DIY Tonneau Repairs? Anyone try to do this yet?

[aw113sgte]

My college degree is in "Automotive Engineering"... and my WAG is it's a "crap design"

If they had used a motor on each side... the system would most likely work as advertised. Too much torque required for one small motor way off on one side to drag all those large panels back into or out of the storage compartment and the cross bar is probably flexing/twisting as well adding to the one side jamming condition. If the system is jamming due to uneven friction on one side.. an individual motor on each side would be able to power through that too.

I'm surprised this is your conclusion from an "Automotive engineering".
Using a motor on each side complicates the control system, increasing failure points.
Too much torque required from one small motor? Gear reduction is a thing and we haven't seen any evidence lack of motor torque is the issue.
What we have seen is panels becoming misaligned, this can only happen with the current system if the gear teeth are not engaged properly when a panel engages and are mis timed, or if the teeth slip after engagement. This misalignment COULD be caused from flex in the jack shaft however we don't have enough information to make that determination.
Yes uneven friction COULD cause the issues, however a two motor system is a very expensive and complicated method of only possibly helping that situation.

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[NY_Rob]

^ like I stated ... "my WAG" .. Wild Ass Guess

Of course hands on investigation would be needed to determine the actual failure point(s).. but we don't have that do we? So we're left with everyone's WAG's....

FYI... motors don't need to be synced if they both drive a common drive shaft.. a simple friction clutch mechanism will let them both add torque to the system and the common cross shaft will keep them in sync. I have seen that system used in anchor winches in boats and it works well.

Let's see if Rivian can remedy this issue on their first redesign attempt or are there several issues at play?


And... what about all the insider/employee deliveries that were supposed to ferret out build issues? Were they told not to use the power tonneau?
If we're seeing a 1 in 3 truck problem in the real world, wouldn't the employee trucks have had the same failure rate?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

FYI... motors don't need to be synced if they both drive a common drive shaft.. a simple friction clutch mechanism will let them both add torque to the system and the common cross shaft will keep them in sync. I have seen that system used in anchor winches in boats and it works well.

I don't think we've seen any evidence that the motor doesn't have enough torque, so adding a second one is unlikely to resolve the issue. If the shaft is twisting, then the shaft must be stiffened. If the gears are skipping teeth on the rack, then tolerances must be reduced.

Let's see if Rivian can remedy this issue on their redesign attempt.

I hope it doesn't come to a full redesign. I'm hoping some tweaks can fix things.

And... what about all the insider/employee deliveries that were supposed to ferret out build issues? Were they told not to use the power tonneau?
If we're seeing a 1 in 3 truck problem in the real world, wouldn't the employee trucks have had the same failure rate?

I think this is true. We saw a lot of non-functional tonneaus in the early builds, and the early first-mile drives had the tonneaus disabled so people couldn't play with them. It seems pretty clear that Rivian has been aware of reliability issues, for a while.

 

[Craigins]

And... what about all the insider/employee deliveries that were supposed to ferret out build issues? Were they told not to use the power tonneau?
If we're seeing a 1 in 3 truck problem in the real world, wouldn't the employee trucks have had the same failure rate?

It is a well known issue on their end, even before the employee deliveries. At the first mile events they weren't allowing you to play with the cover.

 

[NY_Rob]

So from the above posts it seems Rivian knew about the issue well before even employee deliveries commenced? Lets hope they we conducting failure analysis at that point and at least had some sort of clue as to why it was happening and a remedy. To deliver trucks knowing a 1 in 3 failure rate could occur is not a great look for Rivian.

 

[EVTrukHog]

Great thread and photos. Just curious:

1. Are users seeing jams occur while opening or closing? ...or equally both?
2. Are users consistently seeing the driver side or passenger side lag/jam or does it differ from vehicle to vehicle?

 

[crashmtb]

That was my thought too.

After seeing the additional photos showing the rack on the bottom of the panels, this is unfortunately a pretty big fail on Rivian's part. I can't understand why the designers thought this would hold up to normal stresses caused by the owner (i.e. pinching because something is in the way) and the environmental extremes a vehicle is exposed to.

I agree that a guide/skid made of UHMW or similar would help with tolerance and friction issues. But that rack surface looks like the plastic coating will wear quickly, introduce new slop, and then also have unlubricated aluminum gear on aluminum rack wear. As I said in another post, an elegant design but not robust.

Edit: Taking a closer look at the photos, what the heck is up with this? Looks like the rack is an end sub-assembly, pressed in the end of the slat, and secured with only a punch? This one is clearly already pulling out..... Jeez....

a self tapping screw would be better than that, but then there’s the risk of it falling out…
Maybe the rack pulling out and it and the rest of the slat trying to go in different directions is part of the jamming?

presuming this is a supplier developed part, someone’s going to eat a lot of redesign work.

Dry lube is the only solution. To anyone having problems, at the risk of stating the obvious - don't even think about using a petroleum (WD40, PBBlaster, etc.) or silicon semi-liquid (Fuchs Silkolene motorcycle chain lube) lubricant. It will become a gummy, sticky, dirt attracting mess.

From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, Rivian is using dry graphite spray. Which reminds me I’ve got a storm door that’s starting to get squeaky ?

 

[Gabe1aron]

Thank you for the detailed description of removing and reinstalling, and the picks of the panels. I think a liberal and repeated application of graphite lube at delivery and going forward may be required to keep the cover working with less wear and tear. Of course, that may be overkill and have a detrimental effect also. Probably best to go with a manual cover imo

 

[fastwheels]

This is not related to the cover jamming, but may help others with another common tonneau problem:

Mine went in for service in April for a couple of things including the tonneau that would not fully close - got to within 1" of the tailgate and stopped, intermittently. It came back fixed, but withing a few weeks the issue had returned. I met a Rivian engineer at an EA station in Indy last week and mentioned this and he asked me if Service had told me how to reset the sensors - they had not.

He showed me how to do it:
- Open the tonneau fully
- Press and hold the open/close button and keep it depressed until 5 seconds after the cover has completely closed.

I've only opened it twice since this reset Friday, but it closed properly both times so maybe this worked. Time will tell.

 

[Zoidz]

a self tapping screw would be better than that, but then there’s the risk of it falling out…
Maybe the rack pulling out and it and the rest of the slat trying to go in different directions is part of the jamming?

presuming this is a supplier developed part, someone’s going to eat a lot of redesign work.
From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, Rivian is using dry graphite spray. Which reminds me I’ve got a storm door that’s starting to get squeaky ?

Yeah, a self tapping screw, a properly sized blind rivet, or a machine screw with thread lock would solve this, depending on whether the rack subassembly is hollow or solid at that location, and where they want to be quality vs. cost. Two fasteners would be better, one each end of the rack.

 

[crashmtb]

Yeah, a self tapping screw, a properly sized blind rivet, or a machine screw with thread lock would solve this, depending on whether the rack subassembly is hollow or solid at that location, and where they want to be quality vs. cost. Two fasteners would be better, one each end of the rack.

Even a roll pin would do it…

 

[dduffey]

Yeah, a self tapping screw, a properly sized blind rivet, or a machine screw with thread lock would solve this, depending on whether the rack subassembly is hollow or solid at that location, and where they want to be quality vs. cost. Two fasteners would be better, one each end of the rack.

Good eye.

 

[dduffey]

This is not related to the cover jamming, but may help others with another common tonneau problem:

Mine went in for service in April for a couple of things including the tonneau that would not fully close - got to within 1" of the tailgate and stopped, intermittently. It came back fixed, but withing a few weeks the issue had returned. I met a Rivian engineer at an EA station in Indy last week and mentioned this and he asked me if Service had told me how to reset the sensors - they had not.

He showed me how to do it:
- Open the tonneau fully
- Press and hold the open/close button and keep it depressed until 5 seconds after the cover has completely closed.

I've only opened it twice since this reset Friday, but it closed properly both times so maybe this worked. Time will tell.

Did they say anything regarding resetting the "open position", mine does not open all the way and support confirmed that it is not normal, but didn't provide a way for me to fix it.

 

[chrismc]

On mine, I was cleaning the bed the other day and noticed that when I ran my finger along the inside of the track I could feel a slight hump on the plastic bottom side of the track exactly at the spot where the cover binds and gets stuck if I don’t force it to keep going. I found the same bottom track anomoly on both sides so my guess is that it is an artifact of how the track is mounted to the bed rail or a consistent manufacturing defect in the track. The photos that Annie posted of the track mechanism made it perfectly clear why a vertically tight spot in the track would cause binding and make it get stuck. If it hits one of these spots and had enough force to make the gear slip one tooth on the cover’s rack mechanism then BOOM cover is fully stuck crooked and toast.

I might try taking a razor blade and “shaving” the hump slightly to make the track flat.

 

[fastwheels]

Did they say anything regarding resetting the "open position", mine does not open all the way and support confirmed that it is not normal, but didn't provide a way for me to fix it.

No - mine has always opened fully so I did not ask that question.

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