Trailer Towing 4th of July Update
Here is the original post for reference.
I want to begin by stating that my original post was not meant as a dig on Rivian as some interpreted it. I love my R1T. It was meant to provide insight for people who don't use trailers often (this was my first trailer trip). For some background that I did not provide the first time: I was driving a 2023 Gen 1 R1T dual motor, large battery. I was pulling a U-Haul 6'x12' enclosed cargo trailer. Total weight of trailer and cargo was about 3,000 pounds.
Rivian Pros: the ride was incredibly smooth even with all the weight behind, the truck did not have jerky braking with the trailer, the ability to change the camera settings allowed me to more clearly see clearance with the trailer when driving through pull through charging stations and fast food drive thrus, the trailer efficiency information was helpful for planning charges, the manual prepare for high speed charging option helped speed up some of the charging.
Rivian Cons: the navigation system was not letting me choose chargers it would pre-set to the charger it wanted me to charge at and I could not change it. There was one location that I have had no luck with when driving normally and I wanted to avoid. I eventually had to just end navigation and put in that location as my destination. By doing this, I lost the optimal charging level because it was my "final destination". The area I was driving through was mountainous and buggy, unfortunately the 7.8 million dead insects on the front of my truck made it so the sensors wouldn't allow me to use the cruise control on the few flat straightaways to give my leg a rest.
Charging Pros: Had 1 available RAN on the route and it was open and fast. Was able to get charged from 5% to 85% in 31 minutes with a longer portion being from 80-85%. The second half of the towing trip was near more populous areas which allowed for greater charging options which, in turn, allowed for faster charging.
Charging Cons: The first half of our trip was through some rather remote areas. This led to limited charging options (our first charge was at the only place we could have charged at without running out of charge and this was starting at 100%) and most of that was Electrify America. In talking with some people at the various chargers it sounds like both Ford and Kia have deals with EA that allow for some free charging. Great for them but it put an increased demand on the chargers. Because my driving fell within "holiday travel" there were clearly more people on the road and more people charging. This seemed to slow down the speeds at some of the stations. Places I had previously been able to get charges at 120+kw were now putting out 35 and 60 kw. Along those lines, it was also crazy hot which impacted them.
Bonus Rivian Pro: about 1.5 hours from our final destination the Uhaul blew a tire. In the 90 minutes waiting for U-Haul roadside assistance, the truck kept us comfortable and did not impact our energy usage in any significant way.
All-in-all it wasn't terrible, it was just long. Knowing what I know now, I would have left earlier and potentially charged a little shorter at the beginning and hit more stops along the way than having long drawn out charges. I was averaging about 1.15kw per mile with the trailer. On the way back it was much more efficient (as evidenced by going from 5 charges on the way their to 2 on the way back). I do think the US needs to invest more in the EV charging infrastructure (especially along western state interstates). Talking with people along the way as we hung out by chargers I found everyone enjoyed their EV (Rivian, Kia, Ford, Chevy, Hyundai, etc.) but many did not care for the challenges of charging on the road due to unreliable stations. The only other thing that I would add is that it would be great if there were garbages and windshield washing squeegees at the charging stations.
Posted Jul 8, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC