Your experience stopping on snow, on a downslope hill?

[jbronkoR1T]

Hi all. I know there have been some posts on snow performance, but I'm curious specifically if folks have had experience stopping on a downhill. My neighborhood is at the top of a hill so to leave it in either direction, I have to come down some decent hills to stop signs on fairly busy roads. It takes some care in my 4Runner. Curious if that would be asking for trouble in the 7k R1T.
Any experiences that are similar so far this fall?

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[sub]

Stopping is 99.9% the tires. The vehicle they are attached to is not particularly relevant.

Wearing fresh snow tires, you will stop quickly. With bald summer tires you will slide a long way.

 

[Scoiatael]

Stopping is 99.9% the tires. The vehicle they are attached to is not particularly relevant.

Wearing fresh snow tires, you will stop quickly. With bald summer tires you will slide a long way.

That is not 100% correct. Especially on an incline, weight is a big factor. The heavier the car, the more friction there will need to be between the tires and the road in order to stop the vehicle.

 

[COdogman]

Most of the accounts I've read were in those threads asking for a snow mode or the threads about snow tires, etc. Some of the folks here in CO have had some "pucker up" moments on icy hills already, and even on just icy streets. Going downhill and stopping was specifically the concern. If you aren't extremely careful about how you let off the accelerator, the regen kicking in too much sends the heavy vehicle into a slide if the conditions are bad enough.

I think some of it is everyone learning how to drive a Rivian in bad weather, but many who are asking for a snow mode are experienced winter drivers so it can't just be that. They seem to think being able to lower or turn off the regen braking would help, and a snow mode would also help. Snow tires are a good solution but not everyone wants to spend another $3k+ on a new set of wheels/ tires.

 

[johstacy]

I live in the snow and my experience has been so far that if you control your speed and set the break regen to regular you should be fine. I have not had any really "squirrely" moments but then again I know how to drive in the snow.... Remember ice and snow are two separate things also you need to keep in mind if it is fresh snow or slick packed snow. My experience has been that the Rivian does great in the snow could it use some improvements, sure, but the world could also use better drivers.

 

[Hyro]

I recently posted a long review of the R1T in icy and snowy conditions on Reddit. TL;DR: On the 21s, I've had no trouble starting or stopping in a straight line, hill or not. (I also live on a steep hill, and it's been snowing/freezing all week). Lateral traction is a whole other issue, and a bit scary on 21s! Take it slow and she'll be fine.

 

[Metaphor]

we had a bit of now here in the PNW and while over the last week there have been some icy spots for me to test, none have been the hard pack ice sheets or long patches of black ice that are what I am thinking you really want to know about.

As I'm new to the vehicle I took every opportunity to try and see how the truck would react when i could as no one was nearby.

In hardpacked snow that day melted and froze again to an icy surface the truck did just fine - Let off the throttle in General purpose mode and High regen and you hit the traction control very quickly - It is akin to ABS in my former F150 - A little slip then equilibrium to slip/grip many times per sec.

This isn't what I (and maybe you) want so it feels better to use one-pedal to use the end of the travel to meter out the regen. This is possible but takes getting used to. I got good at it after 3 tries and think this works fine for me. I prefer leaving high regen vs lowering it so all the control is in single pedal - YMMV

If it's so icy that this setup for me doesn't work, I'm not taking a 7000+lb truck down it.

 

[Scoiatael]

I recently posted a long review of the R1T in icy and snowy conditions on Reddit. TL;DR: On the 21s, I've had no trouble starting or stopping in a straight line, hill or not. (I also live on a steep hill, and it's been snowing/freezing all week). Lateral traction is a whole other issue, and a bit scary on 21s! Take it slow and she'll be fine.

I'll be taking my R1T into the mountains in a few weeks. I'm also on 21s. Just curious if you've tried conserve mode? I saw on another thread that someone said conserve mode made driving in the snow feel more stable.

 

[dleewla]

like most are saying, it definitely makes a difference how you drive and what tires you have. that being said, how you drive isn't necessarily in your control if you cant turn off regen braking. you dont know what the algorithms and software is thinking when wheels start to slip and what it might do with the torque and regen so its a bit unnerving that we cant turn it off.

 

[jphillips97]

That is not 100% correct. Especially on an incline, weight is a big factor. The heavier the car, the more friction there will need to be between the tires and the road in order to stop the vehicle.

Assuming weight requires more friction, one could argue that it cancels out since more weight also gives you more friction based on the laws of physics.

 

[jjswan33]

I haven't had the regen braking slip yet on snow with the 20s. I did have a slight slip coming out of my neighborhood this morning on black ice but the traction control handled it so no issue.

 

[State11]

It's been snowing off and on here in Tahoe for a month. I now have experience driving the T w/ the stock 21's, the purchased stock 20's w/ AT's and now the 20's with Nokian LT 275/65/20 snow tires. Although the 21's were better than expected, I only drove in light snow over Mt Rose before my 20's arrived. I thought the 20's w/ the AT's accelerated and stopped like a champ. I really stomped on it up & down on steep streets and it did great. Turning as noted above was another matter....and I decided quickly that I needed a real snow tire. I got the Nokians put on 2 weeks ago & we've finally begun getting more snow. Thursday it dumped and my kids had a snow day, so I drove to a street that has a sledding hill nearby. I had already been driving around testing it & was feeling very confident. I intentionally parked in a snow bank of plowed snow. It was dumping, so they only lasted an hour. When we got back into the car, there was a snow pole just in front of me, so I gunned it w/ the wheels turned hard left. Big mistake. I assume it was like churning ice cream and that was it....I was stuck. Luckily, I had. shovel & was able to dig myself out. So, be careful w/ that 700hp! To say I was disheartened would be an understatement, but the T & new tires have performed great since & it has snowed every day. I have tested it in every way including slamming on the brakes on a steep icy street & it simply stops....quickly. The turning problems I had with the AT's are also gone. As an aside, I had a service tech in an R1T come by today to try to change the config to 20" wheels. He had the AT's on & he had serious problems backing out of my driveway and getting going. He had already told me that they need real snow tires.

 

[popoga]

I've had a tiny bit of slippage - not even measurable in inches, but still enough to give a quick pucker - on even just wet streets, on the 20" ATs, on a very steep incline. It's not great. The truck is 7000+lbs, so as others have said the friction requirements increase commensurately. I'm trying to figure out what the best wheel+tire combo is, as the ATs really seem to fall into that no mans land of being okay at lots of stuff but not great at anything.

 

[Kuro-Rivian]

Ruh roh.

 

[kipevans22]

I'll be taking my R1T into the mountains in a few weeks. I'm also on 21s. Just curious if you've tried conserve mode? I saw on another thread that someone said conserve mode made driving in the snow feel more stable.

I'm very interested in this topic as well. Heading to Tahoe this Weeknd with 20" AT Tires. I've recently re-read the R1T manual and the recommendation is to use "All Purpose" mode in snow. Conserve is not recommended because it's two-wheel drive (front Wheel). Sand mode looks promising to me. In addition, under the ""Power Gauge" there is a Snowflake Icon that will show-up "because of cold weather impact. It says that low temperature may limit propulsion, or regenerate braking. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this?

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