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Rivian R1T R1S Trip Report: Northern California Exploring 9CD0C062-4BC9-46C5-B6DC-3E24C16251D3

I took my R1T on a road trip north from the Bay Area. My goal was to explore some of the Redwoods, and revisit a favorite camping area, all on free electricity from the RAN chargers in Ukiah and Fortuna. Here's how it went:

Charging:
  • RAN chargers are pretty awesome. The ease of use (pull up, plug in, and that's that) is pretty great. The pull through spot in Ukiah looks kinda short, but is probably enough if you're pulling a utility trailer.
  • In Ukiah, there's a little bit of a walk to either the McDonald's or some other restaurant to use their bathrooms. Maybe someday we can get fast EV charging with similar amenities to gas stations?
  • The Fortuna RAN is in a larger shopping center with a gas station, two grocery stores, and plenty of other businesses. Nice options while you're waiting.
  • There's always a mismatch between what the RAN charger shows, and what the truck shows. For example, the Ukiah RAN showed me 99.4kwh, while the truck showed me taking on 100.9kwh. Might be some kinda bug there. Not a big deal, just an interesting observation.
  • Charging >90kwh at each RAN charger for free is pretty awesome. I hope that Rivian keeps it free for a bit longer, but I do want them to charge for it so they can make money and do well...
Off road:
Rivian R1T R1S Trip Report: Northern California Exploring 2023-03-25-11-26-14-2

  • I'm coming from wheeling a TJ, a taco, and (badly) a subaru. This R1 is a different beast entirely. It's less of a crawler than the built taco and TJ (no solid axle to do that sweet articulation leverage on downtravel), but it's waaaay smoother across fast jittery stuff.
  • This truck is absurdly heavy. I knew I'd probably get stuck in some soft wet beach sand, but it took two jeeps strapped to each other to pull me out. I buried it up to the frame (up to the belly? since it's unibody...) repeatedly in the sand. Traction boards helped me get a few feet forward at a time, but at the end we used two wranglers and some kinetic ropes to pull me back to where my truck belonged (firmer sand).
  • Rally mode is the unsung hero of the R1. Hoooooly crap it's fun on dirt roads, and in firm sand. If you haven't tried it yet, do it. Find a fast, good visibility dirt road, and punch it.
  • These P-rated AT tires are not very aggressive. They get a little slippy in mud, and load their tread up pretty quickly. They're fine for what they are: an efficiency-first tire. Seeing as I killed one of them, I may end up putting a more aggressive tire on here. We'll see.
  • Soft sand mode is really fun, until the sand is actually soft, then you really want more steering feedback. It's a little easy to lose track of the front end when you're hurling roostertails of sand everywhere.

Camping:
Rivian R1T R1S Trip Report: Northern California Exploring IMG_3880

  • Night one was in disbursed camping, night two was in a formal campground (Gold Bluff beach campground, in Elk Prairie SP, I highly recommend a visit.), and night three was back into disbursed camping.
  • My setup is:
    • iKamper mini mounted on rivian crossbars. I've got the ikamper comfort mattress, which is definitely an exped megamat rebranded with ikamper's branding, and sized to fit the tent. It's stupidly comfortable.
    • 3x 50w solar panels are attached to the tent. They only power my camping battery.
    • ecoflow delta2, charged by those panels. It drives my fridge, recharges my drone, etc.
    • Cheapo amazon fridge
  • Not having to think about my fridge's power source the whole trip was awesome. My fridge uses ~35w, and the solar was able to bring in somewhere north of 60w throughout most of the day. I don't think my battery went below 95% the whole trip, despite rain and clouds.
  • Camp mode self leveling is awesome. I used to have to park carefully or stack rocks to get a level sleep platform. Now I just park kinda anywhere, and the truck makes my bed level. It's also nice to have a level tailgate to cook on if you don't have a table.
Lessons:
Conserve mode isn't very useful if there's elevation change happening. It doesn't help much up a mountain pass, for example. It is very useful for tucking in behind a semi, with driver+ set to the minimum following distance.

The pirelli AT tires have soft sidewalls. I destroyed one, and will need to replace it. Maybe with something more robust, we'll see.

Frunks are amazing. Super useful big storage space.

R1T's look great covered in dirt.
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ThatOneGuy

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Thanks for the great post! What was your efficiency like in conserve mode when drafting a semi?
 

Rivian_Hugh_III

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9CD0C062-4BC9-46C5-B6DC-3E24C16251D3.jpg

I took my R1T on a road trip north from the Bay Area. My goal was to explore some of the Redwoods, and revisit a favorite camping area, all on free electricity from the RAN chargers in Ukiah and Fortuna. Here's how it went:

Charging:
  • RAN chargers are pretty awesome. The ease of use (pull up, plug in, and that's that) is pretty great. The pull through spot in Ukiah looks kinda short, but is probably enough if you're pulling a utility trailer.
  • In Ukiah, there's a little bit of a walk to either the McDonald's or some other restaurant to use their bathrooms. Maybe someday we can get fast EV charging with similar amenities to gas stations?
  • The Fortuna RAN is in a larger shopping center with a gas station, two grocery stores, and plenty of other businesses. Nice options while you're waiting.
  • There's always a mismatch between what the RAN charger shows, and what the truck shows. For example, the Ukiah RAN showed me 99.4kwh, while the truck showed me taking on 100.9kwh. Might be some kinda bug there. Not a big deal, just an interesting observation.
  • Charging >90kwh at each RAN charger for free is pretty awesome. I hope that Rivian keeps it free for a bit longer, but I do want them to charge for it so they can make money and do well...
Off road:
2023-03-25-11-26-14-2.jpg

  • I'm coming from wheeling a TJ, a taco, and (badly) a subaru. This R1 is a different beast entirely. It's less of a crawler than the built taco and TJ (no solid axle to do that sweet articulation leverage on downtravel), but it's waaaay smoother across fast jittery stuff.
  • This truck is absurdly heavy. I knew I'd probably get stuck in some soft wet beach sand, but it took two jeeps strapped to each other to pull me out. I buried it up to the frame (up to the belly? since it's unibody...) repeatedly in the sand. Traction boards helped me get a few feet forward at a time, but at the end we used two wranglers and some kinetic ropes to pull me back to where my truck belonged (firmer sand).
  • Rally mode is the unsung hero of the R1. Hoooooly crap it's fun on dirt roads, and in firm sand. If you haven't tried it yet, do it. Find a fast, good visibility dirt road, and punch it.
  • These P-rated AT tires are not very aggressive. They get a little slippy in mud, and load their tread up pretty quickly. They're fine for what they are: an efficiency-first tire. Seeing as I killed one of them, I may end up putting a more aggressive tire on here. We'll see.
  • Soft sand mode is really fun, until the sand is actually soft, then you really want more steering feedback. It's a little easy to lose track of the front end when you're hurling roostertails of sand everywhere.

Camping:
IMG_3880.jpg

  • Night one was in disbursed camping, night two was in a formal campground (Gold Bluff beach campground, in Elk Prairie SP, I highly recommend a visit.), and night three was back into disbursed camping.
  • My setup is:
    • iKamper mini mounted on rivian crossbars. I've got the ikamper comfort mattress, which is definitely an exped megamat rebranded with ikamper's branding, and sized to fit the tent. It's stupidly comfortable.
    • 3x 50w solar panels are attached to the tent. They only power my camping battery.
    • ecoflow delta2, charged by those panels. It drives my fridge, recharges my drone, etc.
    • Cheapo amazon fridge
  • Not having to think about my fridge's power source the whole trip was awesome. My fridge uses ~35w, and the solar was able to bring in somewhere north of 60w throughout most of the day. I don't think my battery went below 95% the whole trip, despite rain and clouds.
  • Camp mode self leveling is awesome. I used to have to park carefully or stack rocks to get a level sleep platform. Now I just park kinda anywhere, and the truck makes my bed level. It's also nice to have a level tailgate to cook on if you don't have a table.
Lessons:
Conserve mode isn't very useful if there's elevation change happening. It doesn't help much up a mountain pass, for example. It is very useful for tucking in behind a semi, with driver+ set to the minimum following distance.

The pirelli AT tires have soft sidewalls. I destroyed one, and will need to replace it. Maybe with something more robust, we'll see.

Frunks are amazing. Super useful big storage space.

R1T's look great covered in dirt.
Great write up! Looks like you have a forest green with dark AT’s? Can you share more pics?
 

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R1Sky Business

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9CD0C062-4BC9-46C5-B6DC-3E24C16251D3.jpg

I took my R1T on a road trip north from the Bay Area. My goal was to explore some of the Redwoods, and revisit a favorite camping area, all on free electricity from the RAN chargers in Ukiah and Fortuna. Here's how it went:

Charging:
  • RAN chargers are pretty awesome. The ease of use (pull up, plug in, and that's that) is pretty great. The pull through spot in Ukiah looks kinda short, but is probably enough if you're pulling a utility trailer.
  • In Ukiah, there's a little bit of a walk to either the McDonald's or some other restaurant to use their bathrooms. Maybe someday we can get fast EV charging with similar amenities to gas stations?
  • The Fortuna RAN is in a larger shopping center with a gas station, two grocery stores, and plenty of other businesses. Nice options while you're waiting.
  • There's always a mismatch between what the RAN charger shows, and what the truck shows. For example, the Ukiah RAN showed me 99.4kwh, while the truck showed me taking on 100.9kwh. Might be some kinda bug there. Not a big deal, just an interesting observation.
  • Charging >90kwh at each RAN charger for free is pretty awesome. I hope that Rivian keeps it free for a bit longer, but I do want them to charge for it so they can make money and do well...
Off road:
2023-03-25-11-26-14-2.jpg

  • I'm coming from wheeling a TJ, a taco, and (badly) a subaru. This R1 is a different beast entirely. It's less of a crawler than the built taco and TJ (no solid axle to do that sweet articulation leverage on downtravel), but it's waaaay smoother across fast jittery stuff.
  • This truck is absurdly heavy. I knew I'd probably get stuck in some soft wet beach sand, but it took two jeeps strapped to each other to pull me out. I buried it up to the frame (up to the belly? since it's unibody...) repeatedly in the sand. Traction boards helped me get a few feet forward at a time, but at the end we used two wranglers and some kinetic ropes to pull me back to where my truck belonged (firmer sand).
  • Rally mode is the unsung hero of the R1. Hoooooly crap it's fun on dirt roads, and in firm sand. If you haven't tried it yet, do it. Find a fast, good visibility dirt road, and punch it.
  • These P-rated AT tires are not very aggressive. They get a little slippy in mud, and load their tread up pretty quickly. They're fine for what they are: an efficiency-first tire. Seeing as I killed one of them, I may end up putting a more aggressive tire on here. We'll see.
  • Soft sand mode is really fun, until the sand is actually soft, then you really want more steering feedback. It's a little easy to lose track of the front end when you're hurling roostertails of sand everywhere.

Camping:
IMG_3880.jpg

  • Night one was in disbursed camping, night two was in a formal campground (Gold Bluff beach campground, in Elk Prairie SP, I highly recommend a visit.), and night three was back into disbursed camping.
  • My setup is:
    • iKamper mini mounted on rivian crossbars. I've got the ikamper comfort mattress, which is definitely an exped megamat rebranded with ikamper's branding, and sized to fit the tent. It's stupidly comfortable.
    • 3x 50w solar panels are attached to the tent. They only power my camping battery.
    • ecoflow delta2, charged by those panels. It drives my fridge, recharges my drone, etc.
    • Cheapo amazon fridge
  • Not having to think about my fridge's power source the whole trip was awesome. My fridge uses ~35w, and the solar was able to bring in somewhere north of 60w throughout most of the day. I don't think my battery went below 95% the whole trip, despite rain and clouds.
  • Camp mode self leveling is awesome. I used to have to park carefully or stack rocks to get a level sleep platform. Now I just park kinda anywhere, and the truck makes my bed level. It's also nice to have a level tailgate to cook on if you don't have a table.
Lessons:
Conserve mode isn't very useful if there's elevation change happening. It doesn't help much up a mountain pass, for example. It is very useful for tucking in behind a semi, with driver+ set to the minimum following distance.

The pirelli AT tires have soft sidewalls. I destroyed one, and will need to replace it. Maybe with something more robust, we'll see.

Frunks are amazing. Super useful big storage space.

R1T's look great covered in dirt.
Free juice!!!! Few more weeks only.
 

carmigo

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9CD0C062-4BC9-46C5-B6DC-3E24C16251D3.jpg

I took my R1T on a road trip north from the Bay Area. My goal was to explore some of the Redwoods, and revisit a favorite camping area, all on free electricity from the RAN chargers in Ukiah and Fortuna. Here's how it went:

Charging:
  • RAN chargers are pretty awesome. The ease of use (pull up, plug in, and that's that) is pretty great. The pull through spot in Ukiah looks kinda short, but is probably enough if you're pulling a utility trailer.
  • In Ukiah, there's a little bit of a walk to either the McDonald's or some other restaurant to use their bathrooms. Maybe someday we can get fast EV charging with similar amenities to gas stations?
  • The Fortuna RAN is in a larger shopping center with a gas station, two grocery stores, and plenty of other businesses. Nice options while you're waiting.
  • There's always a mismatch between what the RAN charger shows, and what the truck shows. For example, the Ukiah RAN showed me 99.4kwh, while the truck showed me taking on 100.9kwh. Might be some kinda bug there. Not a big deal, just an interesting observation.
  • Charging >90kwh at each RAN charger for free is pretty awesome. I hope that Rivian keeps it free for a bit longer, but I do want them to charge for it so they can make money and do well...
Off road:
2023-03-25-11-26-14-2.jpg

  • I'm coming from wheeling a TJ, a taco, and (badly) a subaru. This R1 is a different beast entirely. It's less of a crawler than the built taco and TJ (no solid axle to do that sweet articulation leverage on downtravel), but it's waaaay smoother across fast jittery stuff.
  • This truck is absurdly heavy. I knew I'd probably get stuck in some soft wet beach sand, but it took two jeeps strapped to each other to pull me out. I buried it up to the frame (up to the belly? since it's unibody...) repeatedly in the sand. Traction boards helped me get a few feet forward at a time, but at the end we used two wranglers and some kinetic ropes to pull me back to where my truck belonged (firmer sand).
  • Rally mode is the unsung hero of the R1. Hoooooly crap it's fun on dirt roads, and in firm sand. If you haven't tried it yet, do it. Find a fast, good visibility dirt road, and punch it.
  • These P-rated AT tires are not very aggressive. They get a little slippy in mud, and load their tread up pretty quickly. They're fine for what they are: an efficiency-first tire. Seeing as I killed one of them, I may end up putting a more aggressive tire on here. We'll see.
  • Soft sand mode is really fun, until the sand is actually soft, then you really want more steering feedback. It's a little easy to lose track of the front end when you're hurling roostertails of sand everywhere.

Camping:
IMG_3880.jpg

  • Night one was in disbursed camping, night two was in a formal campground (Gold Bluff beach campground, in Elk Prairie SP, I highly recommend a visit.), and night three was back into disbursed camping.
  • My setup is:
    • iKamper mini mounted on rivian crossbars. I've got the ikamper comfort mattress, which is definitely an exped megamat rebranded with ikamper's branding, and sized to fit the tent. It's stupidly comfortable.
    • 3x 50w solar panels are attached to the tent. They only power my camping battery.
    • ecoflow delta2, charged by those panels. It drives my fridge, recharges my drone, etc.
    • Cheapo amazon fridge
  • Not having to think about my fridge's power source the whole trip was awesome. My fridge uses ~35w, and the solar was able to bring in somewhere north of 60w throughout most of the day. I don't think my battery went below 95% the whole trip, despite rain and clouds.
  • Camp mode self leveling is awesome. I used to have to park carefully or stack rocks to get a level sleep platform. Now I just park kinda anywhere, and the truck makes my bed level. It's also nice to have a level tailgate to cook on if you don't have a table.
Lessons:
Conserve mode isn't very useful if there's elevation change happening. It doesn't help much up a mountain pass, for example. It is very useful for tucking in behind a semi, with driver+ set to the minimum following distance.

The pirelli AT tires have soft sidewalls. I destroyed one, and will need to replace it. Maybe with something more robust, we'll see.

Frunks are amazing. Super useful big storage space.

R1T's look great covered in dirt.
That camping setup with the solar panels is amazing. Did you attach those yourself or buy some sort of add on for the tent?
 

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k3g

k3g

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Great write up! Looks like you have a forest green with dark AT’s? Can you share more pics?
Yep, Forest Green with dark ATs. I'll have many more pics to come, the ones attached are all I really have for now.
Nope, team forest green
Forest color is best color

That camping setup with the solar panels is amazing. Did you attach those yourself or buy some sort of add on for the tent?
Yep, attached them myself. They're some very cheap flexible panels from aliexpress (I got four in case one dies on me). I attached them with automotive grade VHB, they're not going anywhere.
 

R1Sky Business

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P
Yep, Forest Green with dark ATs. I'll have many more pics to come, the ones attached are all I really have for now.

Forest color is best color


Yep, attached them myself. They're some very cheap flexible panels from aliexpress (I got four in case one dies on me). I attached them with automotive grade VHB, they're not going anywhere.
McGrubber!!!
 

carmigo

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Yep, Forest Green with dark ATs. I'll have many more pics to come, the ones attached are all I really have for now.

Forest color is best color


Yep, attached them myself. They're some very cheap flexible panels from aliexpress (I got four in case one dies on me). I attached them with automotive grade VHB, they're not going anywhere.
Great DIY. Thanks for sharing. Next tent I buy is getting solar panels.
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