The Rivian R1T is a special truck for a number of reasons. It was the first all-electric production pickup, it also happens to be incredibly fast, and we’ve even seen it go way off-road without any trouble. One owner in Idaho decided that he’d test out just how good it is at wading deep water by launching his boat from the beach. It passed with flying colors.
“Once I knew the R1T maximum water fording height was over 43 inches, I was instantly curious whether I could launch my boat in Bear Lake Idaho,” says the owner of the YouTube channel Rivvit. As he explains, this wasn’t just a generalized stunt or even a scientific quandary on its own. Ultimately, a number of factors played a role in his choice to risk his beloved Rivian in the waters of Bear Lake in North Idaho.
The lake is busy during this time of year and due to very limited launching spots a queue can form. Launching a boat can take several hours, he says. In addition, when the weather turns bad the same line can form in reverse as boaters try to get themselves and their crafts to safety. Launching from the beach makes a lot of sense in those circumstances provided that one has a vehicle that can do it safely.
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“Normally people use highly modified vehicles or, more often, tractors to do this if they’re brave enough to try it at all,” the video description says. It also goes on to describe the load in question. The boat is a 2004 Malibu 23 LSV which weighs around 4,000 pounds. The trailer itself tips the scales at 1,500 pounds, so the Rivian is pushing or pulling around three tons in this video.
As we can see in the footage, the R1T does the job as though it was built for it. In fact, fording water of this depth is actually one of the capabilities that Rivian highlights in its own documentation. According to Rivvit, they used the truck to launch and retrieve the boat “three or four” times in this manner.
During each attempt, they used the vehicle’s built-in “Off-Road Deep Sand” mode and benefited from the fact that the beach is very gradual and covered with hard sand. Evidently, traction was never an issue and the owner has two more Rivian vehicles on order. As one commenter on the video pointed out, this film should be an R1T commercial.
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