Colorado Checking In

[Aardvark]

Thanks for sharing. Off camber and slippery is scary in a Rivian. Probably in other vehicles too. But there was a guy on these forums (R.I.P. Power?) who insisted the quad motors are especially bad in camber slippery conditions because of how their traction control works.

I've played around a bit on both winter tires and the OEM ATs, and decided no thanks. I'll stick to summer wheeling if cliffs are involved. I'm not sure different tires would've made that pass much better, either snow tires or AT. But your tread depth is getting low so maybe that's the main issue.

Autosocks are supposed to get small holes and it's supposedly fine. (They're also only meant for pavement not gravel or rocks underneath, I think.) I'm not sure they're much benefit if you have AT tires. Both autosocks and ATs are good in fresh snow and bad on ice. Maybe autosocks are better on packed snow surfaces? But I wonder if chains would have helped more in your situation.

All great points. Thank you.
On the issue of snow chains or cables, the Rivian owners manual for the Gen 1 R1S advises against using them.
The biggest factor is the type and condition of the tires. But your comments raised another question for me. Would turning off traction control help or hurt in this situation?

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[zefram47]

OK I'm ready for true confessions now that my heart rate is back to normal. I made a rookie winter off-road mistake when heading into the Pike Natl Forest to cut a Christmas tree last week.
I decided to go up and over the mountains west of Monument on a narrow, rutted, dirt forest service road I've used before in the summer (see where this is going?). For context, it's 1.5 car-widths wide, granite wall on one side, and 100 to 300 foot drop on the other.
The road was snow-free at the 7000' level so no problem, I thought.
By the 9000' level, I'm in a combination of packed snow tire tracks from the couple of other trucks that tried this, and deep snow. Because of some good size rocks, I'm in Off-Road/high, low regen.
We had a few white knuckle moments as the R1S slid sideways, but inched along at 10 mph. There are few more sickening feelings than pointing 7500 lbs of truck straight ahead, and having it go sideways.
I'm on the OEM 20" ATs. I have 25000 miles on them, and about 6/32" of remaining tread. When I could find a level trailhead to pull off, we put on our new AutoSocks on the front wheels.
I've used Socks before on other vehicles with great success, but if I'm being honest, in this case I could feel no difference. Maybe because I used only 2 Socks instead of 4? Not only that, but when we took them off in Woodland Park, these new $300+ Socks had a number of tears and holes.
I've been reluctant to get a dedicated set of rims and snow tires, but I I'm reconsidering, and thinking about a set of Blizzaks like I used to use on my Model X. They were fantastic in the snow.

Oh, and I did not argue with my wife when she suggested we take the highway back home!

This is why I won't snow-wheel the Rivian. I've honestly never cared for snow wheeling even in my 4Runner since it often turned into a winch fest anyway, but this truck is substantially heavier and the quad-motor has a tendency to kick the rear out as if you had a locked diff since all four wheels on slick stuff means it has nothing to bias its traction estimates. I currently have Blizzak LT tires on (also last season) and they are substantially better than the OE Pirelli on-road...no clue how they'd be in deeper snow off-road though.

 

[usulio]

All great points. Thank you.
On the issue of snow chains or cables, the Rivian owners manual for the Gen 1 R1S advises against using them.
The biggest factor is the type and condition of the tires. But your comments raised another question for me. Would turning off traction control help or hurt in this situation?

Traction control - don't know

Chains or cables - more precisely, the owner's guide says cables only on 33" tires and then only on the rear. I suspect they might be ok on 34" at low speeds but haven't tried.

 

[zefram47]

Don't think this ever showed up on the Coming Soon list, but the RAN map currently shows a site in Del Norte, CO as being online along with the Flagler site (Diner on I-70) that we did know about.

 

[Aardvark]

Don't think this ever showed up on the Coming Soon list, but the RAN map currently shows a site in Del Norte, CO as being online along with the Flagler site (Diner on I-70) that we did know about.

Good catch on the Del Norte site. I wasn't aware of that one either. On PlugShare, the first user comment shows up on Dec 25, 2024.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Y’all be careful out there. That Fog and ice are gonna get some people killed.

 

[COdogman]

Snuck right up on us in Loveland. It is cold enough it started sticking to the roads pretty quickly. Drive safe!

 

[zefram47]

Y’all be careful out there. That Fog and ice are gonna get some people killed.

Glad Rivian included rear fog lights on our vehicles.

Blew my mind how many folks I saw blasting their high beams and binding themselves and everyone around them as well as some that only had their DRLs on even at night, meaning they had no rear lights on at all. Just unbelievable.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Glad Rivian included rear fog lights on our vehicles.

Blew my mind how many folks I saw blasting their high beams and binding themselves and everyone around them as well as some that only had their DRLs on even at night, meaning they had no rear lights on at all. Just unbelievable.

How many of those had Texas license plates ?

But I’m kidding, most people don’t know what to do when driving in fog. We’re a nation of amateur drivers.

 

[runningdenver]

We have a place in Leadville, and I worked from there mid-week. I drove up from Denver on Tuesday during a storm, and the road from Copper to Leadville was closed, so I stopped at the supercharger at Copper for the first time. It's got the magic dock, worked seamlessly and it was quick charging too. The coffee shops there is right there, and very nice. I'll definitely use this location again - better than the SC in Dillon imo, and the charging seemed much faster than the non SC options in Frisco and that area.

On Wednesday morning it was very cold in Leadville, -10F overnight - a few mins after setting off to drive back to Denver I got a bunch of warning lights - battery, motor issues, etc. It told me to get an immediate service, and capped the speed at 40 mph... That wasn't going to work for I-70, and I was cursing how I'd get the R1 back to the service center. I stopped and did a full reboot, and waited a few minutes. No warnings, so I slowly drove home. I'm guessing it was because of the cold - the motors were all under 32F when I started. I wondered if anyone else had similar issues in very cold temps ?

 

[Spaceball1]

We have a place in Leadville, and I worked from there mid-week. I drove up from Denver on Tuesday during a storm, and the road from Copper to Leadville was closed, so I stopped at the supercharger at Copper for the first time. It's got the magic dock, worked seamlessly and it was quick charging too. The coffee shops there is right there, and very nice. I'll definitely use this location again - better than the SC in Dillon imo, and the charging seemed much faster than the non SC options in Frisco and that area.

On Wednesday morning it was very cold in Leadville, -10F overnight - a few mins after setting off to drive back to Denver I got a bunch of warning lights - battery, motor issues, etc. It told me to get an immediate service, and capped the speed at 40 mph... That wasn't going to work for I-70, and I was cursing how I'd get the R1 back to the service center. I stopped and did a full reboot, and waited a few minutes. No warnings, so I slowly drove home. I'm guessing it was because of the cold - the motors were all under 32F when I started. I wondered if anyone else had similar issues in very cold temps ?

Bought my truck used in 2023 from Iowa and when driving home went through a snow storm. Wasn’t stupid cold, though. I had the exact same thing happen and pulled off like you did and did a hard reset. I think it was more snow related than cold but that’s just an hunch.

All was well from there on and it’s been almost two years and 25k miles, including several drives in the cold mountains for skiing. I did have service check the logs after that happened and all was well.

 

[Aardvark]

On Wednesday morning it was very cold in Leadville, -10F overnight - a few mins after setting off to drive back to Denver I got a bunch of warning lights - battery, motor issues, etc. It told me to get an immediate service, and capped the speed at 40 mph... That wasn't going to work for I-70, and I was cursing how I'd get the R1 back to the service center. I stopped and did a full reboot, and waited a few minutes. No warnings, so I slowly drove home. I'm guessing it was because of the cold - the motors were all under 32F when I started. I wondered if anyone else had similar issues in very cold temps ?

The second leg of my Colorado Springs to Philly trip on Wednesday started off in central Kansas at -6 deg F, and didn't climb over -1 deg until I was almost to St Louis, I didn't have the issues you described. I wonder if the bitter cold impacted your 12 V battery.

 

[Erik+]

The second leg of my Colorado Springs to Philly trip on Wednesday started off in central Kansas at -6 deg F, and didn't climb over -1 deg until I was almost to St Louis, I didn't have the issues you described. I wonder if the bitter cold impacted your 12 V battery.

Were you plugged in overnight or anything to start with a warm battery? I would guess keeping the pack warmer may help quite a bit when in cold weather.

 

[Aardvark]

The last, great charging deal is now gone. I always liked the Hays, KS RAN since it opened because they billed by the minute, not the kWh. My typical average price was always around 22 cents/kWh. But alas, I stopped there this past Tue night for the first time since July 2024, and the billing is now by the kWh at $0.44.
The RAN station still beats the heck out of the Electrify America station across the street at Walmart. The RAN is fast, reliable, and always has open slots. The Hays EA station is a roll of the dice,

 

[richpike]

The last, great charging deal is now gone. I always liked the Hays, KS RAN since it opened because they billed by the minute, not the kWh. My typical average price was always around 22 cents/kWh. But alas, I stopped there this past Tue night for the first time since July 2024, and the billing is now by the kWh at $0.44.
The RAN station still beats the heck out of the Electrify America station across the street at Walmart. The RAN is fast, reliable, and always has open slots. The Hays EA station is a roll of the dice,

Yeah - it switched about 6 months ago along with all the EA ones.

-Rich

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