Keep two sets of wheels/tires for range while towing vs. general/off-road use?

[LNL_HUTZ]

I am considering a Quad Large, but have range concerns for the one time a year I expect to tow a travel trailer. On the other hand, I would need the A/T package a few times a year and prefer the look of the A/T wheels. Since the wheel and tire combo have such an impact on range, it occurred to me that I could get a truck with the 20” A/T tires, then try to pick up a set of 21” wheels and tires and just swap them before towing. Has anyone here done this sort of thing? If so, how easy is it to deal with TPMS and updating the config so the computer knows my setup?

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[COdogman]

Just open up a Discount Tire franchise.

 

[Dr Medjools]

I did it the opposite way: got the stock 21s and tires and bought a second set of 20s with BFG K02s for off road use.
The biggest issue is the sheer size and weight of either set of wheels and tires. I use motorcycle ramps to get them up and down into the R1T bed. Then off to DiscountTire to change them as a ‘seasonal change’ for $80 a set - California pricing

There’s a huge efficiency drop with the off road tires due to slightly bigger ties but mostly due to tire friction. Like 20% decrease with the off road set. Beware of that!

No problem with TPMS since I bought the Rivian endorsed ones from Discount tire. Also the twist of tires have the exact same outer diameter so no change to odometer.

Last possible concern is the wheels you buy. There’s a specific bolt pattern to match so that limits wheels. That in turn limited the Lugnuts to the smaller ones which *might* have issues during an emergency . So be careful with your wheel tire choice away from the stock ones.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

I did it the opposite way: got the stock 21s and tires and bought a second set of 20s with BFG K02s for off road use.
The biggest issue is the sheer size and weight of either set of wheels and tires. I use motorcycle ramps to get them up and down into the R1T bed. Then off to DiscountTire to change them as a ‘seasonal change’ for $80 a set - California pricing

There’s a huge efficiency drop with the off road tires due to slightly bigger ties but mostly due to tire friction. Like 20% decrease with the off road set. Beware of that!

No problem with TPMS since I bought the Rivian endorsed ones from Discount tire. Also the twist of tires have the exact same outer diameter so no change to odometer.

Last possible concern is the wheels you buy. There’s a specific bolt pattern to match so that limits wheels. That in turn limited the Lugnuts to the smaller ones which *might* have issues during an emergency . So be careful with your wheel tire choice away from the stock ones.

My R1T has 20 AT's and I have a back up set on Dodge HellCat wheels, which I now have on my wifes R1S. For long haul trips, it takes me abou 30 minutes to swap her OEM 21's on. Her Quad R1S has about 30+ more miles range as opposed to our 20 AT's.

It looks mean on 20's....

 

[beatle]

I had the same thought as OP - road 21s for towing/road trips, AT for everything else. I can't find the thread, but I thought I read that the different tires' affect on range are minimized when towing anyway, so I just went with the ATs, though my truck is also a PDM max config.

Map out some of your towing trips with ABRP and fiddle with the reference consumption number to get an idea of whether you can still make your trips with your desired config. I'd try a few numbers between 800 and 1000 wh/mi, and then adjust for colder ambient temperatures and road conditions to truly make it worst case. You may find no issue getting there with a quad large on ATs.

 

[shamoo]

I have two sets. One for regular use (OEM 22" wheels/tires) and one for off road (Ram 1500 20" 2363 wheels/KO2s).

In fact, I swapped to the Ram wheels this past weekend Hopefully I get some time this upcoming weekend to go somewhere.

 

[sub]

More efficient tires are not going make a meaningful difference when you are towing.

If the road tires normally have 10% more range (300 * 10% = 30 miles), when you are towing, the road tires will only have 5% better range because half of the energy is going into the trailer and the trailer's consumption is not impacted by the tires on the lead vehicle.

Also the total range is cut in half. So instead of 10% of 300, it is only 5% of 150. Or 7.5 miles.

Also since you aren't actually going to drive from 100% to 0% even that is an exaggeration. If you are doing a typical 80%-20% road trip cycle, then the difference is only 7.5*0.6 = 4.2 miles.

An extra 4 miles isn't going to make a difference. Certainly not enough to justify spending 4,000 on another set of wheels/tires. For non-towing road trips, it might be worth it. But it definitely isn't for towing.

 

[eRacer]

I swap between 21" wheels for long distance trips/towing and my 20" wheels for off road use.

Truck was ordered with the 20" wheels. The overall diameter of the tires are different. The 21" wheel/tire combination are overall smaller in diameter than the 20" wheels/tires resulting in roughly a 2MPH difference around the 65MPH range.

Regarding TPMS, the system automatically detects the sensors. All sensors in both wheels sets are factory rivian TPMS for me. Swapping wheels or rotating them is not an issue. The display updates after driving a couple of miles.

 

[CharonPDX]

I bought with 20" + ATs. (Quad-Large)

I have usually had a second set of wheels with snow tires for previous vehicles. My plan was that I would keep the default 20+AT for offroading and snow use, and get a second set of wheels for "high efficiency road use". So I bought a set of 20"-Bright wheels that I planned on mounting some 275/60 road tires, to improve road trip efficiency when towing specifically.

I never bothered. The extra ~10 miles it might have gotten me (30 mile difference nominal at 100%, halved because towing, then 70% of that because - other than the few times I *HAD* to, I'd do 10-80% only,) just weren't worth it. Even the "possibly 40 miles" when not towing in Conserve mode starting at 100% would barely be worth it. There aren't any places I go where that extra margin would have made a meaningful difference. So it takes me a couple minutes more charging when towing to add the ~10 miles extra range that I would have gotten on the better tires.

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