Rivian Portable Charger

[adam12]

Did a roadtrip to an Air BNB. Would have been helpful to plug into the available 240. Problem is the Male end of the Rivian plug did not match in the Female wall plug. Question is there availability of different 240 plug heads? Appears that Tesla has multiple OEM heads that can be purchased.

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[mpshizzle]

The problem is that 240v plugs have different power output ratings. EV mobile chargers pretty universally have Nema 14-50. (Rated for 40A continuous)

The tricky part is if you use a different plug, more than likely it'll be rated for less power. So you'll have to know how many amps that plug is rated for, and charge at that rate. If someone were to use such an adapter they could easily pop a breaker. Or worse, cause a fire.


TL;DR - Rivian does not sell other 240 volt plugs for lesser amperage sockets. Too much liability for something bad to happen

 

[Mathme]

Search the forum. There’s people who have made set ups for this and there’s a lot of discussion on how to do this.

 

[beatle]

I'm surprised no company has come out with an affordable portable J1772 EVSE that supports as many different plug types as the Tesla UMC. There are a couple of J1772 based portable EVSEs that can do this like the JBooster+, but they're all way more expensive than the Tesla unit. The J+Booster 2 looks nice, and it lets you charge at 40A which is faster than most portable EVSEs, but it's almost twice the price of a Tesla UMC and does not even have an available 14-30 adapter.

I have a gen2 Tesla UMC left over from my Tesla days and will use it to charge the Rivian when I travel. I don't think I'll ever end up taking the Rivian MC out of the bag. You can get a gen2 Tesla UMC for under $200 on ebay. A new one is $250. Adapters are $35-$45.

You can adapt a 14-50P to a 14-30P (and a lot of other plugs) to use the Rivian MC you already have, but you'll need to limit the amps in the truck to match the receptacle you're plugging into. You should only draw 24A on a 14-30, for example, but the truck will default to 32A. A lot of people will say this is dangerous and you shouldn't do it, and there's some truth to that, but it's actually doable and will not cause problems if done correctly. The breaker will trip if you try to draw 32A on a 14-30 for very long.

 

[adam12]

I'm surprised no company has come out with an affordable portable J1772 EVSE that supports as many different plug types as the Tesla UMC. There are a couple of J1772 based portable EVSEs that can do this like the JBooster+, but they're all way more expensive than the Tesla unit. The J+Booster 2 looks nice, and it lets you charge at 40A which is faster than most portable EVSEs, but it's almost twice the price of a Tesla UMC and does not even have an available 14-30 adapter.

I have a gen2 Tesla UMC left over from my Tesla days and will use it to charge the Rivian when I travel. I don't think I'll ever end up taking the Rivian MC out of the bag. You can get a gen2 Tesla UMC for under $200 on ebay. A new one is $250. Adapters are $35-$45.

You can adapt a 14-50P to a 14-30P (and a lot of other plugs) to use the Rivian MC you already have, but you'll need to limit the amps in the truck to match the receptacle you're plugging into. You should only draw 24A on a 14-30, for example, but the truck will default to 32A. A lot of people will say this is dangerous and you shouldn't do it, and there's some truth to that, but it's actually doable and will not cause problems if done correctly. The breaker will trip if you try to draw 32A on a 14-30 for very long.

Yep that's what I gathered. Purchasing a Tesla Gen two and getting the available 240 heads appears to be the Swiss knife of the charging game. Thanks. That's overall where I was going with the question of this post.

Appreciate.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I will be looking into the J+ unit soon. The Rivian mobile charger is basic and I am looking for something that can handle all the adventures many Rivian owners will be taking. The J+ unit is not the most inexpensive unit however there is a lot of value in quality and versatility.

Stay tuned on that one.

As far as adapters those can get tricky like someone else said. Your relying on the vehicle then to limit the charging amperage. For example, the Rivian mobile charger pulls 32 amps with the 14-50 plug head on it. If you plug into a dryer plug those are only rated for 30 amps and so your max charge rate should be limited to 24 amps to avoid overloading the circuit. Its possible to get an adapter and limit the amperage in the truck but the better way IMO is to have the correct plug and have the charger itself limit based on the plug that is connected.

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