Gear Tunnel Confessionals

[kurtlikevonnegut]

The crock pot is hilarious! Must have a locking top.

The funk isn't fully water proof. If you took your truck snorkeling, poor kid might drown. When you get back and find them with fish sticking out of their ears you'll wish you'd gone gear tunnel.

I figured i don't store enough in my truck to justify one, but you've got me thinking it might be super handy with bins...

Honest question, with embellishment. How does a rectangle make getting your kids in easier? The opening doesn't interfere with the ingress path at all. The side of the seat is still there for all your fondling desires, just the seat back is flush with the opening. When you install your children in the back seat, do you hold one hand behind the seat back for leverage?

The issue is the thickness of the door opening. When putting a child into a car seat in the middle you end up pressing against the GT door when that would normally be open space allowing you to get more of your upper body into the back seat area. Also that hard rolled edge of the GT door is not something comfortable to be pressing into your thigh as you lean.

Sponsored

 

[Riviot]

Go and look at every other truck on the market. They all have doors that are a traditional rectangular shape. Even a Tacoma is easier to get into the rear seat of than the R1T.

I did, and was surprised at the rectangular doors. When did they start doing that for smaller trucks? I always remember bigger (F150/Tundra/1500+) having rectangles while Ranger/Tacoma/S-10s had no rear or half doors or angles.

 

[Riviot]

The issue is the thickness of the door opening. When putting a child into a car seat in the middle you end up pressing against the GT door when that would normally be open space allowing you to get more of your upper body into the back seat area. Also that hard rolled edge of the GT door is not something comfortable to be pressing into your thigh as you lean.

Sounds like you need an R1S.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Sounds like you need an R1S.

I'll be trading my R1T for an R2 as soon as they become available.

 

[Karma]

I love the gear tunnel and use every bit of the space daily. Outside of my day job I spend way too much time coaching multiple soccer teams.

The gear tunnel is PERFECT for soccer coaches, it holds TWO full size portable soccer goals ((Bownet or new Forza ProFlex haven't tried the Powernet), which take up the full length but room to stack. On game days it fits a 10x10 aluminum frames shade shelter (aluminum frames are bulkier than the steel and still fit. It fits my huge heavy duty tripod for the game camera. I can now store the goals during the week in the gear tunnel instead of my garage.

It's my opinion that the gear tunnel is crazy good. The only negative is making sure you park where you can load or unload easily.

 

[gultin]

The GT is long, and items slide left to right, but it is useful storage nonetheless, and definitely helps a lot during road trips. Also GT doors are a great place to sit and put on or take off ski boots. Could it have been done better, of course, but the idea surely has merit IMO.

 

[Antonio]

I have a confession to make after over 2 and a half years with my R1T: the Gear Tunnel is far more of a novelty than a utility.

That's not to say that there isn't legitimate utility to it, just that the utility I've found isn't nearly commensurate with the hype around it. Worse still, in my use case (and I suspect many more), I think the size and shape of the gear tunnel makes the backseat much less convenient, especially with small children, then it should be.

I think this was a miss by Rivian in the design department. They could have kept the concept of the gear tunnel, albeit smaller, while keeping a more traditional rear door opening shape and size to improve the utility of the back seat.

I love the gear tunnel! That’s where my kid’s tenor saxophones travel.

 

[Hillbilly]

I think it's great that people use their gear tunnel. I certainly expected to use mine frequently when I first got it. That doesn't change the underlying observation about the tradeoffs which I'm reminded of every time I have to awkwardly lean in to get my kid into his car seat.

Go and look at every other truck on the market. They all have doors that are a traditional rectangular shape. Even a Tacoma is easier to get into the rear seat of than the R1T.

I have a traditional truck and R1T. You're talking about apples and oranges. They're such different vehicles that you can't really compare them. I assume Rivian could redesign it, remove the gear tunnel and instead maybe allow for the rear seats to slide back into that space so you have an expanse of flat flooring cargo space back there when needed. You could do away with the angled shape of the door that way, but I'm not sure many would make that trade off.

 

[Stationmaster]

The gear tunnel is great and even better with 50/50 split pull out sled from EV Sportline.
https://evsportline.com/collections/rivian-r1t-gear-tunnel-sled-boxes-and-accessories
I have converted one side to a micro-camp kitchen and the other side to a tray that is perfect for groceries/pizzas/an overnight duffel bag or two/etc.

My guests have not complained about the backseat.

BTW: it does help to have the EV Sportline running boards. https://evsportline.com/products/te...or-rivian-r1t-r1s?_pos=1&_sid=74ac085d9&_ss=r for entrance/exit.

 

[rbrak29]

Don't forget the gear tunnel door is a seat as well as a step.

 

[R1Thor]

The way the truck is laid out, reducing the gear tunnel size would result in no appreciable difference in back seat access. None.

It's literally ONLY using dead space that's otherwise going to waste.

In order to get more back seat access, you'd ALSO have to slide the rear window backward.
Meaning you'd also have a smaller truck bed.

At which point, you don't want a truck.

#GearTunnelMasterRace

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

To reiterate, I'm not saying that the GT should be eliminated, just that the combination of the GT shape and rear door shape are poorly designed.

For reference:

You retain 90% of the GT space with this very simple change and you alleviate the restrictive door opening in the process.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they shaped the door the way that they did.

 

[Bartlett Components]

Depends on your use case, but the gear tunnel is one of the greatest features for me.

 

[Riviot]

To reiterate, I'm not saying that the GT should be eliminated, just that the combination of the GT shape and rear door shape are poorly designed.

For reference:

You retain 90% of the GT space with this very simple change and you alleviate the restrictive door opening in the process.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they shaped the door the way that they did.

To utilize all the dead space that would be created between the seat and your red line.

 

[R1Thor]

To reiterate, I'm not saying that the GT should be eliminated, just that the combination of the GT shape and rear door shape are poorly designed.

For reference:

You retain 90% of the GT space with this very simple change and you alleviate the restrictive door opening in the process.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they shaped the door the way that they did.

...

There's a seat there.
In that entire space.

If you moved the frame back, you'd have more access ...to the side of the seat. That's completely useless and grands you nothing.

Sponsored