Is this normal for a Rivian or was something going on with this one

skrypj

Well-known member

Ive seen a lot of people say the Rivian is a beast offroad on some of the Toyota/Lexus groups im on, and I imagined it might be with all the suspension and driveline wizardry, but this video kinda has me wondering. Is this normal? It seemed like it was really struggling whereas the $39000 Colorado with a G80 just kinda walked its way up. Aside from having to wait for the G80 to lock up, it did it mostly drama free.

I imagine throwing some 34" tires(vs the stock 32's) on the Colorado to match what the Rivian has would make them about even in terms of the clearance tests too.
 

Zybane

Active member
Rivian is not that good off road for a myriad of reasons; including electric motor stall at low speeds and no locked differentials.
 

XCvagn

Member
Locking differentials aren’t needed when each wheel has an independent motor (Quad Motor model). Driving it is different in that as you encounter situations like cross axle or even only have one traction tire, you have to give the system more power via the go pedal.

Here’s a demo of how it actually works very well. I’ve actually been in a situation where I sunk into a snow pack when I tried backing out of it while towing our 5000lbs trailer. I’d accidentally driven into an unmarked Nordic ski trail and when I realized it and went into reverse to slowly back out the tongue weight in reverse sunk us. I raised the suspension to gain air under the body but zero dice on traction out of the ruts. We shoveled a bit to position our maxtrax. One behind a rear tire and the other one behind the front tire diagonally across from the other (cross axle). It lifted out of the tire wells it had sunk into and we backed out with ease.


The other thing is that Rivian continuously improves it’s drivetrain and pushes out near monthly software updates with those improvements based on real world experience. One of the winter updates included enhanced tuning for the Off-Road Sand setting based on experiences from their engineering teams at the Rebelle Rally.
 

XCvagn

Member
Rivian is not that good off road for a myriad of reasons; including electric motor stall at low speeds and no locked differentials.
Quad motors don’t need old school locking diffs, far superior to primitive mode of finding traction by having all wheels spin from shared torque source. Instead sending torque to the motors that have traction.

Rivian’s lead engineer of powertrain briefly explains:

It’s the same reason G580 EQ doesn’t have locking differentials. The G wagon quad motor will have the advantage of having low transfer gears for each motor to amplify electric motors’ higher immediate torque given it has much less torque and power to start with vs. the R1S Quad Motor.

 
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crazysccrmd

Observer
The Rivian traction control software isn’t that great though. There were a lot of times off-road that I would have preferred a traditionally locking differential setup. Of course it’s all updatable with software so it should continuously get better over time. On paper a quad motor is excellent, in practice it isn’t the perfect solution it appears to be.
 

Lee

Member
Quad motor sounds really impressive and there are a lot of things that can be done with the software.
The problem is the software doesn’t know how to anticipate what comes next.
The tire needs to slow enough for the computer to realize something is wrong before the computer can do any of its tricks.
With a locker, once it is locked it’s too stupid to care what is happening.
So with a locker the tire doesn’t lose any momentum when it hits a rock/log it just starts climbing.
 

ThundahBeagle

Well-known member
HDMI, Display Port Adapter, and Updraft USB are each better than VGA with 3.5mm audio jacks because they relay better quality video and hdmi and Updraft USB even transfers audio. They even play a role in those "dual layer" DVDs that can confirm digital signature against bootlegging and video piracy. However, the computer that these connect to the monitor need constant updates when using them.

VGA is the Doc Emmet Brown of the video world. Just grab each end and the signal just runs through it, no questions asked, no failures unless physical damage exists

I like each for different reasons.

For offroad prowess in remote areas, I gotta fugure the more robust, less complicated, more fool proof system would be desired.

I have seen Rivians on the road and I like them a lot, at least until I get a real world look at a Canoo. But I'm thinking that a Jeep Ruby will have them both beat at this type of thing, for some years yet
 

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