TFL takes the R1T off road in the snow. Rivian R1T vs. Toyota Tundra TRD

[emoore]

Yeah, that’s all well and good and what I would like too, but it’s probably 8-10 years away.

I will get my Rivian and enjoy it for those 8-10 years and then be ready for the next.

exactly. We can't afford to wait for the perfect EV, we have to act now to have meaningful impact.

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[emoore]

No argument from me on that goal. My point was that relatively speaking, compared to it’s competitors that is an improvement over what is available now. we also need to admit that we as a society are not prepared yet for everyone to drive EVs. Our infrastructure is totally inadequate and even battery tech and recycling needs to be addressed seriously before we transition every Vehicle. It can’t happen soon enough as far as I’m concerned, but those are real problems that need solutions.

I hear what you are saying but there was little to no infrastructure for smart phones 15 years ago but the adoption of smartphones drove changes to infrastructure. If you wait until the infrastructure is in place you will wait forever. The more EVs now the more the infrastructure is going to have to adapt.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

I liked how they compared the range at the end (17:48), said the Tundra used about a 1/4 of its tank, and the Rivian about 1/3 of its range. I am assuming they were both full, or enough so. For those who didn't watch, they do not mention how many miles they drove, and I don't know if they based that off of the trail start or where they started to drive from (home/HQ).

I think this is the area where they errored. They compared a fuel guage reading on one vs a Distace to Empty on the other. They should have compared guage to battery percentage. The Rivian's range estimate is based on drive modes, so you could start in conserve mode and see that it has say 315 miles, alter the mode to off road shortly after and the range left suddenly drop to 200 or something, thus appearing to have dramatically lost 30% of range, but in reality, battery is still full.

 

[lazjen]

These guys are inept. I'd really like to see some testing done properly using all the right tools of each vehicle and the correct (or better) techniques for off-roading. I'm certain both vehicles and particularly the Rivian would have done even better in those conditions.

 

[Grabs10]

Colorado is in the season called Winter. Everywhere they offroad in their home state has a chance of being covered in snow. This is just a fun little jaunt with a couple trucks in someplace that had minimal snow. A Rivian is not going to be any better or any worse in those conditions then any other truck. In fact I think it proves the capability as a truck to perform like any other offroad oriented truck in those conditions

Even at a “1/3 tank” they used about 5-6 bucks in electricity if they plugged in at the shop or home…. Tundra has 32 gallon gas tank so at 1/4 tank it used 8 gallons of gas $30+ in fuel on the same offroad trip.

then they had to turn around and go home so double the cost above….$10-15 for the Rivian round trip and $60-$70 for the Tundra round trip.

I think TFL is doing wonderful on there test. Rivian has completed everything as well or better then everything else they have tested.

 

[Joints4Sale]

The big takeaway from this video for me was that 7000 lbs. will slide down an icy hill even with snow rated tires. I was surprised that they didn’t loose total control and smack a tree.

 

[Riviot]

These guys are inept. I'd really like to see some testing done properly using all the right tools of each vehicle and the correct (or better) techniques for off-roading. I'm certain both vehicles and particularly the Rivian would have done even better in those conditions.

I think this is a real world scenario for uses of the Rivian: two old white guys in a place they shouldn't be without the necessary experience, tools, and skills. Add on blame, unjustified criticism, and "well what if we get stuck? Ugh, EVs", you've got yourself a perfect real-life example.

 

[Zoidz]

These guys are inept. I'd really like to see some testing done properly using all the right tools of each vehicle and the correct (or better) techniques for off-roading. I'm certain both vehicles and particularly the Rivian would have done even better in those conditions.

I agree. Calling them inept is being polite. This is the first time I have watched a TFL video, I was not impressed at all. Sometimes it seemed to me like they were intentionally doing stupid things for the "drama" and to have something to talk about, but the more I watched, I think it was just inexperience in really driving in snow.

EVERY time they lost traction in the first half of the video, what did both of them do? Spin the tires for 5 - 10 seconds and then decide they were stuck. And then do it again, as if something changed in the past 15 seconds, adding in turning the steering wheel in all directions lol, only to confirm that yes, they were indeed stuck. Coming from someone who has gotten stuck in snow more than once while snow plowing due to drifts, snow topping the plow, etc, I can confidently say that's the WORST thing you can do when stuck in snow. It heats up the tires (there was a comment about smelling rubber, lol), makes more ice, and generally digs in deeper. Not once did either of them try the forward/reverse "rocking" technique to get unstuck which works infinitely better than mashing on the pedal and trying to brute force your way out. These clowns should know proper snow handling technique if they are going to critique vehicles.

 

[White Shadow]

Roman is like a big kid and he just wants to have fun in 4wd vehicles on snow. If you watch earlier videos, he was pretty bent out of shape that Rivian didn't give them a press vehicle early on when some other auto journalists were getting them. That said, he may have a bit of a bone to pick with Rivian, but I don't think he was really being biased.

As for the R1T, I think it did okay as far as the conditions and the drivers. Having an independent motor at each wheel gives the vehicle the most capability possible on low traction situations. At the same time, today's vehicles vary very much in capability. Something like the top Jeep 4wd systems will also power each wheel independently are are fantastic in situations like we watched in the video. But in situations where traction simply doesn't exist, no vehicle will continue moving.

 

[DanielM]

TFL does a lot of their editing to favor entertainment which is great and why I’m a regular viewer. After watching several videos you will get the sense that they are honest people. In the subsequent breakdown video (on their smaller channel TFLEV) with Tommy and Roman, they mention the Tundra did a much better job going down with its mutiterrain feature (Im sure less weight helped) but they edited that part out because they wanted to focus on the Rivian and not the Tundra. They weren’t hiding anything to favor Rivian over Toyota otherwise they never would have mentioned it, that’s just how they decided to edit the video and explained their reasoning.

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