cqsota
Member
- First Name
- Jason
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2025
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 38
- Location
- Washington State
- Vehicles
- Rivian R1S Gen2 Max Pack
- Thread starter
- #1
After one year, and 15k miles since the purchase of our 2025 Gen2 R1S Dual Motor Max Pack (mid-December 2024) I thought I would provide a write-up on our experience. For background, we are a family of four with, two boys ages- 14 and 16. We are a tall family, I'm 6'4, my wife 6'0 and our 16 year old at 6'1. We are no strangers to EVs, my first EV was a 2002 Saturn coupe that was retrofitted to run on 18 lead acid golf cart batteries (circa 2006), and we currently have a 2017 Tesla X. We take the R1S off-pavement almost every weekend as our family hobby is Summits on the Air (SOTA) which means we drive into the mountains on a forest service road, until it disappears; clearing logs and brush to open roads as necessary; then hike, bushwack, scramble, ski, snowshoe or do whatever else it takes to get to the summit of the mountain. At the summit, we set up our ham radio gear, and try to make at least four contacts with other amateur radio operators all around the world. This past summer in addition to our weekend family trips; my wife took our two kids out multiple times a week to various remote mountain locations - often times all day excursions over 200 miles round trip. These roads are not for the faint of heart, many are steep, narrow and winding, often with drop-offs on the side. Often they are strewn with large rocks, and many are overgrown...so our R1S has gotten very pinstriped as we bulldoze our way through the slide alder.
Talking to the kids, their favorite features are that the Connect+ Hotspot works well, LED lighting is cool, it has comfortable rear seats, rear seat heater and outlet, lots of storage room (my son once hid a 34 inch monitor+stand and external GPU case in the Rivian on one of our spring break trips, and I didn't discover it until we made it to our airbnb). They like the window roof and overall views from the backseat, good audio/music quality, and roof rack for the skis so they aren't taking up space in their area like the Tesla X
My wife's favorite features are the surround view camera that is great for parking and driving, Spotify app that lets her continue her podcasts. Our R1S has gotten her up every road I let her go up (some ATV trails I veto); she likes the quiet driving, it holds road when wet (8 inches of rain in December in Washington state). There is virtually no hydroplaning and she prefers driving it to the Tesla on the freeway. She likes the on-map charging display and navigation and blind spot detection in mirror which is better than the Tesla's. She found the SC staff was friendly and down to earth, including 'Garage Fitting' which was very useful given our small garage and that Washington State prohibits test drives for Rivian. And lastly, the in door flashlight has been useful at various times - like when our son lost is phone as the snow was coming down hard on a recent SOTA trip and we needed to find the phone, and get out of the mountains fast.
My favorite feature by far is the great storage in the frunk for electric chainsaw, clippers, air compressor, recovery and repair gear, backpack, radios, laptops; whatever I want to keep out of sight when we have it parked on these lonely mountaintop roads. The adjustable suspension for getting into low garage, AND getting up high clearance roads has been critical. We have used every inch of the 14 inches of suspension on some of the boulder strewn roads, and need every inch that the lowest height gives us to get into our garage. The electric motor is of course very powerful; it pulls trees out of the road with ease, snapping 8 inch trunks, and the regen is awesome for single pedal driving down steep narrow mountain roads. Now with the improved hands free driving - it handles most paved roads well and creates less anxiety than our 2017 Tesla X that is jerkier and more likely to brake suddenly.
In terms of 'cons' our biggest issue by far has been reliability. We were stranded 1.5 hours from civilization on a long winding potholed dirt road near Mt. St. Helens when the Rivian went into a 'driving disabled' mode due to a 'Park brake failure' issue. We had to be rescued by a caravan of 1940's era Jeep aficionados on day long tour. It took Rivian three visits to the service center after the dreaded light came on again in the middle of one of our mountain trips two more times, and a total of three months to track down the issue to a crimped wiring harness above the rear drivers side wheel. Unclear what caused it to be crimped - the hard offroad usage, running a log into our passenger side half-axle, pulling trees, or a manufacturing flaw. It's been almost two months since the final diagnosis and remediation and no recurrence. Replacing the harness also fixed a 'vehicle over current' error we were consistently getting while charging, which Rivian was unable to debug and kept attributing to our home charger. (This is another pet peeve - our Rivian SC has flaky high speed chargers that constantly error out, making it impossible to debug our intermittent charging error). Oh, and our suspension also sprung a leak and ingested dirt so the compressor and all lines and dampers had to be replaced (under warranty).
The one thing I would say in addition to greater reliability in general; is that I wish Rivian had a higher bar for 'failure' modes. Rendering a vehicle 'undrivable' should only be done in cases where it is clearly safer to prevent the vehicle from moving, than risk stranding the driver (and family hours away from civilization). In the places we take this vehicle - almost nothing meets that bar. The parking brake system definitely does not meet that bar for me. It let us drive for 30 plus minutes with an error that said something like 'Service Parking Brake System Soon' before we parked it and went for our hike. Preventing us from shifting to drive after the hike, stranding your family hours away from help, with no cell signal, and then forcing your entire family to hitch hike with a bunch of jeepers, and tow the vehicle out of the depths of Gifford Pinchot National Forest is definitely not the safest outcome or lowest cost for Rivian. I've heard anecdotally that the Subara does an amazing job of functioning - even when electrical lines have been severed and electronic shifting and other features you would think would be critical are knocked out.
Other overall 'cons' are that it is wider than we'd like for narrow forest service roads, and 'in the city/suburb parking lots'. The jeep definitely has an edge there. Second row is getting a bit tight for my 16 year old, and my 14 year old wishes he could watch YouTube on the rear screen (though we are glad he can't
).
Lastly, it is a challenge to mod - the SC doesn't like non-OEM accessories. In our case tire dimensions. We had to replace the stock 22 inch with Les Schwab Open Range + tires when we had a flat (and no spare tire kit yet) out on a logging road and had to be towed to the nearest tire center. The Les Schwab tires didn't exactly match the OEM dimensions (though LS said they were fine). The SC made me pay to put OEM tires to do an ESC check and wanted to blame the errors we were seeing on mismatched tires until I paid an extra $200 to have them mount OEM tires during the test. A bit on tires - when purchasing I optimized everything for range, from tires to Max Pack. I knew that our excursions would require plenty of range, but being new to the hobby I didn't yet realize how gnarly the roads could be. When I put on the Les Schwab Tires I went for higher traction and greater flat protection with the OpenRange A/T Plus. LS installed 114T which are lighter tires, and as a result my range tracked pretty close to the Pirelli 22 inch all weather that it came with.
I did end up ordering the 20 inch rims after 10k miles on the OpenRange, and then installed 275/65 R20 KO3s which definitely have a range hit, but have been great on the rocks and recent snowy ascents. I switched to the 20 inch KO3's because I wondered if the suspension failure was due in part to the reduced shock absorption of the 22 inch tires, and I didn't want my wife and kids stranded due to another flat tire if I could avoid it. I'd also been worrying that 114T may not be heavy duty enough given notes on the forum about requiring 116T. These roads definitely are rough on tires and the vehicle in general.
Other mods have been to install a 1/2 wave 2m antenna on one of the roof mounts, it is motorized K9000 mount so I can put it down when I go into our garage. I had to fabricate an aluminum plate to mount the antenna to, and cut a small notch in the rear hatch metal to run the coaxial and power through the rear door under the rubber seal and take power from the rear 12v power point. I thought about splicing the wires behind the panel but given how quickly Rivian jumped to mods as the source of my problems, I decided to just use the cigarette lighter port directly. I have a Yaesu FTM-150 with the base in the spare tire well (plenty of room next to the spare tire) and the head unit in the bottom drawer of the center console - I run the power cord to the antenna controller and the RJ-45 in split loom tubing to the head unit underneath the seats and floor mats.
I also have 3D printed a holder for a Starlink Mini which sits under the 3rd row seat glass roof - critical for getting a hold of Rivian the several times we have been stranded outside of cell range. I also installed a Frunk organizer from Amazon which makes it much easier to pull out the contents of the frunk when I need to access recovery gear I've placed underneath the Frunk floor. And I 3D printed a tool kit holder that goes into the hitch of the R1S, behind the cover - for use in getting access to the frunk release in case the 12v battery dies on a lonely mountain road.
I have a few regrets with our purchase that I wanted to share as well:
1. We all agree we should have gotten the Quad with underbody protection and the air compressor, and 20 inch rims when we purchased the R1S originally. One of our loaners was a quad with on-board compressor and it was really nice to have the power climbing loose rock, as well as the on-board compressor to keep a leaky tire inflated til we made it to civilization. I've purchased a small 12v compressor I now keep in the frunk and run off of the same 12v battery I bring as a back-up in case the on-board 12v dies. I would be a bit more aggressive in the roads we take it on, if I knew we had true 4x4 capability vs AWD.
2. In the midst of the SC saga - I was really regretting getting an EV for such remote 'play' - I was seriously consider buying a ForeRunner and even set up a test drive for it...which my wife vetoed
3. Some multi-day trips make me still question whether an EV was the right choice. There just aren't any chargers where we go, and I've debated hauling along a generator...which seems silly - but pretty necessary in some locations. We've had to cut one or two trips short, or find a creative charge solution out of the way at others times...but overall we can generally do a long-range expedition that starts at 8am, and ends at 8-10pm, going several hundred miles and 6k+ feet in elevation gain; with one stop somewhere along the freeway to charge up on the way home.
Overall, even with all of these issues - we love the Rivian. It truly is the perfect SOTA vehicle for any off-road adventure; a great family car that lets us pack in a ton of stuff, and just makes you feel good driving it wherever you decide to take it. I'd still be hard pressed to choose a vehicle that would handle the stuff we carry, the terrain we go on; and the freeways to get us there better than the Rivian. The range is just a huge plus and really differentiates it from the pack. We highly recommend it - just watch out for those parking brake errors and have contingency plans in place if you do get stuck.
Talking to the kids, their favorite features are that the Connect+ Hotspot works well, LED lighting is cool, it has comfortable rear seats, rear seat heater and outlet, lots of storage room (my son once hid a 34 inch monitor+stand and external GPU case in the Rivian on one of our spring break trips, and I didn't discover it until we made it to our airbnb). They like the window roof and overall views from the backseat, good audio/music quality, and roof rack for the skis so they aren't taking up space in their area like the Tesla X
My wife's favorite features are the surround view camera that is great for parking and driving, Spotify app that lets her continue her podcasts. Our R1S has gotten her up every road I let her go up (some ATV trails I veto); she likes the quiet driving, it holds road when wet (8 inches of rain in December in Washington state). There is virtually no hydroplaning and she prefers driving it to the Tesla on the freeway. She likes the on-map charging display and navigation and blind spot detection in mirror which is better than the Tesla's. She found the SC staff was friendly and down to earth, including 'Garage Fitting' which was very useful given our small garage and that Washington State prohibits test drives for Rivian. And lastly, the in door flashlight has been useful at various times - like when our son lost is phone as the snow was coming down hard on a recent SOTA trip and we needed to find the phone, and get out of the mountains fast.
My favorite feature by far is the great storage in the frunk for electric chainsaw, clippers, air compressor, recovery and repair gear, backpack, radios, laptops; whatever I want to keep out of sight when we have it parked on these lonely mountaintop roads. The adjustable suspension for getting into low garage, AND getting up high clearance roads has been critical. We have used every inch of the 14 inches of suspension on some of the boulder strewn roads, and need every inch that the lowest height gives us to get into our garage. The electric motor is of course very powerful; it pulls trees out of the road with ease, snapping 8 inch trunks, and the regen is awesome for single pedal driving down steep narrow mountain roads. Now with the improved hands free driving - it handles most paved roads well and creates less anxiety than our 2017 Tesla X that is jerkier and more likely to brake suddenly.
In terms of 'cons' our biggest issue by far has been reliability. We were stranded 1.5 hours from civilization on a long winding potholed dirt road near Mt. St. Helens when the Rivian went into a 'driving disabled' mode due to a 'Park brake failure' issue. We had to be rescued by a caravan of 1940's era Jeep aficionados on day long tour. It took Rivian three visits to the service center after the dreaded light came on again in the middle of one of our mountain trips two more times, and a total of three months to track down the issue to a crimped wiring harness above the rear drivers side wheel. Unclear what caused it to be crimped - the hard offroad usage, running a log into our passenger side half-axle, pulling trees, or a manufacturing flaw. It's been almost two months since the final diagnosis and remediation and no recurrence. Replacing the harness also fixed a 'vehicle over current' error we were consistently getting while charging, which Rivian was unable to debug and kept attributing to our home charger. (This is another pet peeve - our Rivian SC has flaky high speed chargers that constantly error out, making it impossible to debug our intermittent charging error). Oh, and our suspension also sprung a leak and ingested dirt so the compressor and all lines and dampers had to be replaced (under warranty).
The one thing I would say in addition to greater reliability in general; is that I wish Rivian had a higher bar for 'failure' modes. Rendering a vehicle 'undrivable' should only be done in cases where it is clearly safer to prevent the vehicle from moving, than risk stranding the driver (and family hours away from civilization). In the places we take this vehicle - almost nothing meets that bar. The parking brake system definitely does not meet that bar for me. It let us drive for 30 plus minutes with an error that said something like 'Service Parking Brake System Soon' before we parked it and went for our hike. Preventing us from shifting to drive after the hike, stranding your family hours away from help, with no cell signal, and then forcing your entire family to hitch hike with a bunch of jeepers, and tow the vehicle out of the depths of Gifford Pinchot National Forest is definitely not the safest outcome or lowest cost for Rivian. I've heard anecdotally that the Subara does an amazing job of functioning - even when electrical lines have been severed and electronic shifting and other features you would think would be critical are knocked out.
Other overall 'cons' are that it is wider than we'd like for narrow forest service roads, and 'in the city/suburb parking lots'. The jeep definitely has an edge there. Second row is getting a bit tight for my 16 year old, and my 14 year old wishes he could watch YouTube on the rear screen (though we are glad he can't
).Lastly, it is a challenge to mod - the SC doesn't like non-OEM accessories. In our case tire dimensions. We had to replace the stock 22 inch with Les Schwab Open Range + tires when we had a flat (and no spare tire kit yet) out on a logging road and had to be towed to the nearest tire center. The Les Schwab tires didn't exactly match the OEM dimensions (though LS said they were fine). The SC made me pay to put OEM tires to do an ESC check and wanted to blame the errors we were seeing on mismatched tires until I paid an extra $200 to have them mount OEM tires during the test. A bit on tires - when purchasing I optimized everything for range, from tires to Max Pack. I knew that our excursions would require plenty of range, but being new to the hobby I didn't yet realize how gnarly the roads could be. When I put on the Les Schwab Tires I went for higher traction and greater flat protection with the OpenRange A/T Plus. LS installed 114T which are lighter tires, and as a result my range tracked pretty close to the Pirelli 22 inch all weather that it came with.
I did end up ordering the 20 inch rims after 10k miles on the OpenRange, and then installed 275/65 R20 KO3s which definitely have a range hit, but have been great on the rocks and recent snowy ascents. I switched to the 20 inch KO3's because I wondered if the suspension failure was due in part to the reduced shock absorption of the 22 inch tires, and I didn't want my wife and kids stranded due to another flat tire if I could avoid it. I'd also been worrying that 114T may not be heavy duty enough given notes on the forum about requiring 116T. These roads definitely are rough on tires and the vehicle in general.
Other mods have been to install a 1/2 wave 2m antenna on one of the roof mounts, it is motorized K9000 mount so I can put it down when I go into our garage. I had to fabricate an aluminum plate to mount the antenna to, and cut a small notch in the rear hatch metal to run the coaxial and power through the rear door under the rubber seal and take power from the rear 12v power point. I thought about splicing the wires behind the panel but given how quickly Rivian jumped to mods as the source of my problems, I decided to just use the cigarette lighter port directly. I have a Yaesu FTM-150 with the base in the spare tire well (plenty of room next to the spare tire) and the head unit in the bottom drawer of the center console - I run the power cord to the antenna controller and the RJ-45 in split loom tubing to the head unit underneath the seats and floor mats.
I also have 3D printed a holder for a Starlink Mini which sits under the 3rd row seat glass roof - critical for getting a hold of Rivian the several times we have been stranded outside of cell range. I also installed a Frunk organizer from Amazon which makes it much easier to pull out the contents of the frunk when I need to access recovery gear I've placed underneath the Frunk floor. And I 3D printed a tool kit holder that goes into the hitch of the R1S, behind the cover - for use in getting access to the frunk release in case the 12v battery dies on a lonely mountain road.
I have a few regrets with our purchase that I wanted to share as well:
1. We all agree we should have gotten the Quad with underbody protection and the air compressor, and 20 inch rims when we purchased the R1S originally. One of our loaners was a quad with on-board compressor and it was really nice to have the power climbing loose rock, as well as the on-board compressor to keep a leaky tire inflated til we made it to civilization. I've purchased a small 12v compressor I now keep in the frunk and run off of the same 12v battery I bring as a back-up in case the on-board 12v dies. I would be a bit more aggressive in the roads we take it on, if I knew we had true 4x4 capability vs AWD.
2. In the midst of the SC saga - I was really regretting getting an EV for such remote 'play' - I was seriously consider buying a ForeRunner and even set up a test drive for it...which my wife vetoed
3. Some multi-day trips make me still question whether an EV was the right choice. There just aren't any chargers where we go, and I've debated hauling along a generator...which seems silly - but pretty necessary in some locations. We've had to cut one or two trips short, or find a creative charge solution out of the way at others times...but overall we can generally do a long-range expedition that starts at 8am, and ends at 8-10pm, going several hundred miles and 6k+ feet in elevation gain; with one stop somewhere along the freeway to charge up on the way home.
Overall, even with all of these issues - we love the Rivian. It truly is the perfect SOTA vehicle for any off-road adventure; a great family car that lets us pack in a ton of stuff, and just makes you feel good driving it wherever you decide to take it. I'd still be hard pressed to choose a vehicle that would handle the stuff we carry, the terrain we go on; and the freeways to get us there better than the Rivian. The range is just a huge plus and really differentiates it from the pack. We highly recommend it - just watch out for those parking brake errors and have contingency plans in place if you do get stuck.
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