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Anyone switching to a Rivian R1T after watching reviews?

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It doesn't appear that Rivian has any sort of secret sauce that allowed them to bypasss the laws of physics with their tow range.

The Rivian R1T has a towing capacity of 11,000 lbs. According to the company’s website, towing at that weight will reduce range “by about 50%.”

TLDR; rated 315 miles and got 115 miles for 63% range reduction while towing in "real-world" test

 
While my old faithful F150 continues to do what I bought it to do (hunting, off road driving, hauling but not towing), I'm always interested in the new stuff coming to market. A few weeks back I was mt biking and came across a Rivian in the wild. I've seen the reviews and was impressed, so I went over to check out the vehicle.

It's not a truck. It's a utility vehicle of some sort, but the bed is pretty close to useless at 4.5 or so feet. In person, it looks even smaller. No way a snowmobile would fit and no way you could put an elk or big mulie buck in the bed. If you're the type who wants a truck for urban use (i.e., Home Depot and dump runs), maybe it will work, but for that kind of thing a sedan, wagon or CUV would be a better choice.

We also had just had some snow here and I asked the owner about performance in snow. As usual, it mostly depends on tires and this particular R1T didn't have snow rated tires so the snow performance was not anything special, other than the very important fact that with the battery spreading out weight across the entire chassis, there was much less tendency to fishtail or otherwise lose control (a huge deal, actually). But the bad news is that the owner said he drove the truck from Colorado into Montana and the range in cold weather/snow was not good (200 plus change real world miles, unloaded).

Pretty much a deal killer for me and others with similar needs. But it was actually far less goofy looking in person and the interior design and quality were very impressive.
 
While my old faithful F150 continues to do what I bought it to do (hunting, off road driving, hauling but not towing), I'm always interested in the new stuff coming to market. A few weeks back I was mt biking and came across a Rivian in the wild. I've seen the reviews and was impressed, so I went over to check out the vehicle.

It's not a truck. It's a utility vehicle of some sort, but the bed is pretty close to useless at 4.5 or so feet. In person, it looks even smaller. No way a snowmobile would fit and no way you could put an elk or big mulie buck in the bed. If you're the type who wants a truck for urban use (i.e., Home Depot and dump runs), maybe it will work, but for that kind of thing a sedan, wagon or CUV would be a better choice.

We also had just had some snow here and I asked the owner about performance in snow. As usual, it mostly depends on tires and this particular R1T didn't have snow rated tires so the snow performance was not anything special, other than the very important fact that with the battery spreading out weight across the entire chassis, there was much less tendency to fishtail or otherwise lose control (a huge deal, actually). But the bad news is that the owner said he drove the truck from Colorado into Montana and the range in cold weather/snow was not good (200 plus change real world miles, unloaded).

Pretty much a deal killer for me and others with similar needs. But it was actually far less goofy looking in person and the interior design and quality were very impressive.
If I lived in a cold place, I'd definitely look for the biggest range possible.
 
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Considering they were towing a 7,000 lb load at 73mph the 62% range loss is not unexpected.
How about just driving the truck without the trailer at 73mph and recording the range loss? I'm sure it's not trivial.

Now try towing a 3,500lb boat at 35mph (my trailering scenario) and see the much lower range loss.
Agreed. That article about towing with a Rivian, while correctly noting that the high speed contributed significantly to the range decrease, then focused on the weight of the truck and tow vehicle as being another major factor and never mentioned anything about aerodynamics. In fact, at that speed, tow weight impact on energy usage is far from the primary factor; it’s all about air resistance and speed. And the aerodynamics of what was being towed – a car on a flat bed open trailer — are terrible, and the aerodynamics of the Rivian body design are poor compared to say, a Model X. I have not been able to find a CD figure for the RT1 and I suspect the reason for that is that it is well over 0.30.

Elon has stated that “with extreme effort” Tesla might be able to get the Cybertruck CD down to 0.30. So it sounds like that is his goal but it is unlikely to be achieved. Rivian doesn’t even talk about CD.
 
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EVs just suck at towing.

Hardly. ICE’s have the same range reduction as EV’s, it’s just not as noticeable since there are gasoline/diesel stations on every corner and some trucks have enormous fuel tanks. EV’s have better/smoother acceleration and braking and have no worries about overheating in hot weather. With larger and more efficient batteries and the proliferation of charging stations the one advantage ICE’s have over EV’s will disappear.
 
If any EV truck has a chance at being a towing star... it will be the Tri-Motor Cybertruck with it's aerodynamic form and huge battery.

I love the Rivian R1T and have a $1,000 deposit down on one, but if I were a serious towing person... I would just go right for the Tri-Motor CT (which I also have a res. on) and be done with it.
 
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Hardly. ICE’s have the same range reduction as EV’s, it’s just not as noticeable since there are gasoline/diesel stations on every corner and some trucks have enormous fuel tanks. EV’s have better/smoother acceleration and braking and have no worries about overheating in hot weather. With larger and more efficient batteries and the proliferation of charging stations the one advantage ICE’s have over EV’s will disappear.

Doing some quick math. Range on R1T with the 20" wheels/tire combo is around 280 miles at 100%, or 252 miles at 90%. That basically means that one has to stop every 100 miles or so when towing a heavy load. Stopping every 1.5 hour for 45mns is just not realistic for long haul towing. Tri motor CT is probably the only EV truck that will make long haul heavy towing feasible on an EV. I don't have a dog in this fight, as I never tow anything further than few miles to the dump.
 
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Yup. Towing with an EV means you can keep up with traffic, even going uphill. Merging onto freeways is a non-issue. Regen going downhill instead of cooking your tranny and/or brakes is icing on the cake.

There's a company that makes and mods special hitches for Teslas. They had a Model 3 towing a rather large Airstream.

Hardly. ICE’s have the same range reduction as EV’s, it’s just not as noticeable since there are gasoline/diesel stations on every corner and some trucks have enormous fuel tanks. EV’s have better/smoother acceleration and braking and have no worries about overheating in hot weather. With larger and more efficient batteries and the proliferation of charging stations the one advantage ICE’s have over EV’s will disappear.
 
CyberTruck is not meant to be the First, it's meant to be the Best.

All things considered, competition is great for us and the more EV trucks we have on the road, the less ICE trucks there are. The Rivian did indeed impress me and I did configure one and contemplated pulling the trigger (I am a day one reservation holder on CT) but I keep going right back to basics, there is no car out there that matches Tesla in Software. To me, that is more important than charging network or 0-60.
 
Hardly. ICE’s have the same range reduction as EV’s
This is simply false. Pulling 7K of dead weight with a 90% unladen operational efficiency vehicle vs a 30% unladen operational efficiency vehicle will most certainly produce different results. The 90% efficiency vehicle (EV) cannot apply it's efficiency advantage to the 7K of dead weight. Zero advantage. That 7K requires a specific amount of energy to move it and it will have far greater impact to the 4 gallon equivalency battery pack than it will to the 20-40 gal tank of the ICE. Hence the EV suffers a much a greater range reduction. I have done thousands of miles of cross country towing about 5500 lbs (car on a flatbed trailer) at 72-75mph. My '08 Ram will go from 20mpg unloaded to 16.5mpg towing 5500+. That's only a 20% range reduction compared to the 50+% reduction of an EV in the same scenario. EVs with their tiny energy capacity batteries do, in fact, suck at moving weight in a timely manner.
 
😂😆

Sure...... The laws of physics don't apply to Ram gassers. Also, gassers out-accelerate EVs even though electric vehicles have more torque, all of which is available instanteously vs gassers that get max torque at high revs.

This is simply false. Pulling 7K of dead weight with a 90% unladen operational efficiency vehicle vs a 30% unladen operational efficiency vehicle will most certainly produce different results. The 90% efficiency vehicle (EV) cannot apply it's efficiency advantage to the 7K of dead weight. Zero advantage. That 7K requires a specific amount of energy to move it and it will have far greater impact to the 4 gallon equivalency battery pack than it will to the 20-40 gal tank of the ICE. Hence the EV suffers a much a greater range reduction. I have done thousands of miles of cross country towing about 5500 lbs (car on a flatbed trailer) at 72-75mph. My '08 Ram will go from 20mpg unloaded to 16.5mpg towing 5500+. That's only a 20% range reduction compared to the 50+% reduction of an EV in the same scenario. EVs with their tiny energy capacity batteries do, in fact, suck at moving weight in a timely manner.
 
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Stopping every 1.5 hour for 45mns is just not realistic for long haul towing.
I have towed my 18 ft travel trailer from California to New Mexico and back, stopping every 1.5 to 2 hours for no more than 30 minutes to charge at a Supercharger. It was a great trip. I don’t like to sit in a car for more than two hours anyway, I want to get out and stretch and walk around for a bit.

Yes, my trip took longer than it would have using an ICE. And some people can sit in a car for many more hours than I can tolerate. But my trip was quite “realistic”. My wife and I enjoyed it very much.
 
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Choices, choices...
R1T: right size (I don't need nor can I really fit a full size truck), and in the primary market I want (off-road, camping) it is well ahead of CT in amenities and details.
CT: just plain ugly IMHO, perhaps it looks better in person just like the R1T. I'd love to see it. Other than that, CT has much better value (and slightly price: max battery pack for each), better range, better network, better software, and home is Tesla ready.
Last : I actually have a Model X on order as well to replace my old X for only one reason: range from ~232 mi now up to ~350. While I know some on this forum camp with the X ... it's a bit of a square peg, round hole situation.
3 cars enter, 1 goes out... which one?
 
Choices, choices...
R1T: right size (I don't need nor can I really fit a full size truck), and in the primary market I want (off-road, camping) it is well ahead of CT in amenities and details.
CT: just plain ugly IMHO, perhaps it looks better in person just like the R1T. I'd love to see it. Other than that, CT has much better value (and slightly price: max battery pack for each), better range, better network, better software, and home is Tesla ready.
Last : I actually have a Model X on order as well to replace my old X for only one reason: range from ~232 mi now up to ~350. While I know some on this forum camp with the X ... it's a bit of a square peg, round hole situation.
3 cars enter, 1 goes out... which one?
When you get a chance to see the R1T in person you will be amazed.
 
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