900 mile towing trip

[Megaman0025]

I just got back from a 900 mile round trip where I towed another car with my 2026 R1T tri motor. Towed trailer and car was about 7000 lbs (per the truck). Drove from Chicago to Bowling Green, KY and back. Just used a ball hitch, did not use a WDH like Rivian recommends for trailers over 5000 lbs.

Overall the Rivian performed well, pulled the trailer fine. My consumption was 1.3 mi/kWh while pulling trailer. I didn't try to push the limits of how far I could go, but I could do an hour and a half or so before having to stop for recharging. Sometimes I stopped sooner due to what the route planner told me. I used the Rivian route planner for the trip and it worked well IMHO.

Charging could be interesting due to towing a trailer. On my trip there were no trailer friendly chargers. So I had to do a lot of creative parking so I could charge and not block the area around me with the trailer. Only once I had to unhook to charge. Most of the chargers I used were Tesla. As much as I am not a fan of Tesla, I have to admit that their charging stations were fast, reliable and had a lot of chargers. The stations were surprisingly busy during the day although I never found myself in a situation where there were no open chargers. My only complaint was the charging cables are way too short. They really need to be a bit longer.

I had one real issue with the truck. On the day we were to head back home, the truck would not recognize the trailer was connected. So no trailer brakes or lights. I called Rivian and I was able to talk to someone on a Sunday morning which I very much appreciated. They had me do a hard and soft reset but nothing worked. In the end, I just went on with my trip as is as I needed to be back home that day. We stopped for a longish brunch and when we got back, the truck had fixed itself. Go figure.

One final comment, while towing on the highway I would feel a 'jerky' sensation when the truck and trailer went over bumps in the road. I believe that was coming from the interaction of the truck and trailer at the hitch while going over the bumps. I'm going to guess that is why Rivian wants you to use a WDH for trailers over 5000 lbs. It probably mitigates that sensation.

Awesome write up. Thanks for giving details on the total experience. Also, remember that there’s also 135,000 other employees at Tesla that work hard for their money too!

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[Gen(R3)Xer]

I just got back from a 900 mile round trip where I towed another car with my 2026 R1T tri motor. Towed trailer and car was about 7000 lbs (per the truck). Drove from Chicago to Bowling Green, KY and back. Just used a ball hitch, did not use a WDH like Rivian recommends for trailers over 5000 lbs.

Overall the Rivian performed well, pulled the trailer fine. My consumption was 1.3 mi/kWh while pulling trailer. I didn't try to push the limits of how far I could go, but I could do an hour and a half or so before having to stop for recharging. Sometimes I stopped sooner due to what the route planner told me. I used the Rivian route planner for the trip and it worked well IMHO.

Charging could be interesting due to towing a trailer. On my trip there were no trailer friendly chargers. So I had to do a lot of creative parking so I could charge and not block the area around me with the trailer. Only once I had to unhook to charge. Most of the chargers I used were Tesla. As much as I am not a fan of Tesla, I have to admit that their charging stations were fast, reliable and had a lot of chargers. The stations were surprisingly busy during the day although I never found myself in a situation where there were no open chargers. My only complaint was the charging cables are way too short. They really need to be a bit longer.

I had one real issue with the truck. On the day we were to head back home, the truck would not recognize the trailer was connected. So no trailer brakes or lights. I called Rivian and I was able to talk to someone on a Sunday morning which I very much appreciated. They had me do a hard and soft reset but nothing worked. In the end, I just went on with my trip as is as I needed to be back home that day. We stopped for a longish brunch and when we got back, the truck had fixed itself. Go figure.

One final comment, while towing on the highway I would feel a 'jerky' sensation when the truck and trailer went over bumps in the road. I believe that was coming from the interaction of the truck and trailer at the hitch while going over the bumps. I'm going to guess that is why Rivian wants you to use a WDH for trailers over 5000 lbs. It probably mitigates that sensation.

Tesla has a longer cable on their V4 charging stalls. They really need to retrofit the V3 stalls. And more pull-through stalls are needed. Glad you didn’t have any issues.

 

[VandalSibs]

Oh, he did teach me to hook the chains to the vehicle mount from the bottom up, versus top down. Less likely to hit something on the road and knock the hook off.

That one is new to me..... I've been doing it top down as I thought it put more of the thicker metal of the hook in contact with the chain attach points on receiver on the truck, but maybe that's a dumb assumption on my part.

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