Sponsored

Conserve Mode: $125 a month tire cost!

Tahoe Man

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2022
Threads
1
Messages
523
Reaction score
464
Location
Tahoe
Vehicles
Chevy Volt
It doesn't matter if your rotated them or not, they'll wear at the same rate. You have two worn and two not worn now. Rotating them just wears them evenly, so it's one trip to the tire shop.

The truck is heavy, that's the main reason. Drive aggressively, they'll wear faster but again, it's a heavy truck.

You'll have to consider it part of the operation cost.
Sponsored

 

SeaGeo

Well-Known Member
First Name
Brice
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Threads
47
Messages
5,235
Reaction score
9,676
Location
Seattle
Vehicles
Xc60 T8
Occupation
Engineer
This is what I mean by design fault or to be more positive appropriate design measure. We know this is a new concept and design all together, an EV truck, very powerful and very heavy which requires a much stronger tougher tire design.. perhaps that is yet to come..
That's not a design fault though. Could they communicate better? Sure. But it's a give and take. tires that last longer are going to perform worse in other areas, and people would then complain about that.

At the end of the day, conserve mode gets about 5% more range. Save it for when you really need it, otherwise you're just sacrificing the driving characteristics of the truck.

And "really needing" it isn't on a typical road trip where you have chargers reasonably spaced. It saves basically no time at a fast charger. It's that for when you think about the distance to the next charger and start to pucker.
 

SeaGeo

Well-Known Member
First Name
Brice
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Threads
47
Messages
5,235
Reaction score
9,676
Location
Seattle
Vehicles
Xc60 T8
Occupation
Engineer
It doesn't matter if your rotated them or not, they'll wear at the same rate. You have two worn and two not worn now. Rotating them just wears them evenly, so it's one trip to the tire shop.

The truck is heavy, that's the main reason. Drive aggressively, they'll wear faster but again, it's a heavy truck.

You'll have to consider it part of the operation cost.
It does. Conserve is pulling through the front two tires. They will wear faster than the rear tires that are just coming along for the ride in conserve.
 

s00n

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2022
Threads
9
Messages
151
Reaction score
225
Location
CO
Vehicles
Cayenne S - Jeep LJ Rubicon - R1S
I was also told about conserve mode tire wear at Denver SC during the test drive. I hadn't thought about it before, and for this reason my rep said that's why he personally never uses conserve.
 
Last edited:

Sponsored

SANZC02

Well-Known Member
First Name
Bob
Joined
Feb 11, 2021
Threads
29
Messages
5,258
Reaction score
8,855
Location
California
Vehicles
Tesla Model S, LE - R1S
Occupation
Retired
Who would buy a quad motor performance machine to spend most of their time in conserve mode?
🙋 Guilty…. Of all of the things the R1S is, the crazy performance was not the top of the list. But of course I had to get the 22s because they are the fastest 🤷🏻

I have only put it in sport mode and launched it once and that was not until I got it back to CA. Still have not taken it out on a canyon road, s00n. I guess the good news is I still have lots of things to look forward to.

Loving the truck though, exceeding all of my expectations so far.
 

SASSquatch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Threads
34
Messages
1,833
Reaction score
3,561
Location
Washington DC
Vehicles
BMW i3s Ford C-Max Hybrid
Occupation
Semi-Autonomous Yeti
Clubs
 
I hate to break it to you @RTChiro but excessive tire wear is the necessary evil of driving such a heavy ass vehicle. The R1T has a big but and we cannot lie!

The bigger the rims, the more excessive the tire wear because you have less tread on the 22"s vs the 21's vs the 20's.

I drive a BMW i3s with 20 inch wheels and all season performance tires. Even though it is a hot hatch made from freaking carbon fiber it still weighs as much as a Ford Escape SUV because of the heavy battery pack. I am lucky if I get 15,000 miles out of my tires.

Go to the Tesla forums and you will see people complaining about tire wear. It's ubiquitous with EVs that have large battery capacities and accelerate like a bat out of hell.

In your case, conserve mode may have contributed to more wear, but I am wondering whether you were rotating your tires? Maybe that will even out the wear so you will at least get 20K out of them.
 

Zoidz

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gil
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Threads
105
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
6,864
Location
PA
Vehicles
23 R1S Adv, Avalanche, BMWs-X3,330cic,K1200RS bike
Occupation
Engineer
This is what I mean by design fault or to be more positive appropriate design measure. We know this is a new concept and design all together, an EV truck, very powerful and very heavy which requires a much stronger tougher tire design.. perhaps that is yet to come..
It's not a design fault. It's a design tradeoff of tire wear vs. safety vs. handling vs. cost, and it's not going to change unless some radically new tire compound is discovered. Physics are physics, tire wear is in part a function of weight and horsepower.

- If you are OK with 0 to 60 time of 60 seconds and braking distance of 500 feet by limiting power, that would reduce tire wear related to physics.
- They could create a stronger, tougher tire as you suggest, yes, that will reduce tire wear, but it will ride like a rickshaw with wooden wheels on a cobblestone street. Those stronger, tougher tires will also have poor handling response due to stiffness, and poor wet performance due to the stronger, tougher compound.

Selection of tires is a function of many variables, and some of them are at opposite coners of the decision polygon. Until the Holy Grail of tire compounds is discovered, there will be tradeoffs.
 

NineElectrics

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2022
Threads
49
Messages
915
Reaction score
1,114
Location
US
Vehicles
R1S
This is a trend I have seen with Rivian, Tesla and others, where the very unappealing features of electric cars are minimized by sacrificing design parameters which normally increase longevity or satisfy some other everyday expectation.

Examples: Suspensions which can’t handle very heavy cars (Model Y). Pancake or egg like designs (Model S, X, Y, 3). “Optimized” tires which feature low rolling resistance (and also low resistance to punctures). Gaming the EPA by fiddling with range multipliers, blending city mode driving into their “max range” advertised numbers, ignoring extremes of temperature, or by adding a “tire eating mode.” Leaving out a heat pump to preserve margins eaten by the battery, at the expense of cold weather range. Designing a custom wheel size to increase advertised range, but that no manufacturer will create a winter tire for.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Rivian designed a tire with a very small contact patch for greater range—leading to enhanced wear (and decreased traction, especially in snow and ice). Rivian recommended tire pressures are higher than a near-equivalent Range Rover, for example. Extra torque is then smashed though that tinier contact patch in order to make a 7,000 pound vehicle not feel like it contains a 1,750 pound dead-weight battery that it’s ICE competitors don’t have. This is made worse by conserve mode, a mode which exists to help with the range anxiety that comes with EVs.

Enhanced tire wear and puncturing is the most egregious example of EVs “pushing the envelope”, but an EV stresses every system more than an ICE would, in a myriad of tiny ways. Well, except for the exhaust system. For that I am very thankful.
 
Last edited:

Sponsored

Jack Smoke

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2022
Threads
5
Messages
172
Reaction score
281
Location
Milwaukee
Vehicles
Corvette Z06, Cherokee, Nissan Titan, BMW 1200GSA
Who would buy a quad motor performance machine to spend most of their time in conserve mode?
When you live in Wisconsin, it’s -8 and you can watch the range go down twice the expected amount. Conserve mode makes sense

:)
 

sub

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2021
Threads
21
Messages
1,365
Reaction score
2,352
Location
USA
Vehicles
Rivian R1S, Tesla Model 3
I am not convinced conserve mode caused excessive tire wear. Or that you even experienced excessive tire wear.

Tires on my Tesla last 20K-25K miles, and from what I read that is not particularly atypical. Heavy EV with gobs of torque just eat tires like candy. Assuming your rear tires still looked nearly new, you are are going to end up pretty much exactly the same needing to purchase 4 tires every 20K miles.

Conserve mode didn't increase the total amount of wear, it just focused it all on 2 wheels. I don't think you are discovering downside to conserve mode. You are just discovering a downside to owning a heavy vehicle with a mountain of torque.
 

kizamybute'

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2021
Threads
80
Messages
1,173
Reaction score
1,991
Location
Los Angeles
Vehicles
This one, that one and the other one.
Clubs
 
Thank you to the OP for bringing this up and to the responses. I drive in conserve most of the time. I have never really thought about tire wear. But considering all the factors, weight, camber, acceleration and one that hasn’t been mentioned yet Regen. All that energy being created when that little green bar is pegged has got to be close to the same amount as a spirited launch going into 2 tires. I think I”ll run in All Purpose or Conserve + Normal Regen (instead of High) + High ride. I don’t do a lot of highway.

Edit: I’ll be sure to rotate tires at 5K as well
For me personally, I limit use of conserve mode only to long distance travel that is mostly highway driving. Not sure it helps all that much in city driving. You do get some torque steer, which is common of front wheel drive vehicles and I could see also being a factor in wearing out tires faster. No scientific evidence to support my opinion, but I don't feel that conserve mode is best for city driving with a lot of stop and go. All-Purpose mode is considered to be "all-purpose" apparently for a reason. I'll throw it into conserve mode on a long trip, but only after I've actually entered the freeway.

Side effects could also be that you're stressing the front motor and drive shafts to do all the work to pull a 7,000 lb vehicle. Possibly less regen which then offsets any gain you might get. Apparently tire wear. For me, just means I have to put more throttle to it to drive normally. So much smoother in all-purpose mode.

Because of the added camber when lowering, having learned from my Tesla, even when I do use conserve mode, I rarely let it go to the low suspension rating.
 
OP
OP

RTChiro

Member
Joined
May 18, 2022
Threads
1
Messages
17
Reaction score
33
Location
California
Vehicles
LE R1T
Clubs
 
This is a trend I have seen with Rivian, Tesla and others, where the very unappealing features of electric cars are minimized by sacrificing design parameters which normally increase longevity or satisfy some other everyday expectation.

Examples: Suspensions which can’t handle very heavy cars (Model Y). Pancake or egg like designs (Model S, X, Y, 3). “Optimized” tires which feature low rolling resistance (and also low resistance to punctures). Gaming the EPA by fiddling with range multipliers, blending city mode driving into their “max range” advertised numbers, ignoring extremes of temperature, or by adding a “tire eating mode.” Leaving out a heat pump to preserve margins eaten by the battery, at the expense of cold weather range. Designing a custom wheel size to increase advertised range, but that no manufacturer will create a winter tire for.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Rivian designed a tire with a very small contact patch for greater range—leading to enhanced wear (and decreased traction, especially in snow and ice). Rivian recommended tire pressures are higher than a near-equivalent Range Rover, for example. Extra torque is then smashed though that tinier contact patch in order to make a 7,000 pound vehicle not feel like it contains a 1,750 pound dead-weight battery that it’s ICE competitors don’t have. This is made worse by conserve mode, a mode which exists to help with the range anxiety that comes with EVs.

Enhanced tire wear and puncturing is the most egregious example of EVs “pushing the envelope”, but an EV stresses every system more than an ICE would, in a myriad of tiny ways. Well, except for the exhaust system. For that I am very thankful.
wow - interesting info! - unfortunately just 2 weeks after putting a couple of new tires in front I got a puncture in the back - I spent $1500 on tires in 2 weeks as well as 2 trips to SC
 

CrazyOne

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2021
Threads
0
Messages
501
Reaction score
390
Location
Seattle
Vehicles
Acura TL MT SH-AWD, CBR 600RR ABS, R1T
Was the tire wear even on two tires and on all parts of the tires? 10K life without rotation would mean about 15-20 with tire rotation. Seems normal for the vehicle. Probably normal for vehicles that can do 0-60 in about 3 seconds.
Sponsored

 
 




Top