Your experience stopping on snow, on a downslope hill?

[Peterc]

I'm going to skip conserve mode in the snow for sure, but your experience at the traffic light concerns me. Maybe you just slid on an icy spot? I'm heading up this weekend and plan to push my R1T around in the snow until I get comfortable with the right drive train and it's capabilities.

100% was an icy spot but yeah it concerned me as well! From a stand still and suddenly we’re sliding directly to the right.

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[AllInev]

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.

I enjoyed taking my R1T to its first snow today. It did great on fresh 30°F falling snow even with the 21 wheels and m+s tires. Traction control was good. No complaints.

 

[jclicky]

I enjoyed taking my R1T to its first snow today. It did great on fresh 30°F falling snow even with the 21 wheels and m+s tires. Traction control was good. No complaints.

This has me considering going with the stock 21 rims & pirellis for daily driving & buying a set of the Hakkapeliitta 10 SUV studded tires for winter trips to the mountains.

 

[Franksmartin]

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.

Inclines put more of the weight vector down the hill and less into the road for traction.

 

[Riviot]

This has me considering going with the stock 21 rims & pirellis for daily driving & buying a set of the Hakkapeliitta 10 SUV studded tires for winter trips to the mountains.

I've been on the fence about getting another set of wheels, be it 21s or 22s, or just some 20s with more road friendly / efficient / longer lasting for the summers and just using my 20" ATs in winter. Today's trip convinced me 20" ATs in winter at a minimum, but over the summer I could've gotten away with something less aggressive.

Edit to add:
Have I missed someone else's math on the break-even of an extra set of tires to change out seasonly? Is it even worth it financially? Or just F*** it and ride dirty all year, likely consuming more tire but worth avoiding the biannual PITA.

 

[mikehmb]

I've been on the fence about getting another set of wheels, be it 21s or 22s, or just some 20s with more road friendly / efficient / longer lasting for the summers and just using my 20" ATs in winter. Today's trip convinced me 20" ATs in winter at a minimum, but over the summer I could've gotten away with something less aggressive.

Edit to add:
Have I missed someone else's math on the break-even of an extra set of tires to change out seasonly? Is it even worth it financially? Or just F*** it and ride dirty all year, likely consuming more tire but worth avoiding the biannual PITA.

The math would (roughly) be take your existing spend on electricity annually and add 17.65% (15% loss due to tires = 17.65% increase in “fuel” use).

15k miles on 21s is about 6000kWh (assuming 2.5 mi/kWh avg). Then about another 1000kWh if you go with the ATs. Then (again, wild-ass assumptions) $0.31/kWh (using EA rate with subscription), that’s ~$300/year more in electricity.

If you don’t actually care about the extra 15% range because you’re not trying to extend what electrons you have on road-trips, then it’s really not worth it to swap back and forth assuming you’re paying someone else to do it.

All that said, I live in the bay area so that’s my calculus - back and forth to Tahoe but most miles in the dry/rain. If you live somewhere where you get real winters and ice, you really want to consider winter tires with studs, in which case ignore the math and stay alive.

I learned to drive in the Tahoe area and lived/drove there for decades. Have never personally done studded tires, but absolutely understand the appeal.

 

[Riviot]

The math would (roughly) be take your existing spend on electricity annually and add 17.65% (15% loss due to tires = 17.65% increase in “fuel” use).

15k miles on 21s is about 6000kWh (assuming 2.5 mi/kWh avg). Then about another 1000kWh if you go with the ATs. Then (again, wild-ass assumptions) $0.31/kWh (using EA rate with subscription), that’s ~$300/year more in electricity.

If you don’t actually care about the extra 15% range because you’re not trying to extend what electrons you have on road-trips, then it’s really not worth it to swap back and forth assuming you’re paying someone else to do it.

All that said, I live in the bay area so that’s my calculus - back and forth to Tahoe but most miles in the dry/rain. If you live somewhere where you get real winters and ice, you really want to consider winter tires with studs, in which case ignore the math and stay alive.

I learned to drive in the Tahoe area and lived/drove there for decades. Have never personally done studded tires, but absolutely understand the appeal.

I'm going to keep the stock Pirellis through winter and see how they do, 15k and I'm at 12/32" so . Perhaps I'll reassess in spring if I chew through them.

Sidebar: how is my tread depth at 12/32" at 15k when Rivian says they start at 10mm (12.59/32") and Tire Rack says 13/32"? Something doesn't seem right...

 

[Deleted member 7086]

It finally snowed enough in Northern Arizona to see how the R1T performs with 20 inch AT tires. The long and the short is it performs well in snow but watch out on ice. I attribute the ice performance to the weight of the vehicle, AT tires and regen braking even when set on standard.. My former Jeep GC with all season tires handled the same icy conditions extremely well. Hopefully the new snow mode will help. In the mean time my suggestion is to be very cautious on ice.

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