Completed the trip from Denver to Lawrence, KS today with a couple of friends and a bunch of gear. We averaged 1.8kWh per mile since we were doing 80mph on I-70 the whole way and had eco air going. The truck is very comfortable to drive and a very capable cruiser.

The charging highlight happened at the chargers in Salina, KS where we hit 368kW charging speeds when we rolled in with 10% charger. We maintained the speeds until 50% and then dropped to the high 200's. We loaded 102kWh of juice in 20 minutes. That is pretty incredible.

I LOVE ROAD TRIPPING IN THIS TRUCK!!!!!

 

1.8 at 80? That’s awesome! My LER can barely get 1.7 at 70. All other stats are also fantastic. Compared the trip I took this week to Denver on ABRP. The SEV would have saved me 2.5 hrs each way over my LER. What a road trip beast!

 

Awesome stats! Curious about the trip back. Uphill will drop the efficiency some. Would be good to know stats for entire trip out and back.

 

Yeah, it will be up hill and probably face a head wind of some sort, so I am not anticipating much more than a 1.5kWh per mile on the way back.

 

I made the return drive from Lawrence, KS to Denver today. I did 80mph the whole way back and hit some storms, but still averaged 1.6kWh per mile on the uphill route from eastern Kansas back to Denver. I had another great 30 minute charging experience in Salina, KS where I was doing +350kW charging speeds, then two quick 20 minute charging stops in Colby, KS and Flagler, CO since we had to take a nature break.

I had some issues with the tonneau cover where the plastic lining part that connects into the rod piece that then connects into the bracket in up against the cab separated and started flapping all over the place. We had to pull off and remove the tonneau cover. I either need to figure out how to better insert the plastic lining into the rod, or just road trip without the tonneau cover.

 

Nice! A 339-381 mile range given a 212kW battery driving at 80 depending on conditions. That’s awesome! I was thinking I might need to limit speeds to 70-75 on road trips but I guess not!

Look forward to making our much shorter trip from Shawnee to Lawrence in the SilveradoEV to visit my son at KU! Should be assembled this week.

How did your buddies like the truck?

 

We had three large grown men in the truck and had plenty of room for our gear and ourselves. We put most of the luggage in the frunk, and a couple of backpacks in the back seat area. There was more than enough leg room in the back for a 6ft tall person and two +6ft guysin the front. Since charging was not an issue between Denver and Lawrence - we basically timed charging around bathroom breaks and snacking - the road trip for them was no different if they were in a regular full sized pick up truck since we would have had to have stopped at least once for gas and a couple of times for snacks or bio breaks. The only challenge was that there is a significant lack of charging infrastructure in Lawrence considering how progressive a town it is. None of the hotels have chargers, there are only two 50kW chargers in town and none are in convenient locations, and there is one very small parking lot downtown that one Chargepoint 7kW charger that is continually occupied by either Model 3's or Chevy Bolts. Because of this, we had to make sure we arrived in Lawrence with 40% battery so we could make it back to the Salina EA charger on the return trip. That probably cost us 30 minutes of charging time on the overall all trip - not a lot, but still time we could have shaved off.

I have over 3,000 on the RST in the five weeks I have had it and most of those miles are highway roadtrip miles. I get that the Silveradoe is a truck, but that thing is really at home cruising long distances on a highway. Honestly, if you put 22's on the truck and cruised at 70 miles an hour I bet it would go 500 miles on a full charge in less elevation change conditions. Sure the truck would look funny with the smaller tires and wheels, but the truck is pretty efficient for how big and heavy it is. It rides comfortable, and there is a ton of room for whatever you want to bring with you.

 

Thanks for sharing your trip experiences.

Just so you know for next time, there is a 250 kW Supercharger just 27 miles west of Lawrence in Topeka that is open to non-Tesla.

One thing I found confusing is you kept quoting your vehicles trip efficiency as 1.6 to 1.8 kWh per mile. I believe you mean 1.6 to 1.8 miles per kWh. That's not great, but it's a lot better than 1.6 to 1.8 kWh per mile! Your consumption is about 40% more electricity than my Cybertruck consumes in similar fast conditions with A/C keeping the cabin nice and cool.

 

Marvin, you are right!!! There was a lot of drinking this weekend since this old man was with his old college buddies and we all thought we were 22 again so I should probably have refrained from commenting until I got back to Denver and my head cleared out a little!

I looked at the Tesla map on the Tesla site and did not see the Tesla supercharger you are referencing in Topeka on the map. I am not a big fan of the EA charger in Topeka due to it's weird parking configuration, but I did stop to use the EvConnect 350kW charger at the 24/7 in Maple Hill this trip to see it if could be a reliable charging option. Turns out it can be, and parking at that charger is super convenient. I am hoping that at some point whoever operates the 50kW chargers Chargepoint along the turnpike between Topeka and Kansas City will decided to upgrade them to the 200kW models we have in Colorado now, or that GM finally gets certified to use the Tesla Supercharging V3 units with an adapter. That is pretty much the only thing I miss from having the Rivian that I traded in on my Silverado RST.