Apprehensively considering trip from Milwaukee to Littleton CO. for Christmas: advice please

[skigramps]

Everyone, thank you in advance for your kind consideration. I'm a first time EV owner with built-in range anxiety. I'm looking for advice on building a route to Littleton Colorado. Has anyone out there made a similar trip? I vaguely remember a thread about a western bound trip from the Great Lakes area to Colorado.

I've read a lot of negative commentary about relying on the Rivian onboard navigation system. With that in mind, I've got the following applications loaded the old iPhone: EA, ABRP, ChargePoint and PlugShare.

I am familiar with the drive having made the trip multiple times in past years. But the coordinating of charging opportunities, arriving at a destination with the proper SoC and so on, well............

Sponsored

 

[COdogman]

You can do it! Several people here have made trips like that and even further. Just set yourself up to succeed by doing the extra planning of each leg. Use ABRP to plan your route, then check Plugshare to be sure that next charger is working, then only enter that single leg into your Rivian nav.

Hopefully there will be a day when you don’t need to do all of that but for now it does seem necessary if you want to avoid arriving at a non-functional charger with not enough juice to get to a different one.

You got this!

 

[skigramps]

Wow…….thanks COdogman! Your quick response is encouraging. Just build the trip section by section, why didn’t I think of that ?. Life is always easier when broken down into manageable pieces.

 

[Riviot]

 

[skigramps]

You guys are great! I’ve only had the S for about 2 months and not 1k miles yet. First drive in snow yesterday and man, what a surprise. Weather can be an issue this time of year on a trip like this as we all know. The S doesn’t handle the way I expected. And that adds to my trepidation.

 

[jjswan33]

You guys are great! I’ve only had the S for about 2 months and not 1k miles yet. First drive in snow yesterday and man, what a surprise. Weather can be an issue this time of year on a trip like this as we all know. The S doesn’t handle the way I expected. And that adds to my trepidation.

Sorry to here that, it’s probably the tires. I have been up and down the mountain on snow covered roads in nasty weather at least 5 times in the last two weeks and on the 20” AT tires my truck has been rock solid.

Regarding your trip, this will be an easy trip from a charging prospective, plenty of EA chargers along I80, I drove part of that route on my trip to Wisconsin last summer. If you have to go over some mountain passes get some appropriate ‘chains’ for your S.

 

[COdogman]

You guys are great! I’ve only had the S for about 2 months and not 1k miles yet. First drive in snow yesterday and man, what a surprise. Weather can be an issue this time of year on a trip like this as we all know. The S doesn’t handle the way I expected. And that adds to my trepidation.

The 22s will have the most trouble in snow/ ice, but even those with the AT 20s are having trouble in certain conditions. Rivian is finally releasing a snow mode in the next software update but I would still be careful on those 22s in winter.

 

[skigramps]

Yaaaa, roger that. Already checked into some Michelin X-Ice for the S but out of stock at Costco. Do you think this trip is ill advised on the stock tires? Don’t know when the new update will be available with the Snow Mode, assuming it will be effective.

 

[Riviot]

even those with the AT 20s are having trouble in certain conditions.

IMHO it's mostly user error WRT regen, more weight, and too much speed. The other week, I came in hot to my office's icy/snowy parking lot with a downhill turn and felt the back slide. Fool me once, Rivian, you'll never fool me again. Florida Man slows it down in snow now and drives it like the old F-750 I wrecked in Charleston.

 

[skigramps]

Agreed, a body(heavy) in motion stays in motion…….
I’ve been driving in nasty snowy conditions for 50 years, both manual and automatic trannies and this car is hugely different to me.

 

[crashmtb]

Yaaaa, roger that. Already checked into some Michelin X-Ice for the S but out of stock at Costco. Do you think this trip is ill advised on the stock tires? Don’t know when the new update will be available with the Snow Mode, assuming it will be effective.

Get a set of OEM 20” wheels. Add your favourite flavour of winter tire in 275/60R20 - this is the same overall diameter as the 22” tires, so no reprogramming is needed.

personally I’d go Nokian or Bridgestone over x-ice. I had a set of x ice and they were the second worst winter tire I’ve ever had.

 

[COdogman]

IMHO it's mostly user error WRT regen, more weight, and too much speed. The other week, I came in hot to my office's icy/snowy parking lot with a downhill turn and felt the back slide. Fool me once, Rivian, you'll never fool me again. Florida Man slows it down in snow now and drives it like the old F-750 I wrecked in Charleston.

+10 for the Florida Man reference

 

[bhopkins]

Everyone, thank you in advance for your kind consideration. I'm a first time EV owner with built-in range anxiety. I'm looking for advice on building a route to Littleton Colorado. Has anyone out there made a similar trip? I vaguely remember a thread about a western bound trip from the Great Lakes area to Colorado.

I've read a lot of negative commentary about relying on the Rivian onboard navigation system. With that in mind, I've got the following applications loaded the old iPhone: EA, ABRP, ChargePoint and PlugShare.

I documented a trip this summer from mid-MI to the western slopes of CO. Westbound was was more problematic than the return. Going westbound, temps were above 100 degrees and it seemed to be impacting the Electrify America chargers (slowing rates dramatically). This was occurring both my R1T and other EVs that were charging. The second issue was some of the EA stations being broken. The two biggest stations we had issues with were N. Platte, NE and Ogallala, NE.

Looking at Plugshare this morning, N. Platte seems to be working better based on reports. Ogallala still seems to be problematic and may be hit/miss. However, a great backup is Julesburg, CO. It is in the middle of nowhere and is a Conoco station that has installed a single charger.

My advice, use ABRP to do the route, validate with PlugShare, then route to each station using the Rivian’s nav system. This way, the battery will be prepared for fast charging. Please use PlugShare and enter your experience at each station to help other users.

 

[fastwheels]

Everyone, thank you in advance for your kind consideration. I'm a first time EV owner with built-in range anxiety. I'm looking for advice on building a route to Littleton Colorado. Has anyone out there made a similar trip? I vaguely remember a thread about a western bound trip from the Great Lakes area to Colorado.

I've read a lot of negative commentary about relying on the Rivian onboard navigation system. With that in mind, I've got the following applications loaded the old iPhone: EA, ABRP, ChargePoint and PlugShare.

I am familiar with the drive having made the trip multiple times in past years. But the coordinating of charging opportunities, arriving at a destination with the proper SoC and so on, well............

Like the others have said it is very doable as long as you plan your route ahead and know what to expect. I've plotted out the charging options for a trip from northern MI to Littleton several times in anticipation of a road trip there this past Thanksgiving, but my better half vetoed the 1300-mile road trip in favor of Delta Airlines. Lots of charging options along I80 so you should be ok.

WRT tires - I too have the 22s and found them severely lacking on snow/ice. Full disclosure, I have 8500 miles on them now with lots of sport mode driving so they are not at optimum tread anymore. If you have time before your trip, I definitely suggest getting a set of 22" snow tires and swap, or as previously suggested a set of 20" OEM wheels and mount snow tires.

I just got a set of Hakkapeliitta R5s that I am waiting to have installed - you can't get a tire change appointment around here for weeks this time of year. SimpleTire still had them last time I looked.

I've had many sets of Blizzaks with good success, and the X-Ice on my GMC pickup which worked well also. You have to search to find snow tires in these larger sizes, but some are still out there.

 

[emoore]

I wouldn’t worry too much about snow I’m tires if you are taking the main highways. I’ve made the Littleton to Chicago trip many times in the winter in my GTI with all seasons. Littleton isn’t in the mountains so don’t have to worry about chains.

Sponsored