Custom Made Rivian R1T Truck Cap Topper (Autofitpro) Group Buy - Interested?

[Travels with Hyper]

Got it up by myself this morning with some Combo Stands. Do not recommend.

For now I am going to mount the way it came from factory, but I may try and set something up similar to how the Overland Ruff Rax mounts. He made some awesome pieces that slip under the Rivian cross bar mounts and are super solid. A piece of metal with two holes to line up to the Ruff Rax threads and bolt down to the topper bolt holes would work well. I just don't have a way to cut metal here or I would take a stab at it.


anyone figure out how to wire the taillight yet?

Sponsored

 

[Laserboy1054]

Is this the bed camera glory hole?

Well, another thing added to my nightmare list! That's what it'll be called forever and ever in my head.

 

[DayTripping]

Took some time to do some extra sealing around the portholes. I just want tidy a few things up and I will call it a day. I will look for leaks, and then maybe apply some more sealant later. I also went with some wider weatherstripping that I had.

 

[DayTripping]

The rear window is open it is at the wrong height to hit my head when I walk up if the tailgate is up. When the tailgate is down not an issue, but I know I’m going to walk into that rear window a few time when the tailgate is up.

It was much easier to mount the two sides and the front part and leave the rear tailgate off and then attach it after I put the topper on the truck.

I also cleaned my rear truck window, and ceramic coated that window, as well as all the windows on the topper. I also did the glory hole camera window too.

 

[Tucker74]

Got mine assembled, planning on a good wash and install tomorrow. What are you two’s thoughts? Looks visually a bit high at the back, want to see all the angles in person. Hopefully it’s just something I’ll get used to, would love to see more pics of @Travels with Hyper with the roof rack. You guys digging them?

 

[Travels with Hyper]

I like it a lot, but I am also super easy to please, especially for the price point. Surprised by quality for the price point honestly.

When I have extra hands around I will try and do some better weather stripping.

 

[Tucker74]

Agreed on quality - exceeds expectations at the price point

 

[krockett]

Looking good gentlemen

 

[DayTripping]

I didn't want the roof rails and will work on eliminating them. The are useful to have but I likely won't ever use them.

At the same time, I am growing used to them. I've already had several people come up and compliment me on the topper.

My biggest complaint so far is the packing or shipping damage mine had. I don't mind bending a few panels back but the scratches are annoying. Some are fairly big too. Thankfuly most of them are on the roof piece and not so obvious unless you are 7' tall. I've been using a sharpie but it isn't a perfect match but I'll live with it for now.

In general the value on this is very high and I would order it again despite my scratches. I did go the extra mile on sealing and weather stripping. I am glad I went with the beefier 3 row stripping.

My one minor complaint is the view through the rear view mirror. The height of the mirror and how I sit, means I don't get a good view strait out the back due to the size of the rear topper window. It crops the top so to speak. If I could lower my tock mirror a bit, it would be a lot better.

I am absolutely glad we made the change for the bed camera. That is truly useful now and I would have regretted if we didn't make that change. I'd be out there cutting a hole right now.

I also would go with different tints as well. For the window by the cab I'd want no tint while tinting the others. All my windows have ceramic tint in my truck, combine that with too more tinted windows of the topper, and a lot of light is lost. At least I have the rear bumper cam if needed.

I've done some shake down runs and progressively driven faster. I am up to 75 mph and no issues so far. No adverse wind noise yet and it feels very stable. I was anal about lining everything up. I didn't want to roof rails to potentially whistle. This was a another reason I didn't want them besides I don't think they go well with the lines of the truck either.

All in all, I'd rate the topper an 8/10 overall and a 9.5/10 value. The roof step is a nice touch as well. I estimate I have at least 6 hours into assembling it. I could do it faster but I wanted to make sure everything was right. The lack of instructions and extra parts didn't help. I also took a few photos along the way.

If you are in the market for a topper, it is absolutely a great option.

 

[Tucker74]

I was planning on leaving the roof rails off as well, they felt pretty structural with the bolts welded through. Was going to go with some Yakima 42” Tracks so I could snap in cross bars … hopefully I can find some that mount to these.

 

[DayTripping]

I had a thought. I am going to just use bolts and seal them while using the inside piece on the outside. On the inside I'll get some metal plat and drill holes to match the other one and rattle can it flat black to almost match.

Since I am not putting anything on the roof, I don't really need the strength of the beams and I can use fairly thick plate to help.

If I want to put a RTT on top, or a kayak carrier, I can easily go back to the original rails assuming I don't want to put my Rivian cargo bars over the cab.

 

[DayTripping]

I think it would be helpful to provide some feedback for future improvements. Here are some of my initial thoughts.

• Revised instructions with photos and a BOM that are included,and what tools are needed to build.
• Have a few extra bolts and nuts put in.
• Make a rubber gasket for mating the 2 end (front and rear) sections in addition to sealant. A thin piece of rubber would work so much better than sealant, and you still could use the seal for spot leaks.
• Think about a redesign of the locks. There could be a central handle on each door/window that would secure both sides. Rather than locking or unlocking 2 latches per window, it would be a lot better and less time-consuming.
• Allow for an untinted cab facing window while the others are tinted.
• Make a retractable cover that secures against the front cab area. Would negate the issue of using my existing tonneau cover and hide things from prying eyes.
• Molle rack or something similar for the inside roof area. It should be easy to do and have some place to put traction boards.
• For the love of god, please have the rear door open much higher. I've already hit my head twice. It might be less of an issue with suspension at standard height but when in low or lowest, where I have it to make loading and unloading easier, it is a risk. The side windows are MUCH better. Please check and see if we can get some replacement struts. This is a real hazard unless you are short. See if this is something retrofitable.
• Make the roof rails and include what is needed so you don't have to put them on if you don't plan to use the rails.
• Provide a seal to go around the portholes sort of like what I jury rigged. Based on what I did, it does seal pretty well with the triple seals I used.

We need to figure out the rear brake light connection. I am also considering interior lights as well, even if motion operated battery-powered one.

I would also suggest everyone do a light and water hose test and look for leaks.

Overall, I think it's a great value, while there are still areas of improvement that wouldn't cost much to implement going forward. It absolutely was worth doing the group buy.

I plan to do some higher speed (75+ mph) testing and will note if I experience any stability or noise issues. I've also set up a breakpoint in Electrafi to track my efficiency data. I should have relevant data within a few hundred miles.

 

[DayTripping]

I did some test and efficiency runs today. I posted the info in another thread regarding the efficiency of the Goodyear Territory ATs I've been running. I will link and post the content from that post after i provide more content about the topper.

I am glad I took the time to line everything up correctly. The topper was rock solid at all speeds I ran up to. I was within a whisker of hitting the speed limiter. I did extended cruising at over 80 mph. I had a cross wind, head wind, and semis, and a variety of road surfaces. Basically I can't tell the topper is there.

My efficiency numbers are very close to what they were without the topper. For some sections of my run, my numbers were slightly better, and overall my efficiency run ended up better than my average of my runs without the topper and just a little worse than my best. I'll need to run more runs to see how it all settles out but looks pretty promising. For reference I was between 2.24-2.28 in AP mode, standard height at 70 mph, no heat or AC and the temps in the mid 60's with a slight crosswind. That would give me a rang of about 290 mile at 70 mph.

Keep in mind, the Goodyears I am running are not what I'd call a high efficiency tire either. I love the tires so far but Rivian calls them all-season. I'd say they are an all-season tire with a tread more like an all-terrain tire. Running at least 80 mph for about 10 miles, with a headwind, I was just over 1.8 mpk. The AW01 Atomic Wheels, with the Goodyear tires pair very well with the look of the topper. Even my child liked the new topper.

A huge plus (beside no stability issues, and my range hasn't been crushed so far), is no issues with wind noise. I've done a ton of work to reduce my cockpit wind noise and thankfully I didn't go backward. No whistling or howling with the roof rails. I'll attribute some of that to making sure I lined up everything well. At 90+ mph, my cabin readings were about 66 dB according to my Apple watch with my hand on the wheel at the 9 o'clock position.

So far very pleased with the topper. Glad I didn't go with the other options out there. Still a but frustrated about the packing scratches. When I look out my dining room window and seem them, it just reinforces the biggest negative I have about the topper. Glad others have been better.

The top left is after I tried a permanent Sharpie. The top middle, I was able to cover it well enough that you can't really see it. The bottom left is an area I need to touch up yet. The end of the rails had scuffs that I could cover up fairly well. I didn't show a photo but the edge of the door frame, at the bottom, bellow the top left corner in this photos is pretty badly scuffed. I tried coloring it in but I'll actually have to sand it down to make it look better as it is gouged pretty badly. Not to mention the scratch in the window facing the cab.

Mine seems to be the worst of anyone's. Just calling it out to help set expectations. If it was just one piece, I'd give it a pass but multiple pieces and multiple areas on one piece is sort of the point I'll definitely call it out. Would I buy it again, yes, but I think others should be aware. I was careful unboxing and assembling. I had cardboard down and brand new, never used thick moving blankets. I set things up on padded scaffolding as well.

Anyone on the fence, this topper is absolutely worth the money. It will take some time to assemble but you'll appreciate how solidly it is built. There are over 40 bolts holding the front and rear sections to the center pieces. Take your time to adjust it as you go and you'll likely be very happy with the output. I would definitely suggest doing the front, roof and sides together and put it on the truck before doing the rear door. Much easier to put on and then. Let the topper hang over the back a bit with the tailgate down and line up the rear door. Definitely helped me get a better seal along the tailgate.

Link to Goodyear Territory AT thread:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...ory-at-tires-saving.37522/page-30#post-778078

The saga continues with new data points along with my new addition. Some of you might be aware, some of us went in on a group buy with Autofitpro for a topper. There is a fairly long thread here if you want to know more.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...topper-autofitpro-group-buy-interested.37848/

Since there has been a significant configuration change, any efficiency numbers I post won't be diretly comparable to before. I did make some runs today to try and baseline it. On the plus side my efficiency didn't tank. I also ran some runs at higher speeds too.

Following are 2 photos of a 70 mph run. The first one was taken as a reached the high point after trending upwards for the first ~5 miles. The last one was when I had to abort the run as traffic was building. Overall the MPK is pretty solid. Call it between 2.24 to 2.28 with a crosswind. These numbers were with the topper on and a slight crosswind (5-7 mph). I was in AP mode, standard height. Temps were mid 60's. No heat or AC. These compare very favorably with my non-topper runs.

The last run is one is one I've never tested without the topper so I don't have any comparative data. It was an 80 mph run. I was out doing some high speed stability testing and I had a pretty clear road so set the cruise at 82 mph indicated, 81 according to the GPS and Comma, and let it rip for a while. I did some pulls up to almost the speed limiter to check the stability and it was rock solid.

This was with a slight headwind of about 5 mph. Again AP mode, standard height, no AC or heat, temps about 65F. No slowdowns at all on this run and a few times I was up to 85.

I guess with the topper I could call this my R1S config. I would think anyone with an R1S should easily be able to get the numbers I am getting. Here is looking at you @LL75 . Heck even at 80 mph, I'd have a 235 mile range.

For my entire so far, I am at 1.91 mpk. Given how much time I spent near the ton, and at high speeds cruising, that was pretty good for the day so far.

I have to say, the tires look great with the topper which sort of has a rugged look. The topper didn't add to the wind noise either. Pretty impressed with the topper. Still no noise from the tires either and were still smooth as butter over the ton. I am sure the Atomic Wheels AW01 aren't hurting that either.

 

[Tucker74]

Got it installed, no real surprises except I was short on hardware (8mm nuts). I bought some weather stripping to run a single strip around the outside to weather-proof the buttons/holes. Mine had a couple small scuffs and dings, but nothing like the pictures above. Really digging it, we need to figure out a 3-way harness to get the 3rd brake light going.

 

[DanielOBenson]

I'm envious. I live in Seattle and haven't received mine yet. I think I was the second person to put in a order.

Sponsored