mm01rivian
Member
- First Name
- Matt
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2023
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 53
- Location
- San Antonio
- Vehicles
- R1S (on order)
- Thread starter
- #1
First time posting a TR here - New Rivian owner - Took delivery of 2025 Gen2 TriMax R1S in late September. Full XPEL PPF (clear) as I didnt want to worry much about branches etc. SA is home base for XPEL so great local work done on it. $$ but worth it IME. All local driving until now. This was our first big trip in the vehicle and our first EV as well so lots to absorb.
Basic Intro - We've had nothing but a positive experience with our Gen2 so far. A few minor fitment things but overall, great. I am fairly tech savvy and am adventurous outdoors (rock climb, canyon, MTB etc) so the Rivian has been on the radar for some time. I am not a nit picky sort of person generally speaking so things like the Gen2 Audio won't bother me nearly as much as some. (eg, you're doing 80mph on the HWY so external sound stage isn't exactly the ideal situation vs my THX home movie room... so yeah, room for improvement but I also am realistic in what my end game is.) Same goes for the Rivian. It's a Porsche, Rubicon and iPhone Pro mixed together. There will be issues and updates to solve (most) things.
Overall Trip Itinerary: SATX-Lubbock-Sedona (Primary Stay)-Tucson-SATX. We wanted to make a big loop for more scenery and things to possibly visit. I spent a large amount of time on Google Maps, ABRP and PlugShare plugging in variables and charging stops, where would good places to eat, take breaks etc. I am that person that uses StreetView to look at VRBO rentals and see what is really there. Over the course of the trip, I modified one or two planned stops vs the original plans but this is the final loop or close to it:
The big takeaways here are PlugShare is an absolute MUST for any trip planning. ABRP is great (more later) as is the Rivian route planing but NEITHER picks up on chargers that are either not networked OR have issues with networking (EA in particular). So in the above, there were 2 DCFC in Clovis, NM that never showed up on ABRP/Rivian. Crowd sourced info on charges is great and I made a point to update while charging at each stop (also nice to eat up time) It is important to note that all road trip driving included 4 MTBs on a vertical hitch rack which 100% kills any aero. See below.
Overall Take on long distance Road Trips: The Rivian is amazing and capable but is by no means an efficient platform. It's a big, heavy brick. If you want high mi/kwH specs, look elsewhere. PERIOD. Prior to the trip, my "around town" driving was about 2.12 in All Purpose (this is mix of street driving and Highway @ 75mph) Pushing a fully loaded-for-adventure flat faced SUV with Bikes sticking above the roof down the highway at 80+mph is not efficient. We saw this as soon as we hit the 80MPH speed limits west of SAT and realized that the single push to San Angelo wasn't going to happen. ABRP had anticipated this but the Riv nav seemed to not have adjusted yet. Over the course of the trip, the in-car nav improved its anticipation of arrival SOC and by the return run, was pretty close for each leg. The Live data feature in ABRP is awesome and worth every penny IMO. I found the anticipate SOC arrival estimates fairly accurate and loved the "charge to" graphs with colors etc. The "Range Line" you see on the trip map is also pretty cool.
What we basically figured out for the entirety of West Texas, NM, AZ (and I suspect the remainder of the MtnWest) is that charger spacing is such that you will be doing hops of 90-150miles. The spacing is such that you really can't "stretch" to the next charger in nearly all places unless near a large metro area like Phoenix with plentiful charging options. Everywhere else, the DCFC are oasis locations with ZERO between them. We were not familiar enough with range etc to be willing to push that and risk SOC arrivals in the low single digits Out of Spec style. I suspect over time we will get a bit better at this estimation and perhaps have a few options available to us but running out of juice in the desert SW is not ideal. [Note: I don't think this is much different than an ICE. We've done similar trips in the past and several legs were similar in that you stopped at 30% gas tank to fill up vs risking not making it to the next town 160mi distant. The hops are just longer...]
Over the 1000 miles out / back legs I'd estimate that the EV life added about 2 hours to the journey each way. We'd still want to stop for food and rest stops etc. There were only a few times where I felt stopping felt "too soon" vs normal ICE travel. The "forced" stops may actually not be as bad honestly as it forces you to walk around a bit - my kids loved the extended "snack shopping" opportunities and I did notice my rear end wasn't as fatigued near the end of the journeys. The last pull back into SATX late into the 16 hour day was the only real "can't I get there already" moment as I futzed with a slow EA charger... Other than that, nothing terrible and I certainly ate better food along the way. If I were to attempt longer trips I suspect I would try to break up the drive more with shorter days and more stops along the way. 700mi / day feels like the sweet spot MAX. If the goal is more than that per day, one would want better efficiency or ICE.
Below: Full Trip (L) and Tucson to SAT Leg (R).
Charging Specifics: Tesla Superchargers hands down are great. Usually great locations and min 8 stalls means almost zero stress of a full charging location. Rivian RANs similar if less common on my route. Charging speeds at these sites was usually peak around 200kW between 10-25%, hold ~175=/- till 50% and then taper. Past 80% SOC was slow(ish). Any food stop meant we charged more than needed while any stop that was bathroom only meant we were waiting 5-10' for the charge to finish. I always went about 5% past what ABRP suggested for lower stress. Only arrived at charging below 10% SOC twice - usually around 18-20%. EA was mixed bag but always worked (PlugShare FTW here vs Rivian rating system. We used both an "F" and a "D" rated charger and saw 150kW at both.) Francis Energy in NM was fine and welcome in the rural areas but not fast. 130kW? Local non-networked charger was only 85kW but we ate breakfast there and left at 95%SOC. The process plug in final destination into Rivian and ABRP and run both in parallel. I would modify the RIV nav as needed based on ABRP or PlugShare input. As I got near the charger (last 30') I would load the native app for that location (Tesla, EA etc) to check status. Tesla SC in malls can be near capacity. EA will show you the time since last used which was also helpful in the "is it working" game. Once at the VRBO, I charged at the location via 24amp dryer plug setup found in another thread on here. Worked flawlessly. Funny note - the outbound traffic for the holiday meant one or two stops had LINES for the gas pumps - never waited for a charger!
Rivian Notes: We've been super happy with the vehicle so far. The occasional bug (eg Garage door pop up that was a solved with latest update) but over all great. We used the all-weather mats for the trip and they were great. We use the plaids for day-to-day as they look wonderful. Frunk storage is awesome for trips as you can stage "must reach" stuff there and put suitcases and other items in the back (doubly important when you have a rack). We'd pop the hood and grab a soda or change shoes at a trail head etc. One potential issue is the hitch is a bit odd. There is a double sleeve around the receiver and this seems to make bolting my rack on a bit funky. Basically, the bolt threads can hit the outer sleeve hole and wear down. Need to look at it more as may be Yakima issue as well. Not sure of vertical vs long-tray bike rack. I have both. +/- to each setup. Airing Up/Down - I tried a 4way "octopus" that all the Jeepers use and just the Rivian single hose. Right now, it felt like the single hose was fas less hassle to jump from one tire to the next and then wrap up vs wrangling all the hoses and valves etc. Getting ANY of the hoses back into the bags is "interesting".... 100% love the full PPF - bugs wipe right off and the occasional branch did nothing to the finish. The adaptive lights are next level good. Quirks with the adaptive cruise and drive assist exist. The cameras can get blinded, some areas not mapped etc etc. Frankly, I am NOT on board with FSD idea yet. Too many quirks in the real world make the human a better driver most of the time. These assists are "tools" to be used in the right circumstances. I find assisted driving is iffy at best in high traffic situations or where there are lots of lane marking issues (construction etc). Where they are GREAT is long pulls on remote highways. Set it and relax as you blast down 80 miles of straight nothing...
Sedona Local Report: Once in town, we were 100% short day tripping it. Rivian is absolutely AWESOME for base camp adventuring. (My preferred adventure style for most things anyway. I love to visit and area and base camp out of a rental place for the week and have done this in Ouray, Jackson, PNW, Whistler, VT and even abroad in Alps etc) We'd venture out each day and I would plug it in each night to charge to 70% SOC which was more than enough.
We did TWO Rivian Specific Adventures. Soldier Pass and Schnebly Hill Roads. Due to scheduling and reservations, Soldiers Pass was the first adventure. This was my very FIRST foray into any sort of "wheeling" (Previously a long time MiniVan owner and proponent - still the BEST family mover) so we sorta jumped right in. Aired down to 30PSI and rolled right into things. The gate keeper rocks at the start caused one moment of panic as we hit a rock off the BIG drop (in rock crawl mode). I plan to install rock rails but they won't arrive until early January so we did this run "naked". Later inspection showed just a bit of minor plastic damage to a panel that will be removed for the rock rails so no biggie in hind sight but a bit of a nerve racking moment! Once past this, we slow crawled the remainder of the trail out and back making stops along the way to hike and explore. The TriMax had NO problem with any of the obstacles and made it back out with zero issue. I was curious to see how the front end did on the climb out since there's very little out there at the moment on TriMax offroad capabilities and can report it cruised it. I can't say I heard any brake torque vectoring at the front single motor so the idea the rear two do the majority of the work seems about right. Limited data here for sure. Schnebly Hill Rd was a half day adventure later in the week. We opted to drive around on the roads and tackle it West-East dropping into Sedona one way vs driving up and then back down. I'd say this was the right call. I used a combo of TrailsOffroad and OnX Offroad mapping which are both great in their own ways. The road wasn't as technical as Soldier Pass but was certainly ROCKY on the technical descent. We were ready to be done with the bumps by the end. We got a LOT of questions along Schnebly from both the tour guides driving Jeeps and the occasional 4x4. All were stoked to see a Rivian out there. Based on these experiences I would say I enjoy the easier but still adventurous off-roading to the truly tech stuff. I suspect something like the Alpine Loop in CO is right in my enjoyment wheelhouse. We didn't have time for Broken Arrow and the Devils Steps and no rock rails push this to a return visit item...
The remaining days were spent Mountain Biking (very similar style to CenTX riding actually!), hiking and running down a canyon. All easily accomplished in the R1S. 6 days later we were packing up (love the frunk space!) and headed to Tucson for a quick run up Mt Lemmon which the R1S smoked.We woke up early the next morning for the long pull back into SATX.
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