Thoughts on power tonneau vs. manual tonneau

[NooterIA]

I personally am thrilled about the powered cover. I open and close the manual one I have today quite often. That said, if the electric/auto one were to fail and not be capable of manually opening or closing till it’s repaired, that’d be a huge negative for me.

I haven’t seen anything about manually opening/closing the auto one either…

Sponsored

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

I personally am thrilled about the powered cover. I open and close the manual one I have today quite often. That said, if the electric/auto one were to fail and not be capable of manually opening or closing till it’s repaired, that’d be a huge negative for me.

I haven’t seen anything about manually opening/closing the auto one either…

The early deliveries and first-mile demo trucks had a number of power tonneau cover failures. The cover appears to be inoperable when a failure occurs -- and it's stuck in whatever position it was when it failed.

 

[Craigins]

The early deliveries and first-mile demo trucks had a number of power tonneau cover failures. The cover appears to be inoperable when a failure occurs -- and it's stuck in whatever position it was when it failed.

Many things can be moved with the application of the appropriate amount of focre

 

[r1t_launch_3-30]

The powered tonneau is AWESOME. I've used a manual version, similar to rivian's, on a previous truck - and it was such a PITA. Granted, there was no gear tunnel to store it in, but it was at home more often than not, and it was enough of a pain to install that I would often plan errands around it (ie drive to stores in an illogical order, just so i wouldn't have to install the cover to secure items in the bed)

Now if i had to BOTH pay 3k for the powered, AND not be able to use it before i made the call, i can tell you I'd probably pass

BUT, being able to use it, i'd flip that - definitely buy, it's SO much easier. And if it ever saves something from being stolen that would have been covered ... just paid for itself.

 

[camaroz1985]

I'm tempted to stay manual due to simplicity and being able to use it regardless of weather conditions. Storing in the gear tunnel is a shame though. If you didn't lose that space and could store it in the space for the power tonneau, it would be a no brainer. I hate that the space for the power tonneau is basically wasted space. I'm leaning toward the powered cover now. I was already planning to change to adventure, so I was thinking that was part of the trade off, but now more choices is a bad thing haha.

I think I will just wait until closer to delivery and see what aftermarket covers are available. If no manual aftermarket covers are more elegant than the Rivian manual tonneau, I will go with the powered one. It is nice knowing it is covered by the warranty (5 year/60k miles), which you won't get closed to with an aftermarket option.

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Anyone have any visibility on the range hit one might experience with no tonneau cover???

 

[OverZealous]

Anyone have any visibility on the range hit one might experience with no tonneau cover???

Back in the day, Mythbusters did a test about this, and discovered that a tonneau has almost no effect on aerodynamics as long as the tailgate is up. The existing air in the bed is trapped and creates a sort of wall that allows air to flow over and around the bed.

However, those "aerodynamic" tailgate replacements, the open-air meshes and related, had a massively negative effect on aerodynamics, as they caused turbulence and therefore increased drag.

My guess is, tonneau open or closed doesn't make a huge difference as long as the tailgate is up, but it would be interesting for someone to perform a scientific test to verify that this really is true.

 

[jjwolf120]

Don't forget that the manual tonneau cover can also be reconfigured as a table, if I remember correctly.

 

[MaxPackPlease]

Don't forget that the manual tonneau cover can also be reconfigured as a table, if I remember correctly.

I saw in another forum that a CS chat person confirmed this was a rumor. So I'd verify that before making a decision based on it.

 

[jjwolf120]

saw in another forum that a CS chat person confirmed this was a rumor. So I'd verify that before making a decision based on it.

I did some research and that information came from some articles circa 2020, but the configurator doesn't say anything about the manual Tonneau covers converting into a camp table.

 

[RivRev]

I'm not sure there's a way to open a manual tonneau cover with the cross bars installed over the bed. That could be a pain if you find yourself wanting something in the front of the bed with bikes on the rack.

I thought the cover slides in versus being placed on top. This should allow the manual to just slide in the rails under the cross bars. I don't think it's going to be an issue.

 

[r1t_launch_3-30]

I'm tempted to stay manual due to simplicity and being able to use it regardless of weather conditions. Storing in the gear tunnel is a shame though. If you didn't lose that space and could store it in the space for the power tonneau, it would be a no brainer. I hate that the space for the power tonneau is basically wasted space. I'm leaning toward the powered cover now. I was already planning to change to adventure, so I was thinking that was part of the trade off, but now more choices is a bad thing haha.

I think I will just wait until closer to delivery and see what aftermarket covers are available. If no manual aftermarket covers are more elegant than the Rivian manual tonneau, I will go with the powered one. It is nice knowing it is covered by the warranty (5 year/60k miles), which you won't get closed to with an aftermarket option.

keep in mind crossbar/accessory compatibility - the rivian factory crossbars are great - they mount to dedicated "quick release" hooks on the bed and/or roof. All designs i have seen for hard covers would prevent use of the cross bars. I have seen some soft covers that go "inside" the bed, but these reduce storage volume/height, and are obviously not as secure as a hard cover.

 

[BigE]

I think RJ comes across as sounding confident about the Tonneau cover and the "engineering" they put into it. To me, I think it's just the sound that sounds odd as RJ states, the cover "stacks" each section above the gear tunnel, vs not rolling up as some may think. I would think it will be hard for an aftermarket company to design something this integrated.

See RJ at 24:20...

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

The early deliveries and first-mile demo trucks had a number of power tonneau cover failures. The cover appears to be inoperable when a failure occurs -- and it's stuck in whatever position it was when it failed.

I read on this forum somewhere that the problem with early tonneau’s was that they were using one motor to open and close it. It was like opening and closing a wide drawer with only one hand — it kept getting stuck from slight differences between one side and the other. The solution was to add a second motor. That’s probably why the expense multiplied. ( Who knows, maybe both motors are also upgrades from the original.) They’ve had no problems since making the change. I think the source on this was a Rivian service pro.

 

[nc10]

Many things can be moved once with the application of the appropriate amount of focre

Missed a word

Sponsored