Cross Country (Maryland to Arizona) in the Rivian R1S Tri and on the Indian Pursuit!

[CJRocker]

We started our journey yesterday from Valley Lee, MD… headed to Marana, AZ. My wife is in the Rivian and I’m on my Indian…. Headed South and then West.
Day 1: Launched will almost a full charge - made it through to Waynesboro, VA and took a charge at the RAN there. Hit a little rain and decided to call it a day in Staunton, VA.
Day 2: Headed out from Staunton this AM - cold and windy, but sunny! Planning to get to some slightly warmer weather today.

Was able to get a RAN charge in Meadows of Dan, VA.

Very windy on the motorcycle - cross winds up to 40mph!
We ended up in Asheville for the evening.
Day 3: Headed to TN - went to Cherokee, NC for a RAN charge - unfortunately when we got there, there was a crew there replacing all of the chargers with new ones - so we had to backtrack a bit to get to a Tesla charger.
Had lunch with friends in Chattanooga, got a charge there, and ended up in South Pittsburgh, TN.
Day 4: Left South Pittsburgh, TN and got as far as Memphis TN. Stopped in Murfreesboro for a charge and then saw the largest cedar bucket in the world.

We were scheduled for a charge at the Tesla station in Jackson, TN, but could not get it to sync. One of the site administrators came over and said something about 3rd party vehicles, and he would reset the ”site administrator”. He came back 15 minutes later and told me that he couldn’t log into the system, so I assume it was a problem at their site for non-Teslas. We went to an ElectrifyAmerica site down the road and juiced up there. We got as far as Memphis, TN and decided to hold out there due to incoming weather. We will hang out until Sunday to see if things clear up.

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[defcon888]

Well, here is NorCal it was in the mid 80's and sunny yesterday. That should be about the same in Arizona. Safe travels!

 

[CJRocker]

We started our journey yesterday from Valley Lee, MD… headed to Marana, AZ. My wife is in the Rivian and I’m on my Indian…. Headed South and then West.
Day 1: Launched will almost a full charge - made it through to Waynesboro, VA and took a charge at the RAN there. Hit a little rain and decided to call it a day in Staunton, VA.
Day 2: Headed out from Staunton this AM - cold and windy, but sunny! Planning to get to some slightly warmer weather today.

Was able to get a RAN charge in Meadows of Dan, VA.

Very windy on the motorcycle - cross winds up to 40mph!
We ended up in Asheville for the evening.
Day 3: Headed to TN - went to Cherokee, NC for a RAN charge - unfortunately when we got there, there was a crew there replacing all of the chargers with new ones - so we had to backtrack a bit to get to a Tesla charger.
Had lunch with friends in Chattanooga, got a charge there, and ended up in South Pittsburgh, TN.
Day 4: Left South Pittsburgh, TN and got as far as Memphis TN. Stopped in Murfreesboro for a charge and then saw the largest cedar bucket in the world.

We were scheduled for a charge at the Tesla station in Jackson, TN, but could not get it to sync. One of the site administrators came over and said something about 3rd party vehicles, and he would reset the ”site administrator”. He came back 15 minutes later and told me that he couldn’t log into the system, so I assume it was a problem at their site for non-Teslas. We went to an ElectrifyAmerica site down the road and juiced up there. We got as far as Memphis, TN and decided to hold out there due to incoming weather. We will hang out until Sunday to see if things clear up.

DAY 5: Our first challenge - due to continued impending weather, we decided the trailer the Indian the rest of the way to AZ. We loaded it up (no problem), and got on our way. At our first charging station (Tesla), it charged for a bit, and dropped to almost “0”. We had enough charge to get to the next station, so we headed out. Our efficiency dropped to below 1.4, and got to 8% before arriving at the charging station. Started charging and got a “battery emergency” situation telling us to get service immediately. The charge abruptly stopped… and the car kept alerting us to the battery situation. I called roadside assistance, and as I was talking with them, the car did an automatic hard reboot. Battery got up to 133 degrees (orange range). We then did a soft reset, followed by a hard reset. Tried to charge, but it would cycle between ~50s to 0.4. We then did the “shut everything off” and leave the R1S for 45 minutes. We did that - at that point, the battery had cooled back down into the normal range, and we were on our way. Not sure why this all happened, but maybe the load on the battery (trailering, highway speed, and strong headwind) was too much.

DAY 6: All seems to be back to normal - we’re going to monitor battery temps, and keep to the lowest safe speed on the highway. After our charge last night, we were between 1.4 and 1.6 mile/kWh.

DAY 7: We headed back out. We had another “orange battery” situation as a Tesla station… charging dropped to 0.4kW. We had enough charge, so we continued on our way.

DAY 8: As we traveled through New Mexico, we got caught in a dust storm (my first experience). Very crazy! I-10W ahead of us was closed due to a multi-vehicle accident. We made our next stay in Lordsburg. It was a good thing, because the wind gusts were crazy!

DAY 9: Our last day - we topped off at 100% in Lordsburg and headed West. We stopped again to make sure we could make it the rest of the way to Marana.

The Electrify America stations were good to us - no battery overheating.

We did receive some “battle damage” along the way - an open bed truck lost a wrench - into our grill! Luckily, no damage to the blinker or radiator.

I wonder what that will cost to fix!

We are now at our new home in Marana…. Looking forward to the adventures ahead of us!

I still want to troubleshoot the battery overheating situation at Tesla stations - at the last one where it happened, it was a V4 charger, so we didn’t use our adapter… so taking that one out of the equation.

 

[Robin]

DAY 5: Our first challenge - due to continued impending weather, we decided the trailer the Indian the rest of the way to AZ. We loaded it up (no problem), and got on our way. At our first charging station (Tesla), it charged for a bit, and dropped to almost “0”. We had enough charge to get to the next station, so we headed out. Our efficiency dropped to below 1.4, and got to 8% before arriving at the charging station. Started charging and got a “battery emergency” situation telling us to get service immediately. The charge abruptly stopped… and the car kept alerting us to the battery situation. I called roadside assistance, and as I was talking with them, the car did an automatic hard reboot. Battery got up to 133 degrees (orange range). We then did a soft reset, followed by a hard reset. Tried to charge, but it would cycle between ~50s to 0.4. We then did the “shut everything off” and leave the R1S for 45 minutes. We did that - at that point, the battery had cooled back down into the normal range, and we were on our way. Not sure why this all happened, but maybe the load on the battery (trailering, highway speed, and strong headwind) was too much.

DAY 6: All seems to be back to normal - we’re going to monitor battery temps, and keep to the lowest safe speed on the highway. After our charge last night, we were between 1.4 and 1.6 mile/kWh.

DAY 7: We headed back out. We had another “orange battery” situation as a Tesla station… charging dropped to 0.4kW. We had enough charge, so we continued on our way.

DAY 8: As we traveled through New Mexico, we got caught in a dust storm (my first experience). Very crazy! I-10W ahead of us was closed due to a multi-vehicle accident. We made our next stay in Lordsburg. It was a good thing, because the wind gusts were crazy!

DAY 9: Our last day - we topped off at 100% in Lordsburg and headed West. We stopped again to make sure we could make it the rest of the way to Marana.

The Electrify America stations were good to us - no battery overheating.

We did receive some “battle damage” along the way - an open bed truck lost a wrench - into our grill! Luckily, no damage to the blinker or radiator.

I wonder what that will cost to fix!

We are now at our new home in Marana…. Looking forward to the adventures ahead of us!

I still want to troubleshoot the battery overheating situation at Tesla stations - at the last one where it happened, it was a V4 charger, so we didn’t use our adapter… so taking that one out of the equation.

Great adventure my boyfriend and I were traveling with an 20+ foot Rv and charged up to about 60%. A few minutes after leaving a Tesla supercharger our battery lit up, temps to 130 degrees, whole battery panel lit up and the vehicle started losing power. It was a oh crap moment on the busy i15 (Ca). Immediately pulled off the road and let the battery cool down, the fans were cooling it down quickly. Before arriving at the Tesla SC in Yermo Ca, our R1S did not precondition, didn’t know if it was related to that issue. We were facing vicious headwinds as well.. glad you made it to your final destination

 

[DayTripping]

Sounds like a great trip. Glad you made it mostly ok. Sorry to hear about the battery issue. That is very concerning to have a truck that you basically can't tow with. Hope there is actually something wrong with it to be fixed other than it being a major design issue.

 

[HaveBlue]

Could the wrench have jammed the cooling louvers or did that happen after? Are they stuck closed?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

The battery overheating is concerning. I would put in a ticket for that.

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