2,115 Mile Camping & Towing Travel Trailer through California & Oregon

[Jimi]

We just completed a 2,115-mile camping trip up the California/Oregon coast in our R1S towing a 5500-6000 lb. Sonic travel trailer. It was a wonderful trip, near perfect. We spent time in the CA redwoods, the hills outside of Ashland and Eugene, and drove over the Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains. The Rivian is absolutely the best tow vehicle we have owned in over 40 years of camping. I mean, what hills and mountains?

I think our efficiency was pretty decent. We averaged 1.28 mi/kWh. with a total of 1,576 for the trip. We had absolutely no issues with charging, and did not have to unhook the trailer one time. Used Rivian, Tesla, and Ionna chargers, the Ionna was the cheapest by far; .20 over the 4th weekend! Tesla was the most expensive. Our total charging costs was $537, with our average kWh $.47. Given California/Oregon gas prices, this would have cost us around $900 with our previous Pathfinder. I am happy about that! We did charge at a couple of campgrounds using their 50-amp service. It would have been more if I had figured out how to use the portable charger sooner.

This is the first time we have towed our travel trailer this far, and it was great to dispel any range anxiety issues. We have learned to use the charging time to get food, chill, and walk our dogs. It actually makes traveling like this rather enjoyable.

It was an amazing camping trip with this amazing Rivian R1S vehicle!

Sponsored

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

What a great report and that is a fantastic route!

 

[ewhilberg]

Thanks for sharing, we have a little bit lighter but similar sized trailer that I haven’t gotten to pull yet and this is encouraging.

Did you let the in Car Nav do the route planning or did you plan ahead? Curious of how well it adjusted charging stops with the trailer on.

 

[Jimi]

Thanks for sharing, we have a little bit lighter but similar sized trailer that I haven’t gotten to pull yet and this is encouraging.

Did you let the in Car Nav do the route planning or did you plan ahead? Curious of how well it adjusted charging stops with the trailer on.

I did some planning ahead just to get a sense of what we would be dealing with. But once we started, i just plugged in my destination each travel day and followed that. As I said, their route planning was super accurate. I usually charge more than recommended. It made immediate adjustments, and saved me some stopping on the way.

 

[forestwalker]

Love to see it! When I made the switch from my Tundra to the R1S I sold both my big travel trailers (32" overall and 34" overall) Because I wasnt using them as much and sort of assumed the R1S was going to make trips too much of a hassle.

I have been tossing around the idea of a rooftop tent again, but with 2 large dogs, I am thinking maybe a small trailer may be a smarter move.

Glad to see someone reporting back such positive results!

 

[mkennedy009]

Thanks for the post, I was wondering the difference between ICE and EV. This seems more real world honest between the two formats. We need more of these on this forum.

 

[ENVErider]

We just completed a 2,115-mile camping trip up the California/Oregon coast in our R1S towing a 5500-6000 lb. Sonic travel trailer. It was a wonderful trip, near perfect. We spent time in the CA redwoods, the hills outside of Ashland and Eugene, and drove over the Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains. The Rivian is absolutely the best tow vehicle we have owned in over 40 years of camping. I mean, what hills and mountains?

I think our efficiency was pretty decent. We averaged 1.28 mi/kWh. with a total of 1,576 for the trip. We had absolutely no issues with charging, and did not have to unhook the trailer one time. Used Rivian, Tesla, and Ionna chargers, the Ionna was the cheapest by far; .20 over the 4th weekend! Tesla was the most expensive. Our total charging costs was $537, with our average kWh $.47. Given California/Oregon gas prices, this would have cost us around $900 with our previous Pathfinder. I am happy about that! We did charge at a couple of campgrounds using their 50-amp service. It would have been more if I had figured out how to use the portable charger sooner.

This is the first time we have towed our travel trailer this far, and it was great to dispel any range anxiety issues. We have learned to use the charging time to get food, chill, and walk our dogs. It actually makes traveling like this rather enjoyable.

It was an amazing camping trip with this amazing Rivian R1S vehicle!

Thanks for posting. I have yet to buy a trailer due to the lack of space to garage it at my house, but this is exactly the kind of road tripping I want to do in my truck. I plan to rent a trailer on Outdoorsy before going full in. I feel the charging experience gets better every year, especially easy in my state of CA.

 

[VandalSibs]

Thanks for posting. I have yet to buy a trailer due to the lack of space to garage it at my house, but this is exactly the kind of road tripping I want to do in my truck. I plan to rent a trailer on Outdoorsy before going full in. I feel the charging experience gets better every year, especially easy in my state of CA.

One thing I like to say about camping/towing is that slowing down and enjoying the journey as well as the destination is a good mindset.

 

[Calypso]

Great write up. We did a 5000 mile trip last Sept from Boston to western Colorado and back with a teardrop trailer behind our R1T. I agree with your conclusion that the R1 is an excellent tow vehicle.

@ewhilberg asked about Nav planning. After getting a general overview of the whole trip in ABRP and the Rivian nav app to pick the main route, each day I'd enter the next DCFC after our campground stop for the destination in the R1 to have a buffer to get us to the next DCFC. If the campsite had 50amp service that we could charge with, the next day would re-optimize stops. But, we found a number of campgrounds that either wouldn't allow EV charging or, even with limiting amps delivered to 32, would trip the breaker at some point in the night. Better safe than sorry to get to the next DCFC. I think we only had 2 segments on the interstates where I had concern about making it to the next DCFC based on range, arriving with 5-6% SOC. For those, slowing down <65mph made the difference.

 

[CharonPDX]

One thing I like to say about camping/towing is that slowing down and enjoying the journey as well as the destination is a good mindset.

Yep. I'd rather take 101 or 97/395 and enjoy the trip than take I-5.

Which is exactly what I did a few years ago: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...and-to-tucson-and-back-with-side-trips.21187/

 

[VandalSibs]

Yep. I'd rather take 101 or 97/395 and enjoy the trip than take I-5.

Which is exactly what I did a few years ago: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...and-to-tucson-and-back-with-side-trips.21187/

I think that thread was one of the things that sealed the deal with my wife and us replacing our Model Y with the R1T... so thanks!

 

[kcsq]

We just completed a 2,115-mile camping trip up the California/Oregon coast in our R1S towing a 5500-6000 lb. Sonic travel trailer. It was a wonderful trip, near perfect. We spent time in the CA redwoods, the hills outside of Ashland and Eugene, and drove over the Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains. The Rivian is absolutely the best tow vehicle we have owned in over 40 years of camping. I mean, what hills and mountains?

I think our efficiency was pretty decent. We averaged 1.28 mi/kWh. with a total of 1,576 for the trip. We had absolutely no issues with charging, and did not have to unhook the trailer one time. Used Rivian, Tesla, and Ionna chargers, the Ionna was the cheapest by far; .20 over the 4th weekend! Tesla was the most expensive. Our total charging costs was $537, with our average kWh $.47. Given California/Oregon gas prices, this would have cost us around $900 with our previous Pathfinder. I am happy about that! We did charge at a couple of campgrounds using their 50-amp service. It would have been more if I had figured out how to use the portable charger sooner.

This is the first time we have towed our travel trailer this far, and it was great to dispel any range anxiety issues. We have learned to use the charging time to get food, chill, and walk our dogs. It actually makes traveling like this rather enjoyable.

It was an amazing camping trip with this amazing Rivian R1S vehicle!

We just completed a 2,115-mile camping trip up the California/Oregon coast in our R1S towing a 5500-6000 lb. Sonic travel trailer. It was a wonderful trip, near perfect. We spent time in the CA redwoods, the hills outside of Ashland and Eugene, and drove over the Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains. The Rivian is absolutely the best tow vehicle we have owned in over 40 years of camping. I mean, what hills and mountains?

I think our efficiency was pretty decent. We averaged 1.28 mi/kWh. with a total of 1,576 for the trip. We had absolutely no issues with charging, and did not have to unhook the trailer one time. Used Rivian, Tesla, and Ionna chargers, the Ionna was the cheapest by far; .20 over the 4th weekend! Tesla was the most expensive. Our total charging costs was $537, with our average kWh $.47. Given California/Oregon gas prices, this would have cost us around $900 with our previous Pathfinder. I am happy about that! We did charge at a couple of campgrounds using their 50-amp service. It would have been more if I had figured out how to use the portable charger sooner.

This is the first time we have towed our travel trailer this far, and it was great to dispel any range anxiety issues. We have learned to use the charging time to get food, chill, and walk our dogs. It actually makes traveling like this rather enjoyable.

It was an amazing camping trip with this amazing Rivian R1S vehicle!

 

[kcsq]

Sounds like a great trip. I’m new to my old (2022) R1T and I’m trying to get an idea of the actual costs vs ICE vehicles
Just double‑checking the numbers so we’re all on the same page.
For 2115 miles and 1576 kWh, the efficiency comes out to:
Miles per kWh = 2115 ÷ 1576 = 1.34 mi/kWh.
For the Pathfinder comparison: at 20 mpg, that trip would use about 106 gallons.
At California’s ~$5.25 average, that’s roughly $557.
Is my math missing something?

 

[CharonPDX]

I think that thread was one of the things that sealed the deal with my wife and us replacing our Model Y with the R1T... so thanks!

Dang, should have been sharing my referral code! :-D

Sponsored