21" to 20" wheels switch -- never-ending drama

[CharonPDX]

Well sure people swap wheels all the time. I have done it numerous times on my cars and have never had the opportunity to change the wheel size on the car. I guess I’ve always just had old cars.

Yep, computer controlled electric motors at each wheel mean it tweaks the power delivery based on the wheel/tire size. (And possibly even *type* of tire for all we know.) Not something you'd run in to in your old mid '90s Audi.

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[Monkey]

Out of curiosity, what are the tire/wheel options in the UI for the Model Y? I just looked at Tesla's manual and the diameter of the 19 and 20" options are identical at 28" and 720 revs/mile. The 21s are the same for the fronts, but the rears are 2% larger and 706 revs/mile. Where for Rivian the 21 and 22" OE options are the same 33" diameter, but the 20s are 34" diameter tires or I believe closer to 3%.

The Y has options for 19", 20" and 21" wheels -- the sizes Tesla offers and they're all tuned to estimate based on the OEM tires and wheel specs. So range estimates do change based on which wheel option is selected and the odometer/MPH stays consistent with size from what I've seen. I swap between my 20" running Michelin Pilot Sport 4 GT/AS tires and 19" with Scorpion Winter tires. I notice a definite range hit with the winter tires as they're quite grippy. Not only do range estimates change with wheel selection, but the UI updates to show the respective wheel options too.

The first vehicle I owned with user-friendly wheel settings was my 2012 Ford Expedition. IIRC it had a bank of dip-switches adjacent to the fuse box. Since then, most of our Ford and Chevy trucks/ SUVs have had options in the computer/UI to select between different factory spec options. If you put on non-standard sizes or oversized tires, then it usually requires plugging in and reprogramming, which for most people means a trip to the shop to do it. And dealerships won't do any of this for non-standard sizes.

 

[emoore]

Yep, computer controlled electric motors at each wheel mean it tweaks the power delivery based on the wheel/tire size. (And possibly even *type* of tire for all we know.) Not something you'd run in to in your old mid '90s Audi.

Do you think that Rivian is tweaking power to each wheel based on tire size? Thats cool if they are but I’m doubtful that they are.

 

[mindstormsguy]

Yep, computer controlled electric motors at each wheel mean it tweaks the power delivery based on the wheel/tire size. (And possibly even *type* of tire for all we know.) Not something you'd run in to in your old mid '90s Audi.

[Citation required]

 

[jwardell]

Nope. It's simply that Rivian has not implemented the ability for the user to select a change in wheel size. Like in a Tesla, we can choose any of the factory wheel/tire options in our settings. There's really no excuse for this issue at this point... People swap wheel sets for various reasons like to go off-road or for winter.

It took Tesla several years to add the option for the user to pick wheel size. Hopefully rivian is faster, but I know firsthand they have a daunting number of systems that are attached to it so it will be a lot of work to implement

 

[Arky]

It took Tesla several years to add the option for the user to pick wheel size. Hopefully rivian is faster, but I know firsthand they have a daunting number of systems that are attached to it so it will be a lot of work to implement

They only pick OE equivalent wheel sizes - to my knowledge Tesla doesn't let you just input a tire size and there's a lot of variation in tires on a particular wheel.

I'd like to change mine to 275/60/20 or 275/55/20 when I need new ones, but it's the same wheel.

 

[State11]

Quick update. What I assume to be an unrelated suspension issue has me on what I'm hopeful of resolution of the wheel size issue.....with no $$ charged. I started getting a suspension needs service message that eventually escalated to a performance degradation message w/ a 51mph governor (they must be Sammy Hagar fans). This meant I couldn't safely drive it down I-80 to the service center. So after a couple of days of them trying to find a towing service, it is at the W Sacramento service center and apparently in addition to the suspension issue, will recalibrate the wheel size. They also provided a Nissan Armada via Enterprise. Btw, it is scary driving an ICE vehicle now....I almost crashed approaching a red light. I lifted my foot from the accelerator and nothing happened!!! "Wait, I have to use the brakes to stop?"

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