Road Trip from WI to FL - Our Experience in the R1T

[Jedimaster109]

Rivian R1T Road Trip

My wife and I took our R1T on a road trip from Wisconsin to Florida for a two week vacation. We drove down with our tonneau cover closed, pickup bed full and our back seat filled. We drove on Conserve at Standard ride height when on the highway. On our trip back I tested out All-Purpose mode in Standard ride height and prefer the responsiveness and handling.

Total miles driven was 3,240 miles. Total energy was 1,650kWh
1.96 Efficiency

Well, how did the R1T handle? Here are our observations…

The Good

Comfort
The R1T is an amazing and comfortable road tripping vehicle. The seats and cabin make it very comfortable for driving long distances.

Ride Comfort
In the standard ride height it is so comfortable driving this vehicle, it truly is an amazing experience.

Charging Curve
The charging curve with the most recent update 2023.6.2 is amazing. Normally we would pull into an Electrify America and EVGo chargers around 20% state of charge. Going from 20%-45% the R1T was able to pull 210kw from the charger if it provided it, then it would slowly go down to 150kw and 100kw around 70%, then it would drop off to around 50kw. Needless to say, we stopped for only 20min at every charging stop.

Navigation
We used the built in navigation the entire two weeks, and besides the few times it kept us on the side roads instead of taking us directly to an interstate onramp, it performed well. We navigated to each charging stop, thus having the car precondition the battery.

Driver+
On our drive down and back we used Driver+ 80% of the time. We didn’t use it around construction. It preformed remarkably well, only a few times I felt the truck hesitate, but never phantom brake like we have experienced in our Tesla. There was occasional pin balling sometimes to find the lane but otherwise it was solid.

The Not So Good

Road Noise
On the 20” AT Tires, road noise is noticeable, it would be interesting to compare to the 21” tires, maybe next year. It’s not terrible but you definitely notice it.

Wipers
While traveling through a downpour on our drive back home, the two highest settings seemed to be the same speed and not quite fast enough to clear the rain.

Charging… Need I say more…
EVGo chargers are amazing, EA Chargers… a mixed bag. At every station you had to check PlugShare and see which one would be the best to charge at. There were a few stations where we had to move the truck to another stall because the station was derated and not providing the max amount of energy the R1T could take. Thankfully on our trip down to Florida, we never had to wait and were able to charge at the max rate.

EA has nice 1.5hr to 2hr spacing between charging stops. However, in Indiana, on our trip back home there is the station (Lafayette) that is the ONLY DCFC station between Indianapolis and Chicago. Which means it is a lifeline to EV drivers. During our trip down we were able to charge at 210kw, there were only 2 stations functioning. On our trip back, that station was now only outputting 1kw and the other station was derated to 100kw. As a result we had to wait around an hour to wait for a Bolt and Mach-E to finish charging.

The lack of maintenance and upkeep on EA stations is disappointing. If they would maintain them and update them all to their new hardware, the experience would be much more enjoyable. I hope to see Rivian accelerate their charging network rollout to improve the overall charging experience. For those who are not able or willing to research and test each station they are at or going to, it can really be a frustrating experience.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, would we road trip in the R1T again? ABSOLUTELY! Rivian has made an amazing vehicle, in fact we even talked about getting a R1S and trading in our Model Y. After seeing an R1S while in Florida, we agreed that it would be ideal for a road trip. The covered cabin and a huge storage area and frunk would make road tripping a breeze.

Sadly, the road tripping experience comes down to factors that are out of Rivian’s control, for now. Once their RAN network is up, things should improve immensely. We are also looking forward to Tesla opening up their network which will make the experience much more enjoyable and seamless for the casual EV driver.

Hope this helps any who are contemplating taking their R1S/T on a road trip in the future. Stay adventurous friends!

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[aabolt]

Happy to hear you overall loved your experience! I couldnt agree more that it is an excellent road trip vehicle (if you take out the charger issues that it cannot control). Keep on adventuring!

 

[mini2nut]

I do agree with the 20” tire road noise. It’s a great looking OEM wheel and tire but the noise and lower battery range makes the stock 21” wheels a tempting proposition.

 

[thebwk]

What was the true difference in range that you experienced in All-Purpose vs Conserve? I’m driving the fam down to Gulf Shores from Wisconsin in a few weeks!

 

[computertom]

Thanks much for the write up. What sort of speeds were you maintaining with Driver+ to see 1.96 efficiency?

Around town I'm no where near that with my 20ATs, but I've been impressed on the highway with Driver+ when I'm not in a hurry.

 

[JeremyMKE]

Super helpful. We are headed to St Louis from MKE soon but IL has a decent charging infrastructure so I am very optimistic.

 

[jeeden]

Great write up. I don't think the wheels are the issue so much as the tires. The Pirelli's were a real disappointment for me when they were announced. They manage to buy their way into every car brand it seems and I have never had good luck with their wear pattern, noise, performance, or longevity. I have had them all on several new explorers, a focus, a mustang Gt, and when I I replaced them it was like getting new vehicles, especially in bad weather. I was never a fanboy of Michelin, but they have performed so well I put them on all my cars now. I was excited to see the Defender LTS put on by someone in the forums for the 20 inch wheels, but a little disappointed in the look, the sidewalls seem tall.

 

[Jedimaster109]

I do agree with the 20” tire road noise. It’s a great looking OEM wheel and tire but the noise and lower battery range makes the stock 21” wheels a tempting proposition.

I agree love the rims but the tire if you are road tripping is a little noisy, but it’s not too loud that it drowns out the radio or talk.

 

[Jedimaster109]

Thanks much for the write up. What sort of speeds were you maintaining with Driver+ to see 1.96 efficiency?

Around town I'm no where near that with my 20ATs, but I've been impressed on the highway with Driver+ when I'm not in a hurry.

I would usually set it to 78/80 but my wife is a little more spirited driver and would range between 80-84 . Driver + just makes it a little easier drive and less fatiguing.

The efficiency was for the entire trip, but noticed I was close to 2.0 for most highway travel.

 

[Jedimaster109]

What was the true difference in range that you experienced in All-Purpose vs Conserve? I’m driving the fam down to Gulf Shores from Wisconsin in a few weeks!

I want to say it was a 20 mile hit, but once you are locked in with stopping at each charger you don’t even think about it. I just like how the truck handles and accelerates in all purpose. Nothing wrong with Conserve, and I like the much softer ride in Standard height. Hopefully by doing so my tread wear was even, still need to check that soon.

 

[ImAI]

@Jedimaster109

I drove on the 21s from Normal/Bloomington to California in January (around 2500 miles) and can say that road noise was limited. Definitely R1T was quieter than my Mach-E GTPE. But above 95+ i did notice wind noise getting louder.

Didnt like the fact that Driver+ is still nagging me to put my hands on the wheel unlike BlueCruise on Ford.

 

[Jedimaster109]

@Jedimaster109

I drove on the 21s from Normal/Bloomington to California in January (around 2500 miles) and can say that road noise was limited. Definitely R1T was quieter than my Mach-E GTPE. But above 95+ i did notice wind noise getting louder.

Didnt like the fact that Driver+ is still nagging me to put my hands on the wheel unlike BlueCruise on Ford.

I might consider getting a set of 21’s for road tripping. Although when we left the interstates in WI were terrible because of a winter storm, so I was happy to have the 20 ATs on.

At 95mph… I would expect some wind noise

 

[Indy avocado]

What was the true difference in range that you experienced in All-Purpose vs Conserve? I’m driving the fam down to Gulf Shores from Wisconsin in a few weeks!

Let me know how it goes... We travel from Indianapolis to Gulf Shores at least twice a year.

 

[Indy avocado]

Great write up. I don't think the wheels are the issue so much as the tires. The Pirelli's were a real disappointment for me when they were announced. They manage to buy their way into every car brand it seems and I have never had good luck with their wear pattern, noise, performance, or longevity. I have had them all on several new explorers, a focus, a mustang Gt, and when I I replaced them it was like getting new vehicles, especially in bad weather. I was never a fanboy of Michelin, but they have performed so well I put them on all my cars now. I was excited to see the Defender LTS put on by someone in the forums for the 20 inch wheels, but a little disappointed in the look, the sidewalls seem tall.

I have been reasonably pleased with the Rivian ones. I *hated* the ones that came on my Mustang. I just put some Pirellis on our Macan and they are comparable to the Michelins that came with the car... a little softer, a little more grip and don't balance out quite as well.

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