Our MAX PACK R1T's decent first winter trip across WI

[Budman]

Awesome! Should be even easier this Spring when we can use Tesla Superchargers. We're making a run this Spring north from Milwaukee to the Boundary Waters and it will definitely induce range anxiety once we get into the NE Minnesota arrowhead.

For all the visitors Duluth, MN gets, there are very poor DC charging options there. EA has one scheduled but not started yet.

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[Shill2801]

I was going to ask how you managed to charge back up to 100% over night, but it looks like you have a decent charger at your property?

We're heading up to Door County for the holidays to visit the in-laws and we're planning on charging in Appleton both on the way up and the way back. There's an Avis that we've stopped at before...it only gets 49 kwh speeds, but it's the best we've found so far.

 

[krisbartel]

Congrats! That just goes to show how much further you can go when you slow down a bit.

BTW, there are actually a lot of DC fast chargers in NE Wisconsin. Appleton has 8 250 kW Superchargers, Green Bay has 8 150 kW Superchargers, Manitowoc has 8 250 kW Superchargers, Sturgeon Bay has 8 250 kW Superchargers and Marinette has 8 250 kW Superchargers. Plenty to go around but I don't which ones will work with the NACS to CCS adapters when they become available and Tesla opens their network up to the public.

The question is whether they work or not. I have a place in Merrimac and there's really not much around, other than Madison. I stopped at the EA in Madison on a trip and 1 of the 4 chargers were working. One of them had been down for more than a month. It would be great if there were options along 12/18 (Beltline) in Madison, but there are no fast chargers.

 

[ridgetopview]

Thanks for the report, any idea of the ratio of 55 limit to 70 limit?
90miles/22% extrapolated is 409 miles pretty decent considering the conditions. Looks like you could pretty safely make it a the speed limit.

409 x .22= 90 miles pretty dang close to epa, not bad.

Especially considering the remaining 90mi/22% = 409mi. Is this based on the last 15mi driven?

Dang, I didn't think about the math but that's spot-on close CLOSE to the advertised EPA.

 

[not_a_car_guy]

I carefully read this thread and the ones linked by @SlaterGS, before going on a couple of winter road trips in New England. Was ready to switch to 71F or 72F degrees, but we ended up leaving the cabin temp set to fully Auto and 69F degrees the whole time. It was < 20F much of the time. The HVAC blew hot air the whole time (I obsessively checked to see if the symbols would change from the warm air ones to the cold air ones anywhere in the car). Maybe the vehicles that don't do this have a bug? Or maybe it just behaves differently in really cold weather vs milder weather.

We were all very comfortable at 69F. The only change that was made is at one point the kids in the backseat turned on the feet vents because they kicked off their shoes and their feet started to feel cold. It was warm enough nobody needed seat heaters. Nobody was wearing their coats, just long sleeve shirts or sweatshirts.

Not sure how much the HVAC use impacted efficiency, but I decided it was better to charge more if needed, and to keep everyone comfortable in the car.

The Rivian nav was a champ at predicting range. Each drive was 80 - 120 miles one way, and the nav predicted range on arrival was conservative by about 8 miles consistently. This is exactly how I would prefer it!

I've heard multiple stories of friends riding in a Tesla in the winter and having to turn off the heat to save energy (and this is with their abundant supercharger network as well). I suspect this is partly because the Tesla range prediction is super optimistic I've heard. Also, Tesla's are overall much more efficient in terms of kWh/mi, so using HVAC is likely a bigger fraction of overall energy and hence has a bigger impact on range.

From my perspective, if I start making my family have to do stupid things like be cold for a whole drive, they will stop wanting to take the Rivian on road trips, so I told everyone to ignore what they've heard, just use whatever you want in the truck for as long as you want to use it.

I feel that as long as you plan properly for charging, this is the best way to do things.

 

[KootenayEV]

I carefully read this thread and the ones linked by @SlaterGS, before going on a couple of winter road trips in New England. Was ready to switch to 71F or 72F degrees, but we ended up leaving the cabin temp set to fully Auto and 69F degrees the whole time. It was < 20F much of the time. The HVAC blew hot air the whole time (I obsessively checked to see if the symbols would change from the warm air ones to the cold air ones anywhere in the car). Maybe the vehicles that don't do this have a bug? Or maybe it just behaves differently in really cold weather vs milder weather.

We were all very comfortable at 69F. The only change that was made is at one point the kids in the backseat turned on the feet vents because they kicked off their shoes and their feet started to feel cold. It was warm enough nobody needed seat heaters. Nobody was wearing their coats, just long sleeve shirts or sweatshirts.

Not sure how much the HVAC use impacted efficiency, but I decided it was better to charge more if needed, and to keep everyone comfortable in the car.

The Rivian nav was a champ at predicting range. Each drive was 80 - 120 miles one way, and the nav predicted range on arrival was conservative by about 8 miles consistently. This is exactly how I would prefer it!

I've heard multiple stories of friends riding in a Tesla in the winter and having to turn off the heat to save energy (and this is with their abundant supercharger network as well). I suspect this is partly because the Tesla range prediction is super optimistic I've heard. Also, Tesla's are overall much more efficient in terms of kWh/mi, so using HVAC is likely a bigger fraction of overall energy and hence has a bigger impact on range.

From my perspective, if I start making my family have to do stupid things like be cold for a whole drive, they will stop wanting to take the Rivian on road trips, so I told everyone to ignore what they've heard, just use whatever you want in the truck for as long as you want to use it.

I feel that as long as you plan properly for charging, this is the best way to do things.

We run the heat at whatever setting we want, and if I'm actually worried about range, I just slow down by 5km/h - makes a bigger difference in how much energy you are using.

(Side-note: I don't think the snowflake or heat symbol actually indicates the temp of the air; I've had the truck stay plenty warm only showing the snowflake symbol. I think it is more whether it is running the a/c compressor or not, but I haven't been able to confirm.)

 

[ridgetopview]

For all the visitors Duluth, MN gets, there are very poor DC charging options there. EA has one scheduled but not started yet.

We were considering a trip to Duluth in the R1T and decided against it and drove the Tesla. Charging support in the area for a Tesla is much better than for a non-Tesla. Disappointing since I can carry more gear in the R1T.

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