Rivian Air Suspension

[ElectricTrucking]

Owners that are on their second replacements never mentioned why. Tracking was not mentioned as a cause.

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[skyote]

The Tenneco Kinetic system, referenced by electruck in #12, is used by McLaren, and Mark Vinnels, Executive Director for Engineering and Vehicle Development at Rivian, is a former McLaren and Lotus engineer. So, yes, it's likely Rivian will use this highly sophisticated and effective suspension system. Here's a couple of explanations of how Tenneco/McLaren's kinetic suspension system works.

https://www.caranddriver.com/featur...ennecos-kinetic-suspension-explained-feature/

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wvp8myo/

Second link/video is great, thanks!

I do hope the system is more reliable than in the past.

The interconnected nature makes me think about this:

https://stories.rivian.com/remote-engineering

 

[Vern Bybee]

It's not just air-suspension. Speculation is that it's like the hydraulic/air-combo system found, pretty much exclusively, on a lot of Mclarens. I don't think they'll be phoning it on the suspension.

The CEO is an engineer. The more I've read and watched, the more I've been impressed by how much of an engineer culture this company has. I think they're unlikely to take shortcuts on the primary feature that probably got them excited about hiring the Mclaren guy in the first place.

Be warned, I'm turning into a little bit of a fan boy, but it feels like it's been earned. I like the way they geek out over their own product. I especially liked the way, at the debut, their head engineer said (paraphrasing), "I want very little to change about the car we are showing you right now, between now and release." They have been testing the crap out of this vehicle. They love their baby. The closest thing to a gimmick is the flashlight, which is a lot less inconvenient than a falcon door if it stops working.

I am a FANBOY R.J. IS MY HERO

But has anyone heard a number for wheel travel?
Can't find that one

 

[srwaxalot]

I am a FANBOY R.J. IS MY HERO

But has anyone heard a number for wheel travel?
Can't find that one

If only if it could match my Ibeam ranger, 18 front 16 rear, without the awful camber change that would be amazing. Never going to happen but would be amazing.
From the videos I’ve seen I would guess in the 7-10 range.

 

[Pherdnut]

I am a FANBOY R.J. IS MY HERO

But has anyone heard a number for wheel travel?
Can't find that one

Don't know numbers but there was this animated PNG from their covid lockdown testing stuff that I'm not sure where to find the original post of now.

https://exposure-media.s3.amazonaws...wfe1ezf56x9o2og794tq8fm1y97oe0k2/original.gif

 

[SoCal Rob]

Does anyone know if Rivian is including something like Land Rover’s Extended Mode? This has saved us, or at least prevented breaking out a shovel, on a few occasions now.

In case you’re not familiar with this, Land Rover anticipated that with an air suspension in off-road height people may still get stuck. If the vehicle detects that it is hung up on an obstacle, after a few seconds it gives a warning chime, “Extended Mode” message on the instrument cluster, and the air suspension goes higher than you can manually select. At this point, the driver can evaluate the situation and proceed ahead if it looks like things get better or back out if it looks like things stay the same or get worse. Once in Extended Mode it is possible to manually select Super Extended Mode for just a bit more clearance if needed.

The genius part of the feature, I think, is that you can’t manually select Extended Mode so that there is additional clearance in reserve if needed. I’m hoping that Rivian either has something similar or gives you the choice of different suspension height settings so you can manually go to a higher clearance if needed.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Does anyone know if Rivian is including something like Land Rover’s Extended Mode? This has saved us, or at least prevented breaking out a shovel, on a few occasions now.

In case you’re not familiar with this, Land Rover anticipated that with an air suspension in off-road height people may still get stuck. If the vehicle detects that it is hung up on an obstacle, after a few seconds it gives a warning chime, “Extended Mode” message on the instrument cluster, and the air suspension goes higher than you can manually select. At this point, the driver can evaluate the situation and proceed ahead if it looks like things get better or back out if it looks like things stay the same or get worse. Once in Extended Mode it is possible to manually select Super Extended Mode for just a bit more clearance if needed.

The genius part of the feature, I think, is that you can’t manually select Extended Mode so that there is additional clearance in reserve if needed. I’m hoping that Rivian either has something similar or gives you the choice of different suspension height settings so you can manually go to a higher clearance if needed.

The problem I have with that is it is technology intentionally holding me back.

I'd rather have full use of the system and I accept that I'm responsible not to be a donkey.

 

[Blueassassin]

It would be awesome to see a Rivain sitting in its highest setting right now we keep seeing them in parking lots in "lowrider" mode.

 

[cwoodcox]

edit: wonder if they blew out the accumulators in the R1T going over that dune in Argentina?

They did wreck the accumulator on one of the shocks but it was cuz the truck rolled backwards and hit a rock and broke it right off.

 

[skyote]

Does anyone know if Rivian is including something like Land Rover’s Extended Mode? This has saved us, or at least prevented breaking out a shovel, on a few occasions now.

In case you’re not familiar with this, Land Rover anticipated that with an air suspension in off-road height people may still get stuck. If the vehicle detects that it is hung up on an obstacle, after a few seconds it gives a warning chime, “Extended Mode” message on the instrument cluster, and the air suspension goes higher than you can manually select. At this point, the driver can evaluate the situation and proceed ahead if it looks like things get better or back out if it looks like things stay the same or get worse. Once in Extended Mode it is possible to manually select Super Extended Mode for just a bit more clearance if needed.

The genius part of the feature, I think, is that you can’t manually select Extended Mode so that there is additional clearance in reserve if needed. I’m hoping that Rivian either has something similar or gives you the choice of different suspension height settings so you can manually go to a higher clearance if needed.

There are 5 height settings, including kneel for entry/exit, and 2 off road modes. If you want to save some height in reserve, use off road 1.

That is an interesting idea, but I'm more in the camp with @CommodoreAmiga ...let me choose.

 

[skyote]

They did wreck the accumulator on one of the shocks but it was cuz the truck rolled backwards and hit a rock and broke it right off.

At Fully Charged Live, I asked about lessons learned from LWU. That example & protecting components for when traveling backward was a key engineering takeaway.

 

[SoCal Rob]

There are 5 height settings, including kneel for entry/exit, and 2 off road modes. If you want to save some height in reserve, use off road 1.

That is an interesting idea, but I'm more in the camp with @CommodoreAmiga ...let me choose.

That works for me. Jeep has a similar setup on the Grand Cherokee with air suspension where you manually select from 2 off-road heights. I just don’t want an all or nothing choice. Actually, I don’t really really understand the Jeep setup because the differential “pumpkins” are still the limiting factor of ground clearance. As far as I know, on the Grand Cherokee the optional air suspension changes approach, departure, and break-over angles but not clearance.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on other 4x4 forums where people are arguing about the inherent inferiority of independent suspension when rock crawling and dealing with tall obstacles. I think you need to experience both to understand you need to change how you deal with obstacles because driving both suspension setups the same way doesn’t take advantage of the strengths of each. When we changed from a Discovery2 (solid axle) to an LR3 (independent height-adjustable) we quickly realized that the best strategy without diffs hanging down was to straddle obstacles rather than drive on them. Our stock LR3 has locking center and rear diffs plus pretty good minimum clearance of 9.5” in off-road height and it has taken us places where people in 4Runners and side-by-sides were shocked to see us.

The R1S should emulate 3 locking diffs while providing a huge increase in ground clearance compared to what we’re used to. I’m very excited about the capabilities of the R1S.

 

[SoCal Rob]

The problem I have with that is it is technology intentionally holding me back.

I'd rather have full use of the system and I accept that I'm responsible not to be a donkey.

While we are pretty experienced off-road (on trail) explorers, I wouldn’t call us expert off-roaders so I’m fine letting Land Rover‘s electronic assistants lend a hand but I certainly understand why others might not like being artificially limited.

I also have a special diagnostic & settings tool that plugs into the OBD2 port on our LR3 so I can manually override the electronic air suspension if I have to. We are typically on our own and a suspension failure 10+ miles from cell service could mean that we can’t drive out of a place we got to in off-road height. With this tool I can use an app on my phone to manually extend some or all of the air springs. If we lost a sensor or ruptured an air spring, this would allow me to force as much height as possible on whatever remains working so we could drive out. I hope. We have a pretty complete off-road kit just in case.

I wonder if Rivian will give us a way to interact with the air suspension or at least deal with a failure more gracefully than my LR3 does. If the LR3 detects a severe error in the electronic air suspension it lowers to the bump stops and shuts down the compressor. Having a way of overriding that behavior can make the difference between driving home (or at least limping to civilization) and walking home.

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