Hell’s Gate in Moab, Utah, is one of the most well-known off-road obstacles in the United States and it’s also the scene where some car manufacturers go to showcase the prowess of their upcoming vehicles.
Ford filmed a PR stunt with the Bronco Sport a couple of years ago and Jeep holds its annual Easter Safari in Moab. Additionally, there are a lot of people who go there to have fun and put their vehicles to the test. However, sometimes things break, and that’s exactly what happened to a Rivian R1T owner who was trying to tackle the infamous Hell’s Gate.
According to this original post on Reddit, the driver attempted to go up the obstacle in the all-electric truck but didn’t choose the right line. So he backed up slowly to pick another line, but while going backward, an inner tie rod broke, making it almost impossible to steer the 7,148-pound truck.
But with no spares in the bed, the R1T owner called David Hellman, who owns Xtreme 4x4 Tours and Moab Scenic Adventures, to help him out. So David went to the rescue in his Chevy K30 wrecker and applied a sketchy but effective trail fix: he welded some spare pieces of flat metal, which seemed to hold up just fine, but when the R1T was approaching the top of the obstacle, the outer tie rod was sheared in half, as Hellman explains in a conversation with The Drive.
“We called it a night and we left the Rivian parked at the top of Hell's Gate, over by the entrance," he said.
After searching his shop for something that would hold better, he found some spare rebar which he cut into four pieces, knowing that the tie rod was already compromised. And to the relief of both Dave and the owner of the Rivian, after welding the rebar onto the tie rod, the EV was eventually able to complete the trail under its own power.
It looks like this isn’t the first time a tie rod broke on an R1T while off-roading, with evidence from another case posted on YouTube about 10 months ago. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something wrong with the suspension of the electric truck. It’s possible that engineers designed the tie rod to be the weakest link in the suspension setup of the R1T and R1S, as it’s easily replaceable and relatively inexpensive compared to other components.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.
