Bonobojones
Active Member
- First Name
- Jason
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2022
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 39
- Reaction score
- 271
- Location
- Paso Robles, CA
- Vehicles
- 2022 Rivian R1T Adventure, 1989 Isuzu Trooper
- Occupation
- Winemaker
- Thread starter
- #1
As promised, I have some updates on using my R1T as my winery truck. Started our harvest with some Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on Friday and wanted to share what might be the first wine grapes ever delivered by electric truck.
There were some nerves after I convinced my winery to forgo a new F-250 as my work truck and instead buy a pretty expensive electric truck from a brand new company. I'm not sure what % of Rivian owners are tried and true truck people, but those of you who are, understand what these things mean to your day to day life, especially working in Ag. The first thing that hit me on delivery day, having never seen an R1T in person before, was "Oh shit, this thing is nice! How the hell am I gonna let myself treat it like a real truck?" Having too nice of a truck is like showing up to pick grapes wearing khakis and an oxford. "I'm here for the photo op, not to actually do any real work." That has pretty much been the response from other people in the industry that I work with. Everyone loves the truck when they see it, and think it's amazing, but then say "You are really gonna haul grapes with that thing?" Well, I did, and will continue to with a greatly relieved and happy grin on my face.
Starting with 85%, I ran 3 loads from vineyard to winery on my trailer, 6500 pounds+ each time, totaling 70 miles, and still had 130 miles of conserve range left for the drive home after work. This is about the max distance and hauling I will ever do in a day, so the R1T is perfectly suited for what I need. Maybe not perfect for everyone on earth, but damn perfect for me. The photo shows immediately after loading and securing the bins. My throat got a bit tight seeing that rear wheel clearance knowing I had 1/2 mile of deeply rutted dirt "road" to get from the vineyard to county roads. But the suspension quickly adjusted once I started moving, it leveled itself out and felt no different than usual while hauling over some rather tough terrain. I really liked using the regen braking for most of the trailer control as truck brakes and trailer brakes can sometimes not be perfectly synched at higher weights, especially beat-to-shit ag trailers like mine. (FYI regen triggers the trailer brake lights, wasn't sure until this first trip). Also in that vein, I enjoyed using the thumb button to trigger trailer brakes when needed since I never touched the truck brakes, so as I was saying, was nice to have such independent control of truck and trailer. Beyond that, the experience was all that could be hoped for, driving performance on windy, hilly roads was confident and smooth
Overall, this truck exceeded the hope and hype in its performance as a grape hauler. The gear tunnel gets a big thumbs up as a place to store tie downs and other tools, such easy access as compared to throwing them in the bed. Also, not sure if anyone else has noticed, but you can fit a 5-gal keg in it real snuggly as it takes a lot of good beer to make good wine when it's 100+ degrees out.
There were some nerves after I convinced my winery to forgo a new F-250 as my work truck and instead buy a pretty expensive electric truck from a brand new company. I'm not sure what % of Rivian owners are tried and true truck people, but those of you who are, understand what these things mean to your day to day life, especially working in Ag. The first thing that hit me on delivery day, having never seen an R1T in person before, was "Oh shit, this thing is nice! How the hell am I gonna let myself treat it like a real truck?" Having too nice of a truck is like showing up to pick grapes wearing khakis and an oxford. "I'm here for the photo op, not to actually do any real work." That has pretty much been the response from other people in the industry that I work with. Everyone loves the truck when they see it, and think it's amazing, but then say "You are really gonna haul grapes with that thing?" Well, I did, and will continue to with a greatly relieved and happy grin on my face.
Starting with 85%, I ran 3 loads from vineyard to winery on my trailer, 6500 pounds+ each time, totaling 70 miles, and still had 130 miles of conserve range left for the drive home after work. This is about the max distance and hauling I will ever do in a day, so the R1T is perfectly suited for what I need. Maybe not perfect for everyone on earth, but damn perfect for me. The photo shows immediately after loading and securing the bins. My throat got a bit tight seeing that rear wheel clearance knowing I had 1/2 mile of deeply rutted dirt "road" to get from the vineyard to county roads. But the suspension quickly adjusted once I started moving, it leveled itself out and felt no different than usual while hauling over some rather tough terrain. I really liked using the regen braking for most of the trailer control as truck brakes and trailer brakes can sometimes not be perfectly synched at higher weights, especially beat-to-shit ag trailers like mine. (FYI regen triggers the trailer brake lights, wasn't sure until this first trip). Also in that vein, I enjoyed using the thumb button to trigger trailer brakes when needed since I never touched the truck brakes, so as I was saying, was nice to have such independent control of truck and trailer. Beyond that, the experience was all that could be hoped for, driving performance on windy, hilly roads was confident and smooth
Overall, this truck exceeded the hope and hype in its performance as a grape hauler. The gear tunnel gets a big thumbs up as a place to store tie downs and other tools, such easy access as compared to throwing them in the bed. Also, not sure if anyone else has noticed, but you can fit a 5-gal keg in it real snuggly as it takes a lot of good beer to make good wine when it's 100+ degrees out.
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