Underbody protection and cautionary off-road experience in a R1T

[AllInev]

Rivian has been testing an R1T with sliders... just a matter of time till they are accessories I believe. This is the same truck they were testing with a winch.

Loving the sliders, rear tow hooks, and winch!!!

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[ironpig]

Nope, he jacked up his $1000 rims on a rock too so the sliders wouldn’t have saved him. He could have avoided his underbody damage by going slower and taking a more side hill line or even stopping to check his breakover before making contact just in case he beaches his brand new luxury vehicle in the middle of nowhere. Just because you have sliders doesn’t mean you can’t get stuck when your breakover angle isn’t sufficient. This video seemed to reflect the driver lacking certain skills but that’s just what it looked like to me because in both instances he appeared to be driving too fast given the terrain.

The first impulse should be understanding what you did wrong rather than critiquing the vehicle. I’d say he could’ve looked back at his wheel and taken the line over the rock at a slower speed rather than rushing by it and saved himself about $2k worth of damage.

I think you are missing the point because you have a different use case for your truck. You refer to it as a “luxury vehicle” but many of us refer to it as an “adventure vehicle. In the off road and overlanding community videos like this where we share what we learn about new vehicles and/or new accessories are pretty common.

You can critique him all you want, but he’s using the truck they way he wants and he isn’t blaming the truck. He’s just sharing what he learned.

 

[ironpig]

Loving the sliders, rear tow hooks, and winch!!!

Me too.

I will definitely it be looking to add a winch to the R1T when there is a good mount solution available.

I have a winch on my 1975 Lane Cruiser and I haven’t had to use it to save myself yet But I did bust it out a few months ago when the hay delivery truck for our horses slipped his bald dualie wheels off the bank of our gravel drive. It pulled him right up.

 

[SoCal Rob]

You can critique him all you want, but he’s using the truck they way he wants and he isn’t blaming the truck. He’s just sharing what he learned.

@cardad said, “This video seemed to reflect the driver lacking certain skills but that’s just what it looked like to me because in both instances he appeared to be driving too fast given the terrain.” and I agree with this as does the driver in the video from what I heard. He admitted that he should have waited for the suspension to return to the setting he’d selected before, which the vehicle canceled for some inexplicable reason.

In my opinion, the big takeaway from this video should be to drive slowly when off-road until you familiarize yourself with the vehicle. I will go slowly at first and I’m used to adjustable height independent suspension off-road driving. For people who are used to traditional live axles with metal spring suspensions it will be important to slow down as they adapt, too. This is going to be critical for people who have never driven off-road before and are learning on their Rivian.

Also, I think we should all take the time to verify settings before moving. Even with years of experience, I always make sure I’m in the right mode and height.

Rivian Rex ended up with some damage, but he still seemed to have a good time and nobody got hurt. If he bought the full-size spare he can swap it with the damaged wheel and learn from his experience with those convex-near-the-rim wheels without cost. Hopefully he’ll go a little slower next time to enjoy the scenery and hopefully prevent avoidable damage, too.

edit: typos

 

[R1Sky Business]

Perhaps the owner views his $80k the way you view $20k. Cost is all relative. I didn't detect any distress on the owners voice about beating up "his" truck. He was merely sharing information.

Agree 100%

 

[ironpig]

@cardad said, “This video seemed to reflect the driver lacking certain skills but that’s just what it looked like to me because in both instances he appeared to be driving too fast given the terrain.” and I agree with this as does the driver in the video from what I heard. He admitted that he should have waited for the suspension to return to the setting he’d selected before, which the vehicle canceled for some inexplicable reason.

In my opinion, the big takeaway from this video should be to drive slowly when off-road until you familiarize yourself with the vehicle. I will go slowly at first and I’m used to adjustable height independent suspension off-road driving. For people who are used to traditional live axles with metal spring suspensions it will be important to slow down as they adapt, too. This is going to be critical for people who have never driven off-road before and are learning on their Rivian.

Also, I think we should all take the time to verify settings before moving. Even with years of experience, I always make sure I’m in the right mode and height.

Rivian Rex ended up with some damage, but he still seemed to have a good time and nobody got hurt. If he bought the full-size spare he can swap it with the damaged wheel and learn from his experience with those convex-near-the-rim wheels without cost. Hopefully he’ll go a little slower next time to enjoy the scenery and hopefully prevent avoidable damage, too.

edit: typos

Thats good advice. I have to remember that this forum probably has more people who are brand new to off roading and this may be their first capable truck.

I spend a lot of time learning and exchanging info in https://www.ih8mud.com where I am an absolute novice compared to the old guard there who have been wheeling FJ40s through all kinds of conditions for decades. But the wealth of knowledge has saved me a lot of time and money fixing up my FJ55.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Rivian has been testing an R1T with sliders... just a matter of time till they are accessories I believe. This is the same truck they were testing with a winch.

We need a BUMPER!!!!!

 

[R1Sky Business]

The truck has location awareness. It should not try to lower itself if it detects that it is in the middle of nowhere or at least this location awareness should cause it to ask a question of the driver.

Btw, you are welcome @Rivian. You can use my suggestion free of charge if you bump my place in line a few months ahead.

Sounds like another OTA update fix

 

[R1Sky Business]

Nothing some duct tape can’t fix

As long as the tape is color matched

 

[R1Sky Business]

Need.

Also, these "sliders" need to bump out more. As-is, the plastics and body are still at risk if you were to brush against a rock on the trail...happens frequently. Just look at the MT video where they were on Black Bear and I can almost 100% guarantee that the driver of the white truck would've done quite a bit of damage on the super tight switchback to the passenger side. Sliders are supposed to be designed in such a way that that type of damage is mitigated by keeping the body away from the rock as the slider slides against it. But I want all of this...sliders, yellow tow hooks, and the winch on my FG truck!

Yellow Tow hooks on Forrest Green/ Forrest Edge....I dig it

 

[moosehead]

It's a bit odd you can't just pop out the round insert as though you were just jacking a corner of the vehicle and that be enough. Guess the diameter of the open port isn't large enough for third party jacking equipment?

This. Many other vehicles have the jack ports.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Right, but there are 25 better choices of purpose-built, hard-core, off-road machines to choose from. Hey, if you want to take your 100k on trails like that, more power to ya. But if something breaks, I hope Rivian doesn't cover it under warranty. Just like Rubicons...built tough, but if you break it you pay to fix it.

Covered off road if you use their insurance and likely their accessories only.

 

[R1Sky Business]

I instinctively reached for my orbital sander and 40 grit paper when I saw those scars.

Sounds like you are having withdrawal symptoms and the only fix is a new truck.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Loving the sliders, rear tow hooks, and winch!!!

U know if there is space for rear tow hooks to easily be added? Or is this a mule only feature?

 

[username.taken]

@ironpig fellow ih8mudder here

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