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“Bed top tent” impact on range

Jabbahop

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Does anyone have a sense of how much having the tent on the bed will impact range of the R1T? I read somewhere that a roof top tent could cause a mpg reduction of 17% in an ICE card but hoping it is less when mounted low like Rivian is showing. I thought the Motortrend cross country articles might mention it since they were loaded up with the kitchen and tent but didn’t see anything.
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Taycanfrank

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It's hard to say exactly but I think it'll be significant. The kitchen is less of an issue as it doesn't affect aerodynamics and is lower in the vehicle.

If I was to get the R1T today with the tent on it and plan a trip I'd anticipate 15% range loss and hope it didn't end up being that much. I'd guess it'll be more like 7-10% on the truck and more towards 15% on the suv.

Nothing concrete to go on for this guesstimate except my experience with what has lowered range on the Taycan and by how much.
 

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It's hard to say exactly but I think it'll be significant. The kitchen is less of an issue as it doesn't affect aerodynamics and is lower in the vehicle.

If I was to get the R1T today with the tent on it and plan a trip I'd anticipate 15% range loss and hope it didn't end up being that much. I'd guess it'll be more like 7-10% on the truck and more towards 15% on the suv.

Nothing concrete to go on for this guesstimate except my experience with what has lowered range on the Taycan and by how much.
I’m thinking it will not be that bad as long as it’s in the bed, above the bed on the roof might be a different story. If you look at the pictures it almost sits flush with roof line sitting on the bed. Of course like you said this is all a guess no real facts to back it up. I’m honestly not taking any chances and opting for max pack though.
 

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What I don't get is why Rivian doesn't offer a digital rear view mirror when they have the bed tent as a factory option. With it installed, it literally block the entire rear view which can be circumvented with a digital mirror and a well placed camera or tap into one of the existing rear camera.
 

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What I don't get is why Rivian doesn't offer a digital rear view mirror when they have the bed tent as a factory option. With it installed, it literally block the entire rear view which can be circumvented with a digital mirror and a well placed camera or tap into one of the existing rear camera.
Fron what I recall of the test drive, you can bring up the rear camera (don't remember of it was the tail gate oe the one in the spoiler) on the front display.

The down side is that it takes up the whole display so you can't use anything else.
 

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What I don't get is why Rivian doesn't offer a digital rear view mirror when they have the bed tent as a factory option. With it installed, it literally block the entire rear view which can be circumvented with a digital mirror and a well placed camera or tap into one of the existing rear camera.
They’re already using a Gentex mirror, and Gentex makes full display mirrors. But using the bumper mounted camera for that might be a bit disorienting.

you can have the rear camera on while driving, but as it is now(or at least last month when I had a go), the camera views take the whole display. It does show side and rear views concurrently, which Is nice.

It would be useful to be able to have a rear camera view on some portion of either the main display or the driver display. Surely that will be a software update at some point.
 

ironpig

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If you are asking if adding more weight and changing the shape of the truck will increase drag and reduce range, The answer is yes. Same for all ICE vehicles. I see guys in Tacomas driving their trucks around with RTTs all the time and I wonder how often they are really sleeping in them to sacrifice fuel economy so drastically. I just throw a tent in my truck when I go camping.

The R1T is by design an inefficient EV for just moving people around but great for doing truck things. But it can’t defeat the physics of adding weight and drag.
 

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If you are asking if adding more weight and changing the shape of the truck will increase drag and reduce range, The answer is yes. Same for all ICE vehicles. I see guys in Tacomas driving their trucks around with RTTs all the time and I wonder how often they are really sleeping in them to sacrifice fuel economy so drastically. I just throw a tent in my truck when I go camping.

The R1T is by design an inefficient EV for just moving people around but great for doing truck things. But it can’t defeat the physics of adding weight and drag.
I wonder how much drag it actually adds, being no higher than the roofline when mounted over the bed, and not sticking out on the sides.
 

ironpig

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I wonder how much drag it actually adds, being no higher than the roofline when mounted over the bed, and not sticking out on the sides.
I don’t know how much exactly. But I remember someone much smarter than me explaining it in a Tacoma forum.

on an actual roof it seems to be 10-20% economy loss depending on the car and tent and I think it’s maybe 8- 15% when it’s bed mounted?

Im going to see if I can find and link the post I read but it was a few years ago.
 

crashmtb

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I don’t know how much exactly. But I remember someone much smarter than me explaining it in a Tacoma forum.

on an actual roof it seems to be 10-20% economy loss depending on the car and tent and I think it’s maybe 8- 15% when it’s bed mounted?

Im going to see if I can find and link the post I read but it was a few years ago.
All the bed mounted ones I’ve seen on other trucks stick out/up more ?
 

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ironpig

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All the bed mounted ones I’ve seen on other trucks stick out/up more ?
truck beds are designed to have the air go over the roof and hit the tailgate and “bounce” or reflect off it. That’s why tailgate up is more efficient than tailgate down.

if the air gets caught by anything in the bed it creates drag. So most of those RTTs that sit on top of the bed are high enough that they interfere with the air as it goes from the truck roof to the top of the tailgate.
 

crashmtb

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truck beds are designed to have the air go over the roof and hit the tailgate and “bounce” or reflect off it. That’s why tailgate up is more efficient than tailgate down.

if the air gets caught by anything in the bed it creates drag. So most of those RTTs that sit on top of the bed are high enough that they interfere with the air as it goes from the truck roof to the top of the tailgate.
The tent mounted over the bed likely won’t add as much drag as those setups. since it doesn’t stick out from the envelope of the truck. At least, not much from what I’ve seen of it. I bet Rivian has data on it though.
 

ironpig

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The tent mounted over the bed likely won’t add as much drag as those setups. since it doesn’t stick out from the envelope of the truck. At least, not much from what I’ve seen of it. I bet Rivian has data on it though.
I bet they don’t. It’s a third party Tent in their bed rails. It’s not really anything new or different. It interrupts the airflow as it arcs down toward the tailgate so it will add drag. I just don’t know how much. Same on ICE or Electric truck.
 

crashmtb

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I bet they don’t. It’s a third party Tent in their bed rails. It’s not really anything new or different. It interrupts the airflow as it arcs down toward the tailgate so it will add drag. I just don’t know how much. Same on ICE or Electric truck.
given the amount of miles they have clearly logged with the bed mounted tent, they surely know its effects on range.
 

ironpig

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given the amount of miles they have clearly logged with the bed mounted tent, they surely know its effects on range.
Well Im sure they know because they have engineers driving the trucks but why would they publish that? No other car maker publishes what third party accessories do to their range either.

also there are hundreds Of YouTube videos and forum posts with real world stats about RTTs. You can find the info you want. The phenomenon is the same for an ICE or electric truck. Nothing new.
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