I towed a car trailer over 1800 miles with my R1T

[JeffADK]

Great write up. Also way to go getting the best color.

Ditto on the best color comment from Donald Stanfield!

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[Dark-Fx]

The Rivians are pretty fast down the track!

I ran 11.55 at 110mph. Imagine if Rivian didn't cap the power and speed in the top end.

 

[VSG]

It's hard to be sure from your pictures, but to me it looks like your trailer is higher in the front than the back. If so, consider changing to a hitch with a drop of a few inches to help the trailer sit level. If you lower the tongue you can also move the towed car slightly further back to keep the tongue weight the same.

Also note that for towing more than 5,000 lbs Rivian recommends a weight distribution hitch (see owner's manual). You're right at the limit, so I don't think you need to worry about this. But keep it in mind in case you plan to tow a heavier load. If you need to buy a new hitch with a drop, and need to tow heavier loads in the future, then you might as well just go all out and get a WDH.

 

[ironpig]

This is a helpful post. I'm going to be doing a similar trip soon to pick up a horse and need to do more planning than I normally would so I can plan stops for charging and grazing.

 

[HaveBlue]

Thanks for this post. That's amazing efficiency at 70mph. I've got a radius of camping destinations that I hope to make without stopping by going 55-60 while towing. LA traffic might say I go slower anyway.

 

[240vPlug]

Totally agree that the actual efficiency is impressive! And with all of the R1T's power, I could still out-accelerate most traffic even with the 5000 lb trailer! The lower total amount of energy they carry still makes them a poor choice for most long-distance towing, though. If I was doing a trip like this more than once or twice a year, I would want to rent or borrow an ICE tow rig. Charging stops turned this 13-hour trip into a 20-hour trip each way.

My experience on this trip makes your numbers seem a little optimistic. If you're fast charging, it's most time-efficient to charge to about 80%, or 108 kWh. Then a 10% buffer takes you down to 13.5 kWh, so you only get a useable charge of 94.5 kWh, leaving you with 118 miles at 1.25 mi/kWh.

Way at most tow once a month (two ways) during Spring/Summer/Fall months. Less than that really. If your stopping to eat you can charge more than 80% but yes it does add additional time....about twice as much as not towing.

If you tow infrequently or within 125 miles I think it's fine but if you tow often over long distances then it is not the best choice.

Plan out your trip with ABRP first. It will tell how how much time you will need to charge and how long the trip will take. I use a reference consumption of 1 mi per kwh. High wind and heavy rain may reduce it below that. Towing long distance in the coldest winter months is probably not practical.

 

[DetroitRed]

It's hard to be sure from your pictures, but to me it looks like your trailer is higher in the front than the back. If so, consider changing to a hitch with a drop of a few inches to help the trailer sit level. If you lower the tongue you can also move the towed car slightly further back to keep the tongue weight the same.

Also note that for towing more than 5,000 lbs Rivian recommends a weight distribution hitch (see owner's manual). You're right at the limit, so I don't think you need to worry about this. But keep it in mind in case you plan to tow a heavier load. If you need to buy a new hitch with a drop, and need to tow heavier loads in the future, then you might as well just go all out and get a WDH.

Great points! A struggle I had with the rental trailer situation is that I needed the trailer to measure for the right amount of drop, but I also needed the hitch ahead of time to pick up the trailer. So I picked up a 2" drop hitch hoping it would be close, and it was close, but the trailer was definitely angled up towards the front. A 4" drop would probably have been better.

 

[Tahoe Man]

The thing that saved you was charging at night. Otherwise your experience would be much different.

 

[DetroitRed]

The thing that saved you was charging at night. Otherwise your experience would be much different.

It wouldn't have been much different. I charged a handful of times during the day and got the experience. I had to drop the trailer a few times and it's really not a big deal, the whole process only adds about 5 minutes to the stop and I was a n00b with the trailer. It's inconvenient, but this wouldn't be the factor to make me rethink towing with an EV.

 

[Thedude]

I assume the gas equivalent is about energy density. How did you figure this out? I would like to learn more about this.

It’s the energy density of a gallon of gas. It’s a pretty useless comparison though since an ICE vehicle only extracts less than 1/3 of that energy for propulsion. In a real world equivalency the Rivian has a 12 gallon tank and was getting an equivalent of 10mpg.

 

[DetroitRed]

It’s the energy density of a gallon of gas. It’s a pretty useless comparison though since an ICE vehicle only extracts less than 1/3 of that energy for propulsion. In a real world equivalency the Rivian has a 12 gallon tank and was getting an equivalent of 10mpg.

That's a poor comparison. The inability of an ICE truck to extract all of the energy from its fuel doesn't carry over to an electric truck. That's kind of the main advantage of an EV, there's much less wasted energy.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

It’s the energy density of a gallon of gas. It’s a pretty useless comparison though since an ICE vehicle only extracts less than 1/3 of that energy for propulsion. In a real world equivalency the Rivian has a 12 gallon tank and was getting an equivalent of 10mpg.

Aren't EVs over 90% efficient at energy usage? The Rivian is rated for 70MPG equivalent and I know at my operating costs personally I'm getting leaps and bounds better than 10MPG when we are talking about cost.

 

[Tahoe Man]

That's a poor comparison. The inability of an ICE truck to extract all of the energy from its fuel doesn't carry over to an electric truck. That's kind of the main advantage of an EV, there's much less wasted energy.

Not if you count the poor efficiency of a generator plant.

The main disadvantage of an EV is the recharge time.

 

[jemkewl]

Not if you count the poor efficiency of a generator plant.

The main disadvantage of an EV is the recharge time.

Or count the loss of energy due to battery chemistry and "vampire" drain.

 

[Tahoe Man]

Or count the loss of energy due to battery chemistry and "vampire" drain.

Correct.
The bottom line is for electric cars, the energy conversion losses mainly take place at the generating plant(s), we'll exclude electrical transmission losses. For gasoline cars and whatnot, it's obviously at the engine. You can argue the losses are similar too.

Electric cars aren't magic and there's additional work required to constantly move 1+ ton of battery weight wherever you go for the life of the vehicle. The nice thing about it is the fuel can come from multiple sources.

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