I towed a car trailer over 1800 miles with my R1T

[Rivianut]

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.

I recently towed a trailer around Florida and I unhooked several times to not inconvenience others. With the rear camera it was extremely easy to hook back up thanks to the camera. After doing it a few times I got very good at the process. Inconvenient sure, but like a good fanboy I enjoyed the trip and wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere. Enjoyed the journey and the Rivian really does a stellar job of towing. Charging provides the opportunity to stop and stretch. If you are in a hurry, definitely consider an ICE vehicle for the trip.

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[Buckets0fun]

Way cool to see a RW’er with a riv!

Hope to see you out there next year.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

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.

Yeah that's one of the nice things. The other is electricity is produced more locally and power plants operate at a pretty high efficiency. Electricity is much less reliant on foreign powers and the marketplace is much less susceptible to major price fluctuations than oil is. We don't have to go give some foreign country some freedom to secure lower electric prices.

EVs are a great excuse to invest in our domestic production grid and if we do so with renewables that's even better yet. Renewables are almost impervious to geopolitical hikes once they are built and assuming there is enough production sources spread out over a large enough area. The solar panels on your house generating most or all of your electricity aren't going to suffer a price hike from a foreign war for example.

 

[DetroitRed]

Yeah that's one of the nice things. The other is electricity is produced more locally and power plants operate at a pretty high efficiency. Electricity is much less reliant on foreign powers and the marketplace is much less susceptible to major price fluctuations than oil is. We don't have to go give some foreign country some freedom to secure lower electric prices.

EVs are a great excuse to invest in our domestic production grid and if we do so with renewables that's even better yet. Renewables are almost impervious to geopolitical hikes once they are built and assuming there is enough production sources spread out over a large enough area. The solar panels on your house generating most or all of your electricity aren't going to suffer a price hike from a foreign war for example.

Power plants really aren't all that efficient, which is Tahoe Man's point. Many fossil fuel plants are still less than 40% efficient, not too dissimilar from an ICE. That isn't the R1T's fault, but for people buying an EV with the "save the planet" mindset, it makes less sense than they might realize. I just bought the R1T because I think it's a cool truck, not to save the planet.

Renewable generation is great for improving efficiency and reducing emissions, but it isn't very cost effective yet. Hopefully that changes before too long as the technologies continue to improve.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Power plants really aren't all that efficient, which is Tahoe Man's point. Many fossil fuel plants are still less than 40% efficient, not too dissimilar from an ICE. That isn't the R1T's fault, but for people buying an EV with the "save the planet" mindset, it makes less sense than they might realize. I just bought the R1T because I think it's a cool truck, not to save the planet.

Renewable generation is great for improving efficiency and reducing emissions, but it isn't very cost effective yet. Hopefully that changes before too long as the technologies continue to improve.

yeah I didn’t buy it for environmental reasons either. It’s simply better than any ICE offering for my use case and much cheaper to run than any other truck I’d want.

 

[Adventusaurus]

I did have an issue with my trailer lights too; the trailer lights were mostly in-op for me but they worked normally on two different trucks, so there must be an issue with my plug. I'll have to look into that or submit a service ticket.

Nice write up! My trailer lights were inop too. Turned out the hitch connection was not plugged in from the factory. Service center had to remove the rear bumper cover to plug it in.

Did your truck go into tow mode? If not, you likely have the same issue.

 

[DetroitRed]

Nice write up! My trailer lights were inop too. Turned out the hitch connection was not plugged in from the factory. Service center had to remove the rear bumper cover to plug it in.

Did your truck go into tow mode? If not, you likely have the same issue.

My truck did recognize the trailer and went into tow mode. I basically had trailer brakes and the left brake/signal light, and that was it. No running lights or right brake/signal light.

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