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Why Rivian Tires Sometimes Last as Little as 6k Miles
- nateb2022 3y ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37084895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37084895 (17 comments)
- hulitu 3y ago> a truck that weighs more than 7,000 lbs That's why.
- thejazzman 3y agoSpoiler alert next time, please..
- fragmede 3y agoMore like /r/savedyouaclick
- affyboi 3y agoExcept > But there’s more going on here than the fact that the R1T is heavy. > As it turns out, this excessive front tire wear can likely be tied back to Rivian’s “Conserve” drive mode.
- littlestymaar 3y agoBut the conclusion of the article is pretty unambiguous nonetheless: > Rotating tires regularly can also help. But ultimately, there’s no getting around the fact that you’re driving something that weighs as much as three Miatas.
- mulmen 3y agoI know you didn’t write this but what an idiotic take. How many Miatas exist? It’s a very uncommon car. At best it carries two people. Who cares about the weight difference between a Camry and a Diablo? Micro weight isn’t the problem macro environmental externalities are.
- littlestymaar 3y agoI don't even know what a Miatas is, but in fairness this monster weights as much as three Dacia Sandero which is the most common car in Europe and is a five-seater your can go on vacations with, so very much not a micro car. In fact I'm in the street in France right now, in vacation, and now that I checked at least half of the cars of the other tourists around me are around three times lighter than the “car” we're talking about…
- WirelessGigabit 3y agoIn Europe it's called an MX5.
- tadfisher 3y agoOver a million Miatas have been sold throughout its lifetime. It's definitely the most popular two-seat sports car and probably the most popular convertible in history.
- mulmen 3y agoIt’s still a niche vehicle. A million units over 34 years isn’t much by automotive standards.
- littlestymaar 3y agoA million over 34 years means 30k a year, which is approximately the number Rivian RT1 being sold right now[1], so the comparison is in fact very apt. [1]:16,452 units have been sold over the first two quarters of this year https://www.tesla-mag.com/tesla-model-y-leads-us-ev-market-in-1h-23/ https://www.tesla-mag.com/tesla-model-y-leads-us-ev-market-i...
- llamajams 3y agoIf that was the only see you'd see a lot of work trucks changing tyres as often as they change oil, which does not happen.
- bdcravens 3y agoThe typical F-150 is about 2000 lbs lighter. After a quick glance, it looks like the standard tires for the Rivian aren't as heavy duty as most truck tires. (I suspect Rivian wants a more comfortable ride vis-a-vis a standard work truck)
- genter 3y agoModern Dodge Ram with the Cummins is 7000 lbs. But a one ton truck is also going to have a much higher payload rating. Therefore, it's going to have tires with a higher load rating, not to mention more sidewall that will cushion road imperfections.
- globular-toast 3y agoCars are just getting worse and worse. What a fucking nightmare.
- Lammy 3y agoRelevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
- unglaublich 3y agoImagine the tonnes of plastic pollution generated yearly by these high levels of tire wear. If they don't pollute the air, they pollute the soil.
- jackvalentine 3y ago…and the rivers! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/21/chemical-from-tyres-linked-to-mass-salmon-deaths-in-us-found-in-australia-for-first-time https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/21/chemical...
- cinntaile 3y agoThey should probably start progressively tax the weight of an EV in a few years to encourage manufacturers to build lighter vehicles.
- gambiting 3y agoWhy EVs specifically, and not simply all vehicles? We have an EV that weighs 1200kg, and a normal ICE car that weighs 2200kg - if anything the latter should be paying more tax due to its weight.
- littlestymaar 3y agoThat's nuts, that's almost 50% heavier than a 7-seater van! “Your mama's so fat see needs a 7000 pounds truck to carry her” but for real…
- chakintosh 3y agoAnd can tow 11,000 lbs. And has over 1,231 N⋅m of torque.
- bdcravens 3y agoI just replaced the second tire on my wife's ID.4 in the 9 months (10k miles) she's had it. The first was from hitting debris on the freeway; the second turning a corner and curb-checking. The last one was a bit odd - it sliced the sidewall and actually cracked the rim, which had to be replaced. I'm guessing the load being carried has a lot to do with why this car seems so much more fragile than previous (I probably replaced 2-3 tires in the previous 10 years combined, mostly RAV4s)
- jacquesm 3y agoBy the time you crack a rim it would be a good idea to check what the state of the other rims and tires is, just in case. That doesn't sound good at all, you should be able to drive up a kerb and down the other side on tires with the right pressure without damage unless you scrape the wheel along a very high kerb.
- bipson 3y agoThat really depends on your tire and rim. Having low profile tires with light rims like those used on performance variants of Teslas and ID.3s/ID.4s/eTrons I would avoid curbs for sure.
- jacquesm 3y agoYou should avoid that kind of thing regardless of the construction of your rims but to have one crack through such an interaction isn't normal. Rims are supposed to abrade or deform in such a situation, not crack and if they do crack that's a sign that the tire wasn't properly pressurized or that there was some kind of material defect. Hence my advice to check out the others because there may be more to this than 'just' an unfortunate interaction between the wheel and the corner kerb stones. Unless it was a particularly violent impact, of course. I've never had a rim crack under any circumstance in many, many kilometers over a lifetime of driving and if it happened on a relatively new design of a car I would immediately take it to the manufacturer, they may have overlooked something. Honda had a similar thing happen in the 80's when they sold a new model and it turned out the tires didn't quite fit the rims as well as they should have leading to way too many blow outs (because the tires ended up being able to sit still while the rims rotated inside them, which ate up the inner ring of the sidewall).
- thedougd 3y agoI’ve noticed Rivian trucks in NC often have a “Weighted” license tag as the truck is near the weight limits for a standard license tag. I suspect it only matters when towing, but plenty of people seem to pay extra for it with their Rivian truck.
- dismalpedigree 3y agoHa. I saw one of these yesterday and was wondering what the “weighted” meant. Thanks!
- thrill 3y agoSince the R1T can tow 11,000 pounds and weighs about 7000 lbs with a GVWR of about 8500 lbs, and you need that tag in NC if you plus your toad (towed vehicle) is over 9000 lbs, then it's easiest to get it right up front.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y agoIt’s interesting that many vehicles are damaged or destroyed by being driven too gently, rather than too aggressively. Some Porsche cars have this problem where if you don’t drive the car hard enough, engine oil isn’t splashed over an internal rubber seal. Over time and without lubrication, the seal grows brittle and eventually fails, causing catastrophic engine failure. Similarly, cruising around at too low an RPM applies more force on the piston with each explosion, which also damages the engine over time. Driving in conserve mode on this truck is a new one for me.
- midoridensha 3y ago>Some Porsche cars have this problem where if you don’t drive the car hard enough, engine oil isn’t splashed over an internal rubber seal. Over time and without lubrication, the seal grows brittle and eventually fails, causing catastrophic engine failure. That's called "poor engineering".
- paradox460 3y agoPorsche engineering
- yakshaving_jgt 3y agoI think that's a reductive take. The cars I'm referring to are designed to be driven hard — they're performance vehicles. It's also bad for just about any car to sit for long periods of time without being run. That's not what it's built for, and unless you design cars professionally and have some authority on the topic, it's lazy to call this poor engineering.
- danpalmer 3y agoThis is a good point, but I wonder how many Porsches are actually used as performance vehicles? How many have ever been taken to a track day? I feel like many cars in that category, Porches in particular maybe, are status symbols only and other than driving a bit over the speed limit on a long road every now and again, they're not used in this way. Which then begs the question, should Porsche be designing for the car people envision, or the car people use? Probably the former because that's what sells the cars, but it's a weird state to be in.
- partiallypro 3y agoThis is an interesting topic to me, because electric vehicles are heavier than vehicles of similar sizes, but as of right now aren't paying gas tax which helps to keep the road maintained. Heavier vehicles wear on the road more than lower weight vehicles, so it's a bit regressive at the moment. Tangentially, there was a 60 Minutes or similar report recently on how the extra weight of the vehicles also makes them more dangerous to vehicles of similar sizes that are much less weight. Instead of being hit by a Ford Taurus with a lighter weight, you're basically being hit with an F-150 in the size of a Taurus.
- gambiting 3y ago>>Heavier vehicles wear on the road more than lower weight vehicles, so it's a bit regressive at the moment. The thing is - even if everyone in the world replaced their cars with Rivians, they won't do a fraction of a damage that trucks are doing to our roads. It doesn't matter in the slightest to your roads if you drive a 1 or 2 tonne vehicle - but that 40-tonne truck going over it absolutely does. >>Tangentially, there was a 60 Minutes or similar report recently on how the extra weight of the vehicles also makes them more dangerous to vehicles of similar sizes that are much less weight. That is very true.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y ago> there was a 60 Minutes or similar report recently on how the extra weight of the vehicles also makes them more dangerous to vehicles of similar sizes that are much less weight IIRC, this is also a problem for multistorey car parks because they aren't engineered to sustain that amount of weight.
- seltzered_ 3y agoThis depends on what state you're in. Some states have already have a tax on EVs that helps cover roadwork expenses - see https://mastodon.social/@vivekgani/110845726672888762 https://mastodon.social/@vivekgani/110845726672888762
- supernova87a 3y agoI find this story to be more highlighting / reminding of the phenomenon of clawback, and how do you slow people from consuming more and more. As soon as you achieve some gain in energy efficiency of anything, people find new ways to use even more energy. Make lights more energy efficient and LED-powered, and they put up more lights. Lower the cost of fuel or electricity, and they use even more. Make a car less polluting and powered by batteries, they make it even heavier and more energy consuming.
- 7e 3y agoIt's worse than that. EVs attract nails like nobody's business. It's a combination of the weight, torque, and rolling resistance optimizations, I think. This holds true for most EVs. I lost a tire completely at less than 250 miles. I've had ten flats in EVs in ten years of driving them, most non-repairable.
- dotancohen 3y agoAs a counterpoint, I've got 58,000 KM on my Model 3, which is AWD. I went to rotate the tires a few weeks ago and the tire technician found that the tires were worn very evenly across the tires and did not necessitate rotation. Checking with the tire gauge, the tire still has about half the _usable_ tread depth left. I've owned the vehicle for a year and a half, so I expect the tires to last 90,000 to 100,000 KM. These are the Michelins.