Watch Rivian R1T Electric Truck Tackle The Trans-America Trail

[FutureBoy]

Watch Rivian R1T Electric Truck Tackle The Trans-America Trail
Watch the Rivian R1T go where no EV has gone before.




Sep 19, 2021
By: Steven Loveday

If driving two Rivian R1T electric pickup trucks all the way from Patagonia to Los Angeles wasn't enough – that's 13,000 miles in very difficult conditions, by the way – Rivian essentially did it all over again in the States.

As you may have heard, the electric truck maker headed out to cross the Trans-America Trail, a route many folks may be unaware even exists. Of course, MotorTrend was along for the ride, as the publication has been able to secure first and exclusive access to Rivian's vehicles.

Essentially, according to MotorTrend, the Trans-American Trail is "a route of interconnected, non-paved roads that runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean." MT says the route is already difficult to tackle in traditional gas-powered vehicles, which typically have much more range than today's EVs, not to mention the ability to quickly fuel up virtually anywhere.

How tough is it to tackle such a feat in a fully electric pickup truck? Well, we already knew the R1T was capable of pulling it off since we paid very close attention to the Long Way Up. If you're not familiar with the series, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman each rode a Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle prototype from South America to California using Rivian R1T prototypes as support vehicles.

In a somewhat similar adventure, Rivian and MotorTrend traversed the US on the 5,000-mile Trans-America Trail, which begins in Nags Head, North Carolina, and ends in Port Orford, Oregon. The publication says no other electric vehicle has ever made the trek, or at least if one has, it wasn't publicized.

The trip took 43 days to complete, and it was split into five legs. The entire trip was recorded as part of a series. MotorTrend will release a new episode each week. The video above is specific to the 1,704-mile journey from Nags Head to Dalton, Georgia.

 

[FutureBoy]

I'm hoping the rest of the episodes show more of the driving experience and abilities of the vehicles. This one seemed to be a lot of self-aggrandizing. But this portion of the drive is also partially on paved roads and around more population. Further west it will be much further between populations and much more open views.

 

[Newton]

looks interesting, not watchin this first part though, just seems like some random dudes talking a lot.
hopefully this isnt just a payed advertisement.

 

[Ogre]

Rivian sure piles on the advertising. Makes me wonder what their sales are actually like.

 

[Crissa]

A Zero just did it without support charging (tho they did put a Power Tank and pannier chargers with water cooling on it)

https://advrider.com/f/threads/two-...with-an-electric-moto-coast-to-coast.1514716/

So uhh, this is the second time a Zero already did it before they did.

?

-Crissa

 

[TirNaOg]

Cool trip.
Would like to see Tesla do vids like this once they get the CT line up.

 

[Ogre]

The publication says no other electric vehicle has ever made the trek, or at least if one has, it wasn't publicized.

A Zero just did it without support charging (tho they did put a Power Tank and pannier chargers with water cooling on it)

Apparently the publication did zero research. Did zero Zero research?

 

[Ogre]

I find it odd that they are dragging 200 pounds of drag inducing roof top tents and another 120 pounds of portable kitchens along on this trip but staying in hotels.

 

[FutureBoy]

I find it odd that they are dragging 200 pounds of drag inducing roof top tents and another 120 pounds of portable kitchens along on this trip but staying in hotels.

Most of the trip will be at slow speeds. Plus the further west they go the farther it will be between hotels. Maybe the tents are just for backup. I noticed that one of the Rivians has the mid tunnel kitchen. Hopefully they will actually use it on the trip.

 

[Crissa]

Yeah, once you get out of the Appalachia it's mostly rv parks rather than hotels on the path.

-Crissa

 

[FutureBoy]

And here is episode 2:





Once again, more about the participants than the truck itself...

Getting to some rough roads though.

Curious quote starting from 7:02

You know, any of the things like, "I need to drive 500 miles in a day!" That's a bizarre use case scenario. Throw that out. For most people, 300 mile range with that much power, the ability to tow 11,000 pounds, it's what they need. And if they drove it, it would be what they want.

Is that 500 miles an indirect diss at the Cybertruck? Or am I being a bit too sensitive?

And just after that quote, the pulling of another vehicle out of the ditch looks totally contrived.

I like the look of the automatically opening charge port cover. A bit too complicated to be up on the front corner where it is probably going to get damaged if you ask me though.

Quote from Rivian representative Kenneth Tsang at 9:46

We're building a pretty large charging network and we're rethinking the way that we locate them. We put in some level 2 chargers to fill in some gaps along the way on the Trans America Trail that allow you to have this kind of adventure. They're not at like a burger joint or something. They're at where you would naturally stay the night. We also tried to leverage just existing infrastructure like RV parks where you might stop to camp. And then of course we are putting them into parks so that, you were going to go to the park anyway cause that's what you wanted to do. You might as well plug in and get some electricity.

Interesting. Has anyone seen these Rivian chargers anywhere yet? I'd love to see some detailed pictures. From what I understand though from other sources, only Rivian can use them?

 

[Crissa]

Interesting. Has anyone seen these Rivian chargers anywhere yet? I'd love to see some detailed pictures. From what I understand though from other sources, only Rivian can use them?

I've seen pictures. The fast chargers are reserved for Rivian, but they said their Level 2s are not.

-Crissa

 

[TirNaOg]

I need to win the lottery so I can go do this trail!

 

[CyberGus]

In case anyone here forgot:

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-cybertruck-convoy-across-the-united-states

Catch up on the whole thread here.


(Oddly, both the YouTube video and club web page have been made private...!?)

 

[FutureBoy]

Part 3 of MotorTrend taking Rivian on the Trans America Trail.





Some day I want to take my CT across the Trans America Trail. The rocky mountains section is the part that I right now am most dreaming about. (Anyone else looking forward to Black Bear Pass?) Though the desert section after that might also be really cool.


Quote at 4:43:

Sometimes getting out there, you see nature. You see things you won't be able to see. On this trip it was really fascinating because how quiet it was. We saw bighorn sheep. We saw deer. We saw antelope. We saw birds. We saw, you know, groundhogs, and prarie dogs, and squirrels. It's almost like they hear the crush of the gravel under the tires. And that crush of gravel sounds like the hoofs of another animal. And they don't care. But when you have an internal combustion engine, that's the noise that they fear. So we ended up just driving, even at speed, right up on these guys. And they didn't seem to care. Which got us really close to nature. And I think that's another part of it. Getting out of the city, and reminding yourself kind of slow it down, enjoy the simple life a little bit.

This is something I've been really dreaming of for my CT. I love that there is no engine sound. I think this will really enhance the outdoor experience.

Quote at 9:02:

The cool thing about it is that instead of a crawler gear you have regenerative braking. You put that on maximum, and it will hold you, on a downhill. And because we were going all downhill on the trail, we actually gained 10's of miles by the end of the trail in our battery range. So, it was kind of cool to see that we were creating energy going down.

Nitpick: No energy was created. Laws of physics and all. But I do get the spirit of what he's saying. Charging the battery on the way down will be very nice. Though it comes in exchange for the greater charge use on the uphill. But ICE also uses more on the way up so that part isn't really a big experiential difference. Downhill though, gaining charge instead of expending gas is a really nice perk.

Quote at 9:20:

You really want to be able to move an off-roader inch by inch. Not foot by foot. Or half tire rotation by half tire rotation. You really want to be able to just walk over things as nice and easy as possible. And you go into this thinking, "Uhhh... There's only one, there's no gearing. There's no low range. No levers to pull or buttons to push, hardly." But you come off of Black Bear Pass or Cinnamon Pass and California Pass, the ones that I drove over, and you start to think, "You know, maybe this is the natural off roading. This is the way they should be." And all of these gearings, and low ranges, and buttons, and so forth, are elaborate bandaides. For a powertrain that isn't designed to go inch by inch. You have to gear it way down to make it do that. Where as an electric machine that makes peak torque at 0 rpm, is ready to do that right off the bat.

Maybe I'm just inexperienced enough to not have a bias already for the ICE vehicle off roading. But it seems really hard headed for a MotorTrend reporter to have such a surprise at the benefits of the EV off road experience. I'm glad that he's seeing the difference and reporting about it so the other ICE off road afficianados will get another point of input. Just seems like this whole point is more obvious to me than it seems like it was to him.