No winch (yet?) what is the alternative

[rosspa2]

New to off roading but realize that I could easily get myself into a situation where a helping hand would be required. Since Rivian hasn't yet figure out when, where or how a winch could be added I was looking for an alternative.

I'd be very interested in any suggestions on potential alternatives that others might recommend.

Sponsored

 

[the long way downunder]

If I were to get a winch installed today, I'd be looking for an off-road specialist fabricator with excellent metal skills (and proof of it in the form of professional work all around their shop, on social media or wherever.)
There's a few posts on the topic.
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/search/496845/?q=winch&t=post&c[title_only]=1&o=date
Behind this apparent factory location is a conspicuously "born for this" cross bracket.

You can see the winch drum right behind the fairlead. It's a pretty stout location between the recovery points. I assume this development mule had a different radiator mount and location than the production arrangement (shown below with a winch pasted in, not to scale, but probably about what's involved. WARN might even have some ideas on how to saddle the winch with two 12V batteries to either side of it (charging off the vehicle 12V batteries, but not attempting to put them all in parallel, I think that's asking for trouble, but again, I'd look at options to get the kind of current the winch wants to draw … no use putting it in there for show and have it too weak to work when called upon.)

There's two problems:
The dinky little 12V twin batteries don't look like they would ever work a cold cranking day in their life.
Adding a serious 12V battery would be heavy, bulky and, I dunno, maybe there's an underbody cavity somewhere to snug it away and feed some power cables forward.
Winches put a phenomenal load on front suspension if you're not careful. Even lowering the air struts to their minimum height might not be enough to protect them from the forces dragging the nose down to the bump stops. Overloading the bump stops could be … tricky for warranty coverage.
I'm guessing the whole chassis of the R1T is heavily over-engineered and designed to take the 8000lbs of it hitting things at 80 mph and bottoming out. But again, the way a winch loads up can be a serious amount of leveraged force.

 

[rosspa2]

Thanks for the details and considerations if I want to pull the car apart and put it back together again. I was going to wait for Rivian to actually come up with a for $$$ we can retro fit one to your truck. Effectively - Rivian if I give you X$ will you make my truck like the first photo.

Outside of pulling the car apart is there an external solution that might work? It has 110v onboard does that offer me an option or even a manual setup?

 

[jjswan33]

Bring a friend with a winch or a Rivian?

Or maybe a come along with appropriate pulling capacity

 

[seajayseven]

Rivian doesn’t approve of people rescuing “their own” trucks you’ll need to call service and make an appointment. Once They have “your” truck the wait will be a few weeks while remote engineers review the code Reports of why your truck became stuck.
Don’t worry though you’ll have Uber credits to see you through this time.

 

[rosspa2]

Rivian doesn’t approve of people rescuing “their own” trucks you’ll need to call service and make an appointment. Once They have “your” truck the wait will be a few weeks while remote engineers review the code Reports of why your truck became stuck.
Don’t worry though you’ll have Uber credits to see you through this time.

Actually I've done this already that's the service truck delivering my spare, they did say home visits right.

But seriously how about one of these is it workable. https://www.wyeth-scott.com/models.php

 

[zipzag]

As we have discussed elsewhere, a hitch mount winch with a starter battery works. There is risk of damaging the receiver if winching at an angle. One upside of a removable winch is the potential to also winch the front by attaching to an anchor point like a tree.

If traveling with a second vehicle having approriate recovery gear and attachment points may be good enough. That would include a shackle for the rear receiver and a kinetic rope. Also a shovel and maxtrax type recovery board.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Even though I’ve got a very nice Warn Zeon platinum on my Jeep, I’ve only used it once to recover someone else. I’ve found that kinetic rope, a shovel, and traction boards to be more useful in recovery situations.

 

[domoplaytime]

I’ve found that kinetic rope, a shovel, and traction boards to be more useful in recovery situations.

Are the tow straps in Rivian's road recovery kit considered to be kinetic ropes? Or are they static, non stretching straps?
https://rivian.com/gear-shop/p/off-road-recovery-kit

 

[zipzag]

Are the tow straps in Rivian's road recovery kit considered to be kinetic ropes? Or are they static, non stretching straps?
https://rivian.com/gear-shop/p/off-road-recovery-kit

For the price of the kit it should be kinetic. But IDK.

 

[KeithPleas]

All of the usual suggestions are above - receiver mount, kinetic strap (and travel with a friend or expect someone to come along), manual come along. You'll need more...shackles, tree saver, perhaps a pull pal / anchor depending on where you go.

Also, you might consider whether you will want to be pulled forward - or backward. My suspicion is that if you get stuck you will want to back out and try a different route. The only one I'd add is a portable winch plate that can attach front OR back.

I suspect that a receiver winch (and battery) and a kinetic strap and (potentially) an anchor will be your overall best option - but if you have patience a come along will get the same job done but take longer. Or always go with a friend.

 

[boardthatpowder]

Are the tow straps in Rivian's road recovery kit considered to be kinetic ropes? Or are they static, non stretching straps?

Static.

 

[Hyro]

My R1T replaced a kitted out XTerra that I ran for ~8 years. It had a winch. I took that thing into some gnarly places, all sorts of climates. Never actually got stuck. Good judgement, 4 low + lockers, and ok driving kept me safe. I rescued about 5 other trucks in that time. Only used the winch once. All others were kinetic rope. This is the way.

Also, big +1 to the lad on here talking about suspension hits. On high speed downhills the X likes to lift a rear tire if I break too hard! Bloody winch and steel bumper...

 

[Kuro-Rivian]

New to off roading but realize that I could easily get myself into a situation where a helping hand would be required. Since Rivian hasn't yet figure out when, where or how a winch could be added I was looking for an alternative.

I'd be very interested in any suggestions on potential alternatives that others might recommend.

Rough Country has an R1T compatible winch.

 

[BillArnett]

Has anyone ever tried to actually recover a vehicle with a come-along? My limited experience is that my arms get tired long before the vehicle more than a few feet.

Sponsored