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BillArnett

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I asked my mobile tech about this today, and he know nothing about it. That didn't surprise me. What did, was him talking exclusively about 12v, even though he admitted the R1T has 2 motorcycle batteries. He wasn't aware of any easy place to connect up a winch to 12v or 400v (he hadn't heard of 400v winches). All this makes has me convinced that solution won't be coming along any time s00n. Even the aftermarket is going to have a tough time, unless a dedicated 12v batter is part of the setup.
My preliminary plan is to get a small ATV winch and a 100Ah lithium battery. I'll get a connector fabricated to fit in the trailer hitch.
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kneebuster

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Riviot

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FWIW speaking with a highly qualified service center tech, there are aluminum prototype winch bumpers being tried in various shapes/configurations. He's "excited to see what pans out."

s00n, my patient riviots, s00000n.
 

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Based on the Sandy Munro tear down, I'm anxious to see where they will mount a winch the size of the Warn 12K Platinum.

It will also be interesting to see how any winch is powered. Winches draw a lot of amperage. Has the current 12v system been designed to handle such a load?

Using the price of other Rivian accessories as a guide, I'm still guessing this will be at least a $5k option. Maybe $7k with bumper. Retrofit after purchase will cost labor as well.
 

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AllInev

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av8or

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A lifetime ago I used barbed wire in a similar fashion. Cost me a tire in the end , but I got out myself.

I hope I’m never that dumb again. 🤦‍♂️
 

jclicky

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Hmmm, I worry about torquing the alignment, destroying the tires, or worse, warping the wheel using the first & second in your quote, and that latter still isn't ideal as you loose a ton of lateral clearance.

Still, better than nothing.

This seems awfully basic for Rivian to have locked end-users out of.

People love to tinker on their cars; weird that they have made it so hard to know/understand/plan to do aftermarket solutions for a bumper winch solution they knew would be wanted enough to patent.

I just want an after-market aluminum version of their existing bumper, with a cut-out for a winch, and a cut-out for two actual yellow fog/dust lamps & extra lighting for off-road; keep it all within the bumper assembly & flush, preserve the existing wind trim characteristics of the existing bumper, but add some critical needs for safe(er) off-roading to make this a proper overlander, & a safer drive in rough conditions (like thick fog, heavy snow, or bad dust, all things which occur ON road too!)...

Odd that Rivian can't just source a 3rd-party bumper manuf. to design to their spec., charge a boatload for an overpriced winch & sell it to us at a 1000% markup.

Do we think physics prevent a safe front winch assembly of any kind with 7K to deal with?

Because I interpreted the "hey we aren't doing this right now, stay tuned for (maybe) in the future" as a "we don't have bandwidth for this right now like the camp kitchen, but we plan for it & it can be done, just not by us right now, cause we gotta focus on reducing costs."

But with more & more comms getting muddled I always wonder if we have to read the tea leaves as actually functionally saying: "This is literally impossible as we have currently engineered the vehicle."

What's our best guess, possible to winch on the front bumper or impossible?
 

staytuned

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The last time this topic came up, it was exciting.
Now that we know they don't plan to bring a winch to the R1 platform, does this patent mean bad news for an aftermarket option?
 

zefram47

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The last time this topic came up, it was exciting.
Now that we know they don't plan to bring a winch to the R1 platform, does this patent mean bad news for an aftermarket option?
Not necessarily. Assuming there's room behind the stock bumper someone may come out with a stealth mount. But I'd also venture some enterprising off-road company will make something beefy at some point. My biggest concern is the tiny 12V batteries and not knowing how much current the DC to DC converter can handle. Or if it can even handle the load a winch requires without killing it. Here's an example of what's on my 4Runner...certainly not close enough to what Rivian designed to matter for a 3rd party.

Rivian R1T R1S Rivian Patents Front Bumper with a Winch (Fairlead) bumper.JPG
 

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staples

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Easy solution to the battery issue: 400V winch!
 

EVTrukHog

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Excuse my ignorance as electrical engineering is not my native language, but is it possible for the winch solution to include a stand-alone 12V battery dedicated to the winch, but be connected to the HV Rivian system for trickle recharging when necessary? If so, I think I could find room in my frunk for the dedicated 12V battery to make this work.
 

staples

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Excuse my ignorance as electrical engineering is not my native language, but is it possible for the winch solution to include a stand-alone 12V battery dedicated to the winch, but be connected to the HV Rivian system for trickle recharging when necessary? If so, I think I could find room in my frunk for the dedicated 12V battery to make this work.
I'd think that is a good assumption of how they did the prototype winch and bumper.
 
 




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