When it comes to trucks, everything is bigger in Florida. The shop responsible for the famous Apocalypse 6×6 builds has taken a break from modifying the RAM TRX to make what we believe to be the world’s first lift kit for the Rivian R1T. They also have a body kit on the way, probably in the widebody Jeep style.
A few other companies have promised to lift the Rivian pickup. But this is the first time a lift kit for the R1T has been demonstrated on video, and it’s very exciting.
Sure, the Rivian pickup doesn’t technically need a lift kit. The tires are perfectly selected for the amount of traction available. But Rivian is marketing itself as the off-road alternative to Tesla with chargers installed at national parks. Installing bigger tires is pretty common within the off-road community, so the R1T pickup needs to step up its game.
South Florida Jeeps, the company responsible for those $250,000 6-wheel Jeeps and Rams, has never modified a Rivian EV before. Creating a lift kit for this unique pickup proved quite challenging. Its skateboard chassis has more in common with a McLaren than a Jeep, but they pulled it off.
Right now, the lift kit is a prototype, but we do know it’s created by moving the subframe further down. On a normal Jeep 4×4, the axle would come down, but here, everything has to move because the Rivian has quad motors, one for each tire. We believe SoFlo kept most of the original suspension geometry but created new mounting points for it further down.
A new metal skid plate system has also been developed, giving Rivian owners some piece of mind when off-roading. It looks like the lift kit adds at least 4 inches of extra ground clearance, which has been taken up by much larger tires.
Normally, a Rivian R1T might have 34-inch tires, but they’d be performance-oriented Pirellis. However, this modified pickup now sits on 38-inch off-road tires which are much wider. Together with the lift, they make it look more like the Ram TRX with which it competes.
Speaking of competing, the Florida team also drag-raced their custom Rivian against a Ram TRX on stock 35-inch tires. The R1T wins, but the gap isn’t as massive as we normally see, so the big tires have clearly made it slower.
