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Rivian - real world reviews

mcgaskins

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Recently Rivian produced the first production EV truck in history, and they invited some journalists to come experience it first hand in the wild. You will see a quite a few articles and Youtube videos from the journalists talking about their experience, so I figured it would be a good time to start a new thread to discuss real world reviews!

Some of you will recognize the trails and the spotter in the reviews :)



 
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gungriffin

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Looks like there are some really fun features in the R1T. The camp kitchen will definitely make it easy to make great food while camping. The only item that I have found in this review that seems like a big downside is the placement of the high voltage charge port. It seems like it is in a really exposed area on the front corner of the truck.
 

Inukshuk

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Inukshuk

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Johnny Utah

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And I learned things like the definition of "Wheel Spin": when the magnitude of the tangential velocity of the tire at the contact patch exceeds the magnitude of the linear velocity of the vehicle relative to the ground)
I’m going to find a way to work this into a conversation!!! I’ll sound so smart…for once. 😁
 

HDavis

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An off road comparison between the R1T, 100 series and a 3rd gen Tacoma. There are many factors at play but its cool to see vehicles we all know pretty well tackle the same obstacle as the R1T. I think the 1500 mile range comment is pretty funny. There's not much out there in the terms of ICE off roaders that are capable of that without time and effort spent finding fuel. Skip to 2:40 to move past the explanation of atrac and rear locker...
 

DaveInDenver

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And I learned things like the definition of "Wheel Spin": when the magnitude of the tangential velocity of the tire at the contact patch exceeds the magnitude of the linear velocity of the vehicle relative to the ground)
It's very simple. Angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the beat.

Screen Shot 2021-11-19 at 12.25.38 PM.png
 

MountainGoat

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That would have been more interesting with a better driver in the 100. Honestly he came into the obstacle with no momentum and was all over the brakes except when he needed them to power brake through it. (n)
 

gungriffin

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That would have been more interesting with a better driver in the 100. Honestly he came into the obstacle with no momentum and was all over the brakes except when he needed them to power brake through it. (n)
This was my exact thoughts. The 100 driver kept braking once they had momentum and then proceeded to steer left into the dirt berm for the next 45 seconds. Hell, a loaded Tacoma with only the center locker engaged made it right up.
 

DaveInDenver

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This was my exact thoughts. The 100 driver kept braking once they had momentum and then proceeded to steer left into the dirt berm for the next 45 seconds. Hell, a loaded Tacoma with only the center locker engaged made it right up.
It should be noted that Tacomas are just simple part time high/low range transfer case, no center diffs or anything. It'll have A-TRAC and maybe a rear diff e-locker.

It really shouldn't be surprising that a Rivian is good at this. The way the drivetrain works with a motor at each wheel is like having three lockers and A-TRAC on all the time. I don't think anyone can argue against the concept of torque vectoring.

Although being both front and rear independent suspension would be a limitation in some cases. Or so I'm told that solid axles rule, IFS drools, anyway.

In any case wheel travel and lifting wheels is a suspension problem that is independent of gas or electric. The Rivian is more like a Honda Ridgeline or Hummer than a Tacoma in that department. It would be interesting, I bet there's situations where the Cruiser and Tacoma with their solid rear axles and IFS would out perform the Rivian if it starts lifting two wheels and getting a lot of body roll.
 

RayRay27

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DaveInDenver

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Rivian R1T Tows a Sports Car Cross-Country, Stops at Every Walmart​

This story seems to have originated on a website called Drive Tesla Canada.


Another site has some interesting comments.


One key point is that the range for the truck went from 350 miles to 118 miles, which is a 62% reduction. Rivian I guess suggests it will be 50% when towing and it appears you should expect ~33% of original range. Towing, though, is recognized as a particularly difficult task for any EV.

What I haven't been able to determine is how long this trip took for them.

This whole trip is 2,172 miles with a Google Maps estimate of 32 hours of driving at the speed limit. I'd figure at least two overnight stops (e.g. 3 long days driving), although maybe 3 stops if you're pulling a trailer, with a gas burner. That's assuming mostly splash-and-whiz-and-go fills with no extended stops to sit down for a meal. The Google estimate has to figure a ~250 mile/~ 4 hour interval so 32 hours is more like 36 hours in reality when an average moving speed of 75 MPH goes to actual average of 60 MPH in travel time.

So I'd be curious how stopping every 100 miles for what had to be mostly full charges affected that. It's possible that by doing 100 mile legs they could get away with ~80% charges each time.

They had to average at least 30 minutes for each stop which means more like 45 minutes to hour when you combine trying to navigate traffic since Walmarts aren't located for highway fast on-off.

The couple seems to be involved professionally with Rivian or perhaps a competitor and Non-Disclosure Agreements seem to be the reason some details like that aren't forthcoming.

Did doing it with an EV add a day or did it take a week? Simply saying it "may" have taken 45 hours as a simple calculation on some mile legs with stops that took a theoretical stop in assumed minutes doesn't mean it actually didn't take 50 or 60 or who knows number of hours. There's only so many times you can stop for fuel and combine a charge with a stay or a meal when it's occurring every hour to 90 minutes.
 
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DanInDenver

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My son and I just did a 10 hour 680 mile trip in the X5 35d. Stopped once. He and I are let’s just get there type of drivers.
I can’t imagine every 90 minutes stopping. I’d feel like I was on a city bus.
Good to see people out testing EVs. Early work and feedback like this will lead to solutions or manage expectations of what that can be now and perhaps need to be in the future.
 

Notyourmomslx450

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White Stripe

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This story seems to have originated on a website called Drive Tesla Canada.


Another site has some interesting comments.


One key point is that the range for the truck went from 350 miles to 118 miles, which is a 62% reduction. Rivian I guess suggests it will be 50% when towing and it appears you should expect ~33% of original range. Towing, though, is recognized as a particularly difficult task for any EV.

What I haven't been able to determine is how long this trip took for them.

This whole trip is 2,172 miles with a Google Maps estimate of 32 hours of driving at the speed limit. I'd figure at least two overnight stops (e.g. 3 long days driving), although maybe 3 stops if you're pulling a trailer, with a gas burner. That's assuming mostly splash-and-whiz-and-go fills with no extended stops to sit down for a meal. The Google estimate has to figure a ~250 mile/~ 4 hour interval so 32 hours is more like 36 hours in reality when an average moving speed of 75 MPH goes to actual average of 60 MPH in travel time.

So I'd be curious how stopping every 100 miles for what had to be mostly full charges affected that. It's possible that by doing 100 mile legs they could get away with ~80% charges each time.

They had to average at least 30 minutes for each stop which means more like 45 minutes to hour when you combine trying to navigate traffic since Walmarts aren't located for highway fast on-off.

The couple seems to be involved professionally with Rivian or perhaps a competitor and Non-Disclosure Agreements seem to be the reason some details like that aren't forthcoming.

Did doing it with an EV add a day or did it take a week? Simply saying it "may" have taken 45 hours as a simple calculation on some mile legs with stops that took a theoretical stop in assumed minutes doesn't mean it actually didn't take 50 or 60 or who knows number of hours. There's only so many times you can stop for fuel and combine a charge with a stay or a meal when it's occurring every hour to 90 minutes.
I towed a 5 or 6k pound trailer with my 80 series recently nearly 2000 miles. The trailer is completely the opposite of aerodynamic and is a 10 foot tall brick. I got between 8 to 10mpg. Best I get unloaded is 14mpg. So I stopped every 130 miles or so. Basically I didn't want the tank below 1/3 of a tank in case I got to a stretch that was devoid of gas stations. Stops were usually no more than 5 to 10 minutes. I went about 60 to 65mph in vehicle speed the whole way. I probably had a total range of about 180 miles on the stock tank, maybe 200. I think once I went 160 miles before stopping. It was a tad on the frustrating side stopping so often. I'm surprised my cruiser made it honestly given its a rolling science experiment. Leaving at 8am, I drove straight through about 1300 miles, and made it to my friends house about 1400 miles away 10am the next day. I really didn't want to leave my trailer at a hotel overnight. I've had too many friends get stuff stolen out of trailers at hotels. Thus the reason for the push. With stops I averaged about 50 to 55 miles per hour on the trip. Because I stopped every 130 miles or so I had to stop a lot. I then left the next morning and drove the last 400 miles for a easy day. A long range tank would have been awesome as well as some heavier rear coils rather than my stockers.

If I was driving a electric and I had 118 miles of MAX range I personally would aim to stop at 60 to 70 miles. I just absolutely do not like to push range, especially with a trailer. Mainly this habit was formed driving to moab. I would leave Colorado with half a tank in my 40 and then forget there are no stations in utah for a while and pull up to a station on fumes. After stuff like that happened a few times, even running out of gas once, I changed my fuel habits. If 118 miles was the true absolute range for towing realistically it would take substantial way more time to go across country. Time=money. Stopping in general is a huge process. But if you have to wait close to an hour every stop it would pretty much double your travel time. What frustrates me about EV articles is you either get extreme positivity added to the articles to the point they are pretty much an opinion piece, or extreme negativity. I don't want any opinions. I just want data and real world experience of the facts of what happened. Then I can make my own decisions based on that. Leaving out the time it took to make the journey is a huge data point left out.
 

mcgaskins

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