Montana? New Owner Questions

[Dave Cundiff]

Greetings Denvercx! We close escrow on a place west of Missoula next month. We won't live there full-time at first but will spend as much time as we can up there.

I can already tell the 22" tire set up won't work though I see there are 3-peak options available for that size. Unlike Teslas, you can't switch wheel sizes and make a selection on the screen, you apparently have to go to a service center for "reprogramming," which seems dumb.

The lack of a service center closer than SLC isn't great either but we kinda have to suck it up given this is a newer company.

I'm likely to sell my Model Y and get a diesel truck. Towing in Montana would be a real challenge given the lack of DC fast chargers. Even opening up the Tesla ones won't help much given they are few in number and are not suitable for towing set-ups. Just driving the truck though shouldn't be an issue.

Welcome aboard!

275/50R22 diameter snow tires are within a fraction of a percent of 275/55R21 "all-season." We don't bother recalibrating when we switch back and forth. I have faith in the people at our local Costco Tire Center in Northwest Oregon, who got confident about Rivians after seeing Rivian-specific instructions from @Mark_AZR1T (whose jackpucks.com brand I recommend).

I hope this helps others who live far from Service Centers. Best wishes!

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[denvercx]

275/50R22 diameter snow tires are within a fraction of a percent of 275/55R21 "all-season." We don't bother recalibrating when we switch back and forth. I have faith in the people at our local Costco Tire Center in Northwest Oregon, who got confident about Rivians after seeing Rivian-specific instructions from @Mark_AZR1T (whose jackpucks.com brand I recommend).

I hope this helps others who live far from Service Centers. Best wishes!

Thank you, Dave, for the good information. I appreciate it!

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Looking at the thread, @denvercx, you are probably referring to the Flying J Town Pump truck stop and casino, next to the Rocker Inn near Butte. We stayed at the Rocker and charged at the Flying J last week.

That Electrify America charger appears rock-solid reliable, but very expensive at $0.64/kWh. Convenient for travelers trying to save time, but more costly than I'd ever want for regular charging.

Butte seemed to have fewer public charging options than other Montana cities on I-90. Even the Hotel Finlen downtown, which seemed at first to have a Level 2 charger, eventually clarified it wasn't for hotel guests.

I wonder if you could either locate or inspire some public charging options for thirsty EVs in the Butte area? That would be a real service for residents and for travelers!

Thanks so much!

 

[denvercx]

Looking at the thread, @denvercx, you are probably referring to the Flying J Town Pump truck stop and casino, next to the Rocker Inn near Butte. We stayed at the Rocker and charged at the Flying J last week.

That Electrify America charger appears rock-solid reliable, but very expensive at $0.64/kWh. Convenient for travelers trying to save time, but more costly than I'd ever want for regular charging.

Butte seemed to have fewer public charging options than other Montana cities on I-90. Even the Hotel Finlen downtown, which seemed at first to have a Level 2 charger, eventually clarified it wasn't for hotel guests.

I wonder if you could either locate or inspire some public charging options for thirsty EVs in the Butte area? That would be a real service for residents and for travelers!

Thanks so much!

Dave - I have some ideas for this very thing that I've been chewing on, but I'm in the middle of moving to Bozeman this week, actually. I know some of the community planning and city commission people of Butte, and I'll see if I can present them some of my ideas. Would be great for Butte to have more visitors stop in uptown for a charge and walkabout.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Dave - I have some ideas for this very thing that I've been chewing on, but I'm in the middle of moving to Bozeman this week, actually. I know some of the community planning and city commission people of Butte, and I'll see if I can present them some of my ideas. Would be great for Butte to have more visitors stop in uptown for a charge and walkabout.

Give my thanks to Audi Bozeman for reasonably affordable 24/7 DCFC charging! We needed a little more juice to get to Rocker/Butte with confidence!

For downtown Butte, which I never saw, consider recommending one or more reasonably priced 24-62 kW ChargePoint DCFC's, with lower rates for the slower chargers, near the center of the business area; and sufficient tax incentives to install the first Level 2 chargers for guests at any interested downtown hotel. Might generate business traffic. Might also pay for itself, via charger revenue, business revenue, and lodging taxes....

Very best wishes!

 

[MT R1T]

We should be getting a Rivian service center in Belgrade (West Post development) soon, hopefully by later this year. That should make it a lot easier to own a Rivian in much of MT since it puts most of the larger populations centers within 3 hrs (rather than 6-8) of a service center.

 

[DJ.Montana]

I’m in Missoula and have had good luck using the mobile service out of Boise, ID. We took delivery of an 23 R1T last summer and it immediately lost the rear drive unit. They sent a truck and picked it up, replaced it and trucked it back to us. Mobile was up to install the tonneau and trouble shoot a suspension noise. We ended up driving to Seattle for the service on the suspension, but we worked it into a trip to see friends. Service out there was great and had it fixed in a day so it was only a minor inconvenience. Recently Boise seems to be a bit overwhelmed and it’s been over a month trying to get them to do a 7500 mile rotation/inspection. They think by the end of the month they will be up here. Great to see that Belgrade is getting an SC, that we be a better option for us.

As for tires we ran the 20” All Terrain and they did ok, would have rather had some dedicated winter tires like Nokian but the other car was well equipped so we drove it more.

 

[Dlcromwell]

Hi Doug. We are in Kalispell and unfortunately my wife went deer hunting with our R1T. Long story short, insurance totaled it and we are getting a 2025 delivered next week. We have many accessories including a full size spare with all attachments, running boards, 4 AT tires with 10K miles left, etc. that we don’t need cause the 2025 is coming loaded. DM or PM me if interested. Don

 

[ftmeyer50]

I live in Bozeman with an R1T. Just secured a service appointment for Aug 14th at the new Belgrade, MT service center!

 

[MT R1T]

Here is the page for this service center - https://rivian.com/spaces/belgrade-service-demo-center - which lists the services offered. I was able to get an appointment pretty quickly, which is great.

 

[MT R1T]

Is anyone else going to the grand opening event at the Belgrade service center this afternoon?

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