Wojo
Member
- First Name
- Warren
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2023
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 14
- Location
- Connecticut
- Vehicles
- 2022 Rivian R1T, 2020 Tesla Model 3
- Occupation
- Retired
- Thread starter
- #1
I received my R1T on 12/26/22 at the Brooklyn, N.Y. SC. There were a lot of differences to get used to coming from my last truck, a 2019 Ford F-150 Supercrew LB.
The two things I missed the most are 1) a more functional center console with a removable tray for all the small stuff I seem to accumulate. I find the tall skinny center console on the R1T to be almost useless. 2) The second feature I miss from the Ford is the bed rack. I often carry longer items like kayaks, ladders, lumber and trim, easily up to 16’ long. The Rivian cargo bars I have are great for the roof of the cab but I needed something for the bed to match that elevation.. The engineers at Rivian had to think about this issue at some point. It just seems so obvious.
After searching in vain for 6 months I decided to modify the mounting system of the TracRac I had from the Ford. I wanted to keep it simple if possible but also functional and look good. The method I came up with only required two 3/8” holes to be drilled at each base located over the bed cargo bar anchor loops. This allowed me to use 3/8” galvanized u-bolts from 4 heavy duty cable clamps I had on hand. The u-bolts were long enough to allow me to fabricate 1/4” thick fish plates at each location to further distribute the load. The height of the bed rack is a little higher than the cargo bars on the cab, but it seemed to work very good with the 3 kayaks we took along on a recent trip of over 800 miles to Maine at the end of June.
The rack worked better than I expected and was easy to load/unload. The original TracRac cost was less than $350. I feel good about making it work on my R1T and keeping it simple.
The two things I missed the most are 1) a more functional center console with a removable tray for all the small stuff I seem to accumulate. I find the tall skinny center console on the R1T to be almost useless. 2) The second feature I miss from the Ford is the bed rack. I often carry longer items like kayaks, ladders, lumber and trim, easily up to 16’ long. The Rivian cargo bars I have are great for the roof of the cab but I needed something for the bed to match that elevation.. The engineers at Rivian had to think about this issue at some point. It just seems so obvious.
After searching in vain for 6 months I decided to modify the mounting system of the TracRac I had from the Ford. I wanted to keep it simple if possible but also functional and look good. The method I came up with only required two 3/8” holes to be drilled at each base located over the bed cargo bar anchor loops. This allowed me to use 3/8” galvanized u-bolts from 4 heavy duty cable clamps I had on hand. The u-bolts were long enough to allow me to fabricate 1/4” thick fish plates at each location to further distribute the load. The height of the bed rack is a little higher than the cargo bars on the cab, but it seemed to work very good with the 3 kayaks we took along on a recent trip of over 800 miles to Maine at the end of June.
The rack worked better than I expected and was easy to load/unload. The original TracRac cost was less than $350. I feel good about making it work on my R1T and keeping it simple.
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