R1T visits RIT

[McLovin]

As a native Rochestarian, and graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (over 3 decades ago..), whenever I see the R1T logo, I always think of my alma mater, RIT. So, when we drove up from Northern VA to visit family this weekend, we decided to take our 2-week old R1T and see how the charging network does (sans Tesla Supercharger adapter). Of course, I had to swing by & snap a few pictures while there...

While it's only 400 miles (pretty much straight up Route 15), we've started breaking trips up like this into 2 days and spending time visiting places along the way. This time we stopped at Gettysburg, a place we've passed 50+ times and never stopped, always saying "we should stop there some day...". We spent the night in Williamsport, PA, then finished the drive in the morning. Absolutely 0 issues charging, although having the adapter would have helped in Williamsport as I had to go slightly out of my way to charge in the morning, when a Sheetz was only 1/2 mile from our hotel. Luckily my wife sleeps until 8:30, and I'm up at 5:30, so it gave me something to do...

Overall, I really enjoyed the drive. This is the 4th time we've gone up this spring/summer after not visiting for over 10 years, and the 4th different vehicle we've taken (my wife's A5 Cab, my A5 Sportback, and my friend's F-250). I'd say the R1T performed near the top of the list (it's hard to compare the joy of "driving topless"...). However, there are a few quirky things I noticed...some that have been covered here, some that I think are "newish"...

• Curve Speed Adjustment...can we please have a "disable" option, or at least a "less aggressive" option? This thing handles extremely well, but it was dropping me down from 78 to 70 in the curves through the mountains in PA, where it would have handled those curves w/ no issues at 78.
• No "resume" for cruise. Yes...I know, discussed "ad nauseam" here, but I'd still like it as an option.
• Cruise activation and engaging "Park": Multiple times I accidentally pushed the "Park" button instead of pushing down on the lever. This is mostly me re-learning controls from years of driving Audis, but seems a little weird to have them so close to each other. Maybe engage by pushing the right wheel, where the other cruise controls are?
• Nav improvements...
  • Nav in the vehicle didn't recognize a charger along the way, even though the App did (I mapped out the route on my phone & sent it to the vehicle).
  • Manual "pre-condition the battery" option. Because of the above, it didn't pre-condition the battery as it didn't think we were stopping at a charger.
  • Estimates: Driving home, the range estimate at our destination was off by ~ 40 miles (in our favor). It initially said 30 mi, and we arrived w/ 70 mi. Additionally, at one point, the center display estimated we had approx 230 miles remaining, and our destination was 130 miles away. I realize there are many factors in the calculation, but a spread of 70 miles seems a bit much.
  • Directions: Would like a few options instead of just a single route. On our return trip it tried to route us through I-270 -> I-495 -> I-66, possibly the worst route to take on a holiday weekend. It was 20 miles longer, and saved only an estimated 5 minutes (which is highly unlikely if you know anything about this area), instead of taking Route 15S. I was never given another option when I entered the destination, nor was I given a "similar time" option on the screen as we approached 15S in Frederick, MD (as Google does).
• Ability to reconfigure items on the driver's screen: Due to how I have my seat & steering wheel set, the top of the steering wheel obscures the top of the screen. As such, I need to constantly lean forward & look over the top (or duck my head to look under) the steering wheel to see the cruise set speed & speed limit. I'd like the ability to move them to the bottom, or better yet, remove the "vehicles around me" view completely. As others have noted, I can see what's in front of me by looking out my window...

Now, a few of the good things...

• Ability of cruise to go to 0. We ran into traffic on 15N, just north of Leesburg, VA. It was stop & go on a 2-lane country road. I simply set it to 25MPH so I don't go too fast, and it basically tethered me to the car in front of me.
• Free charging at hotels. This was something I'm sure most people here know, but was new to me. As a result, we paid $0 while in Rochester, and only ~ $10 on our drive home (quick stop near the NY/PA border to get us to Harrisburg, PA).
• As I said before, a really smooth drive. On par w/ our Audis. I had borrowed my friend's F-250 back in July (needed to help move my in-laws out of their home), and that was a rough ride.
• Storage, storage, storage. That tunnel storage is absolutely amazing. My buddy asked if I could swing by to pickup some beer from his favorite brewery (Mortalis in Avon, NY). Had room for that AND my wife's luggage... It's as if the tunnel storage was made to fit a few cases of beer...
  
  
• Head-turning quotient. My wife even joked that she "thought guys were turning to look at her, but realized they were checking out the truck...". Multiple comments on how nice it looked, and even had some people stop me in the parking lot to ask questions.

Overall, a great experience on our first trip. Can't wait for our next one in November when we visit our "dirt" (aka lake property) at Lake Keowee, SC.

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[Dark-Fx]

First thought. "How did you strap that thing down in your bed like that?" then I realized your tailgate was still up.

 

[KBabione]

Glad to hear your experience was so positive. Rte 15 through PA is a nice drive, especially north of Williamsport. There are a lot of good backpacking trails up there. If you've got other long drives planned you might want to consider picking up the A2Z Typhoon NACS adapter. It will allow you to charge at most (but not all) Tesla stations in PA until you get your official Rivian one.

 

[Mathme]

Glad yo hear you had a good trip. The Rivian is always fun to take out on the road.

Couple of observations on Nav...
on battery preconditioning: I've only ever been able to get the truck to do that if you select a charger from the Nav in the truck. Using the App doesn't work. I wish Rivian would fix this. I've also found that when on a long road trip, I only enter the next planned stop - never do multiple stops if multiple charges are required. I've found that if I let the Nav select the charge stops, it will route me to a 50kWh machine that's 10+ minutes off the freeway, when there's a perfectly good 150kWh machine next to the freeway. Makes no sense to me.

The mileage guess-o-meter on the driver screen isn't worth much as it is simply an ideal range estimate and doesn't consider any variables like temperature, typical wind, recent consumption, or elevation gain. For example, I left the Sacramento RAN station on Sunday with an 80% SoC and the guess-o-meter said I had 230-240 miles of range. When I got got home 125 miles later, I had 65 miles of range. I knew I'd need that much charge as the direction I was going always has a headwind and I had 2 bikes on a rack behind me as well. The headwind for 50 miles was about 20-30mph.

I've found the mileage estimates on the Nav to be pretty accurate. Usually it starts out conservative and then I'm within 10ish miles. On the trip on Sunday, my ending mileage was within 5 miles of what the Nav predicted. I've never seen it off by 40 miles though - but things like a strong tail wind pushing you along could help for that difference. When I get more miles than expected, I take the win for what it is.

Enjoy the truck!

 

[McLovin]

The mileage guess-o-meter on the driver screen isn't worth much as it is simply an ideal range estimate and doesn't consider any variables like temperature, typical wind, recent consumption, or elevation gain.

lol...guess-o-meter. I'll have to remember that.

Ok, so it seems that the Nav is the more accurate readout of the two.

 

[McLovin]

Glad to hear your experience was so positive. Rte 15 through PA is a nice drive, especially north of Williamsport. There are a lot of good backpacking trails up there. If you've got other long drives planned you might want to consider picking up the A2Z Typhoon NACS adapter. It will allow you to charge at most (but not all) Tesla stations in PA until you get your official Rivian one.

Yeah, we've done a few of them in MD (like Catoctin Mountain and the AT somewhere near the MD/PA border). We'll have to check out what's in the Willaimsport area for our next trip.

 

[VandalSibs]

lol...guess-o-meter. I'll have to remember that.

Ok, so it seems that the Nav is the more accurate readout of the two.

I actually have the guess-o-meter turned off on my driver screen. Percentage only. Wish there was a similar setting for navigation - est. % on arrival, as that's what matters to me, not some guess at "miles" remaining.

 

[KBabione]

Yeah, we've done a few of them in MD (like Catoctin Mountain and the AT somewhere near the MD/PA border). We'll have to check out what's in the Willaimsport area for our next trip.

PM me if you'd like some recommendations. PA has a bunch of 30-mile loops that are great because you only need one car. One of my favorites is a 30-mile one-way trip (there's a shuttle service available) called the West Rim Trail. It's mostly along the west rim above (westerners don't laugh) the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon:

 

[McLovin]

PM me if you'd like some recommendations. PA has a bunch of 30-mile loops that are great because you only need one car. One of my favorites is a 30-mile one-way trip (there's a shuttle service available) called the West Rim Trail. It's mostly along the west rim above (westerners don't laugh) the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon:

Nice! 10 years ago I did the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains w/ a friend of mine. Made it in 11h 56m. And I couldn’t walk for the next 3 days…

I doubt we’d do anything that long on our trip up, but I’d definitely take suggestions for some 5-6 mile out & back hikes.

Speaking of the Grand Canyon…we’re heading out there in 4 weeks. Doing a bunch of day hikes in Sedona, then as far down as we can get on Bright Angel. The problem with Bright Angel isn’t the distance, it’s getting my wife up & out the door early enough so we aren’t coming back up in the dark.

 

[Robin]

As a native Rochestarian, and graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (over 3 decades ago..), whenever I see the R1T logo, I always think of my alma mater, RIT. So, when we drove up from Northern VA to visit family this weekend, we decided to take our 2-week old R1T and see how the charging network does (sans Tesla Supercharger adapter). Of course, I had to swing by & snap a few pictures while there...

While it's only 400 miles (pretty much straight up Route 15), we've started breaking trips up like this into 2 days and spending time visiting places along the way. This time we stopped at Gettysburg, a place we've passed 50+ times and never stopped, always saying "we should stop there some day...". We spent the night in Williamsport, PA, then finished the drive in the morning. Absolutely 0 issues charging, although having the adapter would have helped in Williamsport as I had to go slightly out of my way to charge in the morning, when a Sheetz was only 1/2 mile from our hotel. Luckily my wife sleeps until 8:30, and I'm up at 5:30, so it gave me something to do...

Overall, I really enjoyed the drive. This is the 4th time we've gone up this spring/summer after not visiting for over 10 years, and the 4th different vehicle we've taken (my wife's A5 Cab, my A5 Sportback, and my friend's F-250). I'd say the R1T performed near the top of the list (it's hard to compare the joy of "driving topless"...). However, there are a few quirky things I noticed...some that have been covered here, some that I think are "newish"...

• Curve Speed Adjustment...can we please have a "disable" option, or at least a "less aggressive" option? This thing handles extremely well, but it was dropping me down from 78 to 70 in the curves through the mountains in PA, where it would have handled those curves w/ no issues at 78.
• No "resume" for cruise. Yes...I know, discussed "ad nauseam" here, but I'd still like it as an option.
• Cruise activation and engaging "Park": Multiple times I accidentally pushed the "Park" button instead of pushing down on the lever. This is mostly me re-learning controls from years of driving Audis, but seems a little weird to have them so close to each other. Maybe engage by pushing the right wheel, where the other cruise controls are?
• Nav improvements...
  • Nav in the vehicle didn't recognize a charger along the way, even though the App did (I mapped out the route on my phone & sent it to the vehicle).
  • Manual "pre-condition the battery" option. Because of the above, it didn't pre-condition the battery as it didn't think we were stopping at a charger.
  • Estimates: Driving home, the range estimate at our destination was off by ~ 40 miles (in our favor). It initially said 30 mi, and we arrived w/ 70 mi. Additionally, at one point, the center display estimated we had approx 230 miles remaining, and our destination was 130 miles away. I realize there are many factors in the calculation, but a spread of 70 miles seems a bit much.
  • Directions: Would like a few options instead of just a single route. On our return trip it tried to route us through I-270 -> I-495 -> I-66, possibly the worst route to take on a holiday weekend. It was 20 miles longer, and saved only an estimated 5 minutes (which is highly unlikely if you know anything about this area), instead of taking Route 15S. I was never given another option when I entered the destination, nor was I given a "similar time" option on the screen as we approached 15S in Frederick, MD (as Google does).
• Ability to reconfigure items on the driver's screen: Due to how I have my seat & steering wheel set, the top of the steering wheel obscures the top of the screen. As such, I need to constantly lean forward & look over the top (or duck my head to look under) the steering wheel to see the cruise set speed & speed limit. I'd like the ability to move them to the bottom, or better yet, remove the "vehicles around me" view completely. As others have noted, I can see what's in front of me by looking out my window...

Now, a few of the good things...

• Ability of cruise to go to 0. We ran into traffic on 15N, just north of Leesburg, VA. It was stop & go on a 2-lane country road. I simply set it to 25MPH so I don't go too fast, and it basically tethered me to the car in front of me.
• Free charging at hotels. This was something I'm sure most people here know, but was new to me. As a result, we paid $0 while in Rochester, and only ~ $10 on our drive home (quick stop near the NY/PA border to get us to Harrisburg, PA).
• As I said before, a really smooth drive. On par w/ our Audis. I had borrowed my friend's F-250 back in July (needed to help move my in-laws out of their home), and that was a rough ride.
• Storage, storage, storage. That tunnel storage is absolutely amazing. My buddy asked if I could swing by to pickup some beer from his favorite brewery (Mortalis in Avon, NY). Had room for that AND my wife's luggage... It's as if the tunnel storage was made to fit a few cases of beer...
  
  
• Head-turning quotient. My wife even joked that she "thought guys were turning to look at her, but realized they were checking out the truck...". Multiple comments on how nice it looked, and even had some people stop me in the parking lot to ask questions.

Overall, a great experience on our first trip. Can't wait for our next one in November when we visit our "dirt" (aka lake property) at Lake Keowee, SC.

Awesome right up, ??I agree with you on the cons or improvements Rivian could make, starting with Navigation, curve speed adjustment-I feel like the R1T on cruise control whips me around the curves a little too fast ?..The Rivians do get a lot head turns..?

 

[KBabione]

Nice! 10 years ago I did the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains w/ a friend of mine. Made it in 11h 56m. And I couldn’t walk for the next 3 days…

I doubt we’d do anything that long on our trip up, but I’d definitely take suggestions for some 5-6 mile out & back hikes.

Speaking of the Grand Canyon…we’re heading out there in 4 weeks. Doing a bunch of day hikes in Sedona, then as far down as we can get on Bright Angel. The problem with Bright Angel isn’t the distance, it’s getting my wife up & out the door early enough so we aren’t coming back up in the dark.

 

[KBabione]

I love the Whites...I've done the Madison --> Lakes --> Mitzpah hut route three times, but that included staying in the huts each night with a hot dinner and full breakfast - The Presidential Traverse is too much for me to consider.

Bright Angel is great, but unless you're both in great shape, use a 15/45 or 20/40 ratio for downhill to uphill. It's pretty easy hiking downhill and the views are amazing, but for every 15 or 20 minutes you hike down, plan on 45 or 40 minutes (correspondingly) to cover the same ground heading uphill. You have to turn your head heading uphill for the views - otherwise you mostly see walls of very pretty rock!

 

[McLovin]

I love the Whites...I've done the Madison --> Lakes --> Mitzpah hut route three times, but that included staying in the huts each night with a hot dinner and full breakfast - The Presidential Traverse is too much for me to consider.

Bright Angel is great, but unless you're both in great shape, use a 15/45 or 20/40 ratio for downhill to uphill. It's pretty easy hiking downhill and the views are amazing, but for every 15 or 20 minutes you hike down, plan on 45 or 40 minutes (correspondingly) to cover the same ground heading uphill. You have to turn your head heading uphill for the views - otherwise you mostly see walls of very pretty rock!

We've done Bright Angel before, just haven't gotten much past the 3 1/2 mile hut as we had gotten a late start each time.

I forgot the names of the places. Is this Madison Hut?

This is me atop the hill just past that hut:

And of course the obligatory beer at the end:

 

[KBabione]

Yes - That's the Madison Springs Hut and I recognize the AMC Highland Center with the beer on the patio. We typically stay there the night before a trip and then take the shuttle bus to Appalachia Way to start our hike to Madison Springs. We then hike back to the Highland Center (and our waiting car) from Mitzpah Springs Hut before driving the 9 hours home. It is, for us, a perfect loop!

 

[CBRacerX]

Nice trip report and observations on the R1T. And thanks all for the hike recommendations! I've yet to take a long enough trip that charging was required so these details are helpful. As for the Rivian nav - it's just not at the level of Google at all and I use Waze as a "nav source of truth" all the time. Ideally I would like to see an ABRP and Waze mashup (yeah, I know they are owned by Rivian and Google respectively). Since that seems unlikely, how about ABRP replacing the nav today? I buy can dream... Seems like manual trip planning like the days of yore is needed to have a high degree of confidence that your EV trip will go smoothly.

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