Dynabro86
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- Thread starter
- #1
Thought I’d post my experience driving from Chicago to my In laws house in Northwest Wisconsin. They live in an area with very little charging infrastructure so planning the trip is very key.
We left the suburbs around 5am at 95% battery on the 2024 gen 1 R1T dual motor large pack. Temperatures were 14 degrees in Chicago at the time. Range estimate on the dash said 341 (not correct at all) but I used the the car’s navigation to get me to where I wanted to go. It suggested my first charging stop at the Lake Delton (wi dells) Tesla station.
While we drove, the temp slowly dipped down to -2 degrees and my efficiency hovered around 1.7 -1.8. We arrived at the Tesla station with a preconditioned battery at 7:30am. Battery SOC was about 17%. Total distance 167 miles.
My wife and I had a nice breakfast at McDonald’s while I waited for the vehicle to charge. I believe I went to 74% the charger worked flawlessly and on my way out, saw a beautiful Forrest green r1s pull in and we both did the Rivian wave. (Good luck brother!)
Next stop was Eau Claire WI because my wife is obsessed with Caribou coffee. 120 miles estimated distance. Perfect time to get my last charge before we get to our final destination. This is where it was useful for me to build in extra time in our roadtrip… we stopped at the EA station (4 stalls). First off, these stalls are not set up well for Rivians…. But when we arrived around 10am 2 of the stalls were full and the 3rd was taken up buy an indecisive ionic 5 owner who pulled blocked both stalls. I wasn’t gonna sit around and figure that mess out so we ended going to a Tesla site in Altoona that was BRAND new v4 site (don’t need to take up 2 spots, freaking awesome). We plugged in and went into the grocery store to walk a bit, and noticed on the app after a while that the charger was only outputting 30kw… not good. After 20 mins I went back to the vehicle and the charger itself was limited the charge rate. I moved to a different a stall. I got 210kw for 5 mins and then it tanked down to 30 again. I looked on PlugShare and this was a common issue at this site since it was open 3 weeks ago. So every 5 mins, I just switched to a different charger and kept doing musical chairs for about 30 mins until I got 64% SoC. We were the only ones at the charger so we didn’t bother anyone. But that was the first “bad” Tesla charging experience I had, although I would call it more of a inconvenience then really bad. But that time burned a bit into our schedule a bit.
Last leg of the trip was to Osceola wi, middle of a charging dead zone as far as I was concerned. Total distance from last stop was approx 90 miles. I got to the destination with 35% soc. I dropped my wife off at a hair appointment, so I had a couple hours to kill. My brother found a new 180kw fast charger that was just installed about 8 mins from the hair Salon on plug share. It’s not on our integrated rivian maps but it’s on plug share, and it’s installed next to an electrical contractors shop. I went there to top off while I waited for the Mrs, and this site was clutch. It worked great, had a port o potty, windshield cleaner and doggy poop bags for any k9 companions. It was so cool to see a small tiny middle of no where shop install this fast charger. I went to 95% while watching YouTube over the course of an hr.
Now I’m at my in-laws. I’ll be here till Thursday but I’m chilling at 81% battery (ran an errand and buzzed around a bit). I didn’t plug it in overnight to see what my drain is, and I lost 3 miles of range over the past 24 hours while outside temps sit between 10 and 15 degrees. I turned off gear guard and proximity locking.
Planning on plugging into 120v overnight between Wednesday and Thursday to get the battery warm enough for fast charging, but that’s all we really have available around here. Feeling pretty good about my current situation.
We left the suburbs around 5am at 95% battery on the 2024 gen 1 R1T dual motor large pack. Temperatures were 14 degrees in Chicago at the time. Range estimate on the dash said 341 (not correct at all) but I used the the car’s navigation to get me to where I wanted to go. It suggested my first charging stop at the Lake Delton (wi dells) Tesla station.
While we drove, the temp slowly dipped down to -2 degrees and my efficiency hovered around 1.7 -1.8. We arrived at the Tesla station with a preconditioned battery at 7:30am. Battery SOC was about 17%. Total distance 167 miles.
My wife and I had a nice breakfast at McDonald’s while I waited for the vehicle to charge. I believe I went to 74% the charger worked flawlessly and on my way out, saw a beautiful Forrest green r1s pull in and we both did the Rivian wave. (Good luck brother!)
Next stop was Eau Claire WI because my wife is obsessed with Caribou coffee. 120 miles estimated distance. Perfect time to get my last charge before we get to our final destination. This is where it was useful for me to build in extra time in our roadtrip… we stopped at the EA station (4 stalls). First off, these stalls are not set up well for Rivians…. But when we arrived around 10am 2 of the stalls were full and the 3rd was taken up buy an indecisive ionic 5 owner who pulled blocked both stalls. I wasn’t gonna sit around and figure that mess out so we ended going to a Tesla site in Altoona that was BRAND new v4 site (don’t need to take up 2 spots, freaking awesome). We plugged in and went into the grocery store to walk a bit, and noticed on the app after a while that the charger was only outputting 30kw… not good. After 20 mins I went back to the vehicle and the charger itself was limited the charge rate. I moved to a different a stall. I got 210kw for 5 mins and then it tanked down to 30 again. I looked on PlugShare and this was a common issue at this site since it was open 3 weeks ago. So every 5 mins, I just switched to a different charger and kept doing musical chairs for about 30 mins until I got 64% SoC. We were the only ones at the charger so we didn’t bother anyone. But that was the first “bad” Tesla charging experience I had, although I would call it more of a inconvenience then really bad. But that time burned a bit into our schedule a bit.
Last leg of the trip was to Osceola wi, middle of a charging dead zone as far as I was concerned. Total distance from last stop was approx 90 miles. I got to the destination with 35% soc. I dropped my wife off at a hair appointment, so I had a couple hours to kill. My brother found a new 180kw fast charger that was just installed about 8 mins from the hair Salon on plug share. It’s not on our integrated rivian maps but it’s on plug share, and it’s installed next to an electrical contractors shop. I went there to top off while I waited for the Mrs, and this site was clutch. It worked great, had a port o potty, windshield cleaner and doggy poop bags for any k9 companions. It was so cool to see a small tiny middle of no where shop install this fast charger. I went to 95% while watching YouTube over the course of an hr.
Now I’m at my in-laws. I’ll be here till Thursday but I’m chilling at 81% battery (ran an errand and buzzed around a bit). I didn’t plug it in overnight to see what my drain is, and I lost 3 miles of range over the past 24 hours while outside temps sit between 10 and 15 degrees. I turned off gear guard and proximity locking.
Planning on plugging into 120v overnight between Wednesday and Thursday to get the battery warm enough for fast charging, but that’s all we really have available around here. Feeling pretty good about my current situation.
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