Well, did the first "big" tow with the Rivian yesterday. Had some mixed results. Mostly good, a few not so much.
Wind was strong out of the southwest, so we avoided Erie. Decided that Allegheny Reservoir was a best bet to be shielded from the wind, and deal with questionable legality of being on the water. I can't get my title from Yamaha (that I need to register the boat or trailer in NYS), but that's a rant for another thread. Overall a good day on the water. Water temps were very low (in the mid 60's), but the air temp was well into the 90's, so it worked out OK.
Towed the boat from the house to Onoville boat ramp on the Allegheny Reservoir. Roughly 135mi round trip.
Efficiency/Range
Left with 100% SoC, arrived with 57%. Then made it home again with 20%. Overall trip usage was 1.29mi/kWh per the trip meter in the dash. With that usage, I estimate around 168mi of range with the boat. Not spectacular, but not terrible either. I went back and looked and our towing trip from Buffalo to St. Augustine last June, we averaged around 225mi per "leg" of that trip. So, it's not comparable in terms of long distance towing to something like my Q7 was (which had a relatively small 21gal fuel tank). With that said, I was averaging around 12.5mpg in the Audi or 0.37mi/kWh. So the Rivian is more efficient in turning energy into motion while towing, but the energy storage capacity it still an issue......IF......you need to tow much more than ~250mi/day. I'll rent a Suburban before I try to road trip with a trailer in this truck. Assuming even a 5% buffer, I'm only looking at ~150mi between charging stops that would easily take an hour or more. I'm certain it can be done, in fact OutOfSpec is currently moving from Colorado to North Carolina and is towing a trailer and documenting his experience. You have to WANT to do it, it's not faster or easier.
Here's the data in case anyone is interested. I can pull the ElectraFi logs as well if anyone wants it.
Experience overall
Overall, it was an interesting experience. I had a LOT of Rivian owners tell me "just wait until that first hill" in an attempt to describe it. As best I can tell they just never had a competent tow vehicle before. It's better, but not striking so that I'm willing to deal with the range/etc. There is no downshifting, no drama to pull the hill. It's smooth and easy, and the only reason you know there is more load is the display on the screen changes. It's nice, but the Audi was pretty low drama as well. Downshift once and pull along. The bad part here, that I think is borderline unacceptable with current tech, is the lack of adaptive cruise, or lane keep while towing. You get regular old "dumb" cruise, AND a constant warning that you have to manually brake while towing. IMO, this is a big step backwards from what I had before, and I honestly don't understand the reason for it. Speaking of cruise, Rivian really needs to tune their "dead zone" while using it. If I had the speed set to 65, and I got a big downhill, you could easily feel the truck changing far more rapidly than it should have between power and regen. It was unnerving as it felt like the truck couldn't make up it's mind if it needed to slow down or speed up. Between those two things, I'm really somewhat underwhelmed by the experience. I'm pretty convinced that people that say "Towing with an EV is such a magical experience", or that really pump up the "huge torque capabilities" of an EV, have just never had a good tow vehicle before. Considering the fuel mileage/range consequences, this was VERY similar to towing with my '06 TBSS. Lots of energy used, small tank of reserves, and relatively no drama for pulling/stopping.....Also, the same driver aids available in both!
I will say, it was nice towing with something that weighs a solid 4k lbs more than the trailer. I came in "hot" to a couple of corners on the way there and the truck easily handled the trailers weight. With the Q7, there would have been a little pucker moment in that instance, however with the Rivian it made the corner without issue. That overall mass difference made the ride a little weird though. Certainly seemed "bouncier", and "stiffer" overall. I'm guessing that's a tire stiffness issue, as well as the weird towing receiver placement (it's WAY under the rear bumper). It wasn't egregiously bad, but it was noticeably worse than the Audi was, and likely worse than the Sierra as well.
Here's what the dash looks like while towing. That blue circled warning is an ever present waste of space.
Overall Towing Thoughts (TLDR)......Meh, it's OK. The high torque availability and smooth driveline juice isn't worth the range anxiety squeeze.
In some other "fun" EV thoughts........The Android app for Rivian crashed on Saturday. Locked me out of the truck again. This time the key card was inside the truck because it lives in my wallet and I was at the soccer fields watching the boys play. SO, I couldn't get in the truck and had to call Rivian to unlock from remote. Thankfully that still worked, and I had the keycard with me so I could drive home. I've since had to remove and redownload/install the Rivian app, relogin, and resetup the PaaK on my phone. I'm only doing that so I can have access to some of the app features. After this last service session I was trying to give PaaK a try again. Nope, burnt me again. I'm going back to the Fob.
Only 26 payments until this thing can go back to where it came from. I'm over it.
