Sliding on snow + ice: thank goodness for Soft Sand Mode

Phrogz · Nov 11, 2024

1st gen Quad-Motor R1T, driving up a steep, paved mountain road during heavy snow storm. I'm in Snow mode, with traction control on. Wearing Toyo Open Country AT/III from last season; tread is a bit low, but not useless.

Cars ahead are stopped in the middle of the road with hazards on, in a section that I know to be the slipperiest part of the road. (Full shade, freezes before any other part of the road.) Like a fool, I stop to see what's going on. Cars are abandoned. I let off the brake, apply the accelerator…and the tires slip a bit and then the truck stops. Turn traction control down to limited: same result. Car refuses to move.

Switch to Offroad Rally mode. Worse results: the wheels spin, but I slide backwards and sideways, coming within a foot of one of the stopped cars.

Switch to Soft Sand mode. After averring that I'm in "soft sand", I give it the juice, and all tires start going. Spinning and sliding. For every 1' forward I travel 3' sliding left and right, but I keep going forward. 100' later I'm smelling burnt rubber, but I'm through the section and have traction again. Huzzah!

---

Throughout the week I got the same results on my steep, unplowed (side story) driveway with repeated new snow being added atop hard-packed, melted and re-frozen tracks. Snow mode would slip and slow and stop, but Soft Sand mode let me do silly sliding but make it to the top.

KBabione · Nov 11, 2024

I'm guessing you were desperate to find something that worked, but going to soft sand mode in an ice/snow scenario is just brilliant! Thanks for sharing.

R1TCntrlMaIzzy · Nov 11, 2024

Glad that worked for you.

No doubt you felt safe with the left to right action. What good is snow mode if it does not work?

sfvR1S · Nov 11, 2024

Rivian R1T R1S Sliding on snow + ice: thank goodness for Soft Sand Mode AS

I'm in L.A. so the likelihood of needing these is slim, but bought some anyway just in case.

Sidney · Nov 11, 2024

Did you try snow mode with traction control off? The way you described soft sand mode sounds a lot like having traction control off

Mellowyellow · Nov 11, 2024

Sliding down backwards almost hitting the next car sounds scary as heck. Glad it worked out!

Paul Hackett · Nov 11, 2024

Phrogz said:
1st gen Quad-Motor R1T, driving up a steep, paved mountain road during heavy snow storm. I'm in Snow mode, with traction control on. Wearing Toyo Open Country AT/III from last season; tread is a bit low, but not useless.

Cars ahead are stopped in the middle of the road with hazards on, in a section that I know to be the slipperiest part of the road. (Full shade, freezes before any other part of the road.) Like a fool, I stop to see what's going on. Cars are abandoned. I let off the brake, apply the accelerator…and the tires slip a bit and then the truck stops. Turn traction control down to limited: same result. Car refuses to move.

Switch to Offroad Rally mode. Worse results: the wheels spin, but I slide backwards and sideways, coming within a foot of one of the stopped cars.

Switch to Soft Sand mode. After averring that I'm in "soft sand", I give it the juice, and all tires start going. Spinning and sliding. For every 1' forward I travel 3' sliding left and right, but I keep going forward. 100' later I'm smelling burnt rubber, but I'm through the section and have traction again. Huzzah!

---

Throughout the week I got the same results on my steep, unplowed (side story) driveway with repeated new snow being added atop hard-packed, melted and re-frozen tracks. Snow mode would slip and slow and stop, but Soft Sand mode let me do silly sliding but make it to the top.

That's not encouraging. I too live in Boulder and one of the main purposes of my R1S order is to avoid having to drive my 25year old F250 in snow like we had last week with the plow on it but the F250 has front and rear ARB air lockers and old school pizza cutter tires that allow me to drop my 1,200 pound V-plow and plow up my 1/4 mile driveway off Lee Hill in that wet snow we had this past week; the down side is with the plow on I get a whopping 8 mpg. So here are my thoughts last weeks snow through Saturday night was a really slick snow and all wheel ain't old school 4x4, but most importantly tires and drive style in that snow. Tires, Tires, Tires. If you don't have the best snow tire for your car and are intimately familiar with identifying the snow and how to manage I think it's tough. Have you taken your truck to Barnsley on Valmont to see if they have a suggestion for an appropriate sized tire you can swap in during snow season? IMHO, no car or tire can conquer ice, packed snow with snow falling on it is tough and there are always periods during the day where the temperature and humidity combine to increase the slickness of the snow. But what would be optimal is Rivian providing the electronic equivalent to "locking front and or rear differentials." That would be a game changer!

CO-rayman · Nov 11, 2024

Phrogz said:
1st gen Quad-Motor R1T, driving up a steep, paved mountain road during heavy snow storm. I'm in Snow mode, with traction control on. Wearing Toyo Open Country AT/III from last season; tread is a bit low, but not useless.

Cars ahead are stopped in the middle of the road with hazards on, in a section that I know to be the slipperiest part of the road. (Full shade, freezes before any other part of the road.) Like a fool, I stop to see what's going on. Cars are abandoned. I let off the brake, apply the accelerator…and the tires slip a bit and then the truck stops. Turn traction control down to limited: same result. Car refuses to move.

Switch to Offroad Rally mode. Worse results: the wheels spin, but I slide backwards and sideways, coming within a foot of one of the stopped cars.

Switch to Soft Sand mode. After averring that I'm in "soft sand", I give it the juice, and all tires start going. Spinning and sliding. For every 1' forward I travel 3' sliding left and right, but I keep going forward. 100' later I'm smelling burnt rubber, but I'm through the section and have traction again. Huzzah!

---

Throughout the week I got the same results on my steep, unplowed (side story) driveway with repeated new snow being added atop hard-packed, melted and re-frozen tracks. Snow mode would slip and slow and stop, but Soft Sand mode let me do silly sliding but make it to the top.

Thanks for sharing the "soft sand" performance.

I too am in Colorado but south of you in Highlands Ranch. I am pretty sure we got more snow down here with this last two-footer storm.

In any case, my OE AT tires has lost some of the thread depth, so I switched to snow tires (Hankooks) and boy what a difference. The truck rides much smoother and no slipping even on steeper hills.

Last ski season, the new OE AT tires were okay until I hit a patch of ice in the mountains, but this year I decided to switch to snow tires since I do drive up the truck frequently for ski trips.

There is a whole different thread about the snow tires but I am very happy with the snow tire route now

I am expecting that I end up saving money too since the snow tires are less than half the cost of the AT tires.

Jakelake · Nov 11, 2024

Driving in snow and on Ice is all about the tires. Dedicated snow tires on a 2 wheel drive Jetta will out perform any 4 wheel drive with poor tires any day. I drove a Jetta in the mountains of Utah for 10 years in snow and ice conditions all winter. The Blizzak tires went on in November and came off at the end of March. Not once did I feel unsafe driving down I-80 to Salt Lake and not once was I stuck. I always slow down when conditions get really bad and I laugh at the cars and trucks that have passed me going 65 and 70 MPH and are now off the road waiting for a tow truck. I have a set of Michelin X Ice tires that I bought last year for the Rivian and I can't imagine a situation where I would be stuck in this truck. I'm sure it's possible and when we get a huge snow dump I think I will go out and test the Sand mode. I have a very steep driveway that will be the perfect testing ground.

Phrogz · Nov 11, 2024

sfvR1S said:
I'm in L.A. so the likelihood of needing these is slim, but bought some anyway just in case.

I have four of those, also. I used them last winter, and they work really, really well. They were my next step if I couldn't find a drive mode. The downside of them is that you need to be able to roll your wheels to put them on. Not a problem when you're on flat (even icy) ground. Much harder to apply if you're stuck deep in a snowbank, or you have to roll your wheels a precision amount while precariously parked on an icy incline.

Phrogz · Nov 11, 2024

Paul Hackett said:
Have you taken your truck to Barnsley on Valmont to see if they have a suggestion for an appropriate sized tire you can swap in during snow season?

Love Barnsley. The only place I go to. Last year they suggested the tires I currently have on. The Open Country A/T III are "three-peak mountain snowflake" rated. They worked great last year, and have worked fine on Magnolia in every case but this one incident. This review of them in snow likes them, too: https://www.snowest.com/2020/05/review-toyo-open-country-at3

But nothing short of studs (or the auto-socks!) is going to help much when the road hasn't been plowed yet and you're trying to climb a sheet of ice on pure rubber. And...I probably should really look at my tread more closely and see if it's time to replace them.

zefram47 · Nov 11, 2024

It's a 7000 lbs truck...actual winter tires make a big difference over 3PMSF ATs.

Phrogz · Nov 11, 2024

zefram47 said:
It's a 7000 lbs truck...actual winter tires make a big difference over 3PMSF ATs.

Yeah? That's good to know. I'd though 3PMSF was equivalent to a winter tire. I'll go find some true winter tires, then.

Thedude · Nov 11, 2024

Phrogz said:
Yeah? That's good to know. I'd though 3PMSF was equivalent to a winter tire. I'll go find some true winter tires, then.

Nope, the testing to get the 3PMSF is only done for accelerative traction on packed snow and the tire only has to perform 10% better than the standard industry test tire. There is no testing for lateral or braking traction at all for 3PMSF.

Lrak1973 · Nov 11, 2024

Phrogz said:
Love Barnsley. The only place I go to. Last year they suggested the tires I currently have on. The Open Country A/T III are "three-peak mountain snowflake" rated. They worked great last year, and have worked fine on Magnolia in every case but this one incident. This review of them in snow likes them, too: https://www.snowest.com/2020/05/review-toyo-open-country-at3

But nothing short of studs (or the auto-socks!) is going to help much when the road hasn't been plowed yet and you're trying to climb a sheet of ice on pure rubber. And...I probably should really look at my tread more closely and see if it's time to replace them.

I used the Blizzaks for last snow season in Arvada (and over Berhoud Pass several times). Cannot recommend enough. Huge difference over A/Ts.

Sliding on snow + ice: thank goodness for Soft Sand Mode

Phrogz

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