Rivian + Airstream Owners Thread

[ElectrifiedOverland]

I know there are a lot of owners here who have Airstreams and I'd like to start an Airstream thread here to collect accumulated wisdom about Airstreaming with a Rivian.

We're not new to towing a travel trailer with the Rivian, but we just sold our Opus OP-15 yesterday and will be taking delivery of our new 2025 Airstream 30FB Bunk in the coming weeks. We're very excited about the upgrade and I'm pretty sure I've consumed every video about the RV itself on YouTube but I haven't found much Rivian specific info yet. I've watched some videos from All Electric Family which are helpful, but I'm interested in hearing as much as I can from (soon) fellow Airstream owners, especially the longer and heavier ones.

We were averaging around 1.22 mi/kwH with the Opus which is about 2000 lbs lighter, but far less aerodynamically efficient. My complete SWAG is that the aero and weight will offset and efficiency may be about the same, but that's a total guess so real world experience is very helpful.

Tips, hints, antecdotes and suggestions are welcome and appreciated, thank you. Looking forward to seeing you out there.

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[Fraslin]

We have a 16" Bambi and and R1S and been averaging 1.41 mi/kwH which we are pleased with. Bambi weighs about 3500 lbs according to the screen.

We are upsizing though to a 28" so expect those numbers to drop. We used to tow with Model Y so used to stopping a LOT so will adjust.

 

[KootenayEV]

We tow a 20FB and are averaging around 1.25 mi/kWh at about 60-65 mpg, to about 1.4 mi/kWh when going 55 or slower - this is over about 3000 towed miles. We have a Quad Large on 20" AT tires. We also often have stuff on the roof rack and bikes in the truck bed (over the tailgate - we remove the wheels on the middle two bikes and put the two outside bikes with the wheels facing to the sides). GVWR for the trailer is 5000lbs, which we are usually at, and with my wife and two teen boys we are usually basically at GVWR for the truck as well.

We love having the outlets to plug the trailer in when we have a site without power so we can run a small block heater in the trailer, recharge the batteries in a site with no/low solar, etc.

 

[TSK]

I know there are a lot of owners here who have Airstreams and I'd like to start an Airstream thread here to collect accumulated wisdom about Airstreaming with a Rivian.

We're not new to towing a travel trailer with the Rivian, but we just sold our Opus OP-15 yesterday and will be taking delivery of our new 2025 Airstream 30FB Bunk in the coming weeks. We're very excited about the upgrade and I'm pretty sure I've consumed every video about the RV itself on YouTube but I haven't found much Rivian specific info yet. I've watched some videos from All Electric Family which are helpful, but I'm interested in hearing as much as I can from (soon) fellow Airstream owners, especially the longer and heavier ones.

We were averaging around 1.22 mi/kwH with the Opus which is about 2000 lbs lighter, but far less aerodynamically efficient. My complete SWAG is that the aero and weight will offset and efficiency may be about the same, but that's a total guess so real world experience is very helpful.

Tips, hints, antecdotes and suggestions are welcome and appreciated, thank you. Looking forward to seeing you out there.

We have a 2017 27fb Flying Cloud. (load at 7500lbs). Our Rivian is a 2023 R1T with the Performance Duals, and Max Pach (410mi). which we purchased in June 2024 to see if we could live with the range issues. We want to go 100% electric... Love the Rivian so for, still deciding on the range issues while pulling. We also have our Ford F-150 has been our primary Tow Vehicle (11-12 mpg while towing).

We have thus far averaged 1.24 mi/kwh and 189 mile per charge. Our driving is typically 55-60 mph with hills and max. Trips have run from 210 miles to 158 mile per full charge dependent on the Pacific NW mountains and coast trips.

 

[ElectrifiedOverland]

We have a 2017 27fb Flying Cloud. (load at 7500lbs). Our Rivian is a 2023 R1T with the Performance Duals, and Max Pach (410mi). which we purchased in June 2024 to see if we could live with the range issues. We want to go 100% electric... Love the Rivian so for, still deciding on the range issues while pulling. We also have our Ford F-150 has been our primary Tow Vehicle (11-12 mpg while towing).

We have thus far averaged 1.24 mi/kwh and 189 mile per charge. Our driving is typically 55-60 mph with hills and max. Trips have run from 210 miles to 158 mile per full charge dependent on the Pacific NW mountains and coast trips.

Thanks, that's great data and I'm guessing it's pretty close to what I'll see with my 30'. I towed my opus around 3000 miles including a few long trips at an average of 1.22, so if I can duplicate that I'll be very happy. We plan about 350 miles a day give or take, so this means we stop about twice and although I'd rather not stop at all, it's not terribly inconvenient. To be honest, if more chargers were trailer friendly, I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. Pulling into a tight parking lot and trying to figure out where I'm going to drop the trailer is by far the worst part.

 

[TSK]

Thanks, that's great data and I'm guessing it's pretty close to what I'll see with my 30'. I towed my opus around 3000 miles including a few long trips at an average of 1.22, so if I can duplicate that I'll be very happy. We plan about 350 miles a day give or take, so this means we stop about twice and although I'd rather not stop at all, it's not terribly inconvenient. To be honest, if more chargers were trailer friendly, I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. Pulling into a tight parking lot and trying to figure out where I'm going to drop the trailer is by far the worst part.

 

[TSK]

I would guess that due to the weight of your 30, you'd be upto 5-10% worst than our 27fb

Trailer friendly charging is an issue. So far all of the Rivian charger are 100% trailer friendly for atleast one charger. Tesla supercharger are usually trailer compatible for one charger. We have a 2023 Tesla S, so we have used or visited lots of those, and they work almost always. Other networks remain iffy for access and reliability.

Charging at most RV compatible sites have been very iffy. Lots of parks don't want you to try as they can overload the receptical and the local network compacity
Most parks atleast on the west coast you might need to set the Rivian amperage done so they can use any power. Often you can't exceed 50amps total load between your EV and the Airstream, especially in the summer with everyone's AC going. Others let you pull upto 100 amps at each site, but not many.

I look forward to hearing your results. We are all going through most of the same issues and learning from others is key. Also what part of the country are you located. I can only share my west coast experience and Canada

 

[moosetags]

Long time Airstreamers here. We have had two 25FB's over the years. Our current Airstream is a 2015 that we have had for ten years. We have over 2,200 nights of Airstream camping, and have been to all of the lower 48, Alaska, and most of Canada. We have done most of the towing with Chevrolet Silverado Diesels. We still have a Duramax in the fleet.

We have had the R1T since April of 2023. She pulls the Airstream just fine. She does just as well as the Duramax. The issue is the range. We get about 1.2 miles per kWh. Now that we have access to the Tesla Superchargers, we may venture out further with the R1T.

Brian

 

[Foobar]

We pull a ‘24 Trade Wind 25FBT with our ‘23 R1T Quad large with AT tires and 20” wheels. Averaging 1.2 mi/kwh at 65. Just did a trip from NY to MO for the annual rally (so far there are apparently two of us rivians here) and only had to decouple to charge once the whole way.

 

[ElectrifiedOverland]

. . . So far all of the Rivian charger are 100% trailer friendly for atleast one charger. Tesla supercharger are usually trailer compatible for one charger. . .

. . . Charging at most RV compatible sites have been very iffy . . .

. . . Also what part of the country are you located. I can only share my west coast experience and Canada

Thanks for your input!

I'm in New Hampshire and most of my trailer travel so far has been in the Northeast and Midatlantic regions.

It hasn't been my experience that all Rivian chargers are trailer friendly, I've been to 4 installations now and 2 have had a trailer pull through site and 2 have not. Tesla chargers have actually been just as likely to be trailer friendly for me just because of their sheer size. Sometimes if they're installed in a large parking lot I can pull directly into it if I won't be blocking traffic passing behind me and even better is when they're not installed on the edge of a parking lot but on an island where you can access the backside of them too so I can just pull up along them that way.

Charging at campgrounds has been great, we typically use state parks and aren't big fans of privately owned RV parks and resorts, it's been pretty reliable for us, although I do have to derate the charge occasionally down to 28A or so when plugged into the 50A receptacle. My last trailer was a 30A system so this was fine. The new Airstream will be 50A and my plan is to install softstarts on the AC so that I can run it off the 30A receptacle and use the 50A for truck charging. I can always swap them with an adapter on the mobile charger if I need more juice for the trailer during a hot day.

 

[ElectrifiedOverland]

We pull a ‘24 Trade Wind 25FBT with our ‘23 R1T Quad large with AT tires and 20” wheels. Averaging 1.2 mi/kwh at 65. Just did a trip from NY to MO for the annual rally (so far there are apparently two of us rivians here) and only had to decouple to charge once the whole way.

Seems like 1.2 mi/kwH is a pretty common number regardless of the length of the trailer, which makes sense because the frontal area that the wind sees is pretty much identical no matter the length. Weight doesn't seem to be much of an issue here in most cases, probably more of an issue in the hills and not much of an issue otherwise in flat towing.

I have a set of 21' road tires as well as 20" ATs, most of my towing with the last trailer that returned 1.22 was on the 21' road tires. The fact that you're getting that efficiency on AT tires is great, I'm looking forward to doing some range tests with my two sets, I'd like to fully retire the 21" set.

That's a great result to only have to drop the trailer for charging once on your trip. Did you pre-plan your stops with that in mind?

 

[Foobar]

That's a great result to only have to drop the trailer for charging once on your trip. Did you pre-plan your stops with that in mind?

For the most part I relied on the vehicle’s navigation to pick the charging stops. I may have adjusted once or twice but only because I wanted to take more of a risk on range. Most of the Tesla and EA stops were made at nearly empty stations that allowed for plenty of parking sideways or sticking out into the empty parking lot. A handful were actual pull through stalls so that was nice. The one decouple I had was an EA at a Walmart. They had angled parking spots all the way at the side of their parking lot that had sections closed off for construction so there was no room to get creative.

 

[Foobar]

By the way - I’m at the annual international airstream rally in Missouri and I see one other Rivian here - pulling what looks to be a 25FB Globetrotter from Nebraska - you on here?

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