[Question] Planning a trip to Big Bear, CA and wanting to take Robin (my R1S) offroading. Looking for recomendations.

RivianGuyG · Apr 30, 2024

Hey all I hope you all are doing well, I am planning a trip to Big Bear CA, and want to take my R1S off roading. I should preface the by saying I have never been offroading before, and currently running the road tires, I am however going to be getting the ATs from Rivian. I would greatly appreciate any advice you guys can give, and let me know if the charging up their is any good if I wanted to do the Butler Peak Fire Lookout.

Thanks in advance!

KAMM · Apr 30, 2024

There's a ton of fun trails that you will have no issues with your R1S. I have been running up there with a built out wrangler for a decade, and tons of trails that you only need good clearance. I havent taken my R1S up there yet, so can't speak on the charging options, but I believe i have seen others post that they are limited.

nomis · Apr 30, 2024

Butler Peak Fire Lookout looks to be a level 2 rated trail, easy work for the R1S. In terms of charging, looks like there are couple of 50-62 kw chargers in Bigbear/Fawnskin area. Not sure if you're planning on camping or not, but either way you should be fine just charging up at one of the 150+kw chargers in Redlands or other surrounding larger cities and skip charging in Bigbear.

Though I don't expect you to have any trouble on that trail, it would be wise to prepare some basic recovery equipment. I carry this with me:
https://www.gluetread.com/products/complete-tire-repair-kit?variant=41610058301645
in lieu of a spare, but if you have a spare; even better. Also might be a little overkill but I make it a habit to air down my tires to at least 30 psi whenever I go off road to allow the tires a bit more flex if/when encountering any sharp rocks.

RivianGuyG · May 1, 2024

KAMM said:
There's a ton of fun trails that you will have no issues with your R1S. I have been running up there with a built out wrangler for a decade, and tons of trails that you only need good clearance. I havent taken my R1S up there yet, so can't speak on the charging options, but I believe i have seen others post that they are limited.

Thank you, I did look through plug share, and most are in-front of hotels so I do not know if I need to be a guest or not to use them.

RivianGuyG · May 1, 2024

nomis said:
Butler Peak Fire Lookout looks to be a level 2 rated trail, easy work for the R1S. In terms of charging, looks like there are couple of 50-62 kw chargers in Bigbear/Fawnskin area. Not sure if you're planning on camping or not, but either way you should be fine just charging up at one of the 150+kw chargers in Redlands or other surrounding larger cities and skip charging in Bigbear.

Though I don't expect you to have any trouble on that trail, it would be wise to prepare some basic recovery equipment. I carry this with me:
https://www.gluetread.com/products/complete-tire-repair-kit?variant=41610058301645
in lieu of a spare, but if you have a spare; even better. Also might be a little overkill but I make it a habit to air down my tires to at least 30 psi whenever I go off road to allow the tires a bit more flex if/when encountering any sharp rocks.

Awesome! Sounds good! I do have a flat repair kit, I am not planning on doing any rock crawling as I have 0 experience and don't want to risk getting a flat.

Sounds great! Do you know if the onboard air compressor can deflate tires or would I need to get a nifty new toy?

mikehmb · May 1, 2024

RivianGuyG said:
Awesome! Sounds good! I do have a flat repair kit, I am not planning on doing any rock crawling as I have 0 experience and don't want to risk getting a flat.

Sounds great! Do you know if the onboard air compressor can deflate tires or would I need to get a nifty new toy?

New toy time! Get some auto-deflators. Totally worth it when you’re on the trail and want to quickly air down.

Others have also included 4-way air splitter on the compressor to really speed things up when they get back to the road. I haven’t personally done this, as I’m usually wandering around the truck muttering to myself about all the new damage I’ve done, hence giving me plenty of time to re-inflate.

RivianGuyG · May 1, 2024

mikehmb said:
New toy time! Get some auto-deflators. Totally worth it when you’re on the trail and want to quickly air down.

Others have also included 4-way air splitter on the compressor to really speed things up when they get back to the road. I haven’t personally done this, as I’m usually wandering around the truck muttering to myself about all the new damage I’ve done, hence giving me plenty of time to re-inflate.

awesome! Hopefully no damage will come while I go off road. lol.

If I was to go to Pismo Beach can I use road tires on the sand or should I stick with the AT?

mikehmb · May 1, 2024

RivianGuyG said:
awesome! Hopefully no damage will come while I go off road. lol.

If I was to go to Pismo Beach can I use road tires on the sand or should I stick with the AT?

Re Pismo: The benefit of airing down is increasing the contact patch and therefore the ability to minimize sinking in the sand. You can air the ATs down more than the all-seasons, generally speaking. Also they have a lot more bite.

Last time I was there, it was in my Tundra and it ran LTX AT2 which are a pretty street-oriented AT tire, and they were fine - but 1) I stayed on the ocean side in case something went wrong, and 2) that truck, while heavy, was still a half ton lighter than the R1T.

Cycliste · May 1, 2024

mikehmb said:
New toy time! Get some auto-deflators. Totally worth it when you’re on the trail and want to quickly air down.

Others have also included 4-way air splitter on the compressor to really speed things up when they get back to the road. I haven’t personally done this, as I’m usually wandering around the truck muttering to myself about all the new damage I’ve done, hence giving me plenty of time to re-inflate.

Mine arrives s00n!

https://s00nish.com/products/morrflate-quad-7-5-rivian-extension

RivianGuyG · May 1, 2024

mikehmb said:
Re Pismo: The benefit of airing down is increasing the contact patch and therefore the ability to minimize sinking in the sand. You can air the ATs down more than the all-seasons, generally speaking. Also they have a lot more bite.

Last time I was there, it was in my Tundra and it ran LTX AT2 which are a pretty street-oriented AT tire, and they were fine - but 1) I stayed on the ocean side in case something went wrong, and 2) that truck, while heavy, was still a half ton lighter than the R1T.

Oh okay! Yeah, I plan on taking it to the sand dunes, so ATs all the way! Thank you!