Tire wear condition at 15k miles, 10 months (photos)

[Rivianation]

Front tires wore super fast compared to back in 15k miles and 10 months in. Just had Rivian rotate them for $60. Check out difference…

Saw Branden Flasch's 17K review today, mostly highway, mostly conserve, and he has way more tread remaining than yours. It has to be driving style or alignment.

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[SciGuy]

How are people who are doing their own rotations lifting the truck in so many points as to rotate the traditional rear tires to the front and front tires to the rear in a cross pattern? How many jacks are you using? I feel like I'm missing something here. I have one floor jack and four jack stands but there's only a single lift point at each wheel of the truck so the jack stands are essentially useless.

The manual says you can remove underbody panels at each corner just next to the wheels to reveal the frame where you can lift or use jack stands. I was surprised to see this given all of the discussion on these forum threads about the jack pucks and those specific lift points, so I had thought the same as you that lifting the truck was really different from other vehicles. Not sure why people haven’t mentioned that you don’t need those pucks and you can just remove the frame covers.

 

[Riviot]

The manual says you can remove underbody panels at each corner just next to the wheels to reveal the frame where you can lift or use jack stands. I was surprised to see this given all of the discussion on these forum threads about the jack pucks and those specific lift points, so I had thought the same as you that lifting the truck was really different from other vehicles. Not sure why people haven’t mentioned that you don’t need those pucks and you can just remove the frame covers.

Remove every panel every 5-9k miles to rotate tires? No thank you, I'll use my nipply pucks, thank you very much.

 

[Forager]

I’ve been wondering if the quad motor isn’t quite as effective at torque vectoring as is needed for maximal tire wear. Open differentials allow each wheel to rotate at precisely the required speed to execute smooth turns, with each wheel traveling in a slightly different arc and therefore different speed. The quad motor has to do this all by modulating the drive rpm of each motor, so while the turn may feel smooth because the motor rpm is 99% correct for what is required for a smooth turn, that 1% error causes minor skidding which causes tire wear. This part is speculation, but I haven’t seen dual motor EVs (which have open diffs) complain about this severe level of tire wear.

The other issue causing tire wear is of course regen braking. Heavy regen is analogous to heavy deceleration, so the tires are getting worked both when accelerating hard and normal braking. This seems to be pretty standard on vehicles with aggressive regen.

This then all makes sense that people with lot of highway driving are getting more normal tire wear, regardless of All Purpose or Conserve driving mode. High speed turns have less variation in wheel speed at each wheel, and highway driving limits the amount of stop and go.

 

[jeeden]

In my opinion, this has a one-word answer: Pirelli

Every car I have had in the last 10 years has come with Pirelli tires (3 Ford explorers, a Mustang GT, and a Ford Focus) ... they must have a hell of a marketing dept or give some sweet deals to the manufacturers to get their tires as OEM. They all gave it up just south of 20k miles of mostly commuter driving. I always thought Michelins were hype, but after trying them on one car and experiencing a completely "new car" as a result in tread wear, noise, cupping, snow/rain handling (or even basic traction in the case of the Focus!) I am a pretty die-hard fan.

I think the pirellis are just a soft compound and cheap out on some materials. I was very disappointed when I heard Rivian went with them as the OEM.

 

[pricedm]

In my opinion, this has a one-word answer: Pirelli

I think the pirellis are just a soft compound and cheap out on some materials. I was very disappointed when I heard Rivian went with them as the OEM.

Disagree. Pirelli says on their website, and is pretty much common knowledge and accepted best practice: "...tires rotated every 5,000 to 7,000 miles..."

For reference, I have PIrelli P ZERO ALL SEASON PLUS/ELECT on my Tesla. New depth: 10/32. After 6,300 miles and one rotation at 5k, tread depth is 9.5/32.

Rotate tires, or replace early!

I keep a spreadsheet with all maintenance performed. Easy to track on details this way. Set a trip odometer or other method to remind yourself to rotate tires every 5k!

 

[Count Orlok]

is that Sandy?

 

[Nermal]

I went longer than I would have liked for rotation of 20 ATs and just got it done at 13k with Discount Tire (fantastic experience, BTW, and they seemed to know their way around Rivian specifics for rotation using pucks for lift, etc.) They didn't call out any unusual/uneven wear or timing for replacement as they often do. All 4 tires still look great. I'd expect to get 25k+ out of whole set given how they look now.

 

[Jnz]

I’ve been wondering if the quad motor isn’t quite as effective at torque vectoring as is needed for maximal tire wear. Open differentials allow each wheel to rotate at precisely the required speed to execute smooth turns, with each wheel traveling in a slightly different arc and therefore different speed. The quad motor has to do this all by modulating the drive rpm of each motor, so while the turn may feel smooth because the motor rpm is 99% correct for what is required for a smooth turn, that 1% error causes minor skidding which causes tire wear. This part is speculation, but I haven’t seen dual motor EVs (which have open diffs) complain about this severe level of tire wear.

Nothing scientific, but my wife’s Tesla (dual motor Model X) eats thru front tires faster than this. We get a year and ~12,000 miles maybe. Replaced the front OEM continental after 1 year, and then swapped all 4 for Michelins after year 2. Just now replaced the front Michelins after a year. She doesn’t seem to drive it particularly hard.

EVs are just going to eat tires - a lot of weight, massive torque, and not a super hard compound - all seasons won’t be too hard or they’d be summer tires; 3PM tires (like the Pirellis) will be even softer.

 

[CascadianApe]

Rivian flat out refused to replace mine even though I had uneven wear due to miss alignment from the factory. They've now done two alignments trying to fix my alignment issue.

Bellevue said they were fine even though I had a 3rd party and the body shop verify they needed to be replaced. The Hunter Alignment tech from Hunter even said that the feathering was brutal. Rotated twice since delivery.

 

[sirelectro]

In my experience OEM tires are never the same as aftermarket tires. It seems that manufacturers look for better deals on tires to cut costs and tire manufacturers deliver cheaper tires.

The stock tires on my R1T lasted 24k miles and they were pretty close to be onion skins. In my opinion this is due to cheaper tires as well as the weight and power this vehicle has. The R1T (and R1S) have the ability to eat tires depending on driving style and timely rotations. Front tires always wear faster as they have to handle steering and power delivery.

As a replacement there was no way I was going to go with $400+ tires. As I did my research for tires my goal was to find a tire that had a similar weight as not to affect range negatively. After lots of looking I found that the Corsa AT was the lightest tire I could find in the 20" AT category, this also happened to be the least expensive tire I could find at $183 each from Discount Tire. I now have over 12k miles on these and expect to get at least as many miles out of them as the OEM tires provided. Maybe a tiny bit more road noise mostly notable at about 50mph but dies out as you go faster. They have handled winter snow and ice conditions with no issues. The wear seems to be manageable and I expect to get at least what the stock tires delivered as far as miles. They do not handle quite as well in high speed canyon carving situations but would say they are 90% there.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

How are people who are doing their own rotations lifting the truck in so many points as to rotate the traditional rear tires to the front and front tires to the rear in a cross pattern? How many jacks are you using? I feel like I'm missing something here. I have one floor jack and four jack stands but there's only a single lift point at each wheel of the truck so the jack stands are essentially useless.

I use four 10T bottle jacks and my pucks (soon) to rotate tires......

 

[mkg3]

Well, on the bright side, if all tire mfg know that Rivians eat through tires, maybe there will be more options, since the owners are buying tires more frequently..

 

[swhme]

I'm pretty close to this on wear with similar miles. Planning to replace with KO2s this summer.

 

[911.1 Guy]

How can anyone take delivery without a spare tire?

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