Towing + Efficiency: Please post your experience!

[Indy avocado]

I get what you’re saying and I think your estimates are pretty close. We will have to see how the dual motors handle towing.

I think the gap in efficiency will close between dual and quad motors when towing, but impossible to know for sure.

My rationale is that the motors are only noticeably inefficient at very light or and very heavy load. Towing at highway speeds likely puts the quad motors at/near their peak efficiency load, close to where the truck is in FWD mode. I could be wrong, however, and most of the efficiency drop is actually coming from the motor inverters.

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[Goose]

I think the gap in efficiency will close between dual and quad motors when towing, but impossible to know for sure.

My rationale is that the motors are only noticeably inefficient at very light or and very heavy load. Towing at highway speeds likely puts the quad motors at/near their peak efficiency load, close to where the truck is in FWD mode. I could be wrong, however, and most of the efficiency drop is actually coming from the motor inverters.

I have big hopes for the dual motor with A/T’s. If I could get verification that I could get anywhere near 1.7 mi/kWh while towing I would be extremely happy! I wish I could have access to a dual motor R1T to tow my boat at highway speeds for around 30 miles to test before buying.

 

[Thedude]

I have big hopes for the dual motor with A/T’s. If I could get verification that I could get anywhere near 1.7 mi/kWh while towing I would be extremely happy! I wish I could have access to a dual motor R1T to tow my boat at highway speeds for around 30 miles to test before buying.

My all time average on 20” ATs which includes a fair amount of towing and winter weather is 1.79mi/kWh. I don’t see a Rivian working for your needs with the current battery/motor combinations.

 

[Goose]

My all time average on 20” ATs which includes a fair amount of towing and winter weather is 1.79mi/kWh. I don’t see a Rivian working for your needs with the current battery/motor combinations.

Ugh. You’re probably right. I’m just clinging to hope at this point. The smart decision is prob to keep my 4Runner for a while longer until new battery tech comes along. I could prob do a dual motor max pack but boy howdy that’s a lot of money.

 

[Thedude]

Pretty consistent results of 1mi/kWh towing a 7000lb travel trailer. Started at 82%, arrived at 43%.

 

[Taco]

@Thedude Since you're in CO with a large trailer, is it even worth it for longer trips? Looking at renting a smaller 3500lb travel trailer this summer. 250miles to get there and I've already figured that I'll have to charge in Frisco and Glenwood.

The wife has said "I'll take your truck and you can get a F350"

 

[ironpig]

Pretty consistent results of 1mi/kWh towing a 7000lb travel trailer. Started at 82%, arrived at 43%.

That seems like a good benchmark. I'm at about 5300-5000 lbs with my loaded horse trailer and get maybe 1-1.3 mi/kWh depending on the drive. I just use 1 mi per kWh as my basis when planing a tow for now.

 

[pc500]

Does it count as increasing towing efficiency if I charge the truck using the towed trailer’s built in generator? Doing the math says a full propane tank would charge about 26kw charge over 18hrs.

Depending on the Onan, it might be possible to rewire for a 240 output. Still will be 4000 watt limited, so it might not matter much.

 

[Thedude]

@Thedude Since you're in CO with a large trailer, is it even worth it for longer trips? Looking at renting a smaller 3500lb travel trailer this summer. 250miles to get there and I've already figured that I'll have to charge in Frisco and Glenwood.

The wife has said "I'll take your truck and you can get a F350"

It depends. If you’re trying to do 250 miles in a hurry then no. If you’re ok with an added couple of hours for charging stops and are on a relaxed schedule then the Rivian won’t disappoint in its towing ability.

 

[Thedude]

Depending on the Onan, it might be possible to rewire for a 240 output. Still will be 4000 watt limited, so it might not matter much.

I haven’t looked into a 240 output but have thought about wiring in a separate 30 amp breaker and outlet to use for charging if needed. That would provide about double the charge rate even staying on 120v.

 

[pc500]

I haven’t looked into a 240 output but have thought about wiring in a separate 30 amp breaker and outlet to use for charging if needed. That would provide about double the charge rate even staying on 120v.

Good point, some of them don't have a tt-30 service plug. You'll need to find a EVSE that can do 24 amp 120 volt on amazon, but they exist. I believe someone said the Rivian will take 24A @ Level 1/120v

 

[Thedude]

Good point, some of them don't have a tt-30 service plug. You'll need to find a EVSE that can do 24 amp 120 volt on amazon, but they exist. I believe someone said the Rivian will take 24A @ Level 1/120v

It will. I have a TT-30 to 14-50 adapter I’ve used with the included EVSE and it will charge up to at least 26amps, the highest I was able to go on my 3500 watt portable generator before it started stumbling.

 

[twieland]

We've had our R1T just over a month and took first trip towing our Airstream Basecamp 20X recently. Setting cruise at 63mph, temps in the upper 40's, with a 10-15mph crosswind we were able to achieve 1.31 m/kWh towing in flat Nebraska. We were pretty happy with those results, and in warmer weather expect to be able to do even better. We 'downsized' from a larger Airstream as the Basecamp is advertised as being slightly more aerodynamic than a traditional shape Airstream (towing the Basecamp with our previous ICE vehicle we did see 5-10% better fuel efficiency over our previous 23' Airstream).

 

[Indy avocado]

We've had our R1T just over a month and took first trip towing our Airstream Basecamp 20X recently. Setting cruise at 63mph, temps in the upper 40's, with a 10-15mph crosswind we were able to achieve 1.31 m/kWh towing in flat Nebraska. We were pretty happy with those results, and in warmer weather expect to be able to do even better. We 'downsized' from a larger Airstream as the Basecamp is advertised as being slightly more aerodynamic than a traditional shape Airstream (towing the Basecamp with our previous ICE vehicle we did see 5-10% better fuel efficiency over our previous 23' Airstream).

Awesome. I was wondering how these did. Seems like it's about on par with our "Teardrop" despite being much larger.

Last week we got back from a long (almost 800mi) trip. in decent weather (upper 50s)
Overall 1.28mi/kWh.
Tended to do about 68-70mph on the interstate(650mi), ~62 on the state highways (100mi)
Had some park driving at ~30mph (~20mi)

I think running with the bikes on the front + no aero covers combined to give about a 5% hit vs. what we previously experienced.

Southbound we had a very slight 3-5mph tail wind and did about 1.35-1.4 mi/kWh
Northbound we had a 10mph head/side wind and typically saw 1.05-1.25mi/kWh.

For 2 of our legs, we used about 80% of the total battery capacity (~90% ->~10%) to travel 110mi, which forced our speeds and strategy. For those legs, I was constantly using battery % and last 15min consumption to re-calculate our remaining range and adjusting speed up/down 1-2mph to ensure we had 10-12% upon arrival.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I think running with the bikes on the front + no aero covers combined to give about a 5% hit vs. what we previously experienced.

Is there room inside the teardrop for them? I guess that would complicate using the trailer while you're at a charging stop though.

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