sacramentoelectric
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If you've been scratching your head on how you can install a fridge slide in the bed of the R1T without blocking access to the spare tire, this tutorial is for you. Installing a slide in an R1T isn't as simple or as affordable as most with vehicles but it is possible without drilling or making permanent modifications to the truck or blocking the spare tire hatch. You only need to remove two screws to take out the slide after installation. All in, you're looking at about $600-700 in parts including a generic fridge slide and two or three hours for the installation. You don't need any special tools or skills. If you can turn a screwdriver, you can complete this installation in an afternoon.
Instead of bolting the slide down to the floor of the bed like in most vehicles, we're going to attach aluminum extrusions to hinges secured to a MOLLE panel installed on the back wall of the bed.
(Right hinge needs to be tightened down in this photo.)
This will allow the slide to pivot up with the spare tire compartment door. You'll need to order and install the Bedside Rack System - Cab Wall MOLLE Panel Kit | Rivian R1T (2022+) - BuiltRight Industries. Make sure to order the MOLLE Nuts | Threaded MOLLE/PALS Fastener - BuiltRight Industries as well. You'll need those fasteners to bolt the hinges to the panel. Those two parts together are about $417. Installation of the molle panel is very straightforward and there are tutorial videos online.
Next you're going to need a pair of 48" T Slot Aluminum Extrusions. You only need two sticks so the ten pack I've linked is way more than you need. They're also available in black if you prefer to have everything blend in. To attach the extrusions to the molle panel, you'll need hinges like this or this. You will need to tap the extrusion to attach the hinge so if you don't have a tapping bit, there are some hinges that also come with what you'll need in a kit. If you've never tapped extrusion before, it's easy. You need a tapping bit, handle, and cutting lube (or just use WD40.) There are plenty of Youtube tutorials to show you how.
To figure out where you're going to want to install the hinges to the molle panel, you will first need to attach the 2020 extrusions to your fridge slide. This is the one I used but most slides will probably work with this method as long as there's some way to attach the extrusions to the side rather than the bottom of the tray. Try to find the most low profile slide you can as there just isn't much height to work with in the R1T bed and most fridges won't fit under the cover (more on this later.) Make sure the slide you get has bolt holes on the side so you have a place to attach the extrusions. Check out this photo of the slide:
See the nuts on the side (one is circled in red)? You're going to take those off and replace them with slide in t-nuts to attach your slide to the extrusion. Putting the extrusions to the side of the slide keeps it as low as possible in the bed. The bolt and nut you'll need depends on the slide you use. The slide I ordered happened to use M5 bolts to attach the pieces matching the M5 slide in t-nuts I already had. Get the corresponding slide in tnuts that match the size of your bolt. McMaster-Carr or places that sell parts for 3D printers will have what you need.
This photo shows where I've bolted the slide to the extrusion.
Once you've connected the rails to the slide, you'll be able to work out where you will need to place the BuildRight fasteners on the molle panel. I moved mine to the left side of the bed to fit under my Gearpod but if you're going to plug into the outlets, the right side is probably a better location.
Put one side of the hinge on the extrusion and one side loosely on the Buildright fasteners. The hinges, extrusion, and the panel are all aluminum so there's going to be enough flex for you to get things more or less lined up without perfect placement. Line everything up and tighten everything down. Don't worry about bending the hinges a bit or tightening them down all the way. We just don't want them coming apart.
To create some extra tie down points along the extrusion, you can use the same slide in t-nuts with some D Ring Tie Down Anchors (pictured above.)
These extrusions will keep your slide secure along the length of your bed but it doesn't do much for lateral forces. At least with the slide I used, it nestles into the grooves in the bed and the weight of the fridge has kept everything in place even in pretty significant off road off camber situations. I also generally keep a box packed next to the fridge (pictured below) that would keep it from moving too much even if it did slip out of the grooves. If you're really worried about it sliding across the bed, you can always attach a d-ring to the front of the extrusion and lash it to one of the bed rings.
I should note that I have a BestEVMod truck bed mat liner underneath the slide. It has a lip on the end of the matt that does slightly interfere with the operation of the slide. I generally have to gently lift the fridge when I slide it out to clear the lip. You will need to have the bed mat in place before you install the molle panel.
A few things to keep in mind when selecting fridge to go with this setup. The distance from the top of the slide to the bottom of the tonneau rail is only about 16.4in.
That measurement is an estimate since I don't have a Rivian manual or electric top to precisely measure against. I'd say it's within a .1 of an inch. That's not enough for most fridges. The way I got around this was to go with the EVSportline RMaxx Soft Tonneau Roll-up Bed Cover for Rivian R1T. I got tired of waiting for Rivian to come out with their own tonneau cover so I bought this third party cover and it's fantastic. It's easy to install and crucially, it provides extra clearance in the bed since the soft top sits up higher than the Rivian manual and electric tonneaus. This allows me to fit an Ecoflow Glacier underneath the cover.
It just fits but I do need to unlatch the cover to slide out the fridge. That extra clearance under the soft top also allows you to stand up a full size propane bottle underneath the tonneau. For those of us out West with fire bans, it's great to be able to safely strap a propane bottle to the molle panel in the bed and use it with portable gas fireplaces.
To access the spare tire with this slide in place, you do still need to take the fridge off the slide before lifting the lid. The weight of the slide and bed mat if you have one is more than the gas struts will lift so keep a large hex key with you or some other hook that you can use to lift the lid once you pull the handle. You will also need to prop up the lid once it's lifted. As you can see in the photo below, the rails for my soft tonneau do limit the height that the spare tire lid will lift. It still gives plenty of clearance to remove the wheel from the cavity. Just remember to unscrew the bolt holding down the wheel before trying to lift it out.
I really love the convenience of having the fridge slide. It's not the most affordable mod but the molle panel has been useful on its own and I find it to be a great value. All it takes to remove the slide is taking out the two screws in the hinges. If you routinely carry a fridge in the back of your R1T, I think you'll really enjoy having a slide.
If you have any questions, I'll monitor this thread and will answer the best I can.
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