Spare tire- with or without jack?

[Superdad]

Has anyone confirmed whether or not the spare tire comes with the jack and lug nut tools? What about without the spare- no tools?
It’s not a light vehicle so trying to justify the added expense for the spare if I have to go buy a 3 ton jack to carry around.

My initial thought is it was too expensive for just a spare and planned to just buy a patch kit and use the compressor as needed - but it dawned on me that I’d likely need to get a jack and lugnut wrench in addition to a patch kit. Not the end of the world but I doubt it will be as ‘clean’ a fit as factory equipment and only save $400.
I’ve lurked a lot but never read anything about a jack. Also concerned about jack points and using a non factory jack not having true axles.

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[cohall]

When you choose the spare tire with the R1T and R1S, a service kit is included as well.

Service kit contents:

• Jack with Toolkit
• Jacking Puck
• Riser Base

 

[Superdad]

Well that answers that. Thanks. Nothing to see here.

 

[crashmtb]

I asked customer service this in chat, they couldn’t say what type of jack it is but did confirm the presence of one.

also asked if the truck can support itself on three wheels, like a Citroen - Similar suspension system after all - but they said it can’t(for now, hmmmm)

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

My initial thought is it was too expensive for just a spare and planned to just buy a patch kit and use the compressor as needed - but it dawned on me that I’d likely need to get a jack and lugnut wrench in addition to a patch kit.

Why do you think you need a jack and wrench if you're going to rely on patches? You should be able to inch the vehicle forward/backward to expose the puncture and work on the tire while it's still on the vehicle. (I assume you'll be using one of the typical roadside patch kits that you install from the outside-in, and not a "professional" patch that requires dismounting the tire from the rim).

 

[Superdad]

Why do you think you need a jack and wrench if you're going to rely on patches? You should be able to inch the vehicle forward/backward to expose the puncture and work on the tire while it's still on the vehicle. (I assume you'll be using one of the typical roadside patch kits that you install from the outside-in, and not a "professional" patch that requires dismounting the tire from the rim).

Front wheels no problem as you can turn them and get clearance. Rear wheel- it all depends on how much room you’ve got for the jabbing tool. Sometimes I’ve had to drill out the screw/object- requiring a lot more space. Can it be done? Sure but is it easier off the hub? Yeah. Same with finding the leak.

 

[crashmtb]

Why do you think you need a jack and wrench if you're going to rely on patches? You should be able to inch the vehicle forward/backward to expose the puncture and work on the tire while it's still on the vehicle. (I assume you'll be using one of the typical roadside patch kits that you install from the outside-in, and not a "professional" patch that requires dismounting the tire from the rim).

It’s an order of magnitude easier and faster to plug a punctured tire with the wheel off, compared to moving the entire vehicle around to find the injury on the tire.

 

[Trandall]

I was really hoping Rivian would put the 7" of pneumatic ride height adjustment to good use so it could lift it's injured wheel for repair. Maybe OTA update will enable this after delivery... hint, hint, wink, wink.

 

[SoCal Rob]

It’s an order of magnitude easier and faster to plug a punctured tire with the wheel off, compared to moving the entire vehicle around to find the injury on the tire.

Our Land Rover has a height-adjustable suspension and it never occurred to me to take the wheel off to plug a puncture. Raise vehicle to off-road height and get at the puncture from the top surface or below body front-facing or rear-facing surfaces. Give it a try on a height-adjustable vehicle and I think you’ll find it is easier and faster than removing a wheel,, especially if you have to start moving cargo to get at your jack. The Rivian has more ground clearance than our Land Rover so I imagine it’ll be even easier than what I’m used to.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Front wheels no problem as you can turn them and get clearance. Rear wheel- it all depends on how much room you’ve got for the jabbing tool. Sometimes I’ve had to drill out the screw/object- requiring a lot more space. Can it be done? Sure but is it easier off the hub? Yeah. Same with finding the leak.

It’s an order of magnitude easier and faster to plug a punctured tire with the wheel off, compared to moving the entire vehicle around to find the injury on the tire.

I've never had a problem doing it on a truck. You typically have clearance at the top between the tire and fender, and you definitely have clearance at the side.

The only time I've HAD to remove the wheel was on a Lexus that was pretty darn low to the ground -- not a problem with a Rivian.

 

[crashmtb]

I was really hoping Rivian would put the 7" of pneumatic ride height adjustment to good use so it could lift it's injured wheel for repair. Maybe OTA update will enable this after delivery... hint, hint, wink, wink.

It is only natural. Seems like a missed opportunity ?‍

Our Land Rover has a height-adjustable suspension and it never occurred to me to take the wheel off to plug a puncture. Raise vehicle to off-road height and get at the puncture from the top surface or below body front-facing or rear-facing surfaces. Give it a try on a height-adjustable vehicle and I think you’ll find it is easier and faster than removing a wheel,, especially if you have to start moving cargo to get at your jack. The Rivian has more ground clearance than our Land Rover so I imagine it’ll be even easier than what I’m used to.

Fair point. I’ve never had the luxury of height adjustable suspension. And on any truck or truck-like vehicle I’ve had a flat on, there’s been a full size spare available. Easier to change and go. I’ve had to plug more than enough punctures on cars without spares though. much less room there, removing and plugging is about as fast as changing a wheel would be.

 

[SoCal Rob]

It is only natural. Seems like a missed opportunity ?‍

Yeah, this is a head-scratcher for sure. As far as I know, only Citroën has taken advantage of the adjustable height to eliminate the manual exertion of raising a vehicle for a wheel change.

Our Land Rover has to be in off-road height before you can jack the vehicle up. If not, as you raise one corner the others lift in response, probably until you reach off-road height. You’d waste a lot of effort. If you try the Citroën method (raise vehicle via suspension, place block under corner you want to raise, and lower suspension) the Land Rover reacts as if you high-centered the vehicle and raises the suspension even higher than off-road height. It seems like the engineers decided a special wheel change mode wasn’t worth it, they couldn’t figure out an interface to control it, or they were concerned about a situation where you have a suspension failure and a flat.

Our Land Rover was designed in the early 2000s so I hope that Rivian has figured out a better way. If not, maybe they will take the hint from @Trandall and release an update to do this post-launch. Either way it would be great if Rivian figured out a way to do this since there are some tire issues you can’t plug. Given a choice between using the suspension or manually jacking up a 3-ton vehicle I’ll go with the suspension. That seems like the kind of feature marketing could use to show how Rivian is for adventure types who want a more luxurious experience, even when putting on a spare.

 

[crashmtb]

Yeah, this is a head-scratcher for sure. As far as I know, only Citroën has taken advantage of the adjustable height to eliminate the manual exertion of raising a vehicle for a wheel change.

Our Land Rover has to be in off-road height before you can jack the vehicle up. If not, as you raise one corner the others lift in response, probably until you reach off-road height. You’d waste a lot of effort. If you try the Citroën method (raise vehicle via suspension, place block under corner you want to raise, and lower suspension) the Land Rover reacts as if you high-centered the vehicle and raises the suspension even higher than off-road height. It seems like the engineers decided a special wheel change mode wasn’t worth it, they couldn’t figure out an interface to control it, or they were concerned about a situation where you have a suspension failure and a flat.

Our Land Rover was designed in the early 2000s so I hope that Rivian has figured out a better way. If not, maybe they will take the hint from @Trandall and release an update to do this post-launch. Either way it would be great if Rivian figured out a way to do this since there are some tire issues you can’t plug. Given a choice between using the suspension or manually jacking up a 3-ton vehicle I’ll go with the suspension. That seems like the kind of feature marketing could use to show how Rivian is for adventure types who want a more luxurious experience, even when putting on a spare.

it’s absolute pie in the sky thinking, but the ideal jack would be a pneumatic one, given the on board air compressor. Anything other than pumping a bottle jack or cranking up a scissor jack.

or worse, the pillar jack my Land Rover has.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

it’s absolute pie in the sky thinking, but the ideal jack would be a pneumatic one, given the on board air compressor. Anything other than pumping a bottle jack or cranking up a scissor jack.

Pneumatic would be nice, but having a manual mechanical jack is still a must, imo, as the onboard air could fail.

 

[kneebuster]

While the idea of lifting the truck to max height then retracting a damaged wheel/tire for repair is appealing, it likely won't work. The air suspensions I'm familiar with are all single acting meaning that pressure is only applied to one side of the piston/bag to extend the cylinder, retraction is via gravity and the weight of the vehicle. To make the jacking solution work, they'd need to be able to pressurize both sides of the piston/bag, which is more complicated, but not out of the question.

There are airbag jacks for the offroad community, I had one for my Xterra. They typically inflate from vehicle exhaust, but that obviously won't work with the Rivian. One with the ability to connect to an air hose seems feasible. The major downside would be time to inflate (they are large volume) and that they take up a lot more storage space than a manual jack.

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