Did This Rivian Just Out-Overland My Jeep Gladiator?

[@fpartidafpartida]

What I love about my Rivian R1S, is you can take it on trails like this, but then daily drive it. You can also race super cars and win, even with the all-terrane tires. I love car camping in the back of it when I mountain bike. No rooftop tent needed, no Jackery needed. It has a built in air compressor, that I use for my bike tires as well as for the vehicle. All my gear and bags fit nicely in the front trunk (where the engine normally goes) and in the space where the gas tank normally goes. So when I head into town, there’s nothing to smash and grab (everything is out of sight).

[@miami3863]

Spot on! I just took my R1S out to Angelina National Forest for some dispersed camping last weekend. Next weekend my wife and I are going to a black tie event. R1S can rough it, and also clean up and look sophisticated on a night on the town.

[@ChargeOverland]

Such a great trip man! Thanks again for having me out 🙌 Great to spend some time with you and Greg!

[@TrailNewbie]

This was awesome to watch! What a great video!! Great hanging out with you and Stephen. 👊🏼👏🏻 And, I can confirm, there was no Rivian sponsorship here. 😂 We are all just ordinary guys. Hanging out and putting our rigs to the test! 👏🏻👏🏻 Until next time. 🙌🏻

[@ShaneHilde]

Love the drone shots. Adds a whole other dimension.

[@robp3431]

Awesome scenery, well done !!!

[@montyjcm]

Love the video ! Having just sold 😢 my JTRD and now with an R1S, I will say I am super impressed with what the rivian can do offroad. JT definitely had more potential once you went down the mod path, but stock be stock, the rivian is just as confidence inspiring . Plus the suspension adaptivity is amazing (not to mention the power and on road manners) Range is definitely a real thing if you are on multi day adventures , but for the average weekender on the west coast, it’s doable as people are proving. Both trucks are great, and it’s fun to have options

[@GrablifeCO]

Super cool to see Trail Newbie with you. He’s got some great content as well.

[@TrailNewbie]

Oh man! Thank you so much! It was totally a pleasure to hang out with these guys! Both Justin and Stephen are just all around good genuine guys. 👊🏼 Thanks for watching and for the kind comment! 😃

[@mariomarez2223]

Happy to see you met up with trail newbie! These are the pioneer days of going off road and dry camping with an EV. It’s far from perfect and you do have to watch your days out there for recharging. I’m dry camping with a 3” raised Lightning with a slide in Four Wheel Camper. Where that can’t take me, I load up my Badlands with a rooftop tent and take that. Like I said pioneer days for EV overlanding.

[@TrailNewbie]

Thanks for the shout out here! It was great to hang out with Justin and Stephen!

[@flyfisher530]

Great video Justin! Love seeing my buddy @trailnewbie getting out there with you to one of my favorite places to camp and flyfish! Totally impressed by the Rivian and your time lapse shots of the night sky were epic!👍

[@TrailNewbie]

We missed you Mike!!! 😭 We will get out there soon buddy!!

[@toddsparks6900]

I've got an R1T and a Bronco. Don't get me wrong, the Rivian is super capable but there is definitely something about having a vehicle that offers more modularity and customization. I've finally gotten over the majority of range anxiety and will be doing a little more off-roading with it but I'll never be as adventurous with the Rivian as I am with the Bronco. Also, it's still outrageously expensive to repair even small issues on the R1T. Love the content though Justin!

[@JustinBMcBride]

The repair costs are unworldly! I’ve heard of minor bumps costing upwards of $30k! I don’t even understand how that is possible.

[@Teamvenomracing]

Not even close to true. Those articles were from shops trying to bleed insurance companies. @@JustinBMcBride

[@Cjdergrosse]

Great Video! I have a R1T, while he may have more range available at the end, you can easily replenish on the go. We aren't there (yet). Just got back from a camping trip, had a little anxiety, but its going away slowly. I have some solar panels + battery backup, but I can only reasonably add ~1 mile per day, its only a 1.3kWh backup battery.

[@filipinovegaslife70]

That Timelapse astrophotography was awesome! Do you have a tutorial on that? If not, you should make one. I’ve only learned how to do single shot astrophotography but not a Timelapse.

[@ernieking2674]

Sure love the channel. Thank you for all you do

[@peteNthompson]

Love this!

[@tll2012]

Really great Camera work, I enjoyed that.

[@freddieweisbrod]

Wanted to see a bit more about the rivian and what set up he was rocking. Maybe for a later video

[@JustinBMcBride]

Go check out @charge Overland his entire channel is dedicated to his Rivian.

[@freddieweisbrod]

@@JustinBMcBride Sweet, will do. Great video though. Was actually pretty cool seeing the iPhones cinematic mode

[@jaimeduncan6167]

The Rivian did fantastic to be stock. The problem is that, basically, stock is the only way it can be. Serius 4x4 are platforms that the owner goes tunning little by little. Even an old Toyota, well prepared will do a better job than most vehicles. Also easy to repair in terms of time, labor and cost is important: you are going to hit your 4x4 Again for being first-generation technology, and with no preparation is just fantastic. I will be surprised if the CyberTruck can go even closer to this performance.

[@pleinairbarnettoutdoors]

Previous outdoorsman here, wayyy off grid, mechanical is always more reliable than electric-electronic

[@JustinBMcBride]

Made more repairable.

[@googleuser2170]

It will be a few years before an electric vehicle is on my shopping list, but if a person does not admit the Rivian is an impressive machine, they have let their bias blind them. Additionally I was surprised at the range he had left at the end.

[@jnewry]

which rails are those with the drop down step?? Those are fire.

[@JustinBMcBride]

They are the Rockslide Engineering ones.

[@teamtaggedout]

Justin what are those running boards on the Jeep? I dig the step coming in and out with door open/close.

[@JustinBMcBride]

They are from Rockslide Engineering

[@craigwojciechowski8322]

Great videos, great channel! Personal question?! What’s the offset on your wheels? Thank you!!!!

[@JustinBMcBride]

teraflex.com/nomad-split-spoke-off-road-wheel-5x5-12mm-metallic-black.html

[@Bear_Adventures]

Where in the Tahoe area is this?

[@RyanOttawayMartin]

Bush league…just fries? Animal Style baby! 😅

[@brandonnelson4164]

What leg system is that for the front runner boxes?

[@SkywhiteChannel]

I guess I’ll be the internet troll on this one. Nice video BTW. For me, EV’s are just not there for off-roading. Tahoe is not remote. Nor is anything right off 395. Even then, I doubt he did the trip on one charge and then everyone had to wait and wait. And that’s assuming the charger was available, working and charging at a fast speed, which are all big if’s. I have a Tesla so I have some experience with this. Oh and the leveling truck, it’s been around on Land Rover’s for over 10 years. Personally I think you made the right decision on your vehicle. Cheers.

[@JustinBMcBride]

I wouldn’t call you a troll. Unless being a troll is being practical. I will say, we met up at a charge/fuel station where we both “topped off” before heading for the two nights of camping and he left the trail with more remaining range than the Gladiator. Although the payoff is that the Gladiator walked over everything without issue and he had to be creative with his lines.

[@martinekstrom6303]

They all started topped off. The Rivian had more juice left when they finished the trip.

[@WhiskeySkyMedia]

impressive night to dayTL by the iphone

[@fmonk]

Sick ammo can propane fire pit?? details?

[@davidcarrico3385]

Great video. Question on the tilting frig setup. How are you liking that, now that you’ve used it for awhile? Seems like a lot to go through just to pull out a yogurt, but would like to hear your thoughts. On a separate note, I have a tailgate table and now kicking myself for not getting one with a side pull out cutting board (like shown in your video).

[@JustinBMcBride]

I love it. It’s not a lot of work at all. It was more work when the fridge wasn’t on a slide. Look up the Outback Adventure Trailgater. That’s the table you need.

[@Desmo1]

Don't think planning my trip around potential operational charging stations, as well as the downtime while charging is something I wanna engage with if I'm trying to have a fun trip overloading.

[@JustinBMcBride]

I find the added challenge intriguing. It’s like playing on hard mode. The range of the R1T is better than what I was getting in my 2-Door Bronco, and that intrigues me because we were really good at driving all of Highway 1, part of the Pony Express, and the entirety of white rim on the 230 mile range of the Bronco.

[@martinekstrom6303]

I missed the part where that happened. Any time stamp?

[@rambokd]

I’m with you, love new tech…however you can carry ?? Miles of fuel in rotopax. He has to carry a generator and really plan his trip. I never had range anxiety with any of my jeeps, but I’m always watching my range on my Tesla. And the time to charge, well you don’t think about until you live it.

[@rvboyett]

Well, he wouldn't be carrying a generator, but I get where you're coming from. Yet, that was about a 1000 mile trip and the R1T made it using the existing charging infrastructure. You're absolutely right it requires planning but really it isn't that hard. I don't really overland but I take my R1T 4 wheelin' and camping on the trails around Colorado. it really hasn't been that big of a deal for me.

[@RedHawkish]

do your steps go down every time you open the door? i'm guessing you can turn that off if you need to? look interesting. are they load bearing as well?

[@youtubecarspottersguide1]

nice if the wagon- s.u.v. could lose some wt, get rid of the 3rd row and luxury car bits it would be ideal size as I like the shorter wheel base of the wagon /suv size rigs

[@JustinBMcBride]

And the glass roof. That is one of the biggest killers for me. This is still the very very early days, but it does feel like we’re on the right path to EV-landing.

[@VideosOffRoad]

Serious question: if the Rivian runs out of energy on a moderately difficult trail where a tow truck may not be readily able to go, what exactly do you do? You can't exactly bring a jerry can full of gasoline to it. ???

[@Shabobidhuffy]

Mobile battery pack , gasoline electric generator, and even solar panels with inverter. Much more time , but if you think about it, with the solar panels idea you can make energy in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like you can drill for petroleum where you get stuck and then refine it and make your own gasoline on the spot. Also, even if you just use gasoline and the electric generator, it would be a better use of the gasoline “per mile” because of the EV efficiency ironically. Like maybe 7mpg or less with a gas engine off road … but double the efficiency per gallon of the same gasoline, if you put it into an electric gas generator first and then just charged your EV with it on the spot (just like a locomotive train 🚊 does)

[@fpartidafpartida]

You would need some really poor planning to find yourself in that situation.

[@steves2241]

It's not really a fair test when the tires on the red Jeep are much bigger, and more of an off road tire than the tires on the Rivian. I had a Toyota FJ-40 Land Cruiser for 5 years and took it off road a thousand times, and tires make a big difference. I would say the Rivian did great, even with the smaller more on road type tires. And I could care less if the Rivian self levels on an uneven surface, all these Rivian videos make a big deal about it, but for me I could care less if it self levels when it is parked.

[@vertstang123]

What river was that?

[@Bear_Adventures]

I’m trying to figure out where this is too

[@lordbachus]

Gras is allways greener at the other side.

[@JustinBMcBride]

Couldn’t agree more.

[@chioxin]

Interesting, my biggest concern for EV was the power supply and how much power you'd have for these kinds of trips. Did you both start out at full? Regardless, I'm probably still a fan of Gas mostly because I can bring extra with me.

[@JustinBMcBride]

Yes. We both started full. The Jeep increases fuel consumption in 4-lo versus the Rivian using the same or less electricity because it has instant torque.

[@georgecarousos6735]

Multiple day off grid trips may be challenging with the Rivian. With an IC vehicle you can always borrow or buy a couple of gallons of fuel from another motorist if needed. But for short overnight or weekend off grid trips, an EV (especially with Rivians off road capability) should be fine. The reality is most "Overlanders" never go on trails harder than what a Subaru can handle....usually fire roads or two tracks.

[@jeremybogart5662]

Litebrite shoots all of their stuff on a phone when they are wheeling!

[@JustinBMcBride]

I’ll get a bikini top and it’ll distract from the lower quality! JK - the phone really impressed me.

[@michaelmacdonald7342]

That Jeep will still be running down trails in twenty years, that Rivian is a cool vehicle but it will be outdated with no dealer support of part availability withing half that time. You can make anything into something it is not, but the Jeep is out of the box pretty capable with endless aftermarket support.

[@t.o.f.t.s.]

You made the right choice. Rivian struggled with a tiny mud hole. You rolled right over it like itbwas a puddle. One day,...but not yet.

[@VideosOffRoad]

I can't help but notice there's no winch on that Rivian. Or would using one reduce it's range to nearly nothing? The inability to have/use a winch on it automatically makes it inferior as an overlander. Or any kind of serious off roader, for that matter.

[@MikeInTheWoods]

I think it's just that the Rivian is so new that no one's made any aftermarket bumpers for it to fit a winch yet

[@VideosOffRoad]

@@MikeInTheWoods That wasn't my main concern. Basically, if you have to run a winch capable of pulling a truck hard for 3-5 minutes, how much range would you lose?

[@MikeInTheWoods]

@VideosOffRoad Take the max power draw of the winch, figure out what that is over the course of 5 mins, and deduct that from the rivian battery. Assuming a 12v winch pulling 400a under load, that's a 4.8 kw power draw for 5 mins, which works out to about 400 watt hours. Assuming the rivian has the 130 kwh pack, that's 0.3% of the battery capacity

[@cjg1482]

Good comparison. Your jeep is a lot more vehicle than the rivian. Pretty simple trail. Can you offroad/overland in a rivian? Sure. Are there better vehicles for off-roading? Definitely. Keep your jeep.

[@JustinBMcBride]

Agreed. It’s capable of a lot of things that no other EV is yet. But that doesn’t mean it’s ready to take over what Jeep does.

[@FaddaJoe]

An awesome adventure video, good to see you back out there! There's a couple Rivian owners near me in my small town, which surprised me at first, considering I can count the publicly available charging stations within 60 miles on one hand. They're 1000x cooler than Teslas and nobody is genuinely pretending they're "saving the planet" with how energy inefficient they are (and what fuels their home electricity for charging). With that being said, I'd sooner tackle that same trail (with relative ease) in my Subaru Crosstrek sitting on 28.5" BFG KO2s than get a Rivian anywhere near it. I see them as a liability with their 100% technology dependence. I'm relatively frugal no matter my financial situation and I'd sooner take your Gladiator rig over a Rivian, fuel efficiency and diesel prices considered haha. Money is for spending, so do with yours as you please!

[@wendillowen7891]

I hope you got a good generator for when you run out of light juice

[@djp1234]

Electric motors are amazing, but battery technology is still ass.

[@sugershakify]

Just dont dent a panel.... brave soul taking one of those money pits off road and near anything that might damage a body panel.

[@JustinBMcBride]

I’ve seen some dented panel repairs taking 3 months and costing thousands. Not a good look for an “off-road” brand.

[@Japplesnap]

Hard to find a charger out in the great outdoors. So stick close to the main roads and you should be just fine. Leave the real overlanding to the gas powered rigs.

[@dirtremedyoffroad]

I mean its a coolish idea but river crossings, high heats or very cold temps, one sensor goes out the whole thing is dead in the water. And no aftermarket support then you need a gas generator to keep going on a proper adventure

[@MikeInTheWoods]

Rivian has a fording depth up to the windowsill, I think it's pretty good for river crossings. And it moderates the temperature of the battery in extreme hot & cold

[@Trax_travels]

If you look under the Jeep you will see that it is built LIKE A TANK. If you look under the Rivian, you won't see anything even remotely close to the beefy solid steel parts used for the jeep. It's awesome that the Rivian can do it, the important question is...for how long.

[@Magnus_Magnesium]

Have you seen the underside of a rivian? It is one giant steel plate from end to end if you have the off-road tray. Every component is oversized aluminum. (Tie rods aren’t great though )

[@rvboyett]

@@Magnus_Magnesium It's more than just steel. It's a layer of steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber.

[@xLopez210x]

Someone is hardcore Jeep bias. I own a 92 YJ and even i don’t hate on Rivian like that

[@pala4833]

LOL. Tell me you've never looked at the underside of a Rivian without telling me you've never looked at the underside of a Rivian.

[@Trax_travels]

LOLOL i just did a quick Google search for "Rivian Underside" and one of the top search results is a bunch of people complaining in a forum about the issues they're already having. C'mon guys, i REALLY off road. I know what it takes. Jeep has WW2 heritage and will get you out of places that would total a Rivian. Been offroading for 10+ years. I know what it takes. Doesn't mean it isn't a cool car. I'm just sayin. It's brand new. Jeep's been doing this for 40+ years.

[@RanchoTexano]

Very cute. The Rivian won’t go where I want to camp and there’s no way to charge it there either

[@JustinBMcBride]

I’m curious what the range of your current vehicle is? Is it near 300 miles? Like I said at the end of this video, we started with the same range but I ended far lower because fuel consumption increased during low-range use, for him, energy consumption was less in low range. I left with 101 miles to empty, he left with 160. At that rate, he’s getting further into the wild than I am - excluding the obvious option to dump green liquid into my truck and out-range him.

[@RanchoTexano]

​@@JustinBMcBride Hey JBM - yes, that's about right, really depends on the driving. My rig is similar to yours: JT with a RTT and full size rack and that cuts down my range if going hiway speeds. Just got back from Moab last week and did the Aspen loop in July. The Riv could go many of those places, but many many more it could not. Can you imagine taking the Riv on Behind the Reef? And charging in the places I like to go is pretty non existent. A few rotopaks of gas adds a ton of insurance on range. Someday we will all be driving these EVs, just not today, at least not me today. One of my best friends has a Riv and he loves it. I'll stick to my JT.

[@richardstone5241]

The Rivian is an UGLY piece of ELECTRIC VEHICLE CRAP! I wouldn't take one for stinking FREE! Just my opinion!!!

[@obrianmcc]

Rivian is a hard NO simply due to the front end ... it just screams Wall-E to me and I can't take it seriously.

[@ReconXOverland]

Bro, Rivian marketing team working hard to create all these ghost posts. They’ve been hitting Reddit hard.

[@JustinBMcBride]

Ghost posts?

[@rvboyett]

@@JustinBMcBride He thinks Rivian is paying for the content.

[@JustinBMcBride]

@@rvboyett ah. Nope. I’d happily work with Rivian, I think there is something special about what they are doing. However, no. The sponsors were listed at the beginning of the video.