sizotty
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- @theoverlandstory
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Just wrapped up a 1,500 mile roadtrip towing a 23’ travel trailer. 9 nights and 4 locations. 10 DCFC stops with no hiccups and never needing to unhook the trailer in order to charge. Also, 3 days before the trip my official NACS adapter arrived. I have the A2Z but a bitter more piece of mind for any warranty issues using the official one. Couldn’t have asked for better luck!
I decided to do a pretty big writeup as reading others helped me plan and figure out how to make this trip a success. Details below!
2022 R1T Quad, Large pack with 20" OEM AT’s
Big disclaimer here, I have 2 kids, a 7 week old and an almost 3 year old. For those parents out there, you know that means I have to stop often for bottle feeds and diaper changes. That means my plan was to pick chargers that were *hopefully* trailer friendly as well as spaced appropriately for bottles for my youngest. Our friends that were with us have a 3 month old and a dog FWIW.
I rented the trailer for a great price at $65/night (FB Marketplace find), which means I didn’t get to test out efficiency prior to the trip. After seeing what others have been getting, I decided to go with 1.1 kWh/mi as a conservative estimate. I ended up getting better efficiency, so I wasn’t shy of the skinny pedal after the first couple legs with speeds 65-73 while towing (allegedly). As we all know, efficiency is dominated by aero, and this trailer is only 7ft wide which is likely a big contributor to the better efficiency than typical 7.5 of 8ft wide trailers.
Happy to report, the entire trip we never were waiting on the truck to charge, and often arrived with 40-90 miles of range left.
This is the original ABRP plan vs. what actually happened. Keep in mind the first leg of the trip on my way to Perris to pick up the trailer I obviously outperformed the estimate and got there something like 84%. We never were waiting on the truck to charge and it was always taking care of kids that took the longest. There was also a road closure on the 395, although that detour wouldn’t have changed any of the charging plans.
Travel day 1: from Perris to Morro Bay we made 3 stops:
1: https://www.plugshare.com/location/519708 Tesla Supercharger site - was less than half full, but was able to charge and didn’t block anyone. The EVgo next to it was full with a line.
2: https://www.plugshare.com/location/268411 Tesla Supercharger site - Got REALLY lucky with this spot. The exact charger and neighboring parking spots were all open. It was well over 105 degrees, and we went to eat at the habit burger in this parking lot. The restaurant was packed with a line and the AC in the restaurant could only get the place down to what must have been the 80’s.
3: https://www.plugshare.com/location/617971 Tesla Supercharger site - Our original plan was to stop by Solvang, but it was 102 which would have been miserable for both infants, the dog and everyone else for that matter. We ended up stopping at this nearly brand new v4 (3.5) Supercharger site. I had to block one stall, but I was the only one here. Grabbed some quick groceries, fed the youngest and changed some diapers, then back on the road.
Camp:
We stayed in Morro Bay for a few nights. Campground had 50 amp service while the trailer only needs 30amp, so a “free” charge!
Here are some photos, and one of the days we headed to Pismo to get our toes/tires in the sand.
Travel day 2: from Morro Bay to Lotus California.
We took an intentional detour for this leg of the journey. We decided to stop through Jackson, CA so we can get a photo for my son Jackson. YMVY if you opt to stay on the interstate.
Camp: We stayed at a place with only 30 amp service. The campground was close to vacant so I plugged into the neighboring 30 Amp service with my adapter so I can get 24 amps on the 120. https://amzn.to/47CyeRz
Travel day 3: Lotus to South Lake Tahoe.
No charging needed, and DAMN, these trucks are beasts. Couldn’t help myself ripping this thing up the mountain with trailer in tow.
Camp: Similar to the previous spot, the campground was 50% full so at night we used a bit of the 30 amp next door as we explored Tahoe during the days.
We saw 4 bears in our campground during our 3 night stay, with evidence of more during the night (see the end of the post). But when we were all sitting around at camp one afternoon my son says 'Look, a bear!' and about 15 feet from us this huge guy was sniffing in our friends stroller that was in between his truck and trailer. The bear then wondered to a neighboring camp and tore into their cooler and trash.
Travel day 4: South Lake Tahoe to Lone Pine.
Camp: We stayed at a campground with 20/30/50 amp service, so we topped up over night. We pulled in, setup the trailer then I took the family into Alabama Hills to explore during sunset, then off to dinner.
Travel day 5: Lone Pine to Perris, drop off trailer, then home!
Tips and items that really helped the journey.
Since we rented the trailer, we had to pack our groceries and gear in the car. Knowing it was a heat wave and we couldn’t expect the fridge in the trailer to be cold until late that night, my 12v fridge setup came very much in handy for this journey.
I use an ecoflow to keep the fridge running so it doesn’t sap more juice from the truck. This is for long camping trips primarily, but it worked a treat here. I also recently added solar and more storage that I can put on my bed crossbars. Here is a video explaining that:
Worse thing that happened?
Final numbers
Total cost of charging: $370
This could have been lower if I opted to find more campgrounds with 50amp service. I also returned home with about 100 miles of range remaining.
Final efficiency numbers
I decided to do a pretty big writeup as reading others helped me plan and figure out how to make this trip a success. Details below!
2022 R1T Quad, Large pack with 20" OEM AT’s
Big disclaimer here, I have 2 kids, a 7 week old and an almost 3 year old. For those parents out there, you know that means I have to stop often for bottle feeds and diaper changes. That means my plan was to pick chargers that were *hopefully* trailer friendly as well as spaced appropriately for bottles for my youngest. Our friends that were with us have a 3 month old and a dog FWIW.
I rented the trailer for a great price at $65/night (FB Marketplace find), which means I didn’t get to test out efficiency prior to the trip. After seeing what others have been getting, I decided to go with 1.1 kWh/mi as a conservative estimate. I ended up getting better efficiency, so I wasn’t shy of the skinny pedal after the first couple legs with speeds 65-73 while towing (allegedly). As we all know, efficiency is dominated by aero, and this trailer is only 7ft wide which is likely a big contributor to the better efficiency than typical 7.5 of 8ft wide trailers.
Happy to report, the entire trip we never were waiting on the truck to charge, and often arrived with 40-90 miles of range left.
This is the original ABRP plan vs. what actually happened. Keep in mind the first leg of the trip on my way to Perris to pick up the trailer I obviously outperformed the estimate and got there something like 84%. We never were waiting on the truck to charge and it was always taking care of kids that took the longest. There was also a road closure on the 395, although that detour wouldn’t have changed any of the charging plans.
Travel day 1: from Perris to Morro Bay we made 3 stops:
1: https://www.plugshare.com/location/519708 Tesla Supercharger site - was less than half full, but was able to charge and didn’t block anyone. The EVgo next to it was full with a line.
2: https://www.plugshare.com/location/268411 Tesla Supercharger site - Got REALLY lucky with this spot. The exact charger and neighboring parking spots were all open. It was well over 105 degrees, and we went to eat at the habit burger in this parking lot. The restaurant was packed with a line and the AC in the restaurant could only get the place down to what must have been the 80’s.
3: https://www.plugshare.com/location/617971 Tesla Supercharger site - Our original plan was to stop by Solvang, but it was 102 which would have been miserable for both infants, the dog and everyone else for that matter. We ended up stopping at this nearly brand new v4 (3.5) Supercharger site. I had to block one stall, but I was the only one here. Grabbed some quick groceries, fed the youngest and changed some diapers, then back on the road.
Camp:
We stayed in Morro Bay for a few nights. Campground had 50 amp service while the trailer only needs 30amp, so a “free” charge!
Here are some photos, and one of the days we headed to Pismo to get our toes/tires in the sand.
Travel day 2: from Morro Bay to Lotus California.
We took an intentional detour for this leg of the journey. We decided to stop through Jackson, CA so we can get a photo for my son Jackson. YMVY if you opt to stay on the interstate.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/350134 Tesla Supercharger - Kettleman City (the lower 55 chargers). If we weren’t at the whim of the kids needs, we would only have needed a 6 minute charge here, but once we were done taking care of the kids we charged more than originally planned which shifted our next couple charging plans. And yes, we were the only souls here.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/583254 RAN - This was the best trailer stop, two perfectly located trailer stalls that can accommodate long trailers. Family was hungry for lunch so we ate at a restaurant nearby. Was excited to see that there was windshield cleaning stations, but the summer temps had other plans.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/484967 RAN - this stop could have been avoided, our youngest was starting to break down a bit and we were looking to be somewhat tight on range (although I could have just chilled out on speed and more than made up for it) but we opted to stop real quick and check on the kids.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/281476 Tesla Supercharger - this stop was far longer than needed. We decided to treat my son to some ice cream to make visiting Jackson CA fun for him so we stopped at Mels Diner which is in this parking lot. It’s a magic dock location. Thought the starlink connectivity was cool. We pulled up and a model Y that wasn’t towing was in this spot, but they came out of the restaurant and left after about 2 minutes of waiting. Got lucky once again.
-
Camp: We stayed at a place with only 30 amp service. The campground was close to vacant so I plugged into the neighboring 30 Amp service with my adapter so I can get 24 amps on the 120. https://amzn.to/47CyeRz
Travel day 3: Lotus to South Lake Tahoe.
No charging needed, and DAMN, these trucks are beasts. Couldn’t help myself ripping this thing up the mountain with trailer in tow.
Camp: Similar to the previous spot, the campground was 50% full so at night we used a bit of the 30 amp next door as we explored Tahoe during the days.
We saw 4 bears in our campground during our 3 night stay, with evidence of more during the night (see the end of the post). But when we were all sitting around at camp one afternoon my son says 'Look, a bear!' and about 15 feet from us this huge guy was sniffing in our friends stroller that was in between his truck and trailer. The bear then wondered to a neighboring camp and tore into their cooler and trash.
Travel day 4: South Lake Tahoe to Lone Pine.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/191333 EA - Wife and kids needed a stop, so we pulled in here and opted for some unnecessary juice as we could have made it to Lee Vining no problem, but figured if we are stopping now we should juice up so the truck won’t need as long at the next stop. We were the only vehicle there.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/495842 RAN - Yet again only vehicle there. Trailer parking is great. I could have pulled up a foot or more here, but as you can see if someone is towing a larger trailer they can end up easily blocking another stall. We grabbed a pizza and ate outside. Truck was more than finished before we were done eating.
Camp: We stayed at a campground with 20/30/50 amp service, so we topped up over night. We pulled in, setup the trailer then I took the family into Alabama Hills to explore during sunset, then off to dinner.
Travel day 5: Lone Pine to Perris, drop off trailer, then home!
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/334765 RAN - Trailer spot, we were the only Rivian here, and one Tesla came and went between both of the supercharger sites here. Bathroom break, bottle break and diaper change then back on the road.
- https://www.plugshare.com/location/488401 Tesla Supercharger - The final stop. I expected this one to be a bit tricky (and for the whole trip I kept eyeing this new v4 site nearby to go live and try and use it before people knew it was there. When I first pulled up here the first charger acted up. When I plugged in the Tesla app said showed a dialog like ‘generating charge summary’. I then pulled the truck forward a bit to try the next one. When I checked the app to initiate the next charger, the last bank of chargers (4a-d) were now marked offline on the app. Seems like the charger, not dispenser, had to reboot or something. Luckily I could pull forward even more, getting a bit close to a model S who was charging on that row, I was able to charge on the C block of chargers, and by the time we got back to the truck the D block was back online and people were using them. We grabbed some food at the stores nearby and the truck again was ready well before we were. Sorry, missed any photos for this spot but this is how I charged.
Tips and items that really helped the journey.
Since we rented the trailer, we had to pack our groceries and gear in the car. Knowing it was a heat wave and we couldn’t expect the fridge in the trailer to be cold until late that night, my 12v fridge setup came very much in handy for this journey.
I use an ecoflow to keep the fridge running so it doesn’t sap more juice from the truck. This is for long camping trips primarily, but it worked a treat here. I also recently added solar and more storage that I can put on my bed crossbars. Here is a video explaining that:
- Fridge: https://amzn.to/47wDExD
- Battery (EcoFlow): https://amzn.to/3sHC0cx
- Solar: https://amzn.to/4eA21wH
- Case: https://amzn.to/3AgAWj1
- Height adjustable hitch (useful since I rented the trailer and wasn’t sure of its tongue height): https://amzn.to/3TyBhEM
- Backup camera (The trailer was only 7ft wide, so I had some visibility on the sides. This backup camera worked great and highly recommend. It’s supposed to be mounted at the top of the trailer, but It has an extremely strong magnet and solar, so I just stuck it on the rear bumper. https://amzn.to/3BedbbV
- Gazelle bug screen/easy up gazebo: https://amzn.to/3zv5Cx4
- EV specific 30 amp -> NEMA 14-50 adapter. This allows/tricks your EVSE to accept 24 amps on a 30 amp 120 circuit. If you are using this, you MUST drop the amperage inside the truck as its going to think its on a circuit that it can pull more from. https://amzn.to/47CyeRz
- I also brought my Tesla EVSE and its 20 amp adapter, definitely recommend getting one of these for whichever EVSE you use. https://amzn.to/47ysDM0
- This sand free mat has been great. We use it at the beach, at campsites and of course during this trip. Worthwhile purchase IMO. https://amzn.to/4eovslm
Worse thing that happened?
- A bear got into my buddies Raptor. He accidentally left the window down overnight and it crawled through his window. It put a small dent in the door and two smaller tears on the interior. He lucked out, and then when he was driving down the mountain the negative pressure from the air on his door actually popped out the dent!
- My tonneau finally gave up the ghost. 2 years, tons of desert trips and hard use on the truck and the cover. I believe a few pine needles and other tree parts are believed to be the culprit.
Final numbers
Total cost of charging: $370
This could have been lower if I opted to find more campgrounds with 50amp service. I also returned home with about 100 miles of range remaining.
Final efficiency numbers
Sponsored
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