Rivian Towing Range

[radar]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

With this thread being about the towing range of a Rivian rather than the travel log from an unladen EV, it should be duly noted that it will be necessary to evaluate the travel plans, if towing with an EV, in ways it would not be necessary with an ICE vehicle. Particularly, if one chooses to travel more than 100km from home or more than 100km from a charging station. Such locations do exist in the wild.

True. Thread drift. My apologies. But yep. One needs to access what they will do with their truck or tow vehicle. I wouldn’t recommend an expeditious cross country trip with an EV tow vehicle. Get a good gas or diesel half ton with a big tank.

If you are slow touring it would probably be fine. We’ll be doing that next summer as we head for Quebec City. But then again, we are taking 10 weeks to get there and back. .

[carybosse]

Has anyone seen any charging stations that are setup for big rigs, in other words, drive thru as opposed to pull in, back out, enough room to make turns with an overall length of 30-60 feet?

I have not seen any setup for an RV scenario, or even setup to allow people to get in line like most gas stations are setup with pull through capabilities. Most are in the "big city" at retail stores and malls.

I don't think I have ever seen an EV charging station at a traditional stop along a highway. Not having an EV, I assume there are simple apps for the various vehicles to find the type of charging station they require. When they start putting charging stations out where they can be seen, it may encourage people that an EV may be a better option than it now appears to be.

Right now, based on what I see, an EV would be a liability if I needed to drive in one day more than the range of a full charge.

[Kid Gloves]

Currently there are almost 50,000. They don’t have big signs 100’ tall, which could explain why you haven’t noticed any.

By comparison, there are approximately 110,000 gas stations. However, many gas stations have a dozen or more pumps, which allow a typical passenger vehicle to fill the tank in just a few minutes. You can see, on average, a charging station has fewer than 3 ports.

[carybosse]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

Currently there are almost 50,000. They don’t have big signs 100’ tall, which could explain why you haven’t noticed any.

By comparison, there are approximately 110,000 gas stations. However, many gas stations have a dozen or more pumps, which allow a typical passenger vehicle to fill the tank in just a few minutes. You can see, on average, a charging station has fewer than 3 ports.

I know there are charging stations at a couple of Walgreens, at a mall, and next to a container store near me in a town square area, there must be 10 Tesla charging stations. I once saw everyone of them full when I drove by.

When I drive down the interstate, they will have the nice little signs telling me the next exit has dining, gas, lodging, with many gas stations having DIESEL across their logo to denote that. I have never seen anything saying ELECTRICITY or EV FRIENDLY, etc. to direct people to a charging station.

You want to drive acceptance of EVs, you have to prove to us Neanderthals with our fossil fuel tanks that we can get a charge as easy as a big gulp of gas and a Big Gulp of soda. (That would be pop for you northern folks.)

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

With this thread being about the towing range of a Rivian rather than the travel log from an unladen EV, it should be duly noted that it will be necessary to evaluate the travel plans, if towing with an EV, in ways it would not be necessary with an ICE vehicle. Particularly, if one chooses to travel more than 100km from home or more than 100km from a charging station. Such locations do exist in the wild.

Plan on eating a lot.

[radar]

Originally Posted by carybosse

I know there are charging stations at a couple of Walgreens, at a mall, and next to a container store near me in a town square area, there must be 10 Tesla charging stations. I once saw everyone of them full when I drove by.

When I drive down the interstate, they will have the nice little signs telling me the next exit has dining, gas, lodging, with many gas stations having DIESEL across their logo to denote that. I have never seen anything saying ELECTRICITY or EV FRIENDLY, etc. to direct people to a charging station.

You want to drive acceptance of EVs, you have to prove to us Neanderthals with our fossil fuel tanks that we can get a charge as easy as a big gulp of gas and a Big Gulp of soda. (That would be pop for you northern folks.)

Re the charging sites accessible by big rigs,. I haven't seen any. But then again I don't think any manufacturers are developing anything that would pull a big trailer. Up to now its just SUV's and half tons. I suspect that will come as required.

I have seen a bunch of sites suitable for an SUV pulling a trailer or even a half ton pulling something like a 24 trailer. Not very common though. Some of the Tesla sites have a pull thru affair and I have noticed more of the non Tesla chargers have a kind of parallel park thing happening. Again. Less common though.

I don't think signage is that important for EV charging stations. The cars know where they are. Just a matter of telling the car where you want to go and then following the navigation.

I'm not sure there will ever be as many charge stations as gas stations as most charging is done at home. Having said that the gas station networks here have been adding DC fast chargers at more and more of their stations. So maybe. Up here Petro Canada, Shell, Chevron, even Flying J Essos. Who knows what the future brings.

Here are a few pics.





Most Superchargers are back in affairs. So one would have to block a lot of stalls to charge without unhooking.





This works but you take up two stalls. Of course that happens at gas stations too.



These parallel park affairs would work. They seem to be getting more common here.



This is a Flying J's. Kinda surprised they didn't make pull thru stalls. Again. One could do it but one would take up 2 or 3 spots.



Cheers

[Kid Gloves]

Originally Posted by carybosse

I know there are charging stations at a couple of Walgreens, at a mall, and next to a container store near me in a town square area, there must be 10 Tesla charging stations. I once saw everyone of them full when I drove by.

When I drive down the interstate, they will have the nice little signs telling me the next exit has dining, gas, lodging, with many gas stations having DIESEL across their logo to denote that. I have never seen anything saying ELECTRICITY or EV FRIENDLY, etc. to direct people to a charging station.

You want to drive acceptance of EVs, you have to prove to us Neanderthals with our fossil fuel tanks that we can get a charge as easy as a big gulp of gas and a Big Gulp of soda. (That would be pop for you northern folks.)

Look closely and you may see an EV Charging Station sign along with those other signs. They are easily located with a map search, an app or navigation. Your unawareness of their locations does not mean they do not exist.

[carybosse]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

Look closely and you may see an EV Charging Station sign along with those other signs. They are easily located with a map search, an app or navigation. Your unawareness of their locations does not mean they do not exist.

Would love to see a similar map for areas of Texas outside of the big cities.

I have not seen any EV signs along the interstate in Texas. There was a sign in Louisiana that said I was exiting the Alternate Fuels Corridor. I think it was referring to propane as opposed to EV.

[radar]

Originally Posted by carybosse

Would love to see a similar map for areas of Texas outside of the big cities.

I have not seen any EV signs along the interstate in Texas. There was a sign in Louisiana that said I was exiting the Alternate Fuels Corridor. I think it was referring to propane as opposed to EV.

Just go to Plugshare.com. Or get the plugshare app.

[Kid Gloves]

Originally Posted by carybosse

Would love to see a similar map for areas of Texas outside of the big cities.

I have not seen any EV signs along the interstate in Texas. There was a sign in Louisiana that said I was exiting the Alternate Fuels Corridor. I think it was referring to propane as opposed to EV.

Here ya go. As a side note, I’m not a fan of Musk or Tesla, but he did just, officially, move Tesla headquarters to Texas two days ago.

[carybosse]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

Here ya go. As a side note, I’m not a fan of Musk or Tesla, but he did just, officially, move Tesla headquarters to Texas two days ago.

I am not going to investigate closely until I get an EV, with the caveat, at my age, no guarantees I will ever own an EV, but looking at the dots, I suspect the distance between EV charging stations in West Texas exceeds the towing limits of the Rivian.

[Kid Gloves]

You asked about charging stations, so I showed you how many there are and where some are located.

Personally, I don’t believe an EV is a practical tow vehicle for 99% of Rv’ers, for a number of reasons. There are still too many negative attributes even if charging stations are available every 20 miles.

[NewBlackDak]

Originally Posted by carybosse

Would love to see a similar map for areas of Texas outside of the big cities.

I have not seen any EV signs along the interstate in Texas. There was a sign in Louisiana that said I was exiting the Alternate Fuels Corridor. I think it was referring to propane as opposed to EV.

I’ve never seen any EV/charging signs in UT, ID, NV, or WY either.
I think thats kind of the point those of us accustomed to looking for the signs aren’t used to relying on our nav system to tell us to fuel up. I was oblivious of that until this thread.
If you look at that map a couple posts up, the best places to camp in Utah don’t have any green dots.

[radar]

Originally Posted by NewBlackDak

I’ve never seen any EV/charging signs in UT, ID, NV, or WY either.
I think thats kind of the point those of us accustomed to looking for the signs aren’t used to relying on our nav system to tell us to fuel up. I was oblivious of that until this thread.
If you look at that map a couple posts up, the best places to camp in Utah don’t have any green dots.

Yah. There are still lots of “charging deserts” out there. At this point an EV half ton would probably suffice for the local weekend camper but not for a cross country drag.

However, serviced campgrounds will allow for charging as well. Depending on ones stay and the kind of services the campground has one can simply recharge at the campground. Campgrounds are already adding themselves to EV charge Apps so at least some are looking forward to a new revenue source. KOA is committed to adding J1772 charge stations to sites. Of course wilderness sites are a different story.

Cheers.