Final Score R1T 1 Atmospheric River 1

[seatosummit]

So I put my R1T through the ringer a bit to start the year here in California. Spent the first week of the year in Truckee on an extended ski trip for my first real snow tests. Stayed in the Donner lake area and took the 40 to Sugar Bowl everyday except for once when it was closed and only 80 was open. One morning, pretty sure the 40 WAS closed but the gate was up so decided to give it a go. It was unplowed probably 6" at the bottom and 10" at the summit. Just on the stock 20" AT, low regen in AP and had no problems. You can feel the all wheel drive search for grip a few times, but over all super confident feel. The gate was down on the way home which I'm glad as I might have been tempted to head down and the 40 is pretty bendy road so might not have been the smartest move to take it down. These were a series of pretty wet storms with temps sitting around freezing so not a lot of hard ice, but for pushing through Sierra Cement, the Rivian answered all my needs. The Truckee RAN was great, used it a couple times. The only issue I had was with the spare compartment lid. Family of 5 with ski equipment (no racks) forced me to use every inch of storage, so I stuffed the kids bags in the spare compartment. That night it was frozen shut and the release latch snapped off when I gave it a yank. The release button inside the bed didn't trigger so searched here on the Forum and found I'm not the only one to encounter this. A hair dryer and 20 minutes of pry barring and the lid eventually released. Looking at things, it seems the spare lid wasn't qute mounted flush as the gaps vary from about 1/3" to touching. Any way, I feel the Rivian scored a victory over the Atmospheric River in the Sierra.
After that trip, it was back home to San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast of California where we just got hammered by some torrential rain storms. A section of the road to my winery was turned into a 4 foot deep creek for a couple days. The back way in is over an hour of driving vs 15 minutes and is still currently filled with sketchy 200 year old oaks ready to give up the ghost. The mud was so thick the county backed off trying to clear the road this week so I decided to see if the truck could make it. A friend with extraction gear followed me just in case and when we got to the mud zone, there was a Nissan Sentra abandoned in the middle. So had to approach my attempt a little slower so as not to smash into the car and to a deeper section than I would have liked, but boy did I sink fast. Sitting on the underbody after about 20 feet as the mud probably was 30" deep. The Sentra had mad it further! We used a 30,000lb kinetic rope pull me back out and it was smooth sliding. If you have never used a kinetic rope for extraction, I can't recommend them more. So smooth and no fear of a chain breaking or metal end snapping back to smash a window, what a great tool! My take away is that the Rivian will never be a great mudder without serious mods. It is just so heavy and designed for relatively narrow tires so you sink instantly. Everything was strengths and weaknesses and deep, thick mud is Rivian Kryptonite. Sorry no pics, was having too much fun and quite often getting a phone out is the last thing on my mind. (Fob user here!) So a late equalizer for the Atmospheric River as we are currently tied at 1 a piece. Not sure what the tie breaker is, but another storm is coming in a couple days and I got my Ego 18" chainsaw and charger loaded up in the gear tunnel just in case the all electric crew needs to clear some downed trees.

My R1T was in the Sugar Bowl garage between the 25th and 2nd while I was staying at my families house in the Village.

I saw a green R1T with ATs in the garage as I was leaving.

Didn't get a chance to drive old 40 down to Donner lake, but glad to hear your truck did well!

My 21s with factory all season tires left a bit to be desired. The traction control did a good job, but the lack of grip had it working harder than it needed to.

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