Shoeshear
Active Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.
I have a little spare time on my hands and I figured I’d throw my thoughts into the mix for anyone considering buying an R1T!
TLDR: An awesome truck that hits the sweet spot between cool and practical, but still suffers from a few, "new company problems" and has typical BEV benefits and drawbacks. I would definitely buy it again.
My vehicle: G2 R1T, storm blue, walnut slate sky interior, all terrain package. Max pack (140ish kwh)
Mileage: 7500miles
Purchase/lease/discounts - AT package was free as part of an incentive at the time of purchase. We leased and immediately bought out the car to capture the tax incentive. All told, it saved us about 7-8k (inclusive of the free AT package).
Charging setup: I have two level 2 EVSE/chargers at home; one for the Rivian and one for the Tesla. My wife and I drive a lot unfortunately and the Rivian is a thirsty beast.
Background: I'm a car and motorcycle enthusiast. I track my car (370z). This is our second EV and our first truck (have a model 3 perf). Never thought I’d be a truck guy…
Reason for purchase: I wanted a comfortable all wheel drive vehicle (for snowboarding trips) that was reasonably efficient for commuting (tired of riding the motorcycle 60 miles a day in heavy Los Angeles traffic), but that could also tow my car to the track and haul lumber as needed for my various woodworking projects. I picked the T over the S because I like the idea of having a bed to put fuel tanks and lumber in. I also think the T just looks better. The increased towing capacity and discussions that the T drove better were also factors.
Driving:
The truck is a lot easier to drive than I anticipated. It’s a lot narrower and shorter than the F150s I’ve driven (It’s actually narrower than my track car) and a clean view of the hood makes it pretty easy to tell where the nose and the front wheel placement is.
The steering feels decent, perhaps a little light. I think the steering rack ratio feels really good for a vehicle this size. The turning radius is also better than I expected, but still worse than most sedans (duh). The factory alignment feels a bit off. The steering wheel is a degree or two clockwise to drive straight, and under heavy acceleration, the car pulls slightly to the left. I noticed this even more while towing, probably because the front is much lighter.
Acceleration is mind-blowing. This is the most powerful vehicle I have ever driven. My prior Kawasaki Zx6r is probably the only thing I’ve driven that is faster than this in a straight line (that was 0-60mph in 3.2s).
The various driving modes make a tangible difference in ride comfort/harshness and in driving dynamics. The car drives much more “direct” in sport mode and has much less body roll and brake dive. Standard height in all purpose with soft damping is my go-to and it’s perfect for crappy so-cal roads.
Comfort/cabin
I haven’t had any HVAC problems personally, so all good there. The heat pump is a bit loud, but is not very audible on the highway (very noticeable at 50mph or less). Overall, a very comfortable place to be on road trips. Much quieter than any car I have owned. Not as quiet as the E-class Mercedes my parents had, but pretty dang good. Quieter than my wife’s Tesla and almost any ICE vehicle other than the aforementioned e-class. I’ve never had the fortune to sit in a Rolls or something like that.
Damping is pretty good for big bumps or lower frequency bumps. Really high frequency and sharp bumps definitely cause more noise to enter the cabin and you can feel the car have a harder time accommodating the innumerable small bumps.
ADAS:
I’m not a big ADAS or self driving guy… It’s fine on the Rivian, nothing fantastic. The Tesla ADAS is better in that you can use it in more places. I do feel that the Rivian steering and power/regen input is much smoother than the Tesla. I find that Tesla self-driving is a bit aggressive. I pretty much only use it as easier to use cruise control on the Rivian and it works fine for my purposes. There’s no traffic aware cruise while towing, it devolves to dumb cruise control, which is fine IMO.
Fast Charging/navigation:
Peak of 210kw is middle of the road nowadays. I find it perfectly adequate when I’m not towing. Driving to Oakland from home is about 370 miles and is a one stop ordeal. By the time I grab food, eat, bathroom break, and go back to the car, it’s basically done charging. The curve seems to have improved a bit since launch of the max pack, but nothing mind blowing. I time my road trips so that charging and eating coincide.
I find the navigation totally adequate. Sending directions from my phone to the RIvian is also awesome (but doesn’t work 100% of the time). I find that it is generally very conservative for estimated state of charge on arrival (it thinks you’ll drive less efficiently) and has you charge more than needed. I don’t mind this too much especially when towing. When I’m not towing, I plan to arrive with about 10-12% SOC.
I do wish that they would give the option to see the battery in kWh. Percentage is basically that, but I have to do some mental gymnastics to get an idea of how much range I have left if I want to push it a bit.
Efficiency:
I’m running right at 2mi/kwh on average without a trailer. Driving in lots of traffic, I get closer to 2.3 mi/kwh. Driving straight highway at 75 mph, I’m getting 2.0 mi/kwh. I drive almost all highway. Since I work mostly nights, I’m usually traffic-free.
Towing and towing efficiency:
I’ve done about 250 miles of towing now (so not really much compared to some of the others here). Going against the grain, I will say you can definitely feel the trailer. It is nothing at all like towing with an ICE vehicle (I’ve mostly towed with U-haul box trucks, but have also towed a motorcycle on my parents Audi Q5). The R1T is just a little slower, but has basically gone from utter insanity to just regular crazy fast. From a capability perspective, it feels like overkill.
Towing efficiency is about as expected. About a 30-40% range cut. I averaged about 1.2 mi/kwh towing a 5500 pound payload. ~3300lb car and ~2200lb trailer. Rivian’s towing weight estimate is VERY coarse. It seems like it only has increments of 500lbs. It would say 5000lbs sometimes, 5500 other times, and 6000 once… The 1.2 mi/kwh was obtained on a trip to Willow Springs from Los Angeles and back from there to LA. Lots of hills on the way, and I went form sea level to about 2500 feet, with peak elevation being about 3000 feet. It was about 100 miles each way. Temperature was about 50F in the morning and about 75-78 on the return trip.
Charging with a trailer was fine because I drove early in the morning, but I could see it being really annoying if you have to unhitch. Unhitching would add about 5-10 minutes to each stop. It takes me about 2 min to unhitch, and 5-6 minutes to hitch back up.
Overall, it’s pretty much perfect for my use case. It adds about 20-30 minutes every 100 miles. I am only towing about 5-6 times a year. For that limited amount of towing and for a trailer payload of only 5000-6000lbs, an ICE truck did not make sense at all (gas is almost $5/gallon for 87), especially considering that driving during the day in LA is 50-75% stop-and-go.
Other truck things:
The outlets and the air compressor at the back are awesome. One less thing I need at the track. I can't run a table saw off the outlets, but a shop vac and everything else runs fine. Camping mode auto-leveling was actually super helpful loading a 30-gallon air compressor into the bed. The gooseneck tailgate is cool and just about makes it adequate for getting sheet goods and 8ft boards from the lumber yard or the hardware store.
Build quallity/fit and finish:
I found this mostly to be all good. The caveat here is that I am not super sensitive about this stuff compared to some others. This is a new company with new company problems. I bought this as more of an enthusiast than a traditional consumer. I am pretty tolerant of quirks.
There are a couple of panel gaps in the lower door trim that would probably have some people melting down. The tailgate is *ever so slightly* misaligned. I didn’t even notice for the first 3 months.
The frunk cargo nets have a really janky mounting solution and don’t stay in place and just keep popping out.
At 7k miles, my windshield washer reservoir started leaking… it said it was low, I refilled it and quickly found that a gallon of windshield washer fluid was all over the garage…. Seems a bit silly on a new car.
I have had to reset the car 3 times. One display reset and one “full reset”.
Off-road/camping (none)
I can’t and won’t comment on its off-road capabilities. I know I got the AT package, but tbh, it just looks amazing. Yes, I’m a poser in that way, but I’m okay with that.
Conclusion:
The truck is inspiring to me, I look back a second time anytime I park it, and it feels great to drive. For me, the little issues that I have mentioned are essentially a non-issue. I like the company’s outlook (or what they say it is) and I love the idea of having a do-it-all vehicle. It definitely isn’t the vehicle for long-haul towing and it also doesn’t really make sense if you never use the truck stuff at-all. It’s a great Swiss Army knife of a vehicle with heavy bent towards lifestyle/“adventure” and light-duty truck things (mountain biking, powersports, overlanding). I have zero regrets (well, maybe I should have just gotten a used G1 quad, but other than that no regrets).
Only time will tell about long term reliability, but for now, things seem good!
Edit for spelling
Edit 2: totally forgot about the tonneau cover. I have the V2 (small slats) and it works great. Hasn’t broken yet, and sounds less ridiculous than the V1 and V1.5.
I have a little spare time on my hands and I figured I’d throw my thoughts into the mix for anyone considering buying an R1T!
TLDR: An awesome truck that hits the sweet spot between cool and practical, but still suffers from a few, "new company problems" and has typical BEV benefits and drawbacks. I would definitely buy it again.
My vehicle: G2 R1T, storm blue, walnut slate sky interior, all terrain package. Max pack (140ish kwh)
Mileage: 7500miles
Purchase/lease/discounts - AT package was free as part of an incentive at the time of purchase. We leased and immediately bought out the car to capture the tax incentive. All told, it saved us about 7-8k (inclusive of the free AT package).
Charging setup: I have two level 2 EVSE/chargers at home; one for the Rivian and one for the Tesla. My wife and I drive a lot unfortunately and the Rivian is a thirsty beast.
Background: I'm a car and motorcycle enthusiast. I track my car (370z). This is our second EV and our first truck (have a model 3 perf). Never thought I’d be a truck guy…
Reason for purchase: I wanted a comfortable all wheel drive vehicle (for snowboarding trips) that was reasonably efficient for commuting (tired of riding the motorcycle 60 miles a day in heavy Los Angeles traffic), but that could also tow my car to the track and haul lumber as needed for my various woodworking projects. I picked the T over the S because I like the idea of having a bed to put fuel tanks and lumber in. I also think the T just looks better. The increased towing capacity and discussions that the T drove better were also factors.
Driving:
The truck is a lot easier to drive than I anticipated. It’s a lot narrower and shorter than the F150s I’ve driven (It’s actually narrower than my track car) and a clean view of the hood makes it pretty easy to tell where the nose and the front wheel placement is.
The steering feels decent, perhaps a little light. I think the steering rack ratio feels really good for a vehicle this size. The turning radius is also better than I expected, but still worse than most sedans (duh). The factory alignment feels a bit off. The steering wheel is a degree or two clockwise to drive straight, and under heavy acceleration, the car pulls slightly to the left. I noticed this even more while towing, probably because the front is much lighter.
Acceleration is mind-blowing. This is the most powerful vehicle I have ever driven. My prior Kawasaki Zx6r is probably the only thing I’ve driven that is faster than this in a straight line (that was 0-60mph in 3.2s).
The various driving modes make a tangible difference in ride comfort/harshness and in driving dynamics. The car drives much more “direct” in sport mode and has much less body roll and brake dive. Standard height in all purpose with soft damping is my go-to and it’s perfect for crappy so-cal roads.
Comfort/cabin
I haven’t had any HVAC problems personally, so all good there. The heat pump is a bit loud, but is not very audible on the highway (very noticeable at 50mph or less). Overall, a very comfortable place to be on road trips. Much quieter than any car I have owned. Not as quiet as the E-class Mercedes my parents had, but pretty dang good. Quieter than my wife’s Tesla and almost any ICE vehicle other than the aforementioned e-class. I’ve never had the fortune to sit in a Rolls or something like that.
Damping is pretty good for big bumps or lower frequency bumps. Really high frequency and sharp bumps definitely cause more noise to enter the cabin and you can feel the car have a harder time accommodating the innumerable small bumps.
ADAS:
I’m not a big ADAS or self driving guy… It’s fine on the Rivian, nothing fantastic. The Tesla ADAS is better in that you can use it in more places. I do feel that the Rivian steering and power/regen input is much smoother than the Tesla. I find that Tesla self-driving is a bit aggressive. I pretty much only use it as easier to use cruise control on the Rivian and it works fine for my purposes. There’s no traffic aware cruise while towing, it devolves to dumb cruise control, which is fine IMO.
Fast Charging/navigation:
Peak of 210kw is middle of the road nowadays. I find it perfectly adequate when I’m not towing. Driving to Oakland from home is about 370 miles and is a one stop ordeal. By the time I grab food, eat, bathroom break, and go back to the car, it’s basically done charging. The curve seems to have improved a bit since launch of the max pack, but nothing mind blowing. I time my road trips so that charging and eating coincide.
I find the navigation totally adequate. Sending directions from my phone to the RIvian is also awesome (but doesn’t work 100% of the time). I find that it is generally very conservative for estimated state of charge on arrival (it thinks you’ll drive less efficiently) and has you charge more than needed. I don’t mind this too much especially when towing. When I’m not towing, I plan to arrive with about 10-12% SOC.
I do wish that they would give the option to see the battery in kWh. Percentage is basically that, but I have to do some mental gymnastics to get an idea of how much range I have left if I want to push it a bit.
Efficiency:
I’m running right at 2mi/kwh on average without a trailer. Driving in lots of traffic, I get closer to 2.3 mi/kwh. Driving straight highway at 75 mph, I’m getting 2.0 mi/kwh. I drive almost all highway. Since I work mostly nights, I’m usually traffic-free.
Towing and towing efficiency:
I’ve done about 250 miles of towing now (so not really much compared to some of the others here). Going against the grain, I will say you can definitely feel the trailer. It is nothing at all like towing with an ICE vehicle (I’ve mostly towed with U-haul box trucks, but have also towed a motorcycle on my parents Audi Q5). The R1T is just a little slower, but has basically gone from utter insanity to just regular crazy fast. From a capability perspective, it feels like overkill.
Towing efficiency is about as expected. About a 30-40% range cut. I averaged about 1.2 mi/kwh towing a 5500 pound payload. ~3300lb car and ~2200lb trailer. Rivian’s towing weight estimate is VERY coarse. It seems like it only has increments of 500lbs. It would say 5000lbs sometimes, 5500 other times, and 6000 once… The 1.2 mi/kwh was obtained on a trip to Willow Springs from Los Angeles and back from there to LA. Lots of hills on the way, and I went form sea level to about 2500 feet, with peak elevation being about 3000 feet. It was about 100 miles each way. Temperature was about 50F in the morning and about 75-78 on the return trip.
Charging with a trailer was fine because I drove early in the morning, but I could see it being really annoying if you have to unhitch. Unhitching would add about 5-10 minutes to each stop. It takes me about 2 min to unhitch, and 5-6 minutes to hitch back up.
Overall, it’s pretty much perfect for my use case. It adds about 20-30 minutes every 100 miles. I am only towing about 5-6 times a year. For that limited amount of towing and for a trailer payload of only 5000-6000lbs, an ICE truck did not make sense at all (gas is almost $5/gallon for 87), especially considering that driving during the day in LA is 50-75% stop-and-go.
Other truck things:
The outlets and the air compressor at the back are awesome. One less thing I need at the track. I can't run a table saw off the outlets, but a shop vac and everything else runs fine. Camping mode auto-leveling was actually super helpful loading a 30-gallon air compressor into the bed. The gooseneck tailgate is cool and just about makes it adequate for getting sheet goods and 8ft boards from the lumber yard or the hardware store.
Build quallity/fit and finish:
I found this mostly to be all good. The caveat here is that I am not super sensitive about this stuff compared to some others. This is a new company with new company problems. I bought this as more of an enthusiast than a traditional consumer. I am pretty tolerant of quirks.
There are a couple of panel gaps in the lower door trim that would probably have some people melting down. The tailgate is *ever so slightly* misaligned. I didn’t even notice for the first 3 months.
The frunk cargo nets have a really janky mounting solution and don’t stay in place and just keep popping out.
At 7k miles, my windshield washer reservoir started leaking… it said it was low, I refilled it and quickly found that a gallon of windshield washer fluid was all over the garage…. Seems a bit silly on a new car.
I have had to reset the car 3 times. One display reset and one “full reset”.
Off-road/camping (none)
I can’t and won’t comment on its off-road capabilities. I know I got the AT package, but tbh, it just looks amazing. Yes, I’m a poser in that way, but I’m okay with that.
Conclusion:
The truck is inspiring to me, I look back a second time anytime I park it, and it feels great to drive. For me, the little issues that I have mentioned are essentially a non-issue. I like the company’s outlook (or what they say it is) and I love the idea of having a do-it-all vehicle. It definitely isn’t the vehicle for long-haul towing and it also doesn’t really make sense if you never use the truck stuff at-all. It’s a great Swiss Army knife of a vehicle with heavy bent towards lifestyle/“adventure” and light-duty truck things (mountain biking, powersports, overlanding). I have zero regrets (well, maybe I should have just gotten a used G1 quad, but other than that no regrets).
Only time will tell about long term reliability, but for now, things seem good!
Edit for spelling
Edit 2: totally forgot about the tonneau cover. I have the V2 (small slats) and it works great. Hasn’t broken yet, and sounds less ridiculous than the V1 and V1.5.
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