Lee State Park in NM, then down to Guadalupe Mountains NP in TX, then back to Indiana. Camped six consecutive nights, 2 nights in each park previously listed. Instead of a really long day by day log of events, I’ll just my observations of the trip and experience. I’ve had the truck for a year now, and it has ~18,500 miles. My only complaint is regarding the 21” Pirelli Tires. I didn’t have any flats on this trip, and because I’ve been rotating them myself (3 times now) they are wearing pretty evenly and I probably have another 10 - 15K miles left on them, but they are not what I would call puncture resistant. I’ve had one curb scrape flat (my fault) and two with nail/screw holes in non-repairable locations. Replaced with some used tires I found on eBay, but I’m considering 20” wheels or waiting on better 21” tires from someone else (Michelin hopefully?)

Observations

Love, love, love, auto-leveling. Having slept in tents on uneven campsites before, the leveling makes a huge difference. Liked the Camp Courtesy feature too. Tent over the bed instead of on the roof is a plus too.

Did charge at campsites with RV hookups in Palo Duro which had 50 AMP circuits. At Oliver Lee they were all 30 AMP and my adapter didn’t work. I’m going to look into the Parkworld EV 50 AMP to TT-30 connector the next time I take a trip. I’d be interested if anyone has used this adapter to charge at 30 AMP hookups in an RV spot.

https://www.amazon.com/Parkworld-88...refix=parkworld+ev+adapter,aps,99&sr=8-5&th=1

It was great to plug in a portable skillet (fajitas powered by Rivian) as well as a microwave and the ARB Refrigerator/Freezer. Battery usage by appliances is hardly noticeable, especially when you’re plugged into the RV hookup. It was great to have hot food every day.

Efficiency with the tent (plus some brutal headwinds through Oklahoma and TX) was about ~1.8 kWh for the duration of the trip. Some legs were better, especially when the wind died down, others not so much. I used Conserve Mode for most of the trip, probably right at posted limits or a few MPH above. (70, 75, and 80 MPH in various locations/states).

We packed a lot of gear in the bed and tunnels, kept the ARB in the back seat, leveled with a hard piece of plastic and pool noodles. (this worked surprisingly well)

The mileage estimate from the truck after charging is somewhat dubious at best. Pay attention to the percentage of battery and do some rough math in your head and make sure you’re next charging stop is within your comfort zone. I tried to charge whenever we were about 15%, that meant about every 2.5 hours, maybe a bit more. I used Plugshare mostly and just used the Truck routing just to have a map up on the screen and to prepare the batteries for fast charging.

Charged to 95% one time on the trip to ensure enough electrons to reach the next desired stop, usually went to 80 - 85%. The mileage estimator in the route planner is hit or miss, although it always adds a bit of anxiety. Often it would tell me at the beginning of a leg that we weren’t going to make it to the next stop, sometimes it would readjust mid-leg, other times it didn’t update. This isn’t a big deal when there are lots of fast chargers along your route, but when you have to make every fast charger to make the trip bearable, it gets your attention. There’s no substitute for experience and paying attention.

There aren’t enough fast chargers out west to give you enough choices in route planning. And, all of them aren’t all that reliable. Most of them charge by the kWh, although some charged by the minute. I got a few really cheap charges on EA in parts of Texas where they charged by the minute (97 kWh for $9.71 in Sweetwater TX, compared to $37.44 for 94 kWh in Bristow, OK). Charging by kWh was the most prevalent.

Francis Energy had some charging stations in OK, where they advertised pay per minute, which although true was misleading because all of the 200kWh chargers were either offline or de-rated to ~80kWh. Seemed like a scam to me and was pretty consistent at the two or three I tried. What value pay per minute if they de-rate the fast chargers?

Mostly I stuck to EA chargers and to be fair, they were pretty good. My observations about fast charging is the following. Plug into a 350 kWh charger, charging ramps up to ~215 - 220 kWh, and it holds until about 50% capacity, then it incrementally throttles back until ~70%, where the rate drops to ~80kWh and stays there. If you get up above 80%, it might creep back up to ~100 kWh once the battery pack cools down, but I found that if you had enough capacity to get to the next fast charger, it was more time efficient to unplug and get back on the road.

I did call EA once about their chargers in Van Horn, TX and they were actually helpful, confirming that 3 of the four chargers were de-rated and pointed me to the one that was still putting out 150 kWh.

We did a couple of days of 800+ miles and the stops do add to the travel time. That being said, I felt pretty good at the end of every day. I’ve made trips in my Jeep Rubicon where I was just hammered after a long day of engine noise, vibration, road noise, etc. The R1T is a plush comfortable and smooth riding vehicle and doesn’t beat you up at all. Used cruise control, but not Highway assist as it was disabled because I plugged a Brake Light hitch cover into the towing outlet.

https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Covers/Pilot-Automotive/CR-007.html

I thought it was a good idea to have another brake light since the tent covered up the upper break light behind the cab. If you decide to go this route, you’ll also need this adapter.

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Wiring/Hopkins/47405.html

The setup worked pretty well, and it gave me a little more peace of mind knowing that I had plenty of brake lighting.

The vehicle thought I was towing, so it disabled the rear sensors and Highway Assist. I couldn’t find a way to tell the truck I wasn’t towing anything, but it’s possible I missed something. It wasn’t a big deal, but there should be a way to say you have a trailer connected or not so you can use all of the features of Driver+.

I didn’t off-road this time, but I expect I will, either later this year or early next, hopefully on tires that give me more confidence.

That’s about it. The truck was great actually, better for a trip like this than any other vehicle I’ve owned (and there have been plenty). The charging time penalty it a choice you either have to live with or get an ICE vehicle and move on. For me, (retired) I’ve got the time, so it’s a minor inconvenience and it does allow me to get out of the vehicle and stretch a bit. EV charging will get faster and better in future vehicles, but for right now I can’t think of another similarly sized vehicle whether ICE or EV that I’d rather own.
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Denver_Paulie

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Good write up of your adventure. You should post some pictures of where you were and the Rivian in action. Please!!
 

Donald Stanfield

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I don’t think Rivian is ever going to let you override the driver+ turning off when something is plugged into the truck. In your situation it would have been welcome, but I can totally see someone else wanting to use their driver+ lane keep and telling the truck it’s not a trailer just a brake light.

For all I know, and I would assume this is true, the lane keep is super dangerous when pulling a trailer as vehicle dynamics are much different.
 

Yossarian

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. . . The vehicle thought I was towing, so it disabled the rear sensors and Highway Assist. I couldn’t find a way to tell the truck I wasn’t towing anything, but it’s possible I missed something. It wasn’t a big deal, but there should be a way to say you have a trailer connected or not so you can use all of the features of Driver+.

. . . For me, (retired) I’ve got the time, so it’s a minor inconvenience and it does allow me to get out of the vehicle and stretch a bit. EV charging will get faster and better in future vehicles, but for right now I can’t think of another similarly sized vehicle whether ICE or EV that I’d rather own.
Thanks for this posting; good info.

With respect to Tow Mode, my understanding is that even though it automatically engages when something is plugged in to the 7-pole receptacle, the setting could be overridden. As you point out, this would allow you to use Hwy Assist. I don't yet have my R1S, so no personal experience, only what I've seen posted.

As far as stopping for charging, I too am [mostly] retired, and again like you, am not typically in much of a hurry. Even with our Telluride, we usually stop quite frequently, not just to fill up with fuel. We almost always have our two Welshies with us, so like to get them up and out for a stretch every couple of hours, but truth be told, it's me who usually needs the bio break by then. Stopping to recharge the R1S every 150 - 200 miles (which should translate into 3 to 4 hours) will not be a big deal.

Just noticed your handle so will add that my preference is Highland Park, but I'm happy with BenRiach, Arberlour, The Balvenie, Bowmore . . .
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