First real tow with Rivian - Generally underwhelming experience

[2kwik4u]

I've got the same truck you have. Towed a car trailer with weight of 5500-7000 lbs multiple times. Electric brakes and standard hitch (not weight distributing or anti-sway). Experience has been great. No "fighting the trailer" issues. Something isn't right with your setup and from the symptoms it seems like possibly too little tongue weight at some ride heights. I appreciate all the detail - can you share a close up pic of the hitch on the trailer itself?

Quite agree that ACC should be available. "first, we kill all the lawyers who work with Rivian..."

Next time it's hooked up I'll take a shot of the full hitch setup.

I've had both light and heavy tongue weights in the past when towing. This didn't feel like a tongue weight issue. Trailer and truck were both quite stable from a sway perspective, and it wasn't as much a "porpoise" as it was a fore/aft oscillation. Here's one of the Audi with my Silverado on a trailer behind it. I didn't have the truck far enough forward when I first set out, and it was sketchy at best. Moved the truck about 2ft forward and it settled right now. Towed it a shade over 500mi home this way with zero issues after the adjustment. I've definitely played that game before and this was different.

For reference, this setup had a similar aluminum rise/drop hitch.

Last time I felt something like this was with my stepfather towing a 42ft 5th wheel with a 2500 Silverado. He had a gooseneck ball conversion kit, and the truck would "buck back and forth" like this on throttle transitions from on/off power. Those would eventually "settle out" once at speed.

I'm with you on the lawyer thing though

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[Donald Stanfield]

I think it's a solid 50/50, and likely poor expectations on my part for both halves of that.

Some of it is Rivian design decision stuff. No ACC, constant nags about braking, poorly calibrated cruise control, poor chassis dynamics (like due to poorly calibrated cruise control) aren't really EV centric. The prep time around the boat with lock/unlock hassle, and the oddly placed tow hitch are things I can easily work around, but still Rivian specific.

The range (and subsequent long distance hassles) thing, that's EV based and I admit to being more overconfident there than I should have been. Rose colored glasses and all. That can likely be slightly mitigated with a bigger battery and faster charging (reference GM pickup towing reviews and data). With that said, I'm now significantly gun shy on reading online reports of "best towing vehicle I've ever had" because of this experience. Heck, reading this thread there are a good number of people that are vehemently defending the Rivian as the best tow vehicle (as they should in their experience) they've owned, and the experience was relatively "whelming" for me. Not great, but not terrible either.

Fair enough. I’ve noticed the people who say the Rivian is the best they’ve ever had, myself included, tow something bigger with brakes than what you were towing. I’ve had a car trailer and my 7x16’ dual axle enclosed trailer loaded to the gills on my old T and the weight of the car and the power of the quad made it an excellent tow vehicle. Perhaps it’s the difference between the quad/tri and the dual you have as well?

An Audi Q7 couldn’t tow the trailers I have so maybe that’s why we have a different frame of reference.

 

[2kwik4u]

Fair enough. I’ve noticed the people who say the Rivian is the best they’ve ever had, myself included, tow something bigger with brakes than what you were towing. I’ve had a car trailer and my 7x16’ dual axle enclosed trailer loaded to the gills on my old T and the weight of the car and the power of the quad made it an excellent tow vehicle. Perhaps it’s the difference between the quad/tri and the dual you have as well?

An Audi Q7 couldn’t tow the trailers I have so maybe that’s why we have a different frame of reference.

What kills me is that even my 1500 Sierra was rated at 9,200lbs and would've handled those loads, and it wasn't like this. The power is noticeably different here with the Rivian and Q7 being MUCH stronger than the Sierra. The Sierra was very stable, and a good tow vehicle, but the Q7 was better even beyond that. The long wheelbase of the Sierra was helpful for stability, but I never noticed the short wheelbase in the Q7 being an issue. Likely because it's a small boat/trailer combo.

I do think a tri/quad truck would show significantly stronger from a power standpoint. The dual isn't anything spectacular in terms of power. It's just OK, and VERY similar to the power/weight combo of the Q7. I've had a quad motor S as a loaner a couple times, and it's absurdly powerful in comparison. My dual is "just OK", but it's not absurd like the quad motor vehicles are. Maybe the absurd power of the quad/tri masks some of the issue I saw, or at least makes them more tolerable?

Also, keep in mind, I'm not trying to say the Rivian is bad. It's not. It's actually quite good, and aside from some tech things like ACC and such, it's more than competitive. I think I just had far higher expectations than where it performed. Could very well be a "me" problem and not a "truck" problem.

 

[NY_Rob]

The whole towing quality experience will depend upon the tow vehicle you were using prior to towing with the Rivian.

I used to tow our (20ft) boat with our Honda Pilot, it was a very poor tow vehicle even though it was rated for our boat's weight. It was under-powered going up long grades and the braking was poor. The R1T Quad was a huge upgrade in both areas the Pilot was lacking. You literally could not feel our boat behind the Rivian vs the boat pushing the Pilot around.

 

[James Worden]

Michael, Super comprehensive and detailed report! I read it since I have a very similar set up right now and results are much better. This seems strange since I have the exact same truck (R1T dual motor non performance, long range battery) in a 2024 model year (or picked up on Oct 2024. I have the "RANGE" tire package so that might be different. The boat and trailer is about 3000 lbs and the boat is a Worden Marine TruSolar20 (solar cat). The truck and trailer seem to behave pretty well on backroads and faster roads. I kept to 65mph on the highway. I used cruise control sometimes and it seemed to work. I don't remember if the adaptive part was working or not. Energy use was reasonable as were the estimates. My only complaint about the truck is the huge amount of energy it consumes when parked, app closed and doing nothing at all, without doing any of the hacks smart forum users suggested to help the problem...I am waiting patiently for Rivian to hopefully keep improving with OTA updates or ways to make the truck go to a deeper sleep

 

[BCondrey]

You have open drinks in your cup holders? I towed a 3K trailer once, about 200 miles and had no problem with it. I forgot it was even back there. I don't do a lot of towing, but it seemed pretty solid to me.

 

[Anna Kelly]

One more tiny thing to factor in - if we EVER get to where we are generating most of our electricity in this country with non-carbon burning methods - you are saving the planet one towing trip at a time

 

[zymolysis]

No brakes at all on the trailer. Also checked the swing away tongue connection. All feels well there.

Might have just been the roadway, but the fore/aft leads me to feel like a poorly calibrated cruise control causing it.

It sounds like something that I experienced a few weeks ago with my R1T (quad G1). I wasn't towing. I was just driving, with ACC on. It felt like it was switching between power and braking, and felt jerky. It was annoying, so I finally turned ACC off. The next drive seemed fine. Since then, I have received suspension warnings, and the SC has ordered parts. I'm not sure what parts, or if the two are in any way related.

 

[2kwik4u]

You have open drinks in your cup holders? I towed a 3K trailer once, about 200 miles and had no problem with it. I forgot it was even back there. I don't do a lot of towing, but it seemed pretty solid to me.

Yea, I usually have a Yeti/Stanley style cup in the cupholder. I prefer an "open top" drinking experience to a straw or lid situation. Just a preference thing. It's almost always water, if there's something that will stain/stick I put a lid on it.

 

[2kwik4u]

It sounds like something that I experienced a few weeks ago with my R1T (quad G1). I wasn't towing. I was just driving, with ACC on. It felt like it was switching between power and braking, and felt jerky. It was annoying, so I finally turned ACC off. The next drive seemed fine. Since then, I have received suspension warnings, and the SC has ordered parts. I'm not sure what parts, or if the two are in any way related.

interesting.

I noticed it again today without the trailer. Was a downhill where the power required to maintain speed almost matched the power delivered by gravity. Like the truck doesn't know how to have "zero power input". It can't seem to figure out if it wants to regen or apply power. It just needs to "coast" to maintain speed and doesn't know how to handle that. The impact today was VERY minimal in comparison though as it was just me in an empty truck driving along.

 

[2kwik4u]

Michael, Super comprehensive and detailed report! I read it since I have a very similar set up right now and results are much better. This seems strange since I have the exact same truck (R1T dual motor non performance, long range battery) in a 2024 model year (or picked up on Oct 2024. I have the "RANGE" tire package so that might be different. The boat and trailer is about 3000 lbs and the boat is a Worden Marine TruSolar20 (solar cat). The truck and trailer seem to behave pretty well on backroads and faster roads. I kept to 65mph on the highway. I used cruise control sometimes and it seemed to work. I don't remember if the adaptive part was working or not. Energy use was reasonable as were the estimates. My only complaint about the truck is the huge amount of energy it consumes when parked, app closed and doing nothing at all, without doing any of the hacks smart forum users suggested to help the problem...I am waiting patiently for Rivian to hopefully keep improving with OTA updates or ways to make the truck go to a deeper sleep

Thanks for the feedback James.

I've been reflecting on the original post a bit lately. I'm pretty convinced that aside from a few of the issues (such as the poorly calibrated cruise), my overall "feel" of the truck not performing well is mostly a case of poor expectations being set. Those high expectations, as well as coming from an already excellent towing experience led to a relative disappointment.

I'm honestly struggling with the truck in general. I'm pretty convinced I don't want another one when this lease is up, however I'm also really struggling to find a strong competitor to take it's place.

Maybe 1045hp Tank Turns will be enough motivation to deal with weird towing traits, stupid PaaK, and a sunroof that doesn't open. Have another 25 payments to figure it out.

 

[EVtowing]

No adaptive cruise is a big disappointment here, especially on our longer towing trips. We had this on the Q7, and it worked great. I'm sure I don't have to explain the benefits here, and I'm really sad the Rivian doesn't have that tech built in.

I certainly sympathize. Although I hope to replace my 2017 Model X with an R2 next year, the X has always allowed the use of Tesla Adaptive Cruise Control while towing since Tesla first started selling the X in 2015. I use that feature on freeways and highways all the time while towing my 17 ft RV trailer.

I do not understand why Rivian doesn’t enable ACC while towing. Old style “dumb“ cruise control is just…dumb.

 

[Captblue]

I don’t have the dual motor, but I was wondering if anyone know if the rear motors disconnects while towing at highways speeds? That would increase efficiency?

 

[VandalSibs]

I don’t have the dual motor, but I was wondering if anyone know if the rear motors disconnects while towing at highways speeds? That would increase efficiency?

It does not. It stays engaged to help with stability while towing (at least I believe that's the reason, would need to double check).

Running only the single motor while towing most likely won't help all that much, as you are still needing to overcome the single biggest force while towing, which is aerodynamics. Number of motors involved isn't gonna change that.

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