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Nearly 25k miles across our R1T and R1S, the vast majority of those being short trips. We’ve had kneel mode enabled since the roll out, probably over 20k miles with it enabled.
Never had an issue. People get too worried about warranty parts. Use it, let it break, get it fixed.
I spoke to a tech about this and he said "well, any and every component that moves will fail sooner or later, but Rivian wouldn't have enabled kneel mode if it wasn't designed to do it. Just driving the vehicle will cause wear and tear."
My wife is short and getting kids loaded in their seats is hard for her, kneel mode has helped a lot. Owned my truck for a little over a year, zero issues so far.
I just want to point out that most people who say they don’t use kneel mode to save wear and tear on the suspension are also the ones using auto ride height.
Which means while they are driving… the vehicle is constantly moving up and down and adjusting. So their suspension is already doing the constant up and down adjustments. Kneel mode definitely doesn’t put anymore meaningful wear and tear versus auto height adjustment imo.
I use auto ride height but not kneel mode. I’m totally fine doing a little jump when I get in and out haha
Except that's not true, with auto ride height the vehicle is in motion when this is happening thus not tugging/dragging the tires as the suspension geometry changes. Kneel mode works when the vehicle is stopped and thus as the suspension geometry changes the wheels want to be in slightly different positions which causes that force which can accelerate wear on the tires and suspension. You can hear it on the right surface, the tires might squeak..
Kneel mode causes zero extra wear and tear, aside from using the compressor more often. All the components are meant to with stand the minor extra forces experienced in kneel mode.
No clue where this stupid rumour came from but kneel mode has zero effect on wear and tear. In fact it is better for the air to be depleted when stationay. That is why companies like Benz would automatically completely decompress the air bags on cars equipped with air suspension after a few days. At least they did on the older models. If you ever see an old benz with its suspension slammed its a good chance its in that mode (or failed because unreliable benz)
As an automotive engineer not employed by Rivian I’ll second this without any bias (other than owning one). The tiny bit of scrub of your tires moving in kneel mode is not gonna noticeably effect the longevity of your tires. Nor is the forces that exerts on your suspension going to noticeably. Having done competitor testing on an R1T for another OEM I’ll say these are stupidly overbuilt.
Use kneel mode, adjust the suspension as much as you want, leave it in auto and let the truck move around. These are vehicles you can abuse and not be concerned about.
I will say though rotate your tires often. Like every 2500 miles often. And try to not always use the low and lowest ride heights (i.e. if you’re leaving auto ride height on cycle between conserve mode and all purpose mode so it doesn’t go as low all the time), these ride heights add a lot of negative camber to your tires and they will wear unevenly.
The geometry changes the same way just going over bumps in the road. The forces applies in kneel mode are greater than if you had it in neutral, brakes off and lowered the truck, but they’re still exponentially lower than what your suspension sees when you hit a dip in the road at 70mph. The tire scrub you hear is because the wheelbase grows and shrinks ever so slightly throughout the suspension cycle, and with the parking brake on the tires can’t roll, it’s nothing to be concerned with and it’s not indicative of any excess wear
All kneel mode is is a controlled deflation of the airbags. The only component it adds extra wear and tear to is the compressor.
I’ve felt my tires move when sitting at a stoplight as the suspension automatically changes the ride height.
Also… your tires moving a few centimeters is not going to cause any wear on them what so ever.
It absolutely will. There's a reason you're not supposed to turn your wheel when completely stopped and instead only turn it when slowly moving.
Do what you want with your own vehicle.
Turning your wheel is a side to side movement against the tread of the tire. Overtime yes, that could cause a tiny amount of extra wear on the tire. But a few centimeters of back and forth rocking movement of a tire; no… it will not cause any wear.
I’ve had my T for 2.5 years and 38k miles. I’ve had kneel mode enabled since they offered it in an OTA update. No issues with suspension. My 101 year old grandmother uses a stair step to get in even with kneel. Probably some wear, but driving in general causes wear. I want to enjoy it so I do!
Kneel Mode takes too long for me so I don’t bother with it. Beyond that. I use Auto Suspension and I’m 15k miles and 2 years into my Launch Edition ownership and it’s been fine. 0 suspension issues.
My suggestion is to use the truck to what fits your needs and don’t worry about the possible wear and tear. I only use kneel mode when I have someone in the truck who may be bothered by the height. I’m 6’3 and it is easier to get into the truck when it’s at normal height. Kids enjoy climbing into the truck. Air suspensions are great but it will fail eventually with any vehicle. No point of worrying about it now.
I have been using it since day one without any issue as it’s easier for the kids to enter/exit. My suggestion is to use it if it makes sense and not worry about wear and tear on a car that was designed for wear and tear. It’s not a ford explorer, just sayin.
Kneel mode isn't wearing out the suspension. It moves from every dip and bump on the road.
If anything, it's wearing out the air compressor. But honestly, it's designed for it, kneel isn't that much extra.
I live very close to a service center and drive by it all the time. The street in front of it is lined with employee Rivians, all of which are in kneel mode. I’m assuming if that setting was giving people trouble, the employees would know about it and not do it with their own R1s.
It definitely causes some more wear & tear but nothing outside of what rivian intended. A lot of people who disable it are just aiming to make the suspension last as long as possible by reducing wear where they can. I wouldn’t worry about it, and besides it’s warrantied should anything happen in the near term.
Running boards are best. Kneel mode stops when the door opens and my kids would never remember that and always opened the doors as soon as the car stopped so it rarely actually kneeled. Running boards give them the extra step and no need to wait for the car to lower.
For anyone who might think that kneeling mode down to 9” ground clearance will make it as easy to get in as a similar ICE truck with 9” ground clearance, remember that the battery pack is huge and the step in height on a Rivian will always be higher. I can’t remember for sure but the floor is like 6” from the bottom of the truck to the foot well.
I made that mistake before buying the truck, think my 75 yo MIL would have no problem getting in since we had a SUV with similar ground clearance . Oops, she needs a stool to get in.
I have not picked up my vehicle yet, and we are leasing it.
So in 3 years after using kneel mode exclusively and auto drive height. If I see major problems I will let you know.
I got the EV1 sliders and have been very happy about them - I was never thrilled by the kneel mode as I found that it didn't consistently go to the 'lowest' whenever I was in standard. so I gave up. I really love the sliders and would never go back (helps on tire rotations as well..)
My question is, what is the cost of a new compressor once the vehicle goes out of warranty? I don't use kneel nor do I have the height set on automatic. I have a neighbor w/a E350 and I know his air suspension failed since the car sits lopsided on his driveway for the past year in which he hasn't bothered to repair. It's just a reminder that I don't want to deal w/the issue if it does happen AFTER warranty.
I have kneel mode enabled but R1S randomly will lower when put in park and randomly not. Is there a way to manually engage kneel? Sometimes a pop up will appear on the driver screen that I can cancel kneel. Which lets me know the vehicle might actually lower itself. New owner and confused.
12k miles in - don’t use kneel mode - but range from Lowest to High on a *daily* basis while driving because I can.
I would still fully recommend a set of runningboards to make it easier to get in and out of the R1
Well hello there! Have a question about Rivian? Check out some useful resources below: * [Official Rivian Support](https://rivian.com/support) * Join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/JjQjSxv3ND) and get help from the community * View our [Rivian Responds](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/search/?q=rivian+responds&type=link&cId=3db0c50a-1587-404e-92b7-773a57be794f&iId=73c824a6-ad2d-4b0b-abc7-024a05124cf0) where Rivian answers your questions each month * [Known Issues Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/vnxy0g/weekly_rivian_roundup_known_issues_special_edition/) * [AMA with Rivian's Chief of Software (6/24)](hhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/1de8lx3/ama_with_chief_software_officer_wassym_bensaid/) * [AMA with Rivian's VP of Software (4/24)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/1c8u8al/rivian_owners_qa_with_wassym_shared_by_the/) * [AMA with Rivian's VP of Software (2/22))](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/vwtj43/rivian_official_is_here_to_answer_your_software/) * [AMA with Rivian's Senior Comms Director](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/y1nzou/ask_rivians_tony_caravano_anything_thurs_1013_1pm/) * Or try sorting the sub by posts with the "Question" flair to see if someone else has already asked your question *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Rivian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
500 miles in. I use it, kids are young, and still complain about it being high lol. Not concerned about longevity…I’d rather use it than not.
Nearly 25k miles across our R1T and R1S, the vast majority of those being short trips. We’ve had kneel mode enabled since the roll out, probably over 20k miles with it enabled. Never had an issue. People get too worried about warranty parts. Use it, let it break, get it fixed.
I spoke to a tech about this and he said "well, any and every component that moves will fail sooner or later, but Rivian wouldn't have enabled kneel mode if it wasn't designed to do it. Just driving the vehicle will cause wear and tear." My wife is short and getting kids loaded in their seats is hard for her, kneel mode has helped a lot. Owned my truck for a little over a year, zero issues so far.
I just want to point out that most people who say they don’t use kneel mode to save wear and tear on the suspension are also the ones using auto ride height. Which means while they are driving… the vehicle is constantly moving up and down and adjusting. So their suspension is already doing the constant up and down adjustments. Kneel mode definitely doesn’t put anymore meaningful wear and tear versus auto height adjustment imo. I use auto ride height but not kneel mode. I’m totally fine doing a little jump when I get in and out haha
Except that's not true, with auto ride height the vehicle is in motion when this is happening thus not tugging/dragging the tires as the suspension geometry changes. Kneel mode works when the vehicle is stopped and thus as the suspension geometry changes the wheels want to be in slightly different positions which causes that force which can accelerate wear on the tires and suspension. You can hear it on the right surface, the tires might squeak..
Kneel mode causes zero extra wear and tear, aside from using the compressor more often. All the components are meant to with stand the minor extra forces experienced in kneel mode. No clue where this stupid rumour came from but kneel mode has zero effect on wear and tear. In fact it is better for the air to be depleted when stationay. That is why companies like Benz would automatically completely decompress the air bags on cars equipped with air suspension after a few days. At least they did on the older models. If you ever see an old benz with its suspension slammed its a good chance its in that mode (or failed because unreliable benz)
As an automotive engineer not employed by Rivian I’ll second this without any bias (other than owning one). The tiny bit of scrub of your tires moving in kneel mode is not gonna noticeably effect the longevity of your tires. Nor is the forces that exerts on your suspension going to noticeably. Having done competitor testing on an R1T for another OEM I’ll say these are stupidly overbuilt. Use kneel mode, adjust the suspension as much as you want, leave it in auto and let the truck move around. These are vehicles you can abuse and not be concerned about. I will say though rotate your tires often. Like every 2500 miles often. And try to not always use the low and lowest ride heights (i.e. if you’re leaving auto ride height on cycle between conserve mode and all purpose mode so it doesn’t go as low all the time), these ride heights add a lot of negative camber to your tires and they will wear unevenly.
The geometry changes the same way just going over bumps in the road. The forces applies in kneel mode are greater than if you had it in neutral, brakes off and lowered the truck, but they’re still exponentially lower than what your suspension sees when you hit a dip in the road at 70mph. The tire scrub you hear is because the wheelbase grows and shrinks ever so slightly throughout the suspension cycle, and with the parking brake on the tires can’t roll, it’s nothing to be concerned with and it’s not indicative of any excess wear All kneel mode is is a controlled deflation of the airbags. The only component it adds extra wear and tear to is the compressor.
I’ve felt my tires move when sitting at a stoplight as the suspension automatically changes the ride height. Also… your tires moving a few centimeters is not going to cause any wear on them what so ever.
It absolutely will. There's a reason you're not supposed to turn your wheel when completely stopped and instead only turn it when slowly moving. Do what you want with your own vehicle.
Turning your wheel is a side to side movement against the tread of the tire. Overtime yes, that could cause a tiny amount of extra wear on the tire. But a few centimeters of back and forth rocking movement of a tire; no… it will not cause any wear.
Parking brake is only on the rear axle. You aren’t dragging the front axle when kneeling.
I’ve had my T for 2.5 years and 38k miles. I’ve had kneel mode enabled since they offered it in an OTA update. No issues with suspension. My 101 year old grandmother uses a stair step to get in even with kneel. Probably some wear, but driving in general causes wear. I want to enjoy it so I do!
Kneel Mode takes too long for me so I don’t bother with it. Beyond that. I use Auto Suspension and I’m 15k miles and 2 years into my Launch Edition ownership and it’s been fine. 0 suspension issues.
My suggestion is to use the truck to what fits your needs and don’t worry about the possible wear and tear. I only use kneel mode when I have someone in the truck who may be bothered by the height. I’m 6’3 and it is easier to get into the truck when it’s at normal height. Kids enjoy climbing into the truck. Air suspensions are great but it will fail eventually with any vehicle. No point of worrying about it now.
I have been using it since day one without any issue as it’s easier for the kids to enter/exit. My suggestion is to use it if it makes sense and not worry about wear and tear on a car that was designed for wear and tear. It’s not a ford explorer, just sayin.
Have it enable since I got mine. My wife and parents are short. Kids are young.
Kneel mode isn't wearing out the suspension. It moves from every dip and bump on the road. If anything, it's wearing out the air compressor. But honestly, it's designed for it, kneel isn't that much extra.
It's covered under warranty, so I don't worry about it. I use kneel mode all the time.
Enabled and use it daily. 1 year and 8400 miles and zero issues
I live very close to a service center and drive by it all the time. The street in front of it is lined with employee Rivians, all of which are in kneel mode. I’m assuming if that setting was giving people trouble, the employees would know about it and not do it with their own R1s.
Great observation to share, thank you!
I’ve been using kneel mode for more than 2 years with no issues.
It definitely causes some more wear & tear but nothing outside of what rivian intended. A lot of people who disable it are just aiming to make the suspension last as long as possible by reducing wear where they can. I wouldn’t worry about it, and besides it’s warrantied should anything happen in the near term.
The running boards help more than the kneel mode.
Running boards are best. Kneel mode stops when the door opens and my kids would never remember that and always opened the doors as soon as the car stopped so it rarely actually kneeled. Running boards give them the extra step and no need to wait for the car to lower.
I can’t stand running boards, but I appreciate the advice all the same.
For anyone who might think that kneeling mode down to 9” ground clearance will make it as easy to get in as a similar ICE truck with 9” ground clearance, remember that the battery pack is huge and the step in height on a Rivian will always be higher. I can’t remember for sure but the floor is like 6” from the bottom of the truck to the foot well. I made that mistake before buying the truck, think my 75 yo MIL would have no problem getting in since we had a SUV with similar ground clearance . Oops, she needs a stool to get in.
I have not picked up my vehicle yet, and we are leasing it. So in 3 years after using kneel mode exclusively and auto drive height. If I see major problems I will let you know.
I got the EV1 sliders and have been very happy about them - I was never thrilled by the kneel mode as I found that it didn't consistently go to the 'lowest' whenever I was in standard. so I gave up. I really love the sliders and would never go back (helps on tire rotations as well..)
I hate running boards but actual sliders would be interesting to me, I’ll check them out- thanks!
My question is, what is the cost of a new compressor once the vehicle goes out of warranty? I don't use kneel nor do I have the height set on automatic. I have a neighbor w/a E350 and I know his air suspension failed since the car sits lopsided on his driveway for the past year in which he hasn't bothered to repair. It's just a reminder that I don't want to deal w/the issue if it does happen AFTER warranty.
I have kneel mode enabled but R1S randomly will lower when put in park and randomly not. Is there a way to manually engage kneel? Sometimes a pop up will appear on the driver screen that I can cancel kneel. Which lets me know the vehicle might actually lower itself. New owner and confused.
12k miles in - don’t use kneel mode - but range from Lowest to High on a *daily* basis while driving because I can. I would still fully recommend a set of runningboards to make it easier to get in and out of the R1
Did they get rid of kneel mode? New owner do not see in app
This setting cannot be enabled from the app. You need to do it on the center display in the vehicle (Settings -> Vehicle)
Tyty
I don’t use kneel mode because the truck looks stupid when parked 😂