RIVIAN Execs! Brakes stoped working in highway at over 76MPH

[DayTripping]

I hear you, and I can relate. It is obvious your confidence in the vehicle is shaken. As an outsider looking in, I would be more concerned if this was a chronic problem, and reported across many other Rivians.

Personally, before I would dump the vehicle, unless Rivian is willing to buy it back, I would wait to see what the postmortem shows. What exactly did happen, and base my decision, whether to keep the vehicle or sell it on that.

This is absolutely the first I’ve heard of this, and thank you for sharing.

Don’t really want to comment on the speed you were towing, as I lived in Europe before. The speed limits were much lower when towing. They’re also dependent on the type of motorway and how much the trailer weighed and if it had brakes or not. It’s been a while, but if memory serves me correctly, if the trailer didn’t have brakes in a lot of countries, it was limited to 80 or 90km/hour so about 50 mph.

I've since got in the habit of towing slower since then anyway, so if something goes wrong, it’s a lot less stressful and survivable.

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[pickupman2022]

This is a single axle trailer without brakes. So wouldn't know if the signal going to trailer brakes would not work.

That is scary, glad everyone is ok. Something else to consider. Towing a 4k lbs. trailer without brakes is illegal in most states. Trailer brakes are usually required starting at 3k lbs. but it does vary by state. Also, some states have towing speed limits.

 

[moonjeong]

While I am sorry for your situation, how many chances will you take before dumping the vehicle?! Surely your state has an applicable lemon law…

This is the last one. I love the vehicle and suspension issues, half shafts, etc… i can deal with. Failure in braking i can’t So after this i’m done.

I'm still stuck at the OP "traveling at 76MPH pulling a 4,000 pound trailer on the highway" with at least one other person (based on the original pics) in the truck thinking that's safe.

As others have said, this really isn't the place to kibitz about this issue. If it's been that many repair attempts, then one should really look into the Lemon Laws for your state.

And the safety of others out there, when towing a trailer in a combined rig that's pushing 12,000lbs...slow down for the safety of all of us on the road.

Speed limit in my state when towing in the highway i was on is 70 MPH. If you look at the consumption, i was at the high end of my trip. I was between 65 and 70. Trailer tires are rated at 85MPH.

I hear you, and I can relate. It is obvious your confidence in the vehicle is shaken. As an outsider looking in, I would be more concerned if this was a chronic problem, and reported across many other Rivians.

Personally, before I would dump the vehicle, unless Rivian is willing to buy it back, I would wait to see what the postmortem shows. What exactly did happen, and base my decision, whether to keep the vehicle or sell it on that.

This is absolutely the first I’ve heard of this, and thank you for sharing.

Don’t really want to comment on the speed you were towing, as I lived in Europe before. The speed limits were much lower when towing. They’re also dependent on the type of motorway and how much the trailer weighed and if it had brakes or not. It’s been a while, but if memory serves me correctly, if the trailer didn’t have brakes in a lot of countries, it was limited to 80 or 90km/hour so about 50 mph.

I've since got in the habit of towing slower since then anyway, so if something goes wrong, it’s a lot less stressful and survivable.

The towing limit is 70MPH in the highway i was on. I usually keep it below 65 due to the efficiency at 60 i get like 1.3MPKW vs. 0.8 MPKW when going at 75. I do agree 65 should be the upper limit of towing.

 

[HaveBlue]

Yea, I've towed heavy trailers that didn't have brakes working (actually no controller on the tow vehicle) and it felt like I was braking on ice trying to slow everything down. There was nothing wrong with the tow vehicle brakes but even doing 55mph was unpleasant.

It's not how fast you can tow. It's how fast you can stop. I think you are making the right decision with being "done". It's hard to assess your other issues with the vehicle, but they didn't help in this regard.

 

[DuoRivian]

I hear you, and I can relate. It is obvious your confidence in the vehicle is shaken. As an outsider looking in, I would be more concerned if this was a chronic problem, and reported across many other Rivians.

Personally, before I would dump the vehicle, unless Rivian is willing to buy it back, I would wait to see what the postmortem shows. What exactly did happen, and base my decision, whether to keep the vehicle or sell it on that.

This is absolutely the first I’ve heard of this, and thank you for sharing.

Don’t really want to comment on the speed you were towing, as I lived in Europe before. The speed limits were much lower when towing. They’re also dependent on the type of motorway and how much the trailer weighed and if it had brakes or not. It’s been a while, but if memory serves me correctly, if the trailer didn’t have brakes in a lot of countries, it was limited to 80 or 90km/hour so about 50 mph.

I've since got in the habit of towing slower since then anyway, so if something goes wrong, it’s a lot less stressful and survivable.

This is very rare, I don’t recall another story like this on the forum or in the news. One is one time too many but let’s also not exaggerate it. The OP has reasons to be unhappy but he also didn’t know about the emergency brake as described in the manual, apply enough pressure to the main brakes or keep to the speed limit.

 

[moonjeong]

Quick update-: Rivian has towed the car away.

 

[moonjeong]

This is very rare, I don’t recall another story like this on the forum or in the news. One is one time too many but let’s also not exaggerate it. The OP has reasons to be unhappy but he also didn’t know about the emergency brake as described in the manual, apply enough pressure to the main brakes or keep to the speed limit.

Some more data that helps with everyone that is being critical of the situation:

1. the trailer is a karavan 5x10: 800 lbs
2. Item towed is a teryx4: 1642 lbs
Total towed weight: 2,442 lbs (Rivian computer jumps between 3k, 3.5k and 4K on what it estimates as weight, but the formal weight should be around 2.5k)

Legal limit for no trailer brakes: 3,000 lbs - no issue here

Rivian tow capacity: 11k, so 2.5k towed should be a no issue on any safety items.

Legal speed limit when towing I. My state and highway I was on: 70MPH I was over by 6, but by GPS likely ~3mph. So not an issue and the slowest on the far right of the highway.

I have towed this rig for over 40K miles across shooting tournaments in the US and never had an issue with a Porsche, Tesla, even a minivan.

having said that, I wrote this so people are aware. If it helps you great. If you feel like criticizing my driving, I think you’re missing the point.
One more thing - I did learn about the emergency brake, as many others did in this forum. I see that as a positive.

Cheers

 

[iansriv]

Some more data that helps with everyone that is being critical of the situation:

1. the trailer is a karavan 5x10: 800 lbs
2. Item towed is a teryx4: 1642 lbs
Total towed weight: 2,442 lbs (Rivian computer jumps between 3k, 3.5k and 4K on what it estimates as weight, but the formal weight should be around 2.5k)

Legal limit for no trailer brakes: 3,000 lbs - no issue here

Rivian tow capacity: 11k, so 2.5k towed should be a no issue on any safety items.

Legal speed limit when towing I. My state and highway I was on: 70MPH I was over by 6, but by GPS likely ~3mph. So not an issue and the slowest on the far right of the highway.

I have towed this rig for over 40K miles across shooting tournaments in the US and never had an issue with a Porsche, Tesla, even a minivan.

having said that, I wrote this so people are aware. If it helps you great. If you feel like criticizing my driving, I think you’re missing the point.
One more thing - I did learn about the emergency brake, as many others did in this forum. I see that as a positive.

Cheers

I'm not qualified to comment on this as I've never towed anything. However, I am very interested in the shooting tournaments you mention and what kind of Porsche (perhaps a Cayenne?) you used before to tow.

I do appreciate your insight. It just makes me never want to two anything. Im glad no one was hurt and I hope Rivian takes care of you. All the best.

 

[godfodder0901]

This is the last one. I love the vehicle and suspension issues, half shafts, etc… i can deal with. Failure in braking i can’t So after this i’m done.

To be fair, this doesn't seem any more a brake 'failure' than in ICE losing engine power is a brake 'failure'. It sucks for sure, but this is a situation that can, and does, happen with some regularity in all types of vehicles from all manufacturers. The situation was definitely exacerbated by the added heft of the vehicle + trailer, which made it (justifiably) feel perilous, but this isn't a uniquely Rivian problem.

 

[moonjeong]

To be fair, this doesn't seem any more a brake 'failure' than in ICE losing engine power is a brake 'failure'. It sucks for sure, but this is a situation that can, and does, happen with some regularity in all types of vehicles from all manufacturers. The situation was definitely exacerbated by the added heft of the vehicle + trailer, which made it (justifiably) feel perilous, but this isn't a uniquely Rivian problem.

Agree. Do need to find the cause though because the error messages usually come after a fast charge. If it’s related to battery heat management, and the errors are treated as glitches, but something bigger is underlaying, needs to get solved for everyone.

 

[moonjeong]

I'm not qualified to comment on this as I've never towed anything. However, I am very interested in the shooting tournaments you mention and what kind of Porsche (perhaps a Cayenne?) you used before to tow.

I do appreciate your insight. It just makes me never want to two anything. Im glad no one was hurt and I hope Rivian takes care of you. All the best.

Cayenne. And it’s sporting clays. It’s like golf with shotguns, but instead of golf carts, you have off road side by sides loaded with shotguns and ammo

 

[Foobar]

Cayenne. And it’s sporting clays. It’s like golf with shotguns, but instead of golf carts, you have off road side by sides loaded with shotguns and ammo

This is the most American thing I’ve read today.

 

[iansriv]

Cayenne. And it’s sporting clays. It’s like golf with shotguns, but instead of golf carts, you have off road side by sides loaded with shotguns and ammo

I love clay pigeon shooting. Just went last Wednesday. I grew up with Benelli.

 

[Rae11]

ICE vehicles can also lose breaks. Whether EV or ICE, catastrophic break failure is rare. In both, the appropriate action is to pull the emergency parking brake….in EV usually hold down a button. Although the experience of a break failure is understandably traumatic, I do think it can happen to any vehicle so keeping that in perspective is fair.

Reading/skimming the manual of any appliance/device etc that could kill you is a good practice. How to pull the emergency break isn’t something we should be accidentally learning.

 

[CharonPDX]

ICE vehicles can also lose breaks. Whether EV or ICE, catastrophic break failure is rare. In both, the appropriate action is to pull the emergency parking brake….in EV usually hold down a button. Although the experience of a break failure is understandably traumatic, I do think it can happen to any vehicle so keeping that in perspective is fair.

Reading/skimming the manual of any appliance/device etc that could kill you is a good practice. How to pull the emergency break isn’t something we should be accidentally learning.

I once lost braking in a '90s Ford Explorer going down a steep hill while towing - engine braking wasn't sufficient to keep to an acceptable speed, so I had to ride the brakes. Overheated them near the end of the hill (thankfully) and had to engine brake to a stop going up the very slight uphill that followed, then wait an hour for the brakes to cool. But if that downhill stretch had been 1-2 miles longer? I would have been out of control fast.

Yeah, that wasn't fun. (Trailer was unbraked, about 2500 lbs, and old Coleman tent-side popup trailer.)

Oh, and a month later, the great Ford-Firestone tread separation tire recall happened. I'm *SUPER*
glad I didn't have a tire failure while doing that.



To your point of reading the manual – as the recent move to electronically-popped car doors, and claims of "impossible to escape" make the news show – it is *VITAL* to know the emergency controls of any vehicle you drive:

1. How to engage emergency braking. (In Rivian, hold the "Park" button on the end of the shift stalk.)

2. How to open *ALL* doors if power completely fails (In Rivian Gen1: use the door handles. In Rivian Gen2: use the now-less-obvious-but-still-in-the-same place mechanical door handles for the front seats, behind a panel on the door for the rear seats. - Owner's Guide page 443)

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