Underbody protection and cautionary off-road experience in a R1T

[Joints4Sale]

Dude...get a 20k Jeep or Tacoma if you want to beat the piss out of your truck.

Perhaps the owner views his $80k the way you view $20k. Cost is all relative. I didn't detect any distress on the owners voice about beating up "his" truck. He was merely sharing information.

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[Riviot]

I'm seeing a lot of air resistance in these scars... Any thoughts on these affecting efficiency?

 

[jjswan33]

I'm seeing a lot of air resistance in these scars... Any thoughts on these affecting efficiency?

Nothing some duct tape can’t fix

 

[Gsxr150]

What? That was not beating the piss out of the truck. These are adventure trucks, not mall crawlers. They are designed for this.

For those of us who want to use them for their intended purpose - this is a very helpful video. I'm going to look at having someone fab me some sliders before I hit any advanced trails.

I politely disagree...they are intended for some rough terrain, yes, but not modified Jeep territory (unless you want to break things). Wish I had the cash to go out and purposely distroy my Rivian... I'll take it off road gently, bit that thing is going to be my baby. Just because it CAN do it doesn't mean you should. #Rubicon

 

[ironpig]

I politely disagree...they are intended for some rough terrain, yes, but not modified Jeep territory (unless you want to break things). Wish I had the cash to go out and purposely distroy my Rivian... I'll take it off road gently, bit that thing is going to be my baby. Just because it CAN do it doesn't mean you should. #Rubicon

I didn’t get the sense that the driver in the video or any of us for that matter are looking to “purposely destroy” our truck. I wouldn’t try to purposely destroy anything I own.

Those trails were reasonable off road trails and with some rock sliders, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

 

[bajadahl]

Rivian has been testing an R1T with sliders... just a matter of time till they are accessories I believe. This is the same truck they were testing with a winch.

 

[zefram47]

Rivian has been testing an R1T with sliders... just a matter of time till they are accessories I believe. This is the same truck they were testing with a winch.

Need.

Also, these "sliders" need to bump out more. As-is, the plastics and body are still at risk if you were to brush against a rock on the trail...happens frequently. Just look at the MT video where they were on Black Bear and I can almost 100% guarantee that the driver of the white truck would've done quite a bit of damage on the super tight switchback to the passenger side. Sliders are supposed to be designed in such a way that that type of damage is mitigated by keeping the body away from the rock as the slider slides against it. But I want all of this...sliders, yellow tow hooks, and the winch on my FG truck!

 

[Gsxr150]

I didn’t get the sense that the driver in the video or any of us for that matter are looking to “purposely destroy” our truck. I wouldn’t try to purposely destroy anything I own.

Those trails were reasonable off road trails and with some rock sliders, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

Right, but there are 25 better choices of purpose-built, hard-core, off-road machines to choose from. Hey, if you want to take your 100k on trails like that, more power to ya. But if something breaks, I hope Rivian doesn't cover it under warranty. Just like Rubicons...built tough, but if you break it you pay to fix it.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I’m not surprised that the vehicle will automatically exit a special drive mode or higher suspension setting under certain conditions, but it seems like the logic and notification needs to be tweaked a bit. If it makes people feel any better, I copied this gem from our LR3 manual: If the Mud-Ruts, Sand or Rock Crawl special programs are selected when the ignition switch is switched off, the system will remember for approximately six hours which program was selected, and return to that program once the ignition switch is turned back on.

Only Land Rover would need to use approximately when describing what should be a precise duration of time. No matter what, I’ve gotten in the habit of always checking the suspension height and drive mode when getting back in off pavement.

Since the Rivians prohibit the higher suspension settings above a certain speed, I hope they do something like what our LR does when approaching the speed at which the suspension lowers from an off-road height automatically. When getting close to the threshold the vehicle gives a warning ding and displays a message along the lines of Reduce speed or vehicle will lower to standard height. If you don’t reduce your speed it then gives a warning ding dong type tone and provides a message like Standard height selected.

I like the 2 notifications with 2 types of tones because I don’t even have to look at the instrument cluster to know how it’s going to play out if I don’t slow down and when it actually starts to lower.

edit: typo

 

[Blueassassin]

Need.

Also, these "sliders" need to bump out more. As-is, the plastics and body are still at risk if you were to brush against a rock on the trail...happens frequently. Just look at the MT video where they were on Black Bear and I can almost 100% guarantee that the driver of the white truck would've done quite a bit of damage on the super tight switchback to the passenger side. Sliders are supposed to be designed in such a way that that type of damage is mitigated by keeping the body away from the rock as the slider slides against it. But I want all of this...sliders, yellow tow hooks, and the winch on my FG truck!

For the purposes I'm going to do these sliders are perfect! I hated the sliders on my Tacoma because I had to climb over them or they would brush against me or my wifes clothes when we were going some place nice and the sliders were covered in mud still.

 

[cardad]

100% I think it's just been overlooked as it defaults to a standard mode upon exit and re-entry. Which makes sense day to day, but in an off road situation it can funk you up.

Slightly tricky to make work correctly unless in those specific off road modes, maybe once placed in them it stays in them until told otherwise? Possibly just an on screen reminder when you get back in after a celebratory brew for conquering an obstacle, it defaults to the drive mode screen to remind you the mode you're in, without asking you if you want to stay in it constantly. That would get annoying otherwise.

Rivian needs to drive a Bronco apparently to sort out some of these UI quirks. The new Bronco asks you if you want to go back to whatever mode you were in previously. If you hit “yes” then it stays in it. Should be pretty simple when your competitive advantage is driven by rapid software upgradability.

 

[cardad]

I did the same with my wife's A8L. Ripped off the bottom of the bumper. The JOY of air suspension.

They don’t just lower immediately anymore. Newer etron and Taycan stay high, Taycan will lower above 20 mph unless you floor it …

Aftermarket companies will be all over this and offer metal replacement panel(s) with recessed fasteners.

the aftermarket needs volume to make money. With only 25k vehicles max to be produced this year and third party prices in the $130k+ range I doubt anyone in their right mind is going crazy with their ultra rare and expensive vehicle unless they don’t actually understand the math of depreciation.

 

[AllInev]

Nothing some duct tape can’t fix

I instinctively reached for my orbital sander and 40 grit paper when I saw those scars.

 

[cardad]

I didn’t get the sense that the driver in the video or any of us for that matter are looking to “purposely destroy” our truck. I wouldn’t try to purposely destroy anything I own.

Those trails were reasonable off road trails and with some rock sliders, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

Nope, he jacked up his $1000 rims on a rock too so the sliders wouldn’t have saved him. He could have avoided his underbody damage by going slower and taking a more side hill line or even stopping to check his breakover before making contact just in case he beaches his brand new luxury vehicle in the middle of nowhere. Just because you have sliders doesn’t mean you can’t get stuck when your breakover angle isn’t sufficient. This video seemed to reflect the driver lacking certain skills but that’s just what it looked like to me because in both instances he appeared to be driving too fast given the terrain.

The first impulse should be understanding what you did wrong rather than critiquing the vehicle. I’d say he could’ve looked back at his wheel and taken the line over the rock at a slower speed rather than rushing by it and saved himself about $2k worth of damage.

 

[AllInev]

With only 25k vehicles max to be produced this year...

More like 15k since 10k of the estimated 25k will be RCV for Amazon.

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