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BAD gear tunnel storage ideas!

Sloshy2

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Just picked up my new to me 24 R1T and I’m doing a thorough detail because Rivian did zero detail on the vehicle beyond quick car wash and tire dressing. I’m actually kind of blown away by how dirty the interior was left but I enjoy detailing so whatevers.

Regardless, I opened up one of the gear tunnel doors and noticed some fine clean rock salt or Epsom salt crystals down in one of the storage bins for the air compressor kit. I also noticed some white salty residue on the edge of the gear tunnel carpet. I started to remove the bottom piece of trim on either side of the gear tunnel to vacuum some loose salt and lo and behold salt crystals collected underneath the wire harnesses.

At this point, I’m removing all the trim in the tunnel and now I’m removing the carpeting. More salt! Not like spilled salt, well some of that but like salt that got wet and reappeared as square flat crystals in other areas through evaporation. Do what you will with your truck but storing bags of salt in the gear tunnel is a bad idea. Salt and any metal is a bad mix… especially critical wiring and connections. I was knocking salt out of the wire bundles and cutting off the fabric tape because it was wet with salt.

This area was vacuumed out, leaf blower blasted, wiped down twice with simple green and the carpeting was hosed and soaped and hung to dry.
Some of the clips and metal items in the tunnel are starting to corrode and rust. like the springs in the outlet cover.

Rivian R1T R1S BAD gear tunnel storage ideas! IMG_3804


Rivian R1T R1S BAD gear tunnel storage ideas! IMG_3806


Rivian R1T R1S BAD gear tunnel storage ideas! IMG_3805


Rivian R1T R1S BAD gear tunnel storage ideas! IMG_3807
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Robot Overlord

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Best of luck to you in your cleaning efforts. It’s amazing that someone didn’t think this one through when the loaded the salt in the gear tunnel. I bought my Feb 23 R1T from a Jeep dealer in Alabama (I live in northern Virginia) after I read how Rivian CPO vehicles only come with one key card and maybe home charging cables but everything else - all previously installed accessories are stripped out - AND that Rivian has done horrible jobs of cleaning/preparing the CPO vehicles for resale. I guess this goes along with recent reports that Rivian doesn’t employ anyone to clean their loaners between customers and that service center managers have to do this on top of their normal site management jobs or rely on/require customers to return loaners cleaner than the trucks were when sent out. I have done this with the loaners I’ve been given. Add to that the lack shipping options (only local pick up) and hearing about folks who flew out of state to take delivery of their CPO purchases only to be told the truck wasn’t ready when they arrived and no purchase and available date would be set.

I personally drive 17 hours round trip to look at one truck with over $5k of accessories installed and paid for a PPI on another out of state truck with over $10k of installed aftermarket accessories. In the end I didn’t buy either of those but they were not clean! I still bought one with a lot more accessories included than a Rivian CPO truck and it had been detailed quite well. I do hope the rest of your CPO purchase went smoothly and that your truck came with a larger complement of what I’d consider “standard” accessories.
 

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hammick

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The great thing is that meth will make you want to clean more, and supply the energy.

What do I store in mine?

IMG_7600.webp
Yeah for a week or two and then you will be scratching you head lice and collecting discarded butts as you beg for change outside of Walmart.
 

hammick

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