DetroitRed
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Derek
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2023
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 129
- Location
- Belleville, MI
- Vehicles
- 2022 R1T, 2011 Corvette Z06 Carbon Edition
- Occupation
- Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
I live in the Detroit area and have been doing an event called Rocky Mountain Race Week for the past couple years which starts in Nebraska. In years past, I drove my C5 Corvette from home to the event, but this year with a newer C6 Corvette and different drag racing tire situation, I wanted to trailer the car. I also didn't own a tow vehicle before, but I took delivery of my R1T in January, so now it was possible!
I had never towed anything, so I was a little nervous about my first time being an 1800-mile round trip adventure in an electric truck with a valuable car on a rental trailer, but it all ended up going very well! I loaded the car and set the tongue weight using a tongue weight scale from Amazon, which was very handy because I would not have guessed that the car needed to be as far forward as possible on the trailer.
The first leg went surprisingly well as I made it about 160 miles from Canton, MI all the way to the Benton Harbor RAN station! I really just didn't expect to cover that much ground with the trailer, and I still had about 20 miles in reserve. I would later realize that the fantastic efficiency on this leg was mostly a fluke, apparently due to cruising in traffic the whole way and getting a good draft. The RAN station was also excellent with the pull-through chargers that were trailer-friendly.
Subsequent driving legs were 110-120 miles or so, which was very comfortable with an 80% charge and cruise set at 70 mph. I was driving through the night for a lot of the trip, so traffic and drafting was minimal after my first leg. This was almost entirely along I-80 where charging options were really good. I would say that two thirds of the charging could be done without dropping the trailer, but sometimes I just had to drop it to charge without causing problems for everyone else. Charging was much easier at night when businesses were closed and I wasn't in anyone's way.
The total trip was just over 1800 miles for the truck, all with the car and trailer in tow. The total trailer weight was roughly 5000 pounds and the truck handled that effortlessly. I used tow mode of course, with low ride height and soft suspension settings, and it was a super comfortable trip. I mostly set cruise control to the speed limit, which was 70 mph most of the way, with some sections in NE at 75 and near cities it would drop to 60 or 65. I would have been ok with going slower to increase the range, but the DCFC options were spaced really well at the 110-120 mile intervals and I could make that distance comfortably at 70 mph.
Overall, the R1T pulls great, which I guess is already well known. The range wasn't as terrible for me as some Youtubers have made it seem, but it is still significantly shorter than an ICE tow rig. Since I'll only make a trip like this once a year, it's bearable, and dare I say, almost a fun adventure. The range estimates were annoyingly bad, but at least in a consistent way. The truck always suggested a range of about 370 miles with 80% SOC and would never adjust to take into account my actual recent efficiency. I did have an issue with my trailer lights too; the trailer lights were mostly in-op for me but they worked normally on two different trucks, so there must be an issue with my plug. I'll have to look into that or submit a service ticket.
Also, Race Week is pretty cool too!
I had never towed anything, so I was a little nervous about my first time being an 1800-mile round trip adventure in an electric truck with a valuable car on a rental trailer, but it all ended up going very well! I loaded the car and set the tongue weight using a tongue weight scale from Amazon, which was very handy because I would not have guessed that the car needed to be as far forward as possible on the trailer.
The first leg went surprisingly well as I made it about 160 miles from Canton, MI all the way to the Benton Harbor RAN station! I really just didn't expect to cover that much ground with the trailer, and I still had about 20 miles in reserve. I would later realize that the fantastic efficiency on this leg was mostly a fluke, apparently due to cruising in traffic the whole way and getting a good draft. The RAN station was also excellent with the pull-through chargers that were trailer-friendly.
Subsequent driving legs were 110-120 miles or so, which was very comfortable with an 80% charge and cruise set at 70 mph. I was driving through the night for a lot of the trip, so traffic and drafting was minimal after my first leg. This was almost entirely along I-80 where charging options were really good. I would say that two thirds of the charging could be done without dropping the trailer, but sometimes I just had to drop it to charge without causing problems for everyone else. Charging was much easier at night when businesses were closed and I wasn't in anyone's way.
The total trip was just over 1800 miles for the truck, all with the car and trailer in tow. The total trailer weight was roughly 5000 pounds and the truck handled that effortlessly. I used tow mode of course, with low ride height and soft suspension settings, and it was a super comfortable trip. I mostly set cruise control to the speed limit, which was 70 mph most of the way, with some sections in NE at 75 and near cities it would drop to 60 or 65. I would have been ok with going slower to increase the range, but the DCFC options were spaced really well at the 110-120 mile intervals and I could make that distance comfortably at 70 mph.
Overall, the R1T pulls great, which I guess is already well known. The range wasn't as terrible for me as some Youtubers have made it seem, but it is still significantly shorter than an ICE tow rig. Since I'll only make a trip like this once a year, it's bearable, and dare I say, almost a fun adventure. The range estimates were annoyingly bad, but at least in a consistent way. The truck always suggested a range of about 370 miles with 80% SOC and would never adjust to take into account my actual recent efficiency. I did have an issue with my trailer lights too; the trailer lights were mostly in-op for me but they worked normally on two different trucks, so there must be an issue with my plug. I'll have to look into that or submit a service ticket.
Also, Race Week is pretty cool too!
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While I was typing the OP, I had to keep reminding myself that this was the Rivian forum and no one wanted to hear about the Corvette! I ran an 11.72 at 124.9 mph, which is a pretty slow time for the high trap speed. I was really struggling to get a good launch and I'm near the limit of the stock clutch. I did a heads/cam build over the winter with all of the typical supporting mods, so it's making about 570 rwhp.
