Rivian R1T Goes Out and Tows 11,000 Lbs at Davis Dam in Hot Weather

Rivian goes out hot weather testing with a trailer.

2021 rivian r1t towing heavy hot weather

Rivian publishes this progress report today. The video you see below is a summary of the hot weather towing the company performed. Rivian hitched a large car hauler trailer behind an R1T prototype truck and went up and down several challenging mountain roads: Davis Dam Grade, Mt. Charleston, and others.

TFLtruck does not have a way to verify the information reported in this story. TFLtruck did not observe or participate in these tests.

The Davis Dam Grade is a very important real-world test because it part of the SAE J2807 towing standard test that all other pickup truck manufacturers follow and use for capacity certifications. Rivian engineers say that they were carefully monitoring the electric truck’s ability to maintain a relatively comfortable cabin temperature and a safe powertain temperature when ambient temps reached well above 100F. The company says that the trailer was loaded up to 11,000 lbs for some of this testing. 11,000 lbs is the maximum tow rating that the company initially communicated.

Rivian performed many of their tests at 55 MPH, but the company has not yet disclosed how towing a heavy trailer affected the total driving ranger of the truck. We also don’t know how the regenerative braking system performed. We will have to wait a bit longer in order to take the Rivian R1T on the Ike Gauntlet™ – world’s toughest towing test in Colorado.

Rivian R1T towing test support vehicles

It’s interesting to note that some of the support vehicles that assisted during this test included: Ram 1500, Ram 3500 dually, Tesla Model X, Land Rover Discovery, and others.