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Snow performance check-in....focus on tires.

Andystroh

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20s did great grinding out of this cage the WP plows trapped me in! Skin track/ski pics solely for entertainment value

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lol how did this happen? Were you there overnight, or just early/late? We almost went there last night for a tour but ended up just going to berthoud pass. I was a little afraid an issue parking at WP during the storm last night.
 

endress14

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Wasnā€™t even there that early! 6:30. I guess they were behind in plowing and some person was just being a jerk. Got a second workout in.
 

sierraskier

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In Tahoe as well and grateful to have countless/daily opportunities to test the snow performance of the R1T in almost every scenario. I find the heavy weight of the R1T actually improves it's performance in deep snow/slush...over your average vehicle that is typically a few thousand pounds lighter.

Conversely the mass hurts it on packed snow and ice. Naturally, this is where the softer rubber compound of a dedicated winter tire provides the most noticeable improvement.

Side note: one thing I noticed I can do in particular in the R1T that I've never seen in any other vehicle is, I can drive into the shoulder in soft snow (either plowed/pushed snow, soft wall, or unplowed snow), with passenger side wheels in snow up to the doors, while driver side still on plowed road, at moderate speeds, and the R1T tracks almost dead straight without getting pulled into the bank. I'm not sure if it's the extra mass or if it's something to do with the independent motors torque vectoring, or both but it's pretty amazing...and fun actually

But as others have said, any tire will reach a limit on what it can do with 7k+ pounds of mass/inertia. Comparing like for like snow performance with winter tires on vehicles that are a couple thousand pounds lighter isn't really valid.

Pic of yesterday's tour

Rivian R1T R1S Snow performance check-in....focus on tires. 9AE1D654-DC4E-4A32-BEFE-90F2069FEE12_1_105_c
 
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jakef801

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Second time driving with snow falling in Colorado with stock 21ā€s and Iā€™m seriously thinking these are summer tires. Iā€™m still trying to unsuctioncup my butt from the seat. Even with just a tiny bit of water and slush and Iā€™m all over the road and trying my damndest to stay straight. Even going 20mph in snow mode and I was fish tailing a bit and had to get off the highway. Their first storm was literally driving on ice, but was was getting passed up by every car on the road and felt like I had 0 traction.
My experience has been completely different in Utah where we've received record snowfall statewide. ALTA ski resort is quickly closing in on 900" for the season. I've driven my 21s in horrible road conditions around town, to/from Bear Lake, and to my friend's snowmobile guide ranch of 40,000 private acres with little to no slipping or sliding. Interesting contrast to your experience. It was an absolute whiteout blizzard here last night and I was forced to be out and about on I-80 & I-15. It was immediately filling in shortly behind the swath of plows that were out and everyone, myself included, were driving 30 - 40mph with wipers on full blast. My R1T performed admirably on the 21s.
 

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Franksmartin

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Donā€™t judge those Nokian winter tires in really deep snow, ATs will outperform there but only there. The Hakkas are excellent winter tires and it will shock me if anyone felt the ATs did better on snowy roads. That said I havenā€™t put winter tires on mine yet - so my experience with Hakkas is on a Honda Pilot.
 

ironmanihp

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Andy, which Blizzaks did you get? I was pretty unimpressed with the Nokians I had on the r1t vs the Blizzaks I had on my discovery, but it could be just the additional weight of the Rivian.
Hi State11, live in Truckee/Sacramento. Which should I go 20's or 21's?

I was thinking 21'st as mostly driving highway and I would just replace the tires with a pair of Michelin Cross Cliamte 2. I have these tires on my Highlander now and they were great all winter, just great.

Thoughts?
 
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State11

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Hi State11, live in Truckee/Sacramento. Which should I go 20's or 21's?

I was thinking 21'st as mostly driving highway and I would just replace the tires with a pair of Michelin Cross Cliamte 2. I have these tires on my Highlander now and they were great all winter, just great.

Thoughts?
How often do you drive up/down in winter? For me living here, I had to at least have 20's with the AT's. If anyone made snow tires for the 21's, that would be the wheel. The range is very impressive with the 21's.....not so much with the 20's. My wife's S is en route to W Sac now. I ordered it with 20's and once it arrives, I'll put the 21's on it. I'll buy snow tires for the 20's and put those on the S. Then I plan to either try to T for a season with the 20's or reinstall my Nokians (I need to buy one due to a self inflicted flat in the Palisades Tahoe parking lot).
 

DTown3011

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Hi State11, live in Truckee/Sacramento. Which should I go 20's or 21's?

I was thinking 21'st as mostly driving highway and I would just replace the tires with a pair of Michelin Cross Cliamte 2. I have these tires on my Highlander now and they were great all winter, just great.

Thoughts?
Not sure the CrossClimate 2's have the load index required to be safely installed on the Rivian. You need a minimum of 115 due to the weight of the vehidle. They don't offer the 21's in anything higher than 108.
 

ironmanihp

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Hi State11,

Thanks for the reply. We drive up about 15-20 trips up/down year. Spread pretty even, having lived often in snowy places I am not afraid to come up if the pass is open in the storms.

I have not dove totally deep on tires but finding 3peak snow tires in 21" is a problem? That's a rare size or EV tires in 21" are not normal? Tesla's I assume are smaller?

I am heavily leaning towards the better efficiency in the 21's, use up those tires and then put on 3peak rated tires as a next set. That is unless the 21's tires that come stock are really that bad. Then maybe I make two sets of wheels, but that sounds a bit over the top.

Anyway appreciate the comments.
 

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ironmanihp

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Not sure the CrossClimate 2's have the load index required to be safely installed on the Rivian. You need a minimum of 115 due to the weight of the vehidle. They don't offer the 21's in anything higher than 108.
Ok thanks.
Not sure the CrossClimate 2's have the load index required to be safely installed on the Rivian. You need a minimum of 115 due to the weight of the vehidle. They don't offer the 21's in anything higher than 108.
Ok thanks (new to this), so on a set of 108 load rating (that's 4x 2,200 lbs right?) so 8,800 total load.

The truck weighs 7,000 lbs right? So leaves me with 1,800 lbs of people and stuff. I dont plan to tow anything, but net- net that is still too close?
 
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State11

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Hi State11,

Thanks for the reply. We drive up about 15-20 trips up/down year. Spread pretty even, having lived often in snowy places I am not afraid to come up if the pass is open in the storms.

I have not dove totally deep on tires but finding 3peak snow tires in 21" is a problem? That's a rare size or EV tires in 21" are not normal? Tesla's I assume are smaller?

I am heavily leaning towards the better efficiency in the 21's, use up those tires and then put on 3peak rated tires as a next set. That is unless the 21's tires that come stock are really that bad. Then maybe I make two sets of wheels, but that sounds a bit over the top.

Anyway appreciate the comments.
I should note that I have very little tolerance for loss of traction (grew up in the middle part of NC where we got mostly black ice/sleet, etc that I can't forget).

At this point, there are no other options for the 21" wheels at all beyond the Pirelli's unless I've missed something (and I have been following all these tires threads as well as searching for 21" tires that would work). I've been hopeful that someone will make a snow tire for the 21's, but that still hasn't happened to my knowledge.

I drove 1 day in modest snow over Mt Rose in the 21's and they were fine. I got the 20's and drove a few days in the snow w/ the Pirelli AT's before I got the Nokians. They were very good at taking off and stopping, not so fun on sideways, steep icy stuff (like my driveway for 4 months straight). the Nokians (without studs) were much better, but didn't perform as well in deep stuff as the AT's (as noted above by Franks).

I really liked how the 21's performed....I ended up on part of the Rubicon and they did much better than you'd think. The range was great and once I removed the plastic aero covers, the wheels looked much better to me. I much prefer the more aggressive look of the 20/AT's, but if someone made good snow tires for the 21's, I'd only have one set of wheels.

Maybe the 22's are a good fit for you. I've read that the range is much closer to the 21's than thought and you can get snow tires for them. The 20's are brutal on range in my experience compared to the 21's. Once we get our S, that won't matter to us with our T as we'd always take the S if driving anywhere of significance.

Also, if you keep reading, you'll see people talk about the Rivian's weight and how that impacts its performance in snow.....IMO, that's no joke. With the LR's I've had over the years, the Rivian outperforms them in most ways, but I had a few experiences over the winter that were scary that surely had to do with living on a very steep street and a very heavy vehicle (and the winter from hell if you are my wife/myself, winter from heaven if you are our kids).
 

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Second time driving with snow falling in Colorado with stock 21ā€s and Iā€™m seriously thinking these are summer tires. Iā€™m still trying to unsuctioncup my butt from the seat. Even with just a tiny bit of water and slush and Iā€™m all over the road and trying my damndest to stay straight. Even going 20mph in snow mode and I was fish tailing a bit and had to get off the highway. Their first storm was literally driving on ice, but was was getting passed up by every car on the road and felt like I had 0 traction.
This is an old post but I have to say I had the SAME experience with the AT 20s this winter. I was up just past evergreen on 70 and it was the wet slushy stuff before it started freezing completely this past weekend and we had to bail and turn back. Alot of people were sliding there but that was the most scared ive been driving in the winter and I grew up in Vermont with crappy cars and crappy tires.
 

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This is an old post but I have to say I had the SAME experience with the AT 20s this winter. I was up just past evergreen on 70 and it was the wet slushy stuff before it started freezing completely this past weekend and we had to bail and turn back. Alot of people were sliding there but that was the most scared ive been driving in the winter and I grew up in Vermont with crappy cars and crappy tires.
Yes, I should have updated my post. The issue was found that my alignment was so off, the outside half of my rears were completely bald after 2k miles, which was about the time I was sliding in my post. I didnā€™t realize that until a week or two later when showing off the truck and it got pointed out. Double check your tread is good and if not from a few thousand miles, check the alignment.
 

DTown3011

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This is an old post but I have to say I had the SAME experience with the AT 20s this winter. I was up just past evergreen on 70 and it was the wet slushy stuff before it started freezing completely this past weekend and we had to bail and turn back. Alot of people were sliding there but that was the most scared ive been driving in the winter and I grew up in Vermont with crappy cars and crappy tires.
Nothing replaces snow tire performance, don't care how good your tires are A/T or otherwise. For me, snow tires are like insurance - I'd gladly pay the $1,000-$1,500 to have multiple winter seasons of superior performance. Especially when I am driving my family and in the mountains. I grew up in Michigan and NEVER had snow tires, but it's flat and generally easy to get around. Here in Colorado, especially with a truck of this weight, they are almost a necessity. I know a lot of people feel all season tires are "good enough" but nothing will replace the performance of snows. They literally turn my vehicles into winter tanks in the ski season.
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