Here comes the electric pickup

[PurplePackage]

When I tow distance, I'm referring to stuff like my 2100mi one way haul to Texas. I did that as a 3 day haul, 700mi a day. With my Jeep 4XE's smaller gas tank and much lighter trailer at the time I was stopping every 150mi to 200mi for gas. That was about my limit for safely driving. I did decide to do a double day on one trip back and that was pure stupid, my driving was shit towards the end and I needed to burn sick time to physically recover after getting home despite arriving one day earlier. Lengthening my fuel stops would have either cut down the miles per day I could do, or have me awake and driving for longer than I would feel comfortable doing. I did start my trips with a full batt, for what that was worth, along with a full tank of gas. Return trip was with a full tank of gas and mostly spent battery as no easy charging at the hotels / vrbos I was at.

Infrastructure wise, once I was in the south, charging on the main legs of the trip would become easy as all the big travel stops have options. But still, 30mins + vs 5mins to fuel up and go adds up quickly. The Rivian with 400mi est range would have me stopping to charge at about the same distance/freq as my 4XE. My gasser with the much heavier trailer should be able to do 250mi between stops based on what I'm seeing so far? Estimated numbers on the Ram REV would put me in the same ballpark? On the plus side, unlike with my 4XE where I did about 60% of my driving on batt (limited by the damn recall periods, so closer to 75% otherwise) I'd be able to do 90%+ on batt with the REV, and not have to think about it when I need to go further? The REV is a bad EV, it doesn't get anywhere near the miles per KWH say a Rivian does, and being a series hybrid it won't get the MPG on gas it could have with say a Toyota Prius style setup instead, but it hits that sweet spot of covering my day to day wants in EV mode and no effort distance duty, I can hit up chargers where convenient or just gas and go, either works. Edit: It also means I don't care if I only Lvl 1 charge it, if it doesn't top off in time, I just run it on gas.

Sign up for and start playing with https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
The site is designed specifically for people like you doing weird cross-country things with EVs.

[LuvDog]

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Did you ever check out the Rivian? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Drove an R1T Dual Large with All Terrain and Performance Package. Liked it a lot, so much that I put down the $500 deposit.

I just want to get back in to a truck... the 5 months I've been driving a small SUV has shown me that even though I don't tow much of anything anymore, I miss the utility of the truck bed.

It rode smoothly and was very quiet. I will say that it drove like a truck though and not a big SUV.
Controls were intuitive. I appreciated the actual roller button and toggle buttons on the steering wheel. I hate when everything is touch screen touch sliders. Those never work well for me.

The bed is small though, so hopefully that won't be a problem. But the most I put back there lately are rifle cases and targets for going to the range.

[boosten lebaron]

Slate emailed me today asking for an additional $300 non refundable deposit for each truck I preordered to hold my original deposit amount. If I don't pay up I lose my original preorder placement which was like number 20 out of 150k orders. I don't have a probably with the $300, I have a problem with the non refundable part. They have changed the story so many times with this truck I most definitely don't believe them to not screw around with things again. They are promising delivery of fall 2026 but I also think that is a lie. Maybe to the press people but they haven't even figured out a supplier for the body panel yet nor finalized the design or price.

[LuvDog]

So they want a deposit to hold your deposit. While I agree it's not big money, I don't think I'd pay it

[jeantarrou]

Man, that sucks, and it's definitely "extort-ing"

[nhbubba]

The slate thing looks like hot garbage anyway. I kind of wonder if it will ever make it to reality at all.

[e30addict]

They must have learned the art of the money grab from Musk.

That would absolutely rub me the wrong way.

[RandyO]

I'd probably end in the additional $300 to preserve that place in line

[boosten lebaron]

I'd probably end in the additional $300 to preserve that place in line

I would if I could get it back if the truck either fails or changes configs yet again. It's not even the same truck I preordered at this point. I was supposed to get an AWD base model with the range extending extra battery along with the hardtop and only two front seats. 200hp and a range of over 200 miles. Now I get 2wd {unknown if fwd or rwd) base battery with a range of 150 ish and no hardtop and an unknown motor. At this point I feel like I would be giving jeff Bezos $300 and getting nothing in return.

[OneCheekRider]

From the business side, I can see how they probably see risk in the refundable deposits and by requiring nonrefundable deposits they can better allocate funds to hopefully better prep for production. From the consumer side, screw that! Not only are they changing the original terms but there's no guarantees. Seems like you're already disappointed as it is.

[LuvDog]

I picked up my new R1T on Tuesday right before the SC in Canton was closing. Drove home with a smile on my face... well sort of. I was a little warm because I was still trying to figure out the HVAC and directing the vents in the right place.

Drove back and forth to work on Wednesday and even tried Universal Hands Free and it worked great.

Thursday morning, I tried to start it to get to work. Nothing. Got out the app and worked with support and called them. Still nothing after several reboots. They said it needed towed because by this point it was a total brick. Nothing was working. Couldn't even open the doors. Luckily, I had rolled the window down.

5 different tow trucks came... none of them had dollies, as requested by Rivian Service. The 5th guy just said he'd drag it out on skates and it would be fine. It's already almost 5PM at this point.

I'm assuming the 12V crapped out and because of that the main computer systems wouldn't boot up or run correctly. We tried jumping it and running boost packs connected to the 12v leads, but still not enough juice to get it working

Anyway, on Friday the SC calls me and says they need to keep my truck for a week and probably longer.

So 1.5 days in to ownership and my new truck is a brick.

[ZX-12R]

That really sucks. I'm assuming you left it on a charger overnight while parked at home?

[LuvDog]

It wasn’t on a charger. It had 90% battery left.

[boosten lebaron]

That is most unfortunate. I would toss the keys back at them. I would never trust it again.

Not exactly the same but for the week I owned my lucid the doors would constantly not unlock for me so I would get stranded until they decided to open. Kept happening over and over. I looked like an idiot in front of friends and family and complete strangers walking by. That's the big thing that pushed me to have them take it back. $200k car and I can't even open the doors when I wanted to. Talk about a failed design.

Edit, aw crap. Just saw rivian doesn't do new model returns anymore. They stopped doing that last year it looks like. Still can on used ones. I hope yours is a new to you used one

[e30addict]

Can always lemon law it depending on how it goes the next few weeks/months.

[LuvDog]

It’s new new. So, we’ll see how well they service it. They have a known 12v issue, so hopefully that’s all it is

But I will keep a log of everything and if I need to lemon it, I will. But I’m hoping it’s a none issue in the end.

[RandyO]

seen the same bullshit on heavy equipment that has electronic controls rather than mechanical. Not being able to release the bucket to swap to a different bucket, have to call a service technician to the site to install a software update, meanwhile a $200k machine sits idle

[boosten lebaron]

I believe the common practice with ev's is to replace the 12v battery every 5 years regardless of what it's doing. Tesla switched to lithium a few years ago but that didn't seem to really help.the problem, only gave you a touch more notice that the battery was going to die. Mostly likely the next time you stop lol.

[PurplePackage]

Totally dead is a lame 12v battery. You need a stout car battery to jump it from the rear port, a jumppack will not do it. A running car will. They should have told you this. I keep an old car battery in the garage for just that problem but never had to go thru the process.

[LuvDog]

I had jumper cables running from the flatbed to my truck for a good 20 minutes and still not enough juice to bring it to life.

SC just messaged me again via the app. Still diagnosing the issue with no ETA or understanding yet of what's wrong. It's now been at the SC twice as long as it was in my garage.

[PurplePackage]

Smells like a bad module then. Ask for a loaner if they don't have it done by tomorrow.

[PurplePackage]

Rivian opened an absolutely massive 12 charger site right off 93 and 89 at the Hampton Inn in Bow, NH yesterday. All NACS. The Rivian tech was still sitting in his truck, and said I was their very first customer.

[boosten lebaron]

What are they tossing out for power?

[PurplePackage]

300kw @ 500A $.43/kwh for Rivian $.51/kwh for everyone else

[ZX-12R]

300KW

https://rivianroamer.com/charging/si...30869505269391

The rates are slightly better than the nearby Superchargers and they are the only DC fast chargers near that interchange that support all vehicles. The Superchargers at the Hooksett rest areas on 93 north and south are older models that only support Teslas. You have to go to the North side of Concord (Market Basket Plaza) or South to the Target in Hooksett to get a Supercharger compatible with all vehicles.