Ike Gauntlet: The UPDATED Rivian R1T Takes on the World's Toughest Towing Test! 

Trailer brake on the steering wheel is actually pretty cool. I like that feature.

Love it when these 2 get together . Always a laugh when you watch .

I do think its important to note the R1T range is with AT's is more or less the same as the Lightings on all seasons tires, and even more with conserve mode... Point being though, it would be even better with comparable all seasons. The video was awesome though, look forward to more content and happy to see such a big towing update from Rivian.

How about Affordability and Value as a Star? That is kind of important for those of us who have to pay for our vehicles.

A few weeks ago I drove the gauntlet in a 2008 Suburban in questionable condition, fully loaded with kids and stuff. My butthole was puckered the entire time. Luckily I know how to downshift and didn't turn the brakes into magma.

Wow an Ike on a Tuesday morning… what am I going to do on Saturday now?

I love the energy between you guys on the Ike! I look forward to these so keep it going!!

It would be nice if you guys would standardize the loads, at least having a standard load and an HD load. Even the variances in aero can make a huge difference, regardless of weight. The comparisons are nearly useless without standardization.

The range would improve drastically if you didn’t need to carry a spare vehicle with you.

Great video! I’m glad it appears they are able to regen more going downhill. I can’t wait to see how the dual motor does up & down the Ike. Hopefully we don’t have to wait long.

One day there will be even fast charging which will make it a more reasonable option. That said, if you don't tow up an Ike-esq mountain and just need to pull a boat to a regional lake its a great (expensive) option.

Great video. Thanks. I didn’t know it can tell you how much you’re towing. That’s a cool update. This truck has definitely gotten better.

Very cool test run guys, thank you for sharing!

An off-road adventure + sports vehicle that also just happens to be a truck that can tow.

This thing is great. Plus, when you dent it they total the vehicle or charge you 40k to fix the dent. 🙄

Anxious to see if the dual motor does better on regen being more efficient motors. If they draw less and run cooler, maybe they are better at putting power back into the battery

Tow mirrors would be a great option. Also, they should incorporate some sort of slide platform for their tunnel. Something that could be fully extended. Retrieving stuff in the center would be a PIA.

Thank you for using my suggestion to use the vehicles cruise control on the uphill section! It leaves it totally up to the computer and a more consistent time by setting the cruise to the speed limit.

Mr Truck : " you can fit a body in there" Note to self : Mr Truck might have had a sketchy past , approach with caution.

Andre, that pass thru under the front of the bed that you attempted to go thru is perfect for my mother-in-law. Rivian really did think of everything. Except how to keep it affordable.

I remember when TFL had an order in for one of these to test full time and cancelled it. Would love to see more testing of this and hopefully the price comes down further.

Should have used 21 inch or 22 inch wheels for max range. Awesome review you taught me alot about my own R1T for towing especially with the new over the air update.

Taking kWh spent uphill minus kWh gained downhill over 16 driven miles for the two directions gives 0.99mi/kWh for the Lightning (130mi range), 1.14mi/kWh for the Silverado (253mi range), and 1.33mi/kWh for the R1T (180mi range). The difference in battery size and charge speed means R1T and Silverado should charge in a similar amount of time and the Lightning would take about a third longer.

Cheers guys

I'm going to keep saying they need to add battery packs to the trailers.

I ran a payment calculator on this truck, if you financed for 8 yrs, managed a 2.9% interest rate, and put down enough money to buy a new loaded maverick, you could get the payment down to around $850 a month. That’s allot of money.

I did this the other night in a foot of fresh snow with 16 adults with a v10 with 0 visibility. It was super fun.

I need one of these.

Have you considered doing a towing comparison with electric trucks on hills that are lower than the Ike? I’d be curious to see if there is a performance difference for BEVs at high vs low altitudes. I don’t think you need to run tests on every BEV, but doing one or two might be interesting just to see.

Trying to figure out which Gen Y hitch that is. I need to pull 7500. Is it one of the phantoms or the mega?

What regen setting did you select? I drove from Montrose CO to Salida CO in high regen, all purpose with little cargo and on the way down I got the motors up to 266-277 degrees, which is in the orange and slightly under red. I pulled over and the temps dropped fast, but still.

Glad to see you guys keeping up on all sorts of marques, and keeping us all honest about EV trucking (the Cybertuck is going to have to work miracles to break out of the "pack")

Our highway up here in bc there’s a section that’s just shy of 20 kilometres long with varying grades of 6-8.8 and 8.8 being 6 km stretch at the very end. With very high elevation as well. Don’t remember that number tho. Id like to see some tests from someone on our highway sometime. Speed limit is 120 kmph as well. Also have another section of highway that’s somewhere around 38 km long of average 7 percent grade. There’s Definitly worse tests out there but the Ike is set up so nice and close to town with numerous lanes both of ours are 2 lane at most.

I can't wait for Whistle"in Diesels review of this truck.

I hope their next truck refresh has more modular body panels. More gaps to worry about, but way less expensive to fix. The truck already costs a small fortune as cool as it is. In a few years when my car is paid off, I hope someone like Toyota makes a plug in hybrid Tacoma. (maybe using their RAV4 Prime powertrain?) I want a small truck for weekend stuff. Full BEV would be nice, but I want the option of longer towing distances if needed. Or at the very least not be burdened with charging while towing. I also sometimes travel in the boonies where there's no charging during winter. It will be several years before there's no more charging gaps.

Why not try the new dual motor with max pack? Its out.

I'm glad Andrea pointed out those special tires, you can expect to pay a premium price for the replacements. In 1985 I bought my 1st brand new car & not knowing at the time it came with a weird size metric wheel, so when I went to replace them "& it was long after I bought the car" because they were a high performance tire with soft compound, was when I found out that only one company made two different size tire to fit that wheel, " Michelin" . I bought one new set & then replaced the wheel on the next go round.

Nice truck. One problem I see (other than range) is the location of the spare. You literally can’t put (or better not put) a slide in camper in the bed or the spare will become inaccessible.

You should check out the new NXU charger. It does have pull through I believe.

Mr Truck and Andrea. The best at TFL period.

You should get one with the Max Pack and see how that does!

Test the dual motor next.

Is it safe to run the cruise control in the slick weather. My car went off the road spinning it's tires doing that. Good thing no cars were around. i went into the ditch and spun out. The brakes wouldn't even release it. I had to release it by hand on the column. That's why I ask.

Anyone catch the easter-egg on the tires? The tread pattern cut in to the lugs is little lightning bolts...

Love the gun storage pass-through! This thing just needs a solar panel bed cover

Y'all keep mentioning the Silverado EV but that truck has been delayed until the end of next year. Can it really be the best when it's not for sale? Beyond that, another great video. I love seeing your tow tests on the Ike.

She hit about right smack dab square on the expected range for towing. If nothing else, the EV trucks and SUVs are showing us how energy intensive it is to tow trailers. With the power and fuel capacities of diesel and gas fueled models, we have successfully been disguising or down playing how much additional energy we are using to yank all of our trailers around.

Still not where I need it to be but getting closer.

What cameras are you using mounted inside the cab?

Check with your insurance carrier before you buy. As I see it unless the EV manufacturer offers insurance at a reasonable cost it will really become unaffordable. I am not going to buy until all this shakes out and the manufacturer gets their warranty on the experiment in order. Right now it could become a black hole for ownership.

I love that truck 🤓

Performance Dual Motor max battery pack is more expensive than the 4 motor large battery pack as an fyi.

I guess it wins the mid-sized-EV IKE towing crown.

Why do people believe electric motors don’t go bad? I replace electric motors all the time and even one hp motors are very expensive. I wonder how much a large one like in this truck costs, zero maintenance is just not true it has a lot of the same maintenance as an ICE vehicle just not the engine. However in the last ten years of ICE ownership the only problems I have ever had was ELECTRICAL problems and A/C issues. All the sensors on these EV will have problems just like ICE vehicles

Grandpa is cute lol. Bless his heart

Rivian Adventure Network stations have at least one Pull Through fast charging stall, for people who are towing.

Subtle Easter Egg, Look at the tread on the tires… “RJS” in the blocks. CEO of Rivians initials.

Unfortunately, the wet road won't allow for an apples-to-apples comparison with the Lightning and Silverado. Still, it's great to see another test of these trucks towing.

You two have too much fun :) Out of all the EV trucks I do believe the Rivian is engineered the best. Tesla should have avoided the CyberTruck and just bought out Rivian.

Which Gen-Y hitch are you guys using?

Mr. Truck is 500lbs in the mountains. His force is strong.

Which road is this?

I’d like to see the new Max Pack take on the Ike!

How would it determine the weight of the trailer vs the aerodynamic drag? Say you have a 5500 lb trailer flat bed trailer with steel plates on it vs a 5500 lb travel trailer. One tows a lot easier than the other but they still weigh the same.

Mr. Truck is like a drunk old uncle.

So, they said it started at 91kwh at the top, but we're at 83 when they got to the bottom, how do they figure they gained 8kwh by going down...

Never thought I’d see two Cowboy hats in a Rivian.

Rivian warranties the battery for 175000 mi or eight years. Between that which is almost 58 cents a mile to own you have to add regular maintenance like tires, brakes ets and the cost of the elect energy to run it. My rough guess is it costs you about 1.25 to 1.50 a mile to drive if you don't have breakdowns. I can go 7 miles in my car for that amount of money excluding the maintenance. Adding maintenance back over 175,000 mi probably would put me close the same cost per mile but my car will go a lot further than 175,000 miles. I have a Toyota. My last one went 400,000 mi. and still no rust or burning oil. They'll have to do better before I get an elect vehicle. I foresee huge problems with our grid when it becomes overloaded like CA has. We need to start with nuclear plants to do it right and actually have a gain. Using fossil fuels to supply elect is just a move sideways from the tail pipe to the Utility company smokestack to the atmosphere.

electric trucks 137 miles range while towing vs. my 1996 f250 7.3 that i get around 600 miles towing good trade

Started at 91kw but ended at 83kw how is that a gain? Lost energy going down hill? Did i miss something here?

So when you break down that 100 grand months that battery lasts what's that cost you and what's it worth at that point? I wonder here the will dispose of that very toxic battery when it's done?

I'd have to say out of all its competitors the rivian definitely hits the nail on the head.... I would say the Ford lightning should take the cake but they fell short with its initial purpose. Either way though all of these electric vehicles are extremely expensive and they lack one thing that is range especially while towing ....... If they could hit the 400 or 500 mi barrier these vehicles would not be an afterthought in the consumer market even with their price tag.

All I really care about is cost, range and recharge ease and time. I’m just a mere mortal so for now this is just a toy I will probably never own PS - $PRICE should be a star or a part of a star. Trucks are suppose to be practical but they really have not been for a long time and they should be rated for practicality

Andre, Tesla let Jay Leno drive the Tesla semi truck, How about seeing if Tesla will let you drive their semi fully loaded up the IKE.

You can flat tow these to charge them too.

Mr. Electrode! 😂😂😂

See InsideEVs story from 12/26/2023: "Rivian R1T Owner Says His Truck Has Been Out For Repairs For Eight Months for a damaged side camera"

That 8 mile climb costs a gallon in ice vehicles.

WHO CAN AFFORD THIS TRUCK?!??!! Truck prices are unaffordable, I’m out.

you made it because Andre had a ladybug on his left sleeve...You can see it crawling on his sleeve at the end of the video 🐞

Hope you don’t get a flat tire while hauling a load of plywood!

None of the rest of you are first. Except for Kent. He’s first in our hearts.

6:14 wacha wacha wacha

Obviously a huge hit to range when towing, but that seemed like the most smooth and drama-free test they've ever done.

With the amount of horse power it has it should have been a fullsize.

i thought you were tommy lee jones just on his voice

Mr. Truck, bigger tires ARE NOT easier to roll. The more the weight the more energy it takes to get them going and keeping them going. These tests are not equal or accurate. Let me explain. It will take less power at a full battery than a partly full battery. The lower the battery the faster it will discharge. The reason is as the voltage drops the amps increase. I suggest that you always do your EV tests just like you do your gas/diesel tests with a full tank if you want accurate tests. In this case with the test starting with the battery in the red or very close to the red the test was totally flawed. It would be simple to prove. Choose a day with the same temperatures, repeat the test with a full battery.

man.. just priced one out on the builder.... $99k... double what I would pay, 4x more than I want to pay for a camping rig...

20:02 the tiny all-red brake/turn signal combination lamp is a fail. Why can't any American car company, new or old, design proper tailllights with separate brake and amber turn signal lights? Is it ignorance, cheapness, other? I don't get it.

I think the first review or Ike Gauntlet for the Rivian, it has no trip computer and Rivian was sending the update. Lol what was that thinking for shipping it like that?

Very pretty truck. If I went EV then this is it. Nice

You should do this when it's FREEZING outside. See how it compares to warmer weather.

The Rivian is the best designed and thought out Truck of all the EV trucks. That brake controller in the steering wheel is something I've been hoping for in all trucks for a long time. It's just a shame that the company is going to go bankrupt along with most electric-only vehicle manufacturers.

Funny you didn’t mention the report last week that they are loosing 33k per vehicle and are asking suppliers for 40k in price reductions.

92k for a truck that can do 150 miles with trailer. Lol they smoking something.

It used the energy equivalent of about one gallon of gas going up hill, but a 20 gallon tank has a lot more stored energy @ 660 KWH V the 300 kwh the battery has.

Interesting but under 150 miles of towing isn’t a long term solution to haul loads lol

Tesla- The immature brother who says edgy garbage for clout. Rivian- The mature brother who doesn’t cause trouble.

I don't ever want to have this conversation...we got 30% we should be able to make it back. For trucks these are so impractical, especially with a trailer. What your going to drop trailer in town so you can charge? These trucks are good for getting groceries that's about it.

This truck towing a trailer up a hill has a faster 35-60 than my car with nothing inside but me, going slightly downhill. I think the truck is about 2.5X quicker. Lol.