Three trailers. Two trucks. One road.
The combo on the trail today wasn't the first. We started small with a 16-foot Airstream Basecamp, traded up to a 20-foot Caravel, and now tow a 23-foot International FBT, all behind a Rivian R1T (or two). The story moves backward in time as you scroll.
The 23′ Airstream International FBT
"SMUGL"
Front-bedroom, dual-axle, the biggest of the three. The International trim adds the panoramic windows and the leather dinette that show up in just about every interior frame. This is the rig pointed east on the San Diego → Chicago run.
(Story in progress. We'll fill in the upgrade narrative alongside photographs from the dealership and the first weekend out.)
23 ft · twin axle · ~6,500 lb dry · polished aluminum · panoramic glass
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San Marcos, CA 
San Marcos, CA 
San Diego, CA 
Pine Cove, CA 
Pine Cove, CA 
Pine Cove, CA
The 20′ Airstream Caravel
"31619"
A full year and change of polished aluminum with a single axle and a tighter footprint. The Caravel taught us what we wanted out of the next trailer, and what we already loved.
(Story in progress. Caravel chapters, charge curves, and a few favorite campsites land here.)
20 ft · single axle · ~4,500 lb dry · polished aluminum · the gateway rig
Kingman, AZ 
Sedona, AZ 
Kingman, AZ 
Irvine, CA 
San Marcos, CA 
September 2024
The 16′ Airstream Basecamp
A capsule-shaped fiberglass-fronted Airstream, a different breed of trailer entirely. Where we figured out that we wanted to live in the polished-aluminum world full time.
(Story in progress. Origin story for the Wattreach project lives here.)
16 ft · single axle · ~3,500 lb dry · fiberglass front · the first one
Julian, CA
Three Rivians. One survivor. Two names that stuck.
Every photograph on this site has been hauled into frame by some version of a Rivian. Three of them, technically. They are not all the truck pulling the Airstream today , there's a story here, and it involves a left-on-red, a buyback, and a bear named after a cartel boss after a film about a bear that did cocaine.
The one that started it all
The first Rivian was an early R1S. It was a great truck , until a driver turned left on a red light and hit the front driver's-side wheel head-on. No body damage to speak of, just a scuffed piece of trim. The wheel and the suspension below it absorbed the entire impact: $17,000 in damage.
Rivian agreed to repair it in-house instead of sending it to a body shop. When the truck came back, it was drivable, but it was never the same. We sold it and moved to an R1T.
The R1S, in service. Carlsbad, CA
The named truck. Also the cursed one.
The replacement was meant to be the tow rig: a Gen-1 R1T Dual-Motor Max-Pack. Sitting in the driver's seat trying to settle on a name, my son pointed out that the Rivian community affectionately calls the white paint "cocaine white."
So we should name it after the Cocaine Bear, he said. Looking up the bear's nicknames, one of them , honestly, the best one , was Pablo Eskobear. It stuck.
Pablo Eskobear had a hard run. The first rear motor failed and the truck went into limp mode, then stopped driving at all. Rivian loaned us another R1 while it was in service , that's why a few other Rivians (including the R1S you'll spot in some Caravel-era photos) show up in the gallery.
When Pablo came home, paint damage from the service incident sent it to a body shop. The shop tried the paint match a couple of times; each attempt either landed wrong or made things worse. Then the second rear motor failed.
Rivian agreed to buy the truck back.
Pablo Eskobear, on the trail. Julian, CA
The current truck. The workhorse.
The buyback put us into a Gen-2 R1T Tri-Motor Max-Pack , named, of course, Pablo's Revenge. Revenge for the fallen soldier in Eskobear.
18,000+ towing miles and counting. Virtually no issues. The SD → Chicago run will add another ~4,400 miles to the total.
Why we love towing with Rivian: real power, honest range, reasonable fast-charging speed, and a cabin that's comfortable enough to live in. New tech keeps rolling in via OTA , the brand-new Rivian Assistant landed just before this trip.
- Motors · three (front + dual rear)
- Power · ~850 hp
- Range (unloaded) · ~420 mi
- Range (towing 23FBT) · ~180 mi
- Charging · Tesla SC via NACS · Electrify America · Rivian Adventure Network
- Towing miles to date · 18,000+
Pablo's Revenge, hauling the 23FBT. Menifee, CA
The bear sits on the dash now. He survived all three trucks.