Planning First Trip - Everything Depends on ONE Charger

[Rtpdeacon]

Jackson, TN, Forrest City, AR, and Clarksville, AR.

Little Rock is surprisingly sparse. Southwest side only. I’d recommend hitting Forrest City.

Thanks. I agree about LR. I am surprised by that. Jackson and FC were contingency stops for planning.

I see you have 22’s. What type of efficiency were you getting? What was your SOC starting and stopping at each stop?

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[Aka_Buck]

I second opening up the search for a Tesla destination charger with the lectron adapter. Also don't forget to check the route for an RV park as a last resort.

 

[astonius]

I see you have 22’s. What type of efficiency were you getting? What was your SOC starting and stopping at each stop?

I have the 21s with the aero covers installed (22s are on the pending R1S order). I was averaging around 2.25 mi/kWh with ACC pegged at 85 MPH most of the time in Conserve mode with auto height.

I don’t recall exact percentages, but I left the house with 100% and hit Jackson around 40%, then Forrest City in the low 20%, and Clarksville around 20%. Charged to ~80% at each stop.

I chronicled my problems with EA in this thread: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/explain-this-ea.8338/

 

[bhopkins]

Can you plug into a 110v plug while you’re at your destination? That is usually good for about 50 miles a day.

 

[nukem384]

Are you saying that with a plug adapter non-Teslas can use Tesla Destination chargers? Is this true for Tesla Superchargers?

Yes, for Tesla wall connectors, anyone can plug into those as long as you have a Tesla to J1772 adapter.
SC network, no. Only Tesla's can plug into those right now. That may be changing sooner than later though, as Elon has already said they will open the network up (and already have in certain spots in Europe). Elon wants some of that IRA money to build out the SC network further

 

[NC-Rivian]

Sounds pretty dicey to me. An EV doesn't make sense on some trips until infrastructure catches up. You may want to drive your ICE machine on this one.

 

[elektrode]

Decided to make it an adventure and we’re on our first Rivian trip! It’s been a full 2 months since delivery date and after 2 long SC visits and a 2 week delay on delivery, this trip finally feels like I actually own this truck.

Mapped out a couple of alternative plans if that one charger was unavailable or broken - pretty much “head to Wilmington for 1/2 day in order to get home”. Luckily it worked and was not occupied so we are sitting at the beach with a 80% charge and should be able to make it home without a critical charging stop.

The big worry here was that chargers were located at 1/3 and 2/3 distances from our
back home and no destination chargers at all. So if we didn’t have enough charge to get to the 2/3 point and the 1/3, single charger/single plug was broken, we’d be in deep doodoo.

A big part of this is me learning how to trip plan. Almost feels like making a flight plan - you can’t just wing it.

Driver+ was quite bouncy - especially in the wind. Got annoyed with it several times. It drives like my mother- at least in version 31.06. Or it drives like it has an old Atari 2600 joystick playing Pole Position.

“Wow that frunk is cavernous!” They said as they engulfed it with pillows. You can tell we are used to mini-vanning the packing plan.

ABRP has a pretty conservative 2.11 kWh/mile default on the Rivian too. Good for planning but once you build in all these margins, you’re planning with a lot fewer miles than 314m@100%

Conserve predicted 325m on 98% when we left.

 

[zipzag]

PlugShare feedback says there’s one station that is either Chademo OR CCS. 1 plug.

I've never encountered a working combo chademo/CCS DCFC. These are old units and, atleast for some models, parts have been unavailable during covid. Be sure it has a very recent plugshare review, or contact the vendor.

Or perhaps contact some of the posters on this forum who insist that max pack is unnecessary except for towing.

 

[OGLindy]

Some of the “destination” chargers - at least in Phoenix - are at malls or shopping centers. Mayo Blvd for example is there with the PGA Superstore, Chick-Fil-A….that alone is going to have me get a Lectron or TeslaTap.

Question now is which one is the best (and most ready for future)? TeslaTap Mini (80amp) or Lectron?

 

[Madsen203]

Decided to make it an adventure and we’re on our first Rivian trip! It’s been a full 2 months since delivery date and after 2 long SC visits and a 2 week delay on delivery, this trip finally feels like I actually own this truck.

Mapped out a couple of alternative plans if that one charger was unavailable or broken - pretty much “head to Wilmington for 1/2 day in order to get home”. Luckily it worked and was not occupied so we are sitting at the beach with a 80% charge and should be able to make it home without a critical charging stop.

The big worry here was that chargers were located at 1/3 and 2/3 distances from our
back home and no destination chargers at all. So if we didn’t have enough charge to get to the 2/3 point and the 1/3, single charger/single plug was broken, we’d be in deep doodoo.

A big part of this is me learning how to trip plan. Almost feels like making a flight plan - you can’t just wing it.

Driver+ was quite bouncy - especially in the wind. Got annoyed with it several times. It drives like my mother- at least in version 31.06. Or it drives like it has an old Atari 2600 joystick playing Pole Position.

“Wow that frunk is cavernous!” They said as they engulfed it with pillows. You can tell we are used to mini-vanning the packing plan.

ABRP has a pretty conservative 2.11 kWh/mile default on the Rivian too. Good for planning but once you build in all these margins, you’re planning with a lot fewer miles than 314m@100%

Conserve predicted 325m on 98% when we left.

Do you recall what your miles per kWh came out to on the trip? Sounds like, with exception of vampire drain, you could have made it to/fro with 10-12% to spare.

 

[elektrode]

I tried to keep tabs on my efficiency using the trip computer. Overall it measured even worse than I expected and nowhere near the great numbers I’m reading around here.

Conserve Mode. Drove about 77mph indicated. Had a 30min traffic jam stop and go and stopped for 80min at the charging station. All that factors into avg mph and the efficiency calcs. Harder to use than I’d like. Way off the magic Conserve numbers people report with 21s and overall worse than ABRP estimates. Confused.

instead of “wind resistance” I may have run into a lot of “bug resistance”! This thing is a Bug Bulldozer!

Do you recall what your miles per kWh came out to on the trip? Sounds like, with exception of vampire drain, you could have made it to/fro with 10-12% to spare.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I tried to keep tabs on my efficiency using the trip computer. Overall it measured even worse than I expected and nowhere near the great numbers I’m reading around here.

Conserve Mode. Drove about 77mph indicated. Had a 30min traffic jam stop and go and stopped for 80min at the charging station. All that factors into avg mph and the efficiency calcs. Harder to use than I’d like. Way off the magic Conserve numbers people report with 21s and overall worse than ABRP estimates. Confused.

instead of “wind resistance” I may have run into a lot of “bug resistance”! This thing is a Bug Bulldozer!

What suspension height were you running? It seems to make more of a difference than I expected it to. The higher up the more you're pushing with the tires and the less aerodynamic the wheel arch area is.

 

[Madsen203]

I tried to keep tabs on my efficiency using the trip computer. Overall it measured even worse than I expected and nowhere near the great numbers I’m reading around here.

Conserve Mode. Drove about 77mph indicated. Had a 30min traffic jam stop and go and stopped for 80min at the charging station. All that factors into avg mph and the efficiency calcs. Harder to use than I’d like. Way off the magic Conserve numbers people report with 21s and overall worse than ABRP estimates. Confused.

instead of “wind resistance” I may have run into a lot of “bug resistance”! This thing is a Bug Bulldozer!

As mentioned elsewhere, anything over 70mph will kill your efficiency. Add headwind and you’re hurting yourself even more so.

If I was relying on a single charger, I’d keep my speed down to create the buffer needed to make it where I needed to go. If chargers are readily available, then I don’t worry about speed as much.

 

[elektrode]

What suspension height were you running?

Conserve mode @ Low

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