Overlanding: Power Consumption & Camp Mode

[DROCK]

Looking into overlanding setups for my new R1T. Looking for feedback from anyone who has attempted to run their setup via onboard power using the inverter/rivian plugs and what your power consumption is while running a fridge, recharging phones/iPads, possibly running some lights for a camp setup, fan, cooling or heating unit, etc? Vs. the alternative power bank and solar setups with a rooftop tent. Has anyone rigged a solar unit to attach to the rooftop tent top and wired to their power bank? Rooftop tent reommendations for 2 people. I just got the crossbars and I like the iKamp Mini 3.0, but not the price tag. Alternatives welcome. Would love to hear everyone's advice and setup tips. Thanks!

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[jjswan33]

I have 300W of flexible Renogy panels on my pop top camper and I have them wired into a Goal Zero Yeti 1500X. I can also recharge my GZ with the truck inverter at about 600W with their best charger.

That's more than enough solar to power my Eco Flow Glacier fridge, lights, rooftop fan, phone charging etc as long as I get some sun. If I start cooking or heating water/air then that changes the equation. Also in low sun in the winter I find I need to augment the solar as well.

Build thread in my signature.

 

[DROCK]

I have 300W of flexible Renogy panels on my pop top camper and I have them wired into a Goal Zero Yeti 1500X. I can also recharge my GZ with the truck inverter at about 600W with their best charger.

That's more than enough solar to power my Eco Flow Glacier fridge, lights, rooftop fan, charging etc as long as I get some sun. If I start cooking or heating water/air then that changes the equation. Also in low sun in the winter I find I need to augment the solar as well.

Build thread in my signature.

Thanks for the reply. and please forgive me because I am new to the whole overloading world. So safe to say, do not run everything off of the Rivian' power outlets? If you ran all of those things off of the truck overnight, how much power is it consuming on average?

 

[jjswan33]

Thanks for the reply. and please forgive me because I am new to the whole overloading world. So safe to say, do not run everything off of the Rivian' power outlets? If you ran all of those things off of the truck overnight, how much power is it consuming on average?

Well with the Rivian if you keep your outlets on all the time there is a lot of overhead above the energy consumption, so that is the reason not to do that.

Best example I can give is running a ~1000W space heater overnight will use between 5-10% of the battery depending on how often it is running.

 

[Noplacelikeloam]

For roof top you can get a Thule approach medium for about 2k now. It’s somehow 500 less than anyone else at rack attack. Get another shop to price match if you like, but that used to be close to 3k at one time.

 

[WSea]

I use 2 100w panels on RTT with Bluetti ac180 in bed. Bluetti is plugged in with receptacles off. Usually is fine but just turn receptacles on for 30-60 minute boost if needed

 

[sizotty]

I have a writeup somewhere on this forum, but running just a fridge for 2.5 days and 2 nights drained 40+ miles. Temps were 65-40 degrees, so fridge wasn't the culprit of the power draw, its the fact that you need to leave the truck and inverter on that long.

I made a video here explaining in more detail.

WSea's setup from the post above is a good option too.
I use some portable panels that I bring if im really trying to stretch mileage off road, otherwise if the portable battery gets low I just run the inverter in the truck for 30 minutes and charge up my ecoflow.

 

[wjhdrew]

I've got the Anker EverCool fridge which can run on a battery for fairly long. I have the smallest size, which seems to be a bit too small for my needs but it runs really well and the battery lasts quite long.

For a two person RTT, costco sells a chinese-made one at a decent price point, seems very similar to many of the other RTTs on the market of that style/size/etc. If not, I've just started using the BDV Duo from iKamper, and have been liking it so far. If not there's a light Carbon Fiber RTT sold through Inspired Overland, whenever that gets in stock of course, but being in TN, you'd easily be able to pick one up for a bit cheaper. Those wedge options would require some bed rack solution though so may not be the best for your case.

Something like the Thule mentioned above or the a similar Yakima soft shell could do well for you.

 

[AirCruiser]

Hey Derek,


Jake from Cinch here! ?


Have you checked out the Air Cruiser yet? It's been a big hit with the Rivian community. Just do a quick search on the forum, and you'll find plenty of reviews.


The Air Cruiser is unlike anything else out there, thanks to our patented Air Frame technology. It's super easy to set up—no poles to mess with or anything to pump up. It uses the power of your vehicle to self assemble!


This design gives us a spacious, luxury cabin with more headroom than any other RTT. Unlike the usual cramped RTTs, our cabin is completely unobstructed, offering stunning 360-degree views. It's a unique and amazing experience.


Plus, it's lighter and more compact, fitting perfectly on your cross bars with room for extra gear.


And, it looks awesome with the Rivian. Oh, and it's very reasonably priced.


Check it out here: https://air-cruiser.cinchpopuptents.com/?utm_campaign=rivian


Let me know if you have any questions.


Jake

 

[rvnappolis]

Hey Derek,


Jake from Cinch here! ?


Have you checked out the Air Cruiser yet? It's been a big hit with the Rivian community. Just do a quick search on the forum, and you'll find plenty of reviews.


The Air Cruiser is unlike anything else out there, thanks to our patented Air Frame technology. It's super easy to set up—no poles to mess with or anything to pump up. It uses the power of your vehicle to self assemble!


This design gives us a spacious, luxury cabin with more headroom than any other RTT. Unlike the usual cramped RTTs, our cabin is completely unobstructed, offering stunning 360-degree views. It's a unique and amazing experience.


Plus, it's lighter and more compact, fitting perfectly on your cross bars with room for extra gear.


And, it looks awesome with the Rivian. Oh, and it's very reasonably priced.


Check it out here: https://air-cruiser.cinchpopuptents.com/?utm_campaign=rivian


Let me know if you have any questions.


Jake

5 stars here for the air cruiser. I've had mine about 3 weeks and couldn't be happier.

Jake - a question for you: do we need to be concerned about the tent getting hot while packed up and sitting on the truck I've done a lot of kiteboarding and one of the PITA maintenance issues is degrading adhesives in the bladders Bladderrs being the airtight balloons that go inside the fabric structure.

My hunch is the air Cruiser is actually built differently, not like a kiteboarding kite. If heat was a concern you probably would not be shipping with a black cover.

Including a picture here Of the bed with a packed up air cruiser. In case anyone is curious there is Definitely enough room on a rivian to include a rooftop style bike rack like the yakima highroad with the air cruiser. small bike fits with wheels on. But for an average to large adult with twenty nine inch wheels, it's going to have to be a fork mount

 

[Dark-Fx]

so fridge wasn't the culprit of the power draw, its the fact that you need to leave the truck and inverter on that long.

+1 on that. If you can use the inverter to charge a secondary power bank occasionally instead of leaving the outlets on all the time, it uses quite a bit less energy overall. I'm very curious if this is something that Rivian has improved significantly in Gen2 since it's been reported as an issue since the beginning.

 

[sagebrush2]

I was averaging about 6-7% SOC loss per 24 hours on a 3 day camp trip (with the large pack). We had an induction stove, cooking for breakfast and dinner, and a Euhomy 35L electric fridge, set to about 38F degrees. We would be popping in and out of the cab and the frunk and the gear tunnel throughout the day. When we remembered we would set the Display to Off, and camp courtesy mode to try and minimize the lights turning on. (anyone know if there is a way to turn off the frunk light? We stuck on one of those battery lights on the hood, since the lights buried by all the stuff in the frunk didn't do anything). We turned the climate control to off so that also wouldn't turn on. And we turned off our phone bluetooth at night so it wouldn't keep detecting it.

I experimented with a 500Wh portable battery for the cooler and that seemed to run the fridge for about 24 hours. When I did that I turned off the outlets, except to cook and that seemed to reduce the drain a couple %. I think having the outlets on, even if there isn't any draw, still burns power. The fridge doesn't run constantly, it will draw about 40-50 watts for a few minutes, then shut off, then turn back on. It will do this several times an hour (probably depends a lot on how fast things heat up inside). So I think the thing to do is to run the fridge off the portable battery, and charge it via solar or the truck when we are using the stove.

I need to do more experiments and take better notes. I have some solar panels that I got that I want to try out, that I think would be enough to keep the fridge powered up. And I may want to get a bigger portable battery.

 

[DROCK]

I use 2 100w panels on RTT with Bluetti ac180 in bed. Bluetti is plugged in with receptacles off. Usually is fine but just turn receptacles on for 30-60 minute boost if needed

Love your setup. How did you attach the panels to the rooftop tent? Which panels did you use? Would love to hear more about your setup. Looks similar to what I am thinking of doing. Do you run a fridge, lighting on the Bluetti? What other gear do you recommend? Thanks

 

[DROCK]

I was averaging about 6-7% SOC loss per 24 hours on a 3 day camp trip (with the large pack). We had an induction stove, cooking for breakfast and dinner, and a Euhomy 35L electric fridge, set to about 38F degrees. We would be popping in and out of the cab and the frunk and the gear tunnel throughout the day. When we remembered we would set the Display to Off, and camp courtesy mode to try and minimize the lights turning on. (anyone know if there is a way to turn off the frunk light? We stuck on one of those battery lights on the hood, since the lights buried by all the stuff in the frunk didn't do anything). We turned the climate control to off so that also wouldn't turn on. And we turned off our phone bluetooth at night so it wouldn't keep detecting it.

I experimented with a 500Wh portable battery for the cooler and that seemed to run the fridge for about 24 hours. When I did that I turned off the outlets, except to cook and that seemed to reduce the drain a couple %. I think having the outlets on, even if there isn't any draw, still burns power. The fridge doesn't run constantly, it will draw about 40-50 watts for a few minutes, then shut off, then turn back on. It will do this several times an hour (probably depends a lot on how fast things heat up inside). So I think the thing to do is to run the fridge off the portable battery, and charge it via solar or the truck when we are using the stove.

I need to do more experiments and take better notes. I have some solar panels that I got that I want to try out, that I think would be enough to keep the fridge powered up. And I may want to get a bigger portable battery.

That's all great info and thank you for getting into that level of detail. Are you running a rooftop tent setup? What solar panels are you looking at (recommend)? I would like to mount them on top of the hardshell rooftop that I get and wire it to the battery bank I end up buying. I think that will be a better option to avoid battery drain from the Rivian and using the onboard outlets. Might be a perfect setup if you are doing a weekend trip, but it sounds like extended time with the truck on trips would benefit from an external battery source. Any and all info is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Thunderbolt Adventure]

Looking into overlanding setups for my new R1T. Looking for feedback from anyone who has attempted to run their setup via onboard power using the inverter/rivian plugs and what your power consumption is while running a fridge, recharging phones/iPads, possibly running some lights for a camp setup, fan, cooling or heating unit, etc? Vs. the alternative power bank and solar setups with a rooftop tent. Has anyone rigged a solar unit to attach to the rooftop tent top and wired to their power bank? Rooftop tent reommendations for 2 people. I just got the crossbars and I like the iKamp Mini 3.0, but not the price tag. Alternatives welcome. Would love to hear everyone's advice and setup tips. Thanks!

I don't know if Monika and Carl are on this forum, but their YouTube channel has a lot of content about Overlanding and power usage. Here's one where they cook a meal and track the truck's battery draw.

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