My R1T in Moab [Video]

[SACDFJC]

Well, remember. This is a 7000+ lbs. vehicle. Might not want to get too crazy low, I’m thinking.

My off-road truck is 6000 lbs unloaded, so not talking crazy. The Rivians have a built in compressor so you'll be fine. I say experiment with different pressures. Worst case scenario is you break a bead and have to air up or put the spare on.

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[R1T7777]

Hey all - Here is my video from Moab Utah in my R1T.

I was on a trail called Fins and Things in Sand Flats - North Entrance to Mile 7.7 exit - It was not a trail I had any previous experience on and I am not an experienced off-roader. I aired down to about 36 psi but it has been suggested I should have gone lower, sound off if you have experience. The truck clearly had lowered itself to standard height in some of the sections, I noticed it before the last section in the video. Also probably why I roughed up underside a bit.

Sorry about the audio I am not great at Video editing, I might try to improve it. Wind noise goes away if you want to hear the guys talking in the last section. Best line "You made it without a single scratch"

Looking good…other than the vertical video ?

 

[zipzag]

Most of my experience is in places like the Rubicon, Fordyce, Moab and the Hammers. I typically air down to around 10 psi. on the rocks and about 4 psi in snow. Running 37x12.5 tires on beadlock wheels. I want to increase the size of the contact patch as much as possible. I want the tires to wrap around the rocks when crawling to help me up those obstacles. Lower tire pressure also smooths out the ride A LOT. On a non-beadlock wheel like the Rivian, I would easily go down to 12-14 psi without worrying about breaking a bead or burping too much air out.

The problem is that Rivian has tires like diesel pickups. Because of the weight the sidewalls of the tires are stiff and the contact area isn't increased much. Rivian tires won't air down as well as even a standard gas fullsize pickup.

Rivian will handle hard surface traction well because of four electric motors. So rock crawling should be pretty good. But soft/slippery performance is undoubtedly poor due to the ratio of vehicle weight to tire contact surface.

So soft sand and mud will be trouble. No flotation.

 

[moosehead]

Nice work on FnT, JJ, let alone solo on a maiden voyage! You win the largest cajones trophy on Cinco de Mayo.

That last chute you could see the rear tailgate, and nearly the bottom of the front seats. On the first downhill around 0:40 mark were you just letting it roll no brakes?

 

[SACDFJC]

The problem is that Rivian has tires like diesel pickups. Because of the weight the sidewalls of the tires are stiff and the contact area isn't increased much. Rivian tires won't air down as well as even a standard gas fullsize pickup.

Rivian will handle hard surface traction well because of four electric motors. So rock crawling should be pretty good. But soft/slippery performance is undoubtedly poor due to the ratio of vehicle weight to tire contact surface.

So soft sand and mud will be trouble. No flotation.

Even better that they have thick sidewalls. Let all the air out and let the sidewalls do the work (j/k). Some of the bias ply offroad tires (i.e. Super Swampers) have such thick sidewalls that a lot of guys I know run even lower pressures like 4-5 psi. Some even run 0 psi in them. My experience says that even if the sidewall is thick, lowering the pressure will help with traction when compared to a tire inflated to street pressure.

I'd recommend experimenting with pressures. If it were me, depending upon the trail I would start around 12-14 psi. If the traction is good and the tires don't burp air I might go lower. If they burp air or break a bead I'd go higher.

 

[crashmtb]

The problem is that Rivian has tires like diesel pickups.

Except they don't. They are pointedly *not* LT tires.

Look at the load ratings.

 

[Zybane]

The problem is that Rivian has tires like diesel pickups. Because of the weight the sidewalls of the tires are stiff and the contact area isn't increased much.

Ya what sucks is if you put a decent off-road tire on the Rivian, your range is going to get smashed in the face. Not to mention to help aerodynamics, you are basically limited to a 34" tire due to the small wheel wells.

 

[dleepnw]

Hey all - Here is my video from Moab Utah in my R1T.

I was on a trail called Fins and Things in Sand Flats - North Entrance to Mile 7.7 exit - It was not a trail I had any previous experience on and I am not an experienced off-roader. I aired down to about 36 psi but it has been suggested I should have gone lower, sound off if you have experience. The truck clearly had lowered itself to standard height in some of the sections, I noticed it before the last section in the video. Also probably why I roughed up underside a bit.

Sorry about the audio I am not great at Video editing, I might try to improve it. Wind noise goes away if you want to hear the guys talking in the last section. Best line "You made it without a single scratch"

my understanding is every time you exit and reenter the vehicle, it will prompt you if you want to stay in your current drive mode and if you dont respond it will default to all purpose with standard ride height. its a weird feature but i heard thats what it does.

 

[No.92]

Not sure if this was asked already but did you have it in Rock Crawl mode with max height? Some parts look kinda low

 

[jjswan33]

my understanding is every time you exit and reenter the vehicle, it will prompt you if you want to stay in your current drive mode and if you dont respond it will default to all purpose with standard ride height. its a weird feature but i heard thats what it does.

Yeah exactly. The funny thing is if you respond that you do want to go back all purpose it will ask you if it’s safe to lower ride height.

 

[thrill]

Something manually set (ride height) should stay manually set.

 

[bsaik]

Looking good…other than the vertical video ?

Reminds me of this from a while back.

But Tiktok has made vertical video “normal” I’m afraid.

 

[Blakeney]

Hey all - Here is my video from Moab Utah in my R1T.

I was on a trail called Fins and Things in Sand Flats - North Entrance to Mile 7.7 exit - It was not a trail I had any previous experience on and I am not an experienced off-roader. I aired down to about 36 psi but it has been suggested I should have gone lower, sound off if you have experience. The truck clearly had lowered itself to standard height in some of the sections, I noticed it before the last section in the video. Also probably why I roughed up underside a bit.

Sorry about the audio I am not great at Video editing, I might try to improve it. Wind noise goes away if you want to hear the guys talking in the last section. Best line "You made it without a single scratch"

Awesome! Video does not do it justice! I just came back from there a few weeks ago with my RZR and even then some parts on Fins N Things I felt nervous going down! there are some tire drops and many potential areas where you are on 2 wheels! awesome job!

 

[zipzag]

Something manually set (ride height) should stay manually set.

I'm sure Rivian has received the message. Rivian even has some potential liability here, which should push this issue higher on the priority list.

 

[zefram47]

The problem is that Rivian has tires like diesel pickups. Because of the weight the sidewalls of the tires are stiff and the contact area isn't increased much. Rivian tires won't air down as well as even a standard gas fullsize pickup.

Rivian will handle hard surface traction well because of four electric motors. So rock crawling should be pretty good. But soft/slippery performance is undoubtedly poor due to the ratio of vehicle weight to tire contact surface.

So soft sand and mud will be trouble. No flotation.

Rivian ships with P-metric ATs, NOT LT rated tires. Most of us who off-road will likely wind up installing LT E-load rated tires at some point, which do have thicker sidewalls and typically deeper tread blocks. They will make more of an impact to range than the Pirelli P-metric ATs since they'll weigh probably 10 lbs more each as well. On my 4Runner, I routinely air down to around 20 psi, maybe a hair lower, with LT E-load tires. Funny enough, my 265/70/17 tires only have 0.3" more sidewall than the R1s 275/65/20. Though if I kept the 4Runner, I'd be upgrading to 285/70/17, which would have 0.9" more sidewall than the R1.

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