Manual Tonneau Broken Already

[Petaluma]

So...my manual tonneau cover arrived last week. I installed it right away. It looks great, though I'm not thrilled with having to remove it, piece by piece, to access items in the bed. The first time I pulled the loop to release the cover, something snapped. A small piece of plastic, roughly the size and shape of the button on a click pen, broke. Now I cannot release the tonneau to remove it. Way, way too fragile for an adventure vehicle. I have a service appointment coming soon to fix a hood that doesn't open or close properly, and to replace a floor mat anchor that pulled out. I've added the tonneau to that service request. In short, very frustrating to receive such a poorly designed tonneau after such a long wait.

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[seanocono]

I'm sorry to hear this. Hopefully, your Service Center can get you sorted with a new cover soon.

I wonder how long it will be before Rivian decides they need to redesign the manual tonneau cover, too?

 

[txtravwill]

Oh man, hoping to get mine soon to secure stuff better but all these stories of how fragile it is stinks. They are going to be fixing/replacing these left and right until they redesign at least that last slat with the built in latch. Guess its under our bumper to bumper warranty at least for 5+ years.

 

[Subaroo]

Sorry to hear that. I removed it from my configuration last week. I've seen a lot of negative reviews online.

Good luck with the repairs.

 

[Ingo B]

Why they didn't just make it like a manual roll up door is beyond me. I mean, the space to store it is already there. The separate piece thing seems unnecessarily cumbersome.

 

[Ventura]

I wonder how easy it would be to replace this plastic piece with a metal one. Replacing the plastic rails that have broken (perhaps in shipping only) might be a bigger deal, but this seems like something that could be done cheap.

 

[ohseedee]

You’d think the #1 priority for the manual cover and for the future auto cover would be “Don’t repeat our past mistakes and make an embarrassingly fragile Tonneau cover” and every single design decision has to be validated against that priority. I would have never guessed after all this time and after the embarrassing auto cover history that they would produce what appears to be an absolutely terrible designed cover. And this is way worse than the auto cover issue As that was a very complex/cool design that if worked would have been a huge win. This is just plastic panels on a rail. How do you F that up? So many DIYers (including me) creating something that appears to be more robust.

Just think, it’s very possible that 100% of all manual and auto covers dont make it to their 5 year (quad) or 4 year (dual) warranty period and needs to be replaced. So dumb. Maybe just give up and reimburse all of us before making deliveries and just be like “sorry guys, upon reflection the Tonneau cover business isnt for us, lot’s of good 3rd party options”

Geez

 

[RARSRR]

So...my manual tonneau cover arrived last week. I installed it right away. It looks great, though I'm not thrilled with having to remove it, piece by piece, to access items in the bed. The first time I pulled the loop to release the cover, something snapped. A small piece of plastic, roughly the size and shape of the button on a click pen, broke. Now I cannot release the tonneau to remove it. Way, way too fragile for an adventure vehicle. I have a service appointment coming soon to fix a hood that doesn't open or close properly, and to replace a floor mat anchor that pulled out. I've added the tSonneau to that service request. In short, very frustrating to receive such a poorly designed tonneau after such a long wait.

It is threads like this that make me question Rivian. They don't seem very interested in producing a quality product. At the price line of these vehicles, you expect quality. If it wasn't for the spare tire I would have already started looking for different EV.
Why on earth would they use plastic for a tonneau cover? That just doesn't make sense.

 

[Ozmt]

So...my manual tonneau cover arrived last week. I installed it right away. It looks great, though I'm not thrilled with having to remove it, piece by piece, to access items in the bed. The first time I pulled the loop to release the cover, something snapped. A small piece of plastic, roughly the size and shape of the button on a click pen, broke. Now I cannot release the tonneau to remove it. Way, way too fragile for an adventure vehicle. I have a service appointment coming soon to fix a hood that doesn't open or close properly, and to replace a floor mat anchor that pulled out. I've added the tonneau to that service request. In short, very frustrating to receive such a poorly designed tonneau after such a long wait.

Sorry to hear about your truck issues. I must be a lucky one and mine built mid week. I've had really no issues with mine. Good luck

 

[Zoidz]

It is threads like this that make me question Rivian. They don't seem very interested in producing a quality product. At the price line of these vehicles, you expect quality. If it wasn't for the spare tire I would have already started looking for different EV.
Why on earth would they use plastic for a tonneau cover? That just doesn't make sense.

I think they are highly dedicated to producing a quality vehicle, but they still have a lot to learn in the body and trim disciplines. This tonneau cover stuff (both automatic and now manual) almost seems like the designers have limited auto experience and focused on form over function. After seeing pictures of the manual tonneau, it's designed like a throw away consumer product, not a 10 year durable truck component.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Why they didn't just make it like a manual roll up door is beyond me. I mean, the space to store it is already there. The separate piece thing seems unnecessarily cumbersome.

There isn't enough space for a roll up tonneau to store where the powered would have been.Tthe powered tonneau slats stack, and are something like 90+% space efficient, vs a roll up design which is around 70-75%

Watch the video below for a run down of a roller style vs stacking slats. The entire video is actually quite interesting.

 

[defcon888]

We got ours last week and I installed it right away. It looks nice but here are my complaints:

1. Assembling every time I need to remove it is going to be frustrating. When I spend $100k on a truck, I don't expect to see "some assembly required".

2. When my wife saw it installed her first words were "I am not happy, this is crap". She is 5'1" and for her to have to disassemble and assemble it is not going to go over well.

How hard would it have been to make a manual retractable cover that fits in where the auto tonneau cover is and then it pulls out? My brother-in-law has a 2010 F-150 (beside his R1T) and it has a cover that has a long pull handle on it and it is easy to pull and retract.

I love my R1T but I think Rivian missed on this one.....especially for $850 (at the time of configuration). We are going to look into an auto in the future.

 

[SparkyR1t]

Really dislike using the legal system to remedy problems but I truly
Believe Rivian is ignoring owners with unreliable/defective tonneau covers. The trucks have been on the road for over a year and a half now and all we have are promises

Rivian can have enter into an agreement with a third party specialty company to resolve the issue if they cannot come up with a fix

it may be time to file a lawsuit on behalf of all of us

any attorneys among our owners group for suggestions

 

[NY_Rob]

This tonneau cover stuff (both automatic and now manual) almost seems like the designers have limited auto experience and focused on form over function.

A 100% perfect description of many Rivian choices.. style over function (the cabin vent system that blocks it's own airflow, a no choice gigantic glass roof that acts like a solar oven in summer, tires that are only made for Rivian and can only be purchased through Rivian, fuses that are used in Europe and can only be purchased through Rivian, etc..). We know for a fact that the strange headlights (that freeze over in driving snow conditions) started as "we wanted to do something no one else has done so far" from one of the official Rivian Stories vs. "we needed to make something that really worked great!".

 

[Ingo B]

There isn't enough space for a roll up tonneau to store where the powered would have been.Tthe powered tonneau slats stack, and are something like 90+% space efficient, vs a roll up design which is around 70-75%

Watch the video below for a run down of a roller style vs stacking slats. The entire video is actually quite interesting.

Oooh, that was interesting. Thanks for the share.

After watching this, I still think they could've/should've explored the possibility of reproducing the mechanics of the auto cover, but instead of a motor, we use our biceps. Still not a fan of piece-by-piece.

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