20” All-Terrain or 22” Sport wheel upgrade included - Which is better 20 or 22

[skyote]

Any replacement tire needs to be rated for an EV to ensure high enough pressure and load rating. DO NOT replace with just any tire that matches the dimensions.

LT tires should be fine, E load rating.

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[photontorque]

With my current car it is essential to have snow tires, so in the late fall I swap out "all-season" to snow tires and in the late spring I do the reverse. To keep things simple and cheap I bought a second pair of basic (and heavy) steel wheels for my snow tires.

The 20" wheel option for the Rivian is my first choice because of improved range and compatibility with existing tire options (noting the importance of an EV rating, mentioned above). The 20" comes with All Terrain tires.

Which leads to two questions:

1. I've never driven with all-terrain tires before. Do those work well in snow? Or should I plan to get a second set of snow tires for winter use?

2. I think some cars have special sensors in their wheels that indicate, e.g., low tire pressure. Has anyone heard that the wheels for Rivians will be so "connected" that a driver would lose a lot of functionality by buying wheels for a second set of tires? And clearly another expense here is that I would want something a bit lighter than steel wheels to mitigate range impact.

Essentially I'm wondering whether my current set up of two sets of wheels+tires will apply to a Rivian, and if so, whether or not I should be on the lookout for an extra set of wheels from Rivian as an option in the configurator to preserve full functionality of whatever wheel/tire telemetry they've implemented.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[R1Simon]

Why... why couldn’t they just make things easier by having the standard all season tire be 20”???

 

[Laurent]

1. I've never driven with all-terrain tires before. Do those work well in snow? Or should I plan to get a second set of snow tires for winter use?

For winter driving, my plan is to get a set of 20" Rivian wheels with Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3 (non-studded) 275/65R20 tires.

 

[Coconutorra]

As someone said AT tires are more noisy, but maybe this new Pirelli EV tires will be more quite.
Can somebody give me feedback about how well AT does on the normal road, in wet conditions, and in the cornering? Does it change a lot from AS?

 

[azbill]

2. I think some cars have special sensors in their wheels that indicate, e.g., low tire pressure. Has anyone heard that the wheels for Rivians will be so "connected" that a driver would lose a lot of functionality by buying wheels for a second set of tires? And clearly another expense here is that I would want something a bit lighter than steel wheels to mitigate range impact.

Most of the pressure sensors are in the valve stems and have to be programmed for specific location. Other sensors like the ones used for ABS to measure individual wheel speed are typically in the brake rotors, not in the wheels. I would not expect this to be an issue, but you would need to have the pressure sensors recalibrated when you change the wheels. Since each wheel runs on a separate motor, the wheel speed and torque are directly measurable from the motors, without the need for special sensors directly on the wheels themselves.

 

[skyote]

Most of the pressure sensors are in the valve stems and have to be programmed for specific location. Other sensors like the ones used for ABS to measure individual wheel speed are typically in the brake rotors, not in the wheels. I would not expect this to be an issue, but you would need to have the pressure sensors recalibrated when you change the wheels. Since each wheel runs on a separate motor, the wheel speed and torque are directly measurable from the motors, without the need for special sensors directly on the wheels themselves.

2. I think some cars have special sensors in their wheels that indicate, e.g., low tire pressure. Has anyone heard that the wheels for Rivians will be so "connected" that a driver would lose a lot of functionality by buying wheels for a second set of tires? And clearly another expense here is that I would want something a bit lighter than steel wheels to mitigate range impact.

azbill is spot on. TPMS sensors are typically around $60 each & readily available at most tire stores. You could have these installed in a second set of wheels, and synced/programmed to the correct corners (tire locations) on the vehicle. Quick easy process that is also done any time you get tires rotated.

Edit for clarification: I would leave the TPMS in the factory wheels & buy a second set for your alernate wheel/tire combo.

 

[photontorque]

@Laurent, @azbill, @skyote - thanks for the feedback, that's really helpful.

In the event I get a second set of wheels/tires I have a better sense of what to expect.

I read the description of the Rivian-specific Pirelli tires, and saw this for the all terrains:
"The Scorpion All Terrain Plus is designed with a focus on optimizing durability, traction and wear resistance, in addition to providing snow traction: it gained indeed the three-peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) symbol."

Promising, but from my limited understanding the 3PMSF rating still isn't as good as a dedicated snow tire in snow. Maybe this will be an empirical exercise. I'm also interested to see what kind of range performance these all terrains provide.

 

[photontorque]

As someone said AT tires are more noisy, but maybe this new Pirelli EV tires will be more quite.
Can somebody give me feedback about how well AT does on the normal road, in wet conditions, and in the cornering? Does it change a lot from AS?

Check out the thread discussing the Rivian-specific Pirelli tires, the press release has a general-public-style description that doesn't answer your questions directly but provides some clues:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...-specifically-for-the-rivian-r1t-and-r1s.762/

Sounds like the AT is a more aggressive tread than the AS, which may mean less cornering performance. Not sure about the difference in wet conditions; I've never driven AT tires before.

 

[skyote]

Sounds like the AT is a more aggressive tread than the AS, which may mean less cornering performance. Not sure about the difference in wet conditions; I've never driven AT tires before.

I can't speak for the snow at all. I have AT tires on my HD truck & have not had any issues in wet weather. AS will handle better & should be better in wetter conditions; you can hydroplane with any tire, but AS will channel/displace more water than AT.

In general, I'm not a big fan of AT because you sacrifice on road & gain very little off road...but they look tough. I'll be replacing the ATs with AS, but not until they wear out.

 

[ElectricTrucking]

Check out the thread discussing the Rivian-specific Pirelli tires, the press release has a general-public-style description that doesn't answer your questions directly but provides some clues:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...-specifically-for-the-rivian-r1t-and-r1s.762/

Sounds like the AT is a more aggressive tread than the AS, which may mean less cornering performance. Not sure about the difference in wet conditions; I've never driven AT tires before.

I'm going for the 20 AT. I've still got my 911 for cornering but worried I won't drive the 911 much. Also I really like my wife's Bolt which we just got.

 

[ElectricTrucking]

I was looking at the Michelin site earlier and they have a 34" AT for a 20" wheel that reviews said supposedly gets as much as 100,000 miles.

Wow on a single charge? That's terrific.

 

[time]

I think its too early for me to know which wheel I want (Just saw the Pirelli post). Knowing exactly what tire it will be and what the range / speed tradeoffs will be for each is critical. But I would think changing wheel configuration would be ok up to pretty close to your truck going into production.

The changes in software sound questionable. How would we tell the vehicle what size we're running if we swap out say off-road vs on road tires? I'm sure they thought of something because that's pretty common in the road community. From the looks it doesn't seem like we'll be able to go to a bigger tire than what's coming from the factory unfortunately.

 

[time]

Personally, I'd avoid the 21" just because of how hard it will be to get replacements in that size. I've had too many headaches with the i3's weird tire sizes. Can't get the tires anywhere but the dealer and even the ones in SoCal don't always stock them. I've had two flat tires over the years in the i3s and its a whole hassle getting it fixed quickly. No I think I'd want a stock tire size. There may not be many low rolling resistant truck rated tires on the market yet, but there differently will be more with all of the other companies joining this space.

I went with 20s in my config for now.

 

[riviancanucknb]

I am really not sure what to do here. I wish they gave the range information in the configurator. I think I am going to have to email them.

Since this truck will be arriving in Nov in Canada I am thinking I will get the AT since they should be good in the snow, and then will not have to get winters put on?

Are these AT tires rated for ice? What is the exact model?

Arghhh!

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