The perfect Rivian Winch
Updated: 10/2023
Electric vehicles are one everyone’s mind these days and off-road folks are being won over by their impressive torque and capability. “It’s hard to overstate how revolutionary this feels. This is what off-roading was always meant to be—it’s just that, up until now, we’ve had to compensate for internal combustion’s shortcomings on every trail ride,” says Bob Sorokanich of Road and Track.
The feeling is mutual over at Motortrend. Christian Seabaugh writes, “With five off-road modes (All-Purpose, Rock Crawl, Rally, Drift, and Sand—the last a recent over-the-air update addition), there's very little that can stop an R1T off the pavement. Its height-adjustable suspension gives it a tremendous amount of ground clearance, while the hydraulic dampers help the Rivian keep all four all-terrains on earth. Its quad-motor system is incredibly impressive, too, combining the gearing of a low range, the traction of locking differentials, and the precision of electric motors to conquer the types of obstacles that'd make a Toyota Land Cruiser owner blush.”
Rivian’s Off-Road Recovery Kit offering (8/2022)
With so much capability in a “perfect off-road vehicle”, recovery gear takes center stage, even at Rivian. The company offers a $600 “recovery kit” that includes smart things like straps, soft shackles, safe working gloves and more. The company seems to be moving in a direction that will add a complete winch offering that runs off the R1T two 12v batteries (same for the R1S). The winch option is said to be available to owners in the companies app but is not in the online vehicle builder yet; why might that be?
Some point to the 12v “house” batteries that power locks, screens and other cabin items and would presumably power a winch. Customers report vampire drain on batteries triggering notifications on faster-than-normal battery replacement. Could this be why Rivian is taking its time to offer a complete winch solution for buyers?
So, let’s look at weights. The curb weight is 7,148lbs add in passengers and cargo and let’s go with 8,500 to be safe. Using the classic 1.5x to get the winch class we’re looking at 12,700 winch capacity. Keeping in mind winch sizes grow over 12, 500lbs , let’s target 12, 500.
NOVAWINCH PRO 12,500 12v Winch
Winches in this class pull some major amps. One leading example is the Warn® Zeon that pulls a whopping 469 amps at its 12,000 lbs. max load. The Novawinch PRO 12,500 maxes out at 396 amps at full 12,500 lbs. load. That 16% less draw. We know there’s a concern on battery consumption and a lower load would be a boon for EVs, like Rivian. The perfect Rivian winch would draw considerably less than 469 amps.
If a winch is looking to reduce power needs, reducing weight makes sense as well. Besides the weight savings synthetic rope has brought to winches over the past decade, there’s savings to be had using advanced electronics and there’s certainly savings to be made in steel/aluminum castings. The winches cited above weight 80 lbs. and 68 lbs. for the Novawinch.
This points to where we believe is the industries future: maximizing pull and minimizing draw. We can see a world where Novawinch leads the charge for lower and lower amp draw as we realize battery charge is a precious resource to the off-roader. We can theorize the next great winch race won’t be speed but draw with weight savings. And you can be Novawinch will be out in front.
To date Rivian has not released their bumper-compatible winch. Unofficial word was their design fitted the winch in upside and backwards, because of choices engineers made with the front-end. The result is a worst-of-all-worlds for winching. This seems to be why Rivian is not releasing the bumper at the current time.
With SEMA (the automotive aftermarket group) show right around the corner, we’ll be looking for alternatives that will allow winch mounting.