PSA: Careful Parking on ANY Incline...

[AllInev]

So sorry for you! What a hassle. It guess it could have been worse, so I'm glad it was only the charger/EVSE that suffered.

Perhaps you could create a STRONG anchor point at the top of your driveway and attach it to your trucks tow hook(s) if you need to keep parking there in the snow?

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[zefram47]

100% not Rivian's fault. The parking brake is on the rear and the rear tires definitely slid. Last winter I parked my 4Runner on the driveway with maybe 1/4" of snow at most and 20 min later saw it had slid a good 10+ feet. I'd never had it happen before, but with the right conditions just rolling a lot of weight over the snow turns it into ice and probably every car would slide. Only thing you can do is shovel before parking and put down a little salt where the tires will land.

 

[a76marine]

I recently had a Tesla adapter melt one of the pins in my Rivian Wall Charger/And the Tesla adapter(known issue if you search Tesla forums). Per my guide, they are not offering individual parts to service the wall charger at this time. Getting a whole new unit.

That will suck.

 

[Calvin2518]

100% not Rivian's fault. The parking brake is on the rear and the rear tires definitely slid. Last winter I parked my 4Runner on the driveway with maybe 1/4" of snow at most and 20 min later saw it had slid a good 10+ feet. I'd never had it happen before, but with the right conditions just rolling a lot of weight over the snow turns it into ice and probably every car would slide. Only thing you can do is shovel before parking and put down a little salt where the tires will land.

I have never been more thankful in my life that I have a garage. OP's video was terrifying to watch and hearing it happens in Colorado too is no bueno!

 

[ironpig]

That's a good PSA for any car parked on a snowy driveway.

 

[Aubs]

This happened to me a couple weeks back. Truck slid while charging. The charger housing sheared loose but it still charges..

 

[a76marine]

This happened to me a couple weeks back. Truck slid while charging. The charger housing sheared loose but it still charges..

That's fortunate that it still charges. As shown below, one of my pins came out. I am sure a good electrician could probably fix it to still work but not sure how safe it would be.

 

[carmigo]

I came home from work today, just the same as I have every weekday since taking ownership of "Lenore" in September. Little bit of snow today but nothing compared to some of the other winter days around here.

The land in Chicago's suburbs is by no means "hilly" but, apparently, we LOVE building our suburban communities with inclined driveways. Nothing terrible, mind you, but it was enough today.

My R1T decided to roll itself down the driveway while it was plugged into my external Rivian wall charger. It yanked the charging handle out hard enough to break it pretty good.

Parking brakes did nothing here, as you can see in the video that the truck rolls down the driveway as opposed to sliding on the snow.

Fortunately, it looks like a new charging cable will get me back up and running, and I have the portable charger until then.

oh no....yikes. That's heartbreaking. How much will a charging cable set you back?

 

[SANZC02]

I would argue ALL cars of any type, parking brake only holds the rear wheels.

I would not say all but probably most and likely most newer vehicles.

I had some older Subarus back in 79 and early 80s that the parking break did operate on the front calibers.

 

[DirtyJester]

I’ve had this happen to my ram 1500 a few times. The first time. I came home hopped out and the truck kinda creaked. I turned around watched it for a sec. Didn’t move. Go in house. Start making something to eat then run upstairs to washroom and as I’m rounding the hand rail to go up the stairs I glanced outside. And my ram was in the middle of the road lol.

 

[foxerson]

I have also had this experience in my Silverado. Came home from the hardware store. 10-15 min later a passerby rings the bell and the truck is in the middle of the road.

After that I noticed it helps to put the transfer case in 4-wheel high rather than “auto” because then the front wheels are locked by the transmission when in park.

Now I keep a couple of large wooden blocks and firewood logs next to the garage door for anyone parked on the steep part of the driveway in the snow.

 

[cardad]

I have a steep driveway as well, so now I'm a bit worried about this happening.

Curious for the experts - if you parked with the rear towards the house, would this change anything?

Parking the other way could have avoided if there was no ice on the upper part where the wheels would be locked in place since those wheels could in theory be in contact with more solid ground. Then the slippery lower portion wouldn't cause the whole vehicle to roll. I've parked my Rivian on an extremely steep driveway that was probably 10+ degrees and dry and it did not fail like this.

This seems like an example of a failure to clear your driveway rather than a failure of the vehicle itself.

BTW I've also ripped a charger from a vehicle (hooked it around another vehicle and wife didn't see it) and I believe it failed by design with the wiring pulling out of the "charger box".

 

[CharonPDX]

Am I seeing it wrong? Doesn't look like the rear tires rotated at all. Rear tires slid and no parking brake on the front, by design I imagine.

Correct. parking brakes are almost universally only on rear wheels.

 

[SASSquatch]

I agree with everyone else that the incline, lack of surface traction on an unshoveled driveway, and the weight of the truck all combined to create this accident. You are extremely fortunate nobody was hurt, another vehicle wasn't coming around the corner, and the worse that you did was damage your charger cable.

I think the title, however should be changed to include the caveat of "on slippery surfaces." Had you parked on a dry incline, I doubt their would have been any issue.

 

[NY_Rob]

Same thing happened to our Jeep Cherokee 25yrs ago... we were awoken by every car passing our driveway blasting their horns. I was dumbfounded when I saw our Jeep half way out into the road!

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