First Off-Road Adventure in R1T: My Pros and Cons Review

[cohall]

I took my truck on her first off-road adventure over the weekend, and wanted to provide some updates for those who plan to do the same. Lot's of "Pros"...and one major "Con".

Pros:

• Ground clearance in High or Highest mode is amazing. You don't realize how much 15" of clearance is until you see a massive boulder in front of you that looks like it's going to destroy your truck, but your spotter tells you that there's ton's of clearance. It's truly impressive
• Approach/Departure angles are really good. I know that specs tells us that, but we got into some pretty hairy/steep transitions, and never scraped
• Lifted Jeeps have 2 different types of owners, apparently. Those that are amazed and impressed by the Rivian, and want to tell you how cool it is. And those that think you're an idiot for bringing your shiny new truck on their trail, and think you're going to destroy it (only to be shown completely the opposite)
• Normal "off-road" mode in the high setting is perfect for everything but the hardest of obstacles
• Energy usage was surprisingly low, despite seat coolers, AC, radio, etc.
• Air compressor is such a great feature for airing up at the end of the trail, and works fairly quickly. (Getting the hose back into it's little pouch and cubby is another story...)
• Wheel cameras front and back are incredibly useful when trying to navigate around wheel destroying, sidewall puncturing rocks.
• The stock 20" Pirelli's did a fine job.

Cons:

• We attempted a very steep boulder/rock field climb (As in, it was mostly side by sides and ATVs doing it, and one modified jeep). About halfway up, we hit a spot where there was not enough traction to get up a large bump. Pedal floored, truck just couldn't get over it. So, tried switch modes to see if it would help, and the truck went into "turtle mode". No changing of modes, limited power, have truck serviced immediately. Not a fun position to be in halfway up a terrifying boulder climb. Backing down was the only option, and induced some puckering that I really didn't want to experience. After slowly backing down for a minute or two, the error went away, was able to get into rock crawl mode, and made it up the rest of the hill. I did not enjoy this event.
• Air compressor does not air down the tires, best I could tell. I was hoping I could set a lower pressure of say 30 psi and the compressor would let air out until it reached that level, but it doesn't seem to work that way. So, bring a tire gauge with you.
• Wheel cameras are useless when you have your mirrors folded in, which in certain cases, is when you need the wheel cameras the most.

Damage Assessment:

• 6" scratch in the PPF on the front quarter panel - hopefully it will self heal over time
• Various scratches to the wheels from rocks - nothing crazy
• Lots of Colorado pin-striping. Nothing that can't be washed/buffed out.

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[jjswan33]

FYI can't see your photos/links?

 

[cohall]

FYI can't see your photos/links?

Fixed it...I think.

 

[Davethadog]

Was this you on peak to peak highway on Sunday?

 

[cohall]

Was this you on peak to peak highway on Sunday?

Not me! We were up above Blackhawk/St. Mary's glacier area all day.

 

[Davethadog]

Damn that makes four that were somewhere all between Lyons and Black Hawk. I saw three of them just off peak to peak. This gives a 6/21 pre-order holder hope.

 

[TAZ]

Thanks for the review! I'll be heading out on Sunday to camp and offroad next weekend so this is helpful! Now I just hope to take delivery this week!

 

[E Parx]

• Ground clearance in High or Highest mode is amazing. You don't realize how much 15" of clearance is until you see a massive boulder in front of you that looks like it's going to destroy your truck, but your spotter tells you that there's ton's of clearance. It's truly impressive
• Approach/Departure angles are really good. I know that specs tells us that, but we got into some pretty hairy/steep transitions, and never scraped
• Lifted Jeeps have 2 different types of owners, apparently. Those that are amazed and impressed by the Rivian, and want to tell you how cool it is. And those that think you're an idiot for bringing your shiny new truck on their trail, and think you're going to destroy it (only to be shown completely the opposite)
• Normal "off-road" mode in the high setting is perfect for everything but the hardest of obstacles
• Energy usage was surprisingly low, despite seat coolers, AC, radio, etc.
• Air compressor is such a great feature for airing up at the end of the trail, and works fairly quickly. (Getting the hose back into it's little pouch and cubby is another story...)
• Wheel cameras front and back are incredibly useful when trying to navigate around wheel destroying, sidewall puncturing rocks.
• The stock 20" Pirelli's did a fine job.

My feelings exactly. Well put. My buddies with their tricked out Jeep, Rover and Montero all were impressed with it as well. I was never the limiting factor of what we could do which says a lot about a STOCK vehicle. Oh yeah and theirs all suck gas and don't go 0-60 in 3 sec nor have all the creature comforts.

I'll second that energy usage was much lower than I expected throughout 4x4ing and the entire camping trip. I never once was worried about range.

I'd add that it's not just Jeeps but 4x4ers in general. They either embrace it or they're envious. Somewhat applies to all the pickup truck drivers (read lifted mudders and coal rollers) out here in CO too though.

Cameras front and rear plus birds eye is quite the combo for offroading. Agreed on utility of air compressor to air the tires back up. I always have a tire pressure gauge with me so airing down the tires to a specific psi was a breeze. I aired down to 28-30 PSI. What did you go with?

I aired back up while fast charging on my way out of BV area in Fairplay. Air compressor hose can be a bit of a pain to put away but after doing it a few times I've gotten pretty fast and able to fit it back in properly.

Bummer on your steep rock crawl experience but sounds pretty gnarly for just about any vehicle. Glad you were able to get out of it even with some puckering ?

 

[Andystroh]

Thanks for the Mt. Bancroft and James peak beta, not looking worth the hike in there to ski anymore
Edit: also nice truck

 

[LoneStar]

somebody had to take some photos when climbing/stuck on that boulder rise. Let's see that!

 

[cohall]

I aired down to 28-30 PSI. What did you go with?

Similar - was right around 30.

Thanks for the Mt. Bancroft and James peak beta, not looking worth the hike in there to ski anymore
Edit: also nice truck

Definitely not worth the hike any more...

somebody had to take some photos when climbing/stuck on that boulder rise. Let's see that!

I know! But at that moment, survival of both man and truck were the only the only things on my mind

 

[shrink]

Cons:

• After slowly backing down for a minute or two, the error went away, was able to get into rock crawl mode, and made it up the rest of the hill.

You still made it up the hill? That's awesome! Nice driving! Very impressive.

 

[cohall]

You still made it up the hill? That's awesome! Nice driving! Very impressive.

Would love to take credit, but the truck (usually) makes it easy. Once everything was operating normal, all I had to do was mash the throttle and point it up hill.

 

[BillArnett]

So am I correct in assuming that your first attempt up the hill you were going slowly and ran out of momentum at the tricky part? And that with a bit more speed you climbed it OK? That can happen to a Jeep, too. It takes more force to accelerate from a stop while climbing than to climb at a constant speed. And the force available is limited by traction.

Nevertheless, Rivian really needs to do some work on Rock Crawl mode. Maybe those of us used to Jeeps will have to adopt a somewhat different style on difficult obstacles. That's fine. But going into Turtle Mode in the middle of an obstacle is unacceptable. Dangerous, even.

And it's just stupid for it to sit there with one wheel spinning and no torque on the others. If they can't do anything better at least provide a "locker mode" where all 4 spin at the same rate period. And don't limit power just because some wheels are spinning.

 

[BillArnett]

... But at that moment, survival of both man and truck were the only the only things on my mind

What was the name of the trail? Is there a name for the obstacle? Perhaps there are pictures of it elsewhere on the Net.

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