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Electric pickups catch a lot of flak from truck guys who mock their range when towing heavy trailers. All that torque comes in handy in short spurts, though, and as it turns out, it’s great for recovering huge vehicles that are stuck in the snow. Photographer Mylo Fowler learned this when he used his Rivian R1T to rescue a semi-truck driver whose rig had run off the side of the road into the slick stuff.
It isn’t exactly clear how the semi ended up on the side of the road, but it wasn’t completely buried. Still, its drive wheels couldn’t get any traction, making it even more difficult to pull or push the load up the embankment. A Ram truck came along earlier to rescue a Ford Taurus that slid off nearby, but they probably didn’t think pulling the semi out was even possible.
Thankfully, Fowler decided to give it an honest try. He hooked a Factor 55 recovery strap to the trailer’s rear bumper and let the Rivian’s massive torque—up to 908 pound-feet depending on the model—do the rest. One wheel was in the dirt on their first attempt, but after waiting for traffic to clear and lining up the R1T on pavement, it hooked and started rolling.
The video isn’t embeddable, but to watch the full sequence, just click the link here.
The Rivian R1T is rated to tow 11,000 pounds, which is pretty respectable for a pickup its size. Obviously, this tractor-trailer combo weighed a lot more than that—38,000 pounds, according to Fowler. It wasn’t exactly dead weight as the truck was still running, using its own torque to reverse out of the ditch when it finally got traction. Still, it’s impressive that the Rivian got it moving in the first place.
I’d be interested to know how much battery the R1T used during this stunt. It doesn’t make any difference, really, as this isn’t normal usage by any stretch. And however much energy this zapped from the high-powered electric truck, it earned itself a nice overnight charge whenever it got back home.
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