Sebass
Member
- First Name
- Sebastien
- Joined
- May 31, 2023
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- Anderson Creek, North Carolina
- Vehicles
- 2023 R1T (FG/OC)
- Occupation
- Military
- Thread starter
- #1
Received my manual tonneau cover last week (May’23 delivery / 2019 reservation) and thought I might share my approach to a spare tire option for the 21” I've been carrying around. As the full-size spare was not available for a significant amount of time, and the cost today is $1,095 MSRP, here was how I skinned the cat:
The friction point for the 21” tire size is availability. Most tire shops don’t have them immediately on hand, so having one on hand is the critical piece. I discovered that you can purchase a lightly used Rivian tire off of United Tire (https://www.utires.com/t/s/275-55-R21/). The one I purchased was a single tire with 7.5/32 tread life, for $204.69. Plenty enough tire to ride around in the back as a spare and might never get used. Just gave it a good clean with soap and water, dried it, and used packing wrap to alleviate accelerated degradation from temperature/humidity.
The second benefit to carrying just the tire, it that the center of the wheel can now become storage. Ironically, our camping Solo Stove (Bonfire) carrying case fits perfectly in the center of the wheel. Literally feels bespoke how well it fits lol so I ordered another one of Solo Stove for $20 (https://www.solostove.com/en-us/p/carry-case-replacement). Inside that bag, I am currently carrying my Bubba Rope w/ soft shackles / Towing Strap, Boulder Tools Tire Repair Kit, Tire Slime (since it has onboard compressor), EV Jack for the R1T, and my EV lift pucks (**not pictured are the wheel chocks and tire wrench**).
So the pro’s to this setup are price (significantly less), weight reduction, and usable storage space for recovery / maintenance gear. There is also still room on the sides of the tire that I plan to throw in some CGU-1B straps, and a small tool kit for worst case scenario.
The drawback is that I would not have a spare tire that I could swap on immediately. However, my decision is based on the tire issues I have run into, and 100% of them can be fixed with the tools on hand. It would have to be a complete catastrophic failure of a tire to be put in a position to not remedy this, and at that point I would probably have more problems on hand than tire blowing up.
The most likely scenario is that I can quickly repair a puncture, use the compressor to fill back up, and cruise into the nearest tire shop with the exact tire I need, without hoping that they have one on hand or waiting to order one. I recognize that this mostly applies to the 21" tire crowd, as the 20" is pretty common.
Also, picture of new manual tonneau included. Love it! (Although, the plastic bits do feel delicate so I am mindful of not applying too much force during install/removal)
Cheers!
-Sebastien
The friction point for the 21” tire size is availability. Most tire shops don’t have them immediately on hand, so having one on hand is the critical piece. I discovered that you can purchase a lightly used Rivian tire off of United Tire (https://www.utires.com/t/s/275-55-R21/). The one I purchased was a single tire with 7.5/32 tread life, for $204.69. Plenty enough tire to ride around in the back as a spare and might never get used. Just gave it a good clean with soap and water, dried it, and used packing wrap to alleviate accelerated degradation from temperature/humidity.
The second benefit to carrying just the tire, it that the center of the wheel can now become storage. Ironically, our camping Solo Stove (Bonfire) carrying case fits perfectly in the center of the wheel. Literally feels bespoke how well it fits lol so I ordered another one of Solo Stove for $20 (https://www.solostove.com/en-us/p/carry-case-replacement). Inside that bag, I am currently carrying my Bubba Rope w/ soft shackles / Towing Strap, Boulder Tools Tire Repair Kit, Tire Slime (since it has onboard compressor), EV Jack for the R1T, and my EV lift pucks (**not pictured are the wheel chocks and tire wrench**).
So the pro’s to this setup are price (significantly less), weight reduction, and usable storage space for recovery / maintenance gear. There is also still room on the sides of the tire that I plan to throw in some CGU-1B straps, and a small tool kit for worst case scenario.
The drawback is that I would not have a spare tire that I could swap on immediately. However, my decision is based on the tire issues I have run into, and 100% of them can be fixed with the tools on hand. It would have to be a complete catastrophic failure of a tire to be put in a position to not remedy this, and at that point I would probably have more problems on hand than tire blowing up.
The most likely scenario is that I can quickly repair a puncture, use the compressor to fill back up, and cruise into the nearest tire shop with the exact tire I need, without hoping that they have one on hand or waiting to order one. I recognize that this mostly applies to the 21" tire crowd, as the 20" is pretty common.
Also, picture of new manual tonneau included. Love it! (Although, the plastic bits do feel delicate so I am mindful of not applying too much force during install/removal)
Cheers!
-Sebastien
Sponsored
