Towing Aliner Expedition camper to Meadows of Dan, VA

Meadows of Dan, Virginia (MoD), has become one of our favorite spots. It’s 300 miles from home, and has a RAN charger (the Blue Ridge Parkway rollout). MoD also has, in addition to hiking and chilling, two good wineries within 10 miles. We’ve previously camped in a National Park campground about 10 miles from MoD (Rocky Knob) but the Parkway campgrounds don’t open until Memorial Day weekend. So this past week we booked a site at a private campground right in MoD. Quite nice, 30 or 50 amp electricity, showers, laundry, etc. The great thing is the RAN station is only 1/3 mile away, behind a coffee shop. The RAN is charging there @ .36/kWh, but the Waypoint chargers are free, and being so close it was easy to leave the truck there charging a while at 10 kW and then go walk back and get it. Also, I didn’t have a TT30 adapter with me, but plugging the camper into the 30 amp TT30 and picking up 15 kWh overnight each of the 3 nights with the level 1 at the campsite power kiosk worked well for the we were there.

We have to charge twice on the way there (uphill to 3,000 feet at the RAN station) and we are coming from sea level (OK, maybe 10 feet elevation). On the way back, we can do one charge. The Aliner Expedition weighs around 3,000 pounds loaded. Total efficiency was 1.60 for 645 miles but that included about 45 miles without the trailer but in the mountains, max elevation approximately 3,500 feet. Coming back (downhill) I got 179 miles on 105 kWh for 1.70. When towing I do 65 in a 70, and about 62 in a 65. I’ll do 55 or a bit more where that’s the posted speed. I spent $120 on charging (Circle K has great chargers, but is .52/kWh including tax, did two charges there, one at EA, and a short RAN charge to make sure my payment card was set up right in the Rivian app).

A fun trip!

-Joel

Beautiful. I too get about 1.6 with a trail manor. These pop up hardshell campers are just EV perfect. Congrats.

We go to Floydfest every year near there in our Airstream.

What private campground did you use?

I am also interested in which campground you visited.

JoelD said:

Meadows of Dan, Virginia (MoD), has become one of our favorite spots. It’s 300 miles from home, and has a RAN charger (the Blue Ridge Parkway rollout). MoD also has, in addition to hiking and chilling, two good wineries within 10 miles. We’ve previously camped in a National Park campground about 10 miles from MoD (Rocky Knob) but the Parkway campgrounds don’t open until Memorial Day weekend. So this past week we booked a site at a private campground right in MoD. Quite nice, 30 or 50 amp electricity, showers, laundry, etc. The great thing is the RAN station is only 1/3 mile away, behind a coffee shop. The RAN is charging there @ .36/kWh, but the Waypoint chargers are free, and being so close it was easy to leave the truck there charging a while at 10 kW and then go walk back and get it. Also, I didn’t have a TT30 adapter with me, but plugging the camper into the 30 amp TT30 and picking up 15 kWh overnight each of the 3 nights with the level 1 at the campsite power kiosk worked well for the we were there.

We have to charge twice on the way there (uphill to 3,000 feet at the RAN station) and we are coming from sea level (OK, maybe 10 feet elevation). On the way back, we can do one charge. The Aliner Expedition weighs around 3,000 pounds loaded. Total efficiency was 1.60 for 645 miles but that included about 45 miles without the trailer but in the mountains, max elevation approximately 3,500 feet. Coming back (downhill) I got 179 miles on 105 kWh for 1.70. When towing I do 65 in a 70, and about 62 in a 65. I’ll do 55 or a bit more where that’s the posted speed. I spent $120 on charging (Circle K has great chargers, but is .52/kWh including tax, did two charges there, one at EA, and a short RAN charge to make sure my payment card was set up right in the Rivian app).

A fun trip!

-Joel

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Sounds like a fun trip. We are pretty happy using our R1T for towing. Definitely adds time with the charge stops but it works out. Mostly using Tesla chargers now. Tend to be in nicer locations with more space and stalls to make it easier with the trailer. (Also found it useful to zoom in with the satellite view before choosing which charging stop to use.)

FWIW, although some campgrounds say no I still find most are okay with me getting a 50a site and hooking up the trailer to 30a and the r1t to the 50a. As one said campsite said to me if you want to pay for the 50a you can use it. One that said no still let me do as you say and plug-in the l1 to the outside but that's so slow I might as well drive to a supercharger to have breakfast before heading out the day of.

BCondrey said:

What private campground did you use?

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Meadows of Dan Campground is where we stayed

JoelD said:

Meadows of Dan Campground is where we stayed

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Awesome thank you!