First Experience pulling the Airstream Trade Wind with R1T

[Foobar]

Replaced my NuCamp T@B 400 with a larger trailer, the Airstream Trade Wind 25FBT. It's 26'2" end-to-end, 10' high, 8.5' wide, weighs about 7300 lbs at capacity. Drove around 110 miles from the dealer in New Jersey back home to New York with mostly highway traffic on I-95, and some city traffic through NYC on a cool 50s degree day and did an average of 1.1 mi/kWh. At various points in the trip it went from .9 to 1.6 on the 15-minute average display.

Got a 1200 mile trip planned next month to Florida, so we'll see how well that goes - planning on doing more Tesla charging station as that's more spread out along I-95 and I have the A2Z adapter which works a treat. Only challenge will be decoupling the trailer when charging, as there aren't any pull-thru stations on this route.

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[logan]

Congrats on the new airstream! We love ours and use it all the time.

For whatever it is worth, you can usually get away with not detaching with a little bit of awkward parking and checking out the charging station options via the satellite photos ahead of time. (We have done a lot of trips over the last year and have actually not had to detach once but we have had to skip a couple of stations for alternates- hence always check sat photos now.)

 

[Foobar]

Haha, I've done all of those same parking configurations with my T@B 400 last year except for where you're on the opposite side of the Tesla charger spot, taking up 3 spots AND the driveway behind it LOL - you gotta do what you gotta do!

Is that a 22 ft Bambi? What kind of efficiency are you averaging over the warmer months?

Happy adventures!

 

[logan]

Haha, I've done all of those same parking configurations with my T@B 400 last year except for where you're on the opposite side of the Tesla charger spot, taking up 3 spots AND the driveway behind it LOL - you gotta do what you gotta do!

Is that a 22 ft Bambi? What kind of efficiency are you averaging over the warmer months?

Happy adventures!

We were careful to not block the driveway but we did use up a few spots. The lot was almost entirely empty though. I think, often, it is easier to come from the other side for tesla chargers. Some of the charging locations we have found are basically big parking lots which are largely empty and if we can go from the opposite side then cars don't have to drive around us. Although no one seems to mind driving around. More often I get people walking over and saying it is great that unlike their model X that we do not have to decouple.

It's a 22 ft Caravel. I kind of stopped tracking the efficiency. I think it was in the 1.0-1.2 range mostly but it really depends on the elevation changes and such. I feel like the ~165 mile range when towing and the range estimates in the planner are very good though. Usually shoot for 20-30 miles range remaining at each charger.

 

[rhumbliner]

Yeah, sometimes you have to get a little creative to avoid dropping the trailer when charging. We generally average 1.0 mi/kwh when towing our 28’ AS and that’s taking into account traversing the mountain West.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Nice I love air stream. Wife won't approve the purchase though

1.1 sounds about right for a travel trailer. We have an Ultralite that's about 28ft long... 5,500 with all our stuff in it. We see between 1 and 1.2. the T does a little better than the S towing it.

We may be moving up to an Imagine that's about 7200 dry but is lower profile. Weight seems to only be an issue when there is elevation change on the route. Aero seems to dictate efficiency more than anything.

 

[twieland]

We're pulling a 25' Airstream Globetrotter (same size and aerodynamic profile as your Tradewind) and have been averaging about 1.1mi/kWH keeping speeds 60-65. Wind is the biggest killer and frequently are adjusting speed to keep efficiency to get to next charger. My biggest wish for the R1T would be an 800V architecture and larger battery to get towing range up to around 200miles with similar charging time (e.g. Silverado), but otherwise are so happy with our R1T. We moved up from a Basecamp 20X and have taken another 10-15% range hit with the larger profile trailer, but love the additional space and comfort of the 25'!

 

[Foobar]

We're pulling a 25' Airstream Globetrotter (same size and aerodynamic profile as your Tradewind) and have been averaging about 1.1mi/kWH keeping speeds 60-65. Wind is the biggest killer and frequently are adjusting speed to keep efficiency to get to next charger. My biggest wish for the R1T would be an 800V architecture and larger battery to get towing range up to around 200miles with similar charging time (e.g. Silverado), but otherwise are so happy with our R1T. We moved up from a Basecamp 20X and have taken another 10-15% range hit with the larger profile trailer, but love the additional space and comfort of the 25'!

Agree wholeheartedly. I'm OK towing a trailer with the Rivian but on long trips, I cap it at 5 charges per day and then stop somewhere for the night before starting over again the next day. This makes a cross country trip considerably longer than it used to take me with an ICE tow vehicle. That charging needs to get to at least 200 miles per charge, and back up to full within half an hour for me to be in my happy place.

 

[Fraslin]

This is all super info! We have an R1S and a 16ft Bambi and averaging 1.3 mi/kwh. We were at 1.4 before the last trip with more wind and mountains.

Looking to upgrade to upgrade to 25ft international in the next year or so and seeing the efficiency is helpful.

 

[Mickey]

We're pulling a 25' Airstream Globetrotter (same size and aerodynamic profile as your Tradewind) and have been averaging about 1.1mi/kWH keeping speeds 60-65. Wind is the biggest killer and frequently are adjusting speed to keep efficiency to get to next charger. My biggest wish for the R1T would be an 800V architecture and larger battery to get towing range up to around 200miles with similar charging time (e.g. Silverado), but otherwise are so happy with our R1T. We moved up from a Basecamp 20X and have taken another 10-15% range hit with the larger profile trailer, but love the additional space and comfort of the 25'!

Wow, I have the same color R1T towing the same AS and getting the same results. I guess the old saying, ”Everyone has a twin somewhere” is true!

 

[twieland]

Wow, I have the same color R1T towing the same AS and getting the same results. I guess the old saying, ”Everyone has a twin somewhere” is true!

LOL!

 

[Foobar]

Awesome to see a bunch of us representing the Rivian/Airstream combo! Hope to see you guys out there! Any of you going to Alumalina or the ACI Annual Rally this year?

 

[JamuJoe]

Replaced my NuCamp T@B 400 with a larger trailer, the Airstream Trade Wind 25FBT. It's 26'2" end-to-end, 10' high, 8.5' wide, weighs about 7300 lbs at capacity. Drove around 110 miles from the dealer in New Jersey back home to New York with mostly highway traffic on I-95, and some city traffic through NYC on a cool 50s degree day and did an average of 1.1 mi/kWh. At various points in the trip it went from .9 to 1.6 on the 15-minute average display.

Got a 1200 mile trip planned next month to Florida, so we'll see how well that goes - planning on doing more Tesla charging station as that's more spread out along I-95 and I have the A2Z adapter which works a treat. Only challenge will be decoupling the trailer when charging, as there aren't any pull-thru stations on this route.

Enjoy your new rig! We have over 5000 miles towing our Flying Cloud 28 (8000 lbs). Don’t sweat charging, I have had to unhitch only once. Just pull into the charger bank perpendicularly or at an angle. RAN trailer lanes are generally too short for us. We occasionally block a lane at Walmart or other shopping center EA chargers, I just stand by and move if necessary, which is extremely rare. Our overall avg. is 1.1 mi/kWh, and the R1T is the best tow vehicle I’ve ever used.

 

[logan]

Enjoy your new rig! We have over 5000 miles towing our Flying Cloud 28 (8000 lbs). Don’t sweat charging, I have had to unhitch only once. Just pull into the charger bank perpendicularly or at an angle. RAN trailer lanes are generally too short for us. We occasionally block a lane at Walmart or other shopping center EA chargers, I just stand by and move if necessary, which is extremely rare. Our overall avg. is 1.1 mi/kWh, and the R1T is the best tow vehicle I’ve ever used.

We had to do that once- also at a walmart EA- and just disconnected when someone was ready to leave and did a loop and reconnected.

Which reminds me. Although I agree the R1T is the best tow vehicle I've ever had it does unfortunately not have great mirrors for towing. I find it helpful to leave the backup camera on and on the dash, as shown below, so that when passing I can easily verify that I am clear also see if there is someone impatiently behind us. Also, when backing up although also use walkies which is the most useful.

 

[logan]

Also, since I was curious about how many miles we have towed. Here is the report for our 22' caravel.

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