I'm surprised you guys get much "truck" usage out of them at all. The more I use mine as a tool, the more evident it is that it's a toy.
No one from Rivian ever said they set out to design a work truck. Brand positioning and brand promise all have been made clear in various brand manifesto videos… if people would pay attention.
Best work vehicle ever for myself and my neighbor.
This is an awful (arguably fan boy level) take. I know how it got here, and I know what's its purpose is. That doesn't forgive it of some pretty basic truck things that is fails quite miserably at.
I can't take anyone who accuse someone else of being a "fanboy" seriously, for not agreeing. I'm too old for this juvenile shit. Instead of whining, just help yourself by ridding yourself of the truck. Honestly, no one cares. And go see a damn therapist.
"Work" is anything using the bed in this definition. Otherwise it's just an SUV/Van/Sedan/etc.
You didn't just disagree with my assessment of the truck, you attempted to educate me on why I was the wrong customer for your beloved brand. I'm not sure I know another word for someone that does that, other than fanboy.
I don't disagree, but I also don't agree that our trucks are mutually exclusive. Maybe they can't do ALL the work you think they can, but they can for sure do 'work.'
I never had this experience, but I can imagine your frustration. What's becoming more and more apparent the longer I'm in the Rivian-sphere is just the insane variance between different vehicles. Hopefully QC gets better over time, but I agree this is unacceptable if this is your experience. I've also jam packed my tailgate full of things and haven't had this issue. I've also gone camping in subzero temperatures and my tailgate froze completely stuck. I spent about 15 minutes push-pulling and trying to time the release until I finally got it unstuck. It was really concerning, given I have the Interrobang tonneau, so in a scenario wherein I cannot release my tailgate, I'm simply locked out of it. Fortunately for me, this was the one and only time I had this experience, but I do worry.
This one I don't think I can get onboard with. While maybe you have a small point, there are PLENTY of vehicles that don't have steps or fold down tailgates to help you out. This is something we need to consider when purchasing our vehicles. I have zero issues getting into/out of the bed, and maneuvering around, but I get that we may have different lifestyles. I'm just providing perspective. You're welcome to yours.
This seems frustrating. I agree that you should be able to use your truck for this without much fanfare. I believe I've had much more than 500 lbs-m in my truck bed and didn't experience this, but it wasn't a top-heavy mass like a motorcycle, so I cannot offer direct comparison. Especially with the nature of our suspension, I would expect it to adjust for this.
I've seen other trucks with no flaps that also trap things. I might point out that there are scenarios in which the flap is a benefit. I do run into some issues opening the spare tire compartment it without removing a bunch of stuff first, but we kinda put ourselves into that position. I'd rather have it (and thusly, at least for me, have a spare tire and it in a space that's otherwise completely innocuous or at least doesn't impose any other benefits of the truck--streamlining or taking up other usable space). I do believe the tradeoff for not placing it under the truck is twofold: 1- battery location and distribution of mass and 2- streamlining the aerodynamics of the vehicle. I wouldn't accept those trade-offs personally.
I've had great experiences towing. This is another one of those frustrating deltas-in-experience problems.
All 4 have been replaced twice now. Once to upgrade from the Dunlop to the Firestone units, and then again to troubleshoot a "clunking" noise somewhere in the suspension. The noise still exists, but I've gotten new dampers twice now. Also have new jounce lines, and new half-shafts as part of the troubleshooting efforts. Still have an awful groan from the front end as well, but I'm told to "monitor it, and report if it becomes worse".
Just spitballing: Would it help to record that phenomenon and share it with service?
Well dang, it's pretty eye opening.Just spitballing: Would it help to record that phenomenon and share it with service?
Unfortunately (?) I'm not going to this next off-road event. I'm doing the overlanding trip at the end of the month instead
Is the worst noise when you take a slightly downward angle right turn into a driveway?
~55% of roads in Vermont are dirt. We have lots of hills/mountains, steep grades, broken pavement, ruts, potholes, etc. we have multiple times of the year we refer to as “mud season,” freeze thaw cycles, mixed precip, salt for much of the winter (to a very excessive degree, in my opinion). It’s really a vehicle-killer of an environment. I genuinely think every car manufacturer could learn something from subjecting their vehicles to our roads for longer term reliability testing.
I was being facetious (and fallacious too, evidently). I stand corrected. How many of those engineers were from California though, I wonder? I’m sure we could never know exactly, but suspect it’s many.
).This depends on the “work” one expects to do with these things. Our heavy equipment mechanic has a transfer tank in the back of his R1T, and frequently hauls small heavy steel items in the small remaining space he has in the bed (pistons, couplers, tire chains, barrels of hydraulic fluid, etc). He has a service truck with a crane and all his tools for his “real work,” but he also loves being able to daily the Rivian we provide and fit in tighter parking spots than his Tundra used to. All he wishes is that the thing didn’t break as much as it has (which is actually much less often so far than our 2022 earlier VIN trucks—his is a 2024).
The whole “work truck” thing is all a branding exercise in and of itself. Real “work” doesn’t mostly entail pickup trucks, or at least not in my world. The work I use my truck perhaps doesn’t fit the conventional “worktruck” design intent, but the thing fits my particular work/life use-case pretty well—perhaps better than anything else currently on offer. However, the issues I have with my truck (and Rivians generally) apply to them no matter what they are being used for—regardless of whether it’s an “adventure vehicle,” “work” truck, or something else, the extreme unreliability and over-complexity of many of the components on these vehicles is problematic no matter the use case. I don’t abuse my truck in the work I use it for, but it has been riddled with mechanical failures in the fairly short time we’ve owned it (coming on two years now, purchased as a demo with 10k miles in seemingly pristine shape, but of course I don’t know how it spent its first 10k miles, to be fair). Just because Rivian doesn’t market their vehicles as work trucks shouldn’t exempt them from designing and making reliable, mechanically sound, durable vehicles—to the contrary: it would seem to me that im the ven diagram of attributes that a so called “adventure” vehicle should share with a “work” truck, I would contend that reliability, durability, and soundly engineered and manufactured componentry should form the basis of any good offering in either category.
This is very true. All my words above cover our experience with using these as work vehicles, and they have mostly performed well, and while some of the design decision are not ideal, it’s really the incredibly unreliable experience we’ve had so far that has let us down more than anything else. I still love my Rivian, I just wish it didn’t break so often… and not because it’s being beaten on or abused, just due to premature component failures and under/over-engineering.
One of them lived in Kazakhstan for a good chunk of his life before working for Land Rover and then Rivian.
