4500 mile towing journey - Portland to Tucson and back; with side trips.

[KirillWA]

Great trip report, thanks for sharing.

P.S. "I drove into the OCEAN" part genuinely made me laugh

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[jplblue]

What an adventure! Thanks for the writeup, a lot of useful tidbits throughout.

Was it a KOA that didn't let you charge? How did they let you know that you couldn't charge?

 

[CharonPDX]

What an adventure! Thanks for the writeup, a lot of useful tidbits throughout.

Was it a KOA that didn't let you charge? How did they let you know that you couldn't charge?

it was an independent campground. They had stickers on the outlet/breaker boxes specifically saying “no charging electric vehicles.”

I’ve also had some Thousand Trails locations say I couldn’t - but others didn’t care.

Edit: The very first campground the first night that we weren't able to charge at was a Thousand Trails. That wasn't due to campground policy, it was due to our specific campsite's 50A plug apparently not being grounded properly, so the portable EVSE blinked red.

 

[HyperionMark]

Any more adventures with the TAB since this trip? Or planning anymore for this year?

 

[CharonPDX]

One short camping trip since. Planning on more starting next month. We usually do 4-5 short (weekend) trips per year plus 1-3 longer. That had been paused after we moved and our old big trailer wouldn't fit at our new house - getting it from storage was such an ordeal. But with the T@B, being able to park it in our garage makes it much easier to prepare for a weekend trip! (Heck, we took it out 3 of the first 4 weekends we owned it! Then it was two weeks of no camping, then this thread's trip! Then winter hit. )

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Fantastic write-up! Thanks!

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is at about 2440 meters (8,000 ft) elevation, so your truck missed something on the way there.

 

[superfly_snook]

Great to see this thread resurrected - such an amazing trip and report!

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Two potential clarifications, @CharonPDX:

(1) Did "Karenville's" real name start with "N"? If so, "NMC" might have been "N__ Municipal Code".

(2) When I asked at PDX Service Center about salt water (one of our frequent routes gets flooded almost at the ocean), the Guide said ANY vehicle is liable to damage when any metal parts are immersed in salt water. So I might try it on the beach, but not in the water....

Glad you had an adventure!

 

[CharonPDX]

Two potential clarifications, @CharonPDX:

(1) Did "Karenville's" real name start with "N"? If so, "NMC" might have been "N__ Municipal Code".

(2) When I asked at PDX Service Center about salt water (one of our frequent routes gets flooded almost at the ocean), the Guide said ANY vehicle is liable to damage when any metal parts are immersed in salt water. So I might try it on the beach, but not in the water....

Glad you had an adventure!

It did start with an N, but I searched, and couldn't find any municipal code listings for that town. *NOW* upon searching, I find it. It looks like their online listing went live in November. And yes, the listed number does cover parking - but seems to only apply to parking on public roads, not private parking lots.

Then there's this bit:

> no vehicle shall be stopped, left standing or parked other than within a single space, unless the size or shape of such vehicle makes compliance impossible.

Well, the size and shape did indeed make compliance impossible.

Anyway, when I challenged it, thankfully they did dismiss it. I think the whole "trying to use a public parking law to cover a private parking lot" bit was the clincher.

 

[Riviaenz]

Two potential clarifications, @CharonPDX:

(1) Did "Karenville's" real name start with "N"? If so, "NMC" might have been "N__ Municipal Code".

(2) When I asked at PDX Service Center about salt water (one of our frequent routes gets flooded almost at the ocean), the Guide said ANY vehicle is liable to damage when any metal parts are immersed in salt water. So I might try it on the beach, but not in the water....

Glad you had an adventure!

I was going to say the same thing. Any car and salt water = very bad. ICE is worse for higher corrosion of even engine and drive train components. EVs for higher risk electrical shorts and fire in addition to general rust and corrosion. Salt water is far more conductive than fresh water.

@CharonPDX - great trip and experience with your Rivian+T@B. Our first trailer was a OG T@B (the ones assembled in the US of EU parts including the chassis) and we’d gotten it for an 8000+ mile ALCAN and Northwest Territories adventure when our youngest was 11 months (3kids). Loved the simplicity of our T@B and clever packaging. We’ve since upsized to an R-Pod and next year we’ll be getting a genuine upgrade and bump with a Safari Condo.

Our longest trip to date with our R1T was >1200miles towing our R-Pod and just a few weeks ago we completed another mountain ski trip of 900+ miles and enjoyed RAN stops quite a bit!

 

[CharonPDX]

I'd love a Safari Condo, but they're far more expensive than we paid for our T@B 400 for not significantly more usability/capability.

 

[HyperionMark]

I'd love a Safari Condo, but they're far more expensive than we paid for our T@B 400 for not significantly more usability/capability.

Also seems like buying one is not extremely straight forward since they are made in Canada.

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