My Rivian completely dead from ~40% vampire drain after a month long vacation

[HarisonAltDelete]

These boosters may have a problem generating 30A for any significant amount of time. And from what I've seen already, it takes a while for truck to wake up enough to get the charging door and frunk open.

I seem to remember seeing a note that also stated that the charging cables at the hitch do not allow power to be detected. Sure enough, when I put my volt meter on it, it shows 0 volts and my 12v battery is not dead (yet)

So basically you need a charger that will work when it detects 0 volts. Or a spare car battery lying around. We don’t have any ICE cars anymore, so traditional jump is not an option for us.

I have a 30 amp Dewalt smart battery charger. I figure I should just get an extra car battery. Keep that charged. And if I need a jump, connect the car battery to the hitch leads, and attach the charger to the battery.

It's crazy we have to think this way. The manual frunk release procedure is nuts! I feel like it was literally an "oh $@#$" moment by the engineers when someone asked. "What do we do if the batteries die?"

Ive literally put my booster into bypass mode and ran a vehicle on just the booster with no battery attached to the vehicle for multiple miles. It will be fine lol


As I said the NOCO has a bypass mode where it would put out voltage regardless of detecting any. This is the solution

Sponsored

 

[jollyroger]

Ive literally put my booster into bypass mode and ran a vehicle on just the booster with no battery attached to the vehicle for multiple miles. It will be fine lol


As I said the NOCO has a bypass mode where it would put out voltage regardless of detecting any. This is the solution

So real question. The manual says it must produce a minimum of 13 volts at 30 amps. Does the NOCO do that?

 

[HarisonAltDelete]

So real question. The manual says it must produce a minimum of 13 volts at 30 amps. Does the NOCO do that?

Yes easily. Mine is the nicer one puts out 3000A at 14.X volts. They don't sell one that doesn't put out at least 500A though

 

[NY_Rob]

Yes easily. Mine is the nicer one puts out 3000A at 14.X volts. They don't sell one that doesn't put out at least 500A though

That's surge energy.... those tiny little boosters only put out a few amps continuous current if anything at all.

The Rivian needs continuous power to jump start unlike and ICE vehicle that needs surge power for a few seconds to turn over the engine.

 

[HarisonAltDelete]

Edit: May have to re-think these hi-flow jump starters, give the battery datasheet recommends a max charging current of 31A.
[/QUOTE]

That's surge energy.... those tiny little boosters only put out a few amps continuous current if anything at all.

The Rivian needs continuous power to jump start unlike and ICE vehicle that needs surge power for a few seconds to turn over the engine.

Like I said, I hooked one of these NOCOs up to a V8 car in place of a battery and driven that car a few miles using the NOCO as the only 12v power source so I have faith it will provide more current than those tiny wires can take long enough to get the battery up to 12v

That's surge energy.... those tiny little boosters only put out a few amps continuous current if anything at all.

The Rivian needs continuous power to jump start unlike and ICE vehicle that needs surge power for a few seconds to turn over the engine.

It can put plenty of continuous, it can deliver 15A alone continuous through the tiny accessory port on the side made for tire inflators. I'm sure it can put out well over 30A continuous through the clamps. Feel free to go pull the specs yourself though

 

[Arky]

I don't think it's fair to compare a float charger on an ICE 12V to the power use of this vehicle. If I left my other car for a month plugged into a 12v charger it might use 100 or 200wh which is a far cry from 45kWh which wouldn't be unusual in the R1. The power drain from most cars 12v systems is super low.

To people shopping around for jump packs - you don't need a super high current for this car. It's not driving a starter motor or something that needs a bunch of power quick (those things are meant to parallel your battery to force a jump.) There's only so fast you can really charge lead acid batteries and you don't need "3000A" to do that (although it's probably a super overrated fake number, doesn't matter because even 1/100 that is more than enough..)

 

[ERguy]

i have left etron, Taycan, outlander PHEV, and Fiat 500e sitting for 3-6 months and they have had minimal drain with no issues upon start.

Serious question... How is it possible you consistently go so long without driving your cars? Do you intentionally buy EVs just to let them collect dust?

In your examples, you let 4 cars sit for a combined total of 12-24 months. That's a lot of time with your cars spent parked.

Do you have like 100 cars you rotate driving every day while the others sit parked in a garage?

Or do you just buy a new car every year and then leave it parked for 6 months before buying your next car just to leave it parked for 6 months as well?

 

[Rugbym8t]

Do you have like 100 cars you rotate driving every day while the others sit parked in a garage?

Well he may just have a few cars and strongly prefer one. That's my case. I go months sometimes not driving cars. In my TRX now for a road trip and it was idle for a few months. My R1T is the new daily, so the other cars become special or specific use.

Other scenario is a second home and leaving a car there. Or maybe a frequent traveler for work on assignments, and the list goes on.

Lots of reasons he may need to leave his cars.

My Model Y loses just a percent or 2 a week max when in storage, if sentry is turned off.

 

[R1Tom]

Which NOCO is the one to have for the Rivian?

 

[NY_Rob]

Like I said, I hooked one of these NOCOs up to a V8 car in place of a battery and driven that car a few miles using the NOCO as the only 12v power source so I have faith it will provide more current than those tiny wires can take long enough to get the battery up to 12v

Of course that worked, because as soon as the engine started the alternator provided as much current as the vehicle needed to keep running. The NOCO only provided the starting current, then the alternator took over and provided current. You can actually run a car without a battery as long as you turn on enough accessories to put some load on the alternator to stop it from overvolting it's rectifier components.
As a matter of fact, we used to test alternator output back in the day by starting the ICE, turning on the high beams, the blower and radio then disconnecting the 12V battery. If the alternator was good the car kept running, if the alternator was bad.. the engine would die immediately.

The NOCO BOOSTERS are just that... Boosters, not continuous current supply devices. Will one of the larger ones (at $2,000!!!) be enough to jump start a dead Rivian 12V battery? We don't really know...

 

[Darrellquadmotor]

Sometimes we learn that we should not leave our vehicles without charging up or leaving a charger plug in if gone for extended period of time. With the sophistication of the computer systems in these vehicles there could always be some drain to keep the system running.

 

[Riv_Ian]

…. But, given the sophistication of the computers on board, I would have thought it possible to self protect against total draw down

 

[Grabs10]

Wonder if it’s possible to put a 12 volt battery disconnect on the Rivian. All of my work’s big trucks like dump trucks have them. The disconnects disconnect the batteries prevent draw downs when the vehicle sits.

 

[NY_Rob]

Wonder if it’s possible to put a 12 volt battery disconnect on the Rivian. All of my work’s big trucks like dump trucks have them. The disconnects disconnect the batteries prevent draw downs when the vehicle sits.

Like we use on our boats...

 

[jollyroger]

My take on this is the computers on the R1 are booting when the 12 volts die and you start charging, and therefore trying to draw a lot more power that your typical ICE vehicle normally would.

The manual states 30 amps at 13 volts or higher. There was a draft that said 15 amps and I figured Rivian later said that wasn’t enough.

When I talked to service about this, they didn’t have a product recommendation. And they told me “just use a regular car and jump it” to which I answered, we only have ev’s now. They didn’t have much else to say.

As a slight aside, they did say that when the traction battery is charging. It’s also giving juice to the 12v batteries. Maybe that explains why the long resting period R1 that are not charging are having 12 volt problems. Not a good excuse for Rivian. But might help work around the current issues.

Sponsored