Tesla saves Rivian - Mammoth Mountain Edition

[TTedP]

Just to summarize:

1. Your wife wanted a Rivian. (Rivian's fault)
2. You knew when the Rivian was purchased there was no RAN in this location. (Rivian's fault)
3. You traveled to this location knowing there was no RAN in this location. (Rivian's fault)
4. The L2 Tesla station there only had 1 functioning charger. (Rivian's fault)
5. Global warming. (Rivian's fault)
6. Inflation. (Rivian's fault)
7. WWII. (Rivian's fault)
8. Last episode of the Sopranos. (Rivian's fault)
9. Lindbergh baby kidnapping. (Rivian's fault)

quit making sense!

IMO, the only person's fault it was is the one who got in the car and started the trip without a plan.

Sponsored

 

[Sterlma]

In my opinion the op is over reacting. 93 miles range is plenty to last 2 days in mammoth and drive down to bishop to charge. The drive to bishop only takes about 7 or 8 percent which is about 15 miles of range.

I have done the mammoth trip 5 or 6 times. Once I stayed 5 days in freezing temps while parking outside. Drove to the lifts every day. Still made it to bishop with 15% charge., but I started out with 93% from Bishop.

The key is to charge as much as you can before heading up from bishop. On our lat 3 day trip I only charged up to about 70% and had no issues. Made it back with about 30%.

This pretty much sums it up. It’s pretty simple. A little bit of knowledge about how much charge you really need to make it back from Mammoth to Bishop goes along way. …Very basic.

 

[quartz]

I don't think it's fair to imply Rivian would not be here if it wasn't for Tesla. You can argue the talent development and public opinion factors, but you must also point out the massive greenfield advantages of having no competition. Remember, Tesla is a big reason why RJ pivoted away from the Avera roadster to focus on the R1 platform. Rivian helped Tesla by delaying its time-to-market AND moving into an entirely different segment. Ignoring these facts while at the same time claiming Tesla is due credit/respect seems like playing politics to me.

 

[ealberton]

Can't say I know either, just inferred it from your description. When I was there a Rivian next to me plugged in (I assume successfully charging). I couldn't get either of the other two to work.

@jjswan33 Do I see you with Chains on your R1T? How did that work out? I thought it was highly discouraged. Did you feel your truck couldn't get where it needed without them? I understand you know your truck better than most so I ask truly out of inquisitiveness. I drive to Mammoth and Tahoe regularly and just last weekend through the crazy blizzard spoke of in the original post. No issues on any of the drive even given it was a whiteout with blanketed snowy roads and high winds. I comfortably drove at 50 MPH and passed many other cars along the way between Mono Lake and Bishop. chain requirements in effect. R1S launch with 20" AT stock tires

 

[ealberton]

@jjswan33 another question you might be able to answer. I wanted to put my wipers up at night to avoid them freezing to the windshield But I couldn't because the arms were hitting the hood. what am I missing so that I can leave the wipers up at night in snowy conditions?

 

[jjswan33]

@jjswan33 Do I see you with Chains on your R1T? How did that work out? I thought it was highly discouraged. Did you feel your truck couldn't get where it needed without them? I understand you know your truck better than most so I ask truly out of inquisitiveness. I drive to Mammoth and Tahoe regularly and just last weekend through the crazy blizzard spoke of in the original post. No issues on any of the drive even given it was a whiteout with blanketed snowy roads and high winds. I comfortably drove at 50 MPH and passed many other cars along the way between Mono Lake and Bishop. chain requirements in effect. R1S launch with 20" AT stock tires

@jjswan33 another question you might be able to answer. I wanted to put my wipers up at night to avoid them freezing to the windshield But I couldn't because the arms were hitting the hood. what am I missing so that I can leave the wipers up at night in snowy conditions?

I am running Nitto Recon Grapplers in the 20" OEM AT size. They don't have a snow flake rating so I was under the impression I needed chains on that day, turns out I misread the regulations. The Nitto's have behaved fine in snow and I also normally run dedicated winter tires so the chains are more for just in case of emergency or legal requirements. I found they worked fine below 20mph.

For the wipers you have to put them in wiper service mode.

 

[TTedP]

@jjswan33 another question you might be able to answer. I wanted to put my wipers up at night to avoid them freezing to the windshield But I couldn't because the arms were hitting the hood. what am I missing so that I can leave the wipers up at night in snowy conditions?

I think there's a wiper service mode in settings?

 

[Limestone]

I travel the 395 corridor and the Mammoth to Bishop route takes about 6%. As you should know it mostly downhill and driving properly you will have no problem making it to the RAN station in Bishop. You can also make it no problem from the Bishop RAN to Gardnerville, NV. Just need to plan it out!!!

 

[Stickboy46]

My life does not revolve around a vehicle

Yet here you are .. constantly posting on a Rivian forum with negative Rivian/Pro-Tesla crap.

Yes, your life revolves around Tesla. Its what happens when you are in a cult.

 

[Robin]

You’re not allowed to criticize Rivian or RJ on these forums. Everything is your fault and you’re required to be a fanboy.

?

 

[dl4060]

When my wife saw the first promo videos for the R1S "Adventure" vehicle cruising up a mountain with ski racks and a truck full of happy passengers, she turned to me and said, "I'm sold."

Fast forward 5 years, I am looking at the R1S range 'snow mode' and the 93 miles left has to last through freezing temps tonight, tomorrow, and then the trip down the mountain to Bishop. Based on the range loss I've seen the past few nights in much warmer weather, I think it will be a pretty close call and I just don't feel comfortable putting my family in that situation.

So, in a blizzard, I jump in the Rivian with my 21" All Seasons and ask Alexa to navigate to the only public J-connector charger in town...a level 2 *Tesla* box at the Mammoth Recreation Center that offers *free* charging.

Rivian navigation decides to take me the long way around on Old Mammoth Rd instead of straight down Meridian ?

I actually tried to charge at this Tesla station earlier in the day, but an R1T was charging at the only box out of 3 that connects successfully.

As I make the turn into the lot, I see a Lucid charging at one of the J-connector boxes that failed me earlier in the day. The Lucid obscures the view to the one charger that worked a few days ago, so as I plow through a foot or two of snow, I am super relieved to see the working box is available.

Thanks, I guess, for the Adventure RJ, I'm super pumped to sit in this parking lot for the next 2 hours. A sincere thanks to Elon for saving the trip by offering a working charging station for a connector you don't even use AND for offering NACS to the rest of the industry (RJ, I was hoping the adapter would be available for this trip...but we all know, by now, the large gap between Rivian product/feature announcement and delivery is really the only thing this company consistently offers).

With 93 miles of range I'm not sure why you thought this would be a close call.

We go to Mammoth just about every other weekend from Newport Beach. We usually drive up Friday am, get on the hill around noon, and when we do that we typically arrive with about 30% range, at most, because we don't want to charge for too long in Bishop and lose ski time. If we drive up in the afternoon we charge to around 80% in Bishop, so that we can make the olancha charger when coming home, and obviously we won't be skiing on the drive up day in that scenario.

If we leave Rainbow Lane with 145 miles of range we can get to Olancha with about 30 miles of range. This includes a stop at Mahogany meats.

This is driving a large pack R1T, for reference.

I don't think I have ever used more than 30 miles of range getting from Mammoth to Bishop, and it is usually less than that, maybe 20. I've made about 8 trips this year, several during blizzard weekends, and I've never used close to that much range. You are basically going downhill the whole way, and we always add about 4% range going down the Sherwin grade.

For added reference, our ski lease for this winter is on Rainbow Lane, walking distance from Canyon Lodge, so it's pretty high up.

I'm actually stunned that you thought 93 miles of range might not be enough.

I don't see this as an issue with Rivian. Rivian was fine, and it seems like your planning was fine, you were just a bit overcautious, which I can certainly understand

I've found the Rivian nav to be about the same as the Tesla nav. The biggest navigation issue I've had is with alexa.

I will say that the Rivian navigation is conservative with arrival range. I always arrive with far more than I'm predicted to have when I'm 150 miles from my destination. This is probably a good thing.

I am hoping to get my adapter before my last trip og the season, which will probably be in mid May, but if not, no worries. When I drove a Tesla I always found the supercharger in mammoth to be very slow.

 

[dl4060]

I would agree. In my experience, I typically lose about 5 miles when it's parked outside in Mammoth. That's on the high side. The R1T doesn't fit in the garage of our ski share, so it's always parked outside.

I was being gentle with the op in my first post, but you have to be pretty clueless not to be able to figure out that 93 miles is plenty to get to Bishop.

This is NOT a Rivian problem. Tesla doesn't save Rivian, although the adapter will be nice to have.

EDIT: Didn't quote properly. Meant to quote someone saying vampire drain might be 2 miles a night. I've had it be a bit more in the cold, but usually not.

 

[fyton2v]

We need to move past the range anxiety mindset. Stop thinking about it as getting stranded. It’s more fun and adventurous if you think about it as “surprise camping”.

 

[tculpepp]

We need to move past the range anxiety mindset. Stop thinking about it as getting stranded. It’s more fun and adventurous if you think about it as “surprise camping”.

In Tesla speak, that would be "rapid unscheduled camping" ?

For anyone unfamiliar:

Sponsored