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Towing down a steep grade - braking

Pickles

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I tow a 30 foot travel trailer that weighs 7500 lbs. I tow all around the southwest where steep grades are common. I use engine braking on my ICE truck on steep downhill grades to save the brakes from overheating. While the Rivian’s tow capabilities are impressive, how will it handle steep downhill braking with no engine braking? Regen braking in my experience can only absorb a limited amount of energy. A large heavy travel trailer pushing you down a hill needs a significant non brake slowing force to keep the brakes from overheating. How has Rivian addressed the issue of towing heavy weights down steep grades?
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CharonPDX

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Plan your trip so you will have lots of battery capacity empty to use regenerative braking when you reach your downhill. :-D

On my various EVs, regenerative braking can be quite powerful - hopefully Rivian (and Tesla, and Ford, and Chevy, etc) will offer "more regen" modes for when towing. I'm not sure what they could do when the battery is too full for max regen though...
 

SeaGeo

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Plan your trip so you will have lots of battery capacity empty to use regenerative braking when you reach your downhill. :-D

On my various EVs, regenerative braking can be quite powerful - hopefully Rivian (and Tesla, and Ford, and Chevy, etc) will offer "more regen" modes for when towing. I'm not sure what they could do when the battery is too full for max regen though...
Big breaks are still there for when the battery is too full.

unless someone is starting with a literally full battery at the top of a mountain, that really shouldn’t ever be the case though.
 

TessP100D

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Big breaks are still there for when the battery is too full.

unless someone is starting with a literally full battery at the top of a mountain, that really shouldn’t ever be the case though.
I agree but at the same time nobody really knows. Since nobody has any experience with an EV truck yet. It’s a concern for sure. Trucks are heavy and towing adds to that. It will be interesting to see what all the manufacturers come up with, or maybe they won’t have a different setting at all.
 

IHScout

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I tow a 30 foot travel trailer that weighs 7500 lbs. I tow all around the southwest where steep grades are common. I use engine braking on my ICE truck on steep downhill grades to save the brakes from overheating. While the Rivian’s tow capabilities are impressive, how will it handle steep downhill braking with no engine braking? Regen braking in my experience can only absorb a limited amount of energy. A large heavy travel trailer pushing you down a hill needs a significant non brake slowing force to keep the brakes from overheating. How has Rivian addressed the issue of towing heavy weights down steep grades?
In this video, they talk about downhill regenerative braking. They had to keep pressing the accelerator because the Regen was slowing the vehicle too much. Hope that helps.

 

kylealden

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With a dual-motor Model Y, I had plenty of regen to slow a 3500lb trailer even on pretty steep descents. I almost never touched the brakes in two weeks.

A quad-motor R1T should have even more regen potential, likely exceeding normal engine braking. You should be fine unless the battery is very cold or very full, in which case you'll need to use the brakes. The R1T has some beefy brakes which are otherwise rarely needed, so I wouldn't be too worried about the wear/fade.
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