Flat tire. No spare.

[ekirkpatrick]

Went out to the garage Sun am and found R1S with right front tire flat. Really flat.
Since the compressed spare was removed from my build and is not yet available in the gear shop, I have no spare.
I called roadside assistance and they said to have it Towed to a Discount Tire, and they could fix it or replace it.
They could arrange towing for $50 and $.35 per mile…

Discount Tire closed on Sunday.
Reinflated tire with garage compressor and drove it to Discount Tire on Monday. They do not have jack pucks for it, so they can’t help until they or I get Jack pucks.
So- ordered some.
Will take 2-3 days for them to arrive.

Very annoying- but what if I was out on the road somewhere?

When I learned to drive my father said never leave home without a good spare, a jack and a lug wrench.
Technically, I didn’t leave home, but…
Ugh!

Agree. My R1T did not come with spare as I had ordered. This is an offroad vehicle. What's one of most important rules of going offroad...have a spare tire.

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[Rs6er]

I did not see if you said where the hole is located(not in sidewall) but I have been using plugs for many years. Most of the time I don't even remove the tire from the vehicle. . .If I do one in the Rivian, I would/will get a patch later on since it has higher psi. There are plenty of plug kits available. It can be very tough to shove the tools in the tire.

When I go on long trips, I take a cordless drill and pliers along with my patch kit for this reason.

 

[SANZC02]

Curious if anyone has successfully used a combination bottle jack + stand like this one:
Powerbuilt 3 Ton, Bottle Jack and Jack Stands in One, 6000 Pound All-in-One Car Lift, Heavy Duty Vehicle Unijack, 640912

It's relatively inexpensive, and eliminates the need for an additional stand. One drawback is its size; I think it may be a bit too bulky to travel with you, so it may be limited to garage use.

Yes,

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/first-r1s-tire-rotation-diy-experience.13340/

 

[Yossarian]

Yes,

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/first-r1s-tire-rotation-diy-experience.13340/

Thanks @SANZC02 - I actually saw that thread when it was initially posted, but completely forgot about it.

 

[twinprice]

Best jack stand for our R1 vehicles is below. 4T rating, flat on top for our MagJaxx Magnetic Jack Pucks. I'm down to my last couple of kits, but hundreds more will start shipping mid next week including Rivian Yellow .

Mark, will you please help me understand how to use the jack stand? i.e. how do I lift the truck up to then insert the puck and jackstand if that is the only lifting point?

Thanks,
Winston

 

[NY_Rob]

Happened to me out on the road. No spare, tire completely flat, tear in tire and it wouldn't hold pressure for more than 20 seconds.
It ended up being a 6 hours wait for a flatbed tow truck capable of handling the vehicle weight, then two days to get a spare and arrange Tire Rack mobile service to mount the new tire.

This!

To all who say "don't want/don't need a spare" please read the above carefully and ask yourself if what @jb0063 went through is more convenient than simply carrying an onboard spare?

It's one thing when you have a common vehicle that uses tires found in every tire shop, Costco, BJ's, Walmart, etc... 7 days of the week. Unfortunately, that does not describe Rivian or the special tires that no tire shop stocks.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Mark, will you please help me understand how to use the jack stand? i.e. how do I lift the truck up to then insert the puck and jackstand if that is the only lifting point?

Thanks,
Winston

Winston. There are two options for this, the first of which is what I personally do at home for tire rotations (listed third option for those who are risk friendly):

1. I install our MagJAXX pucks on each corner, then I use two HF 3T 24 1/2" lift floor jacks on two locations. Drivers Front and Passenger Rear. This combo will lift the entire vehicle off the ground. The 4T jack stands are then placed in the two open positions. You can then lower the vehicle to rest on the two jack stands and use the floor jacks or two 10T bottle jacks on the other corners for additional support. This takes me 12 minutes.

2. Lift the vehicle with the same technique as above, but use the control arms and use four jack pucks and four 4T jack stands.

3. I have used four (4) 10T Big Red Bottle Jacks with our pucks, but that has some associated risk.

 

[twinprice]

Winston. There are two options for this, the first of which is what I personally do at home for tire rotations (listed third option for those who are risk friendly):

1. I install our MagJAXX pucks on each corner, then I use two HF 3T 24 1/2" lift floor jacks on two locations. Drivers Front and Passenger Rear. This combo will lift the entire vehicle off the ground. The 4T jack stands are then placed in the two open positions. You can then lower the vehicle to rest on the two jack stands and use the floor jacks or two 10T bottle jacks on the other corners for additional support. This takes me 12 minutes.

2. Lift the vehicle with the same technique as above, but use the control arms and use four jack pucks and four 4T jack stands.

3. I have used four (4) 10T Big Red Bottle Jacks with our pucks, but that has some associated risk.

Thanks!
I do have your pucks and they are great!

hat are the "associated risks with using 4 10T Big Red Bottle Jacks?

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Thanks!
I do have your pucks and they are great!

hat are the "associated risks with using 4 10T Big Red Bottle Jacks?

My last tire rotation I used four (4) 10T Big Red bottle jacks and our pucks, and it worked perfectly. If you are on a flat surface (like my garage floor), then the associated risk is you have your vehicle in the air supported soley with the Bottle Jacks.

Because of liability, I'm not recommending people use four (4) Bottle Jacks, but it works perfectly fine, as long as when you are putting the wheel/tire combo back on the vehicle you take your time to place the wheel back on without thrusting it on there and creating instability.

Picture below is using our pucks with four bottle jacks to rotate the tires. YMMV

 

[gingerjet]

To all who say "don't want/don't need a spare" please read the above carefully and ask yourself if what @jb0063 went through is more convenient than simply carrying an onboard spare?

You know what is more convenient? Sitting in an air conditioned vehicle listening to an audio book waiting for a tow truck to show up.

I've owned like 30 vehicles over 30 years and I have never had a flat tire. And I would suspect that the majority of people have no idea how to change one if their life depended on it*. Especially on a busy road. One of the first people I worked with after getting a real job lost a leg after getting hit by a car while changing a flat tire.

And for those insisting on this being an off-road vehicle - most people who own off-road vehicles never actually take them - off-road.

*for the record - I do know how to change a tire having rotated tires on more than a few vehicles but I'm still calling a tow truck on the very rare occurrence of a flat tire

 

[Autolycus]

I'm not going to be super nervous about driving around with a spare, but I'll probably order one when they're available. Main reason is the uncommon tire size and risk of a sidewall puncture that can't be patched, plugged, or filled with any of the rather ingenious fluid solutions.

 

[SoCal Rob]

You know what is more convenient? Sitting in an air conditioned vehicle listening to an audio book waiting for a tow truck to show up.

I've owned like 30 vehicles over 30 years and I have never had a flat tire. And I would suspect that the majority of people have no idea how to change one if their life depended on it*. Especially on a busy road. One of the first people I worked with after getting a real job lost a leg after getting hit by a car while changing a flat tire.

And for those insisting on this being an off-road vehicle - most people who own off-road vehicles never actually take them - off-road.

*for the record - I do know how to change a tire having rotated tires on more than a few vehicles but I'm still calling a tow truck on the very rare occurrence of a flat tire

I appreciate the good luck you’ve had, because I haven‘t seen any of it. I’ve only managed to make it through a set of tires without a puncture on one vehicle. That one vehicle was a Corvette on run-flat tires where it wouldn’t have been as big an inconvenience.

Mostly unrelated, I’m one of those people who do actually go off-road in vehicles with the capability. I just would never go off-road without a full-size spare, which I’ve gotten to use on more than one occasion.

 

[jeeden]

I think we should seperate the off-road use case from the on-road use case here. I think everyone agrees that if you are off road that is a special situation where you don't even want a compact spare, but a full size spare with the larger jacks, wrenches, blocking etc to deal with an off road tire change maybe on an incline etc.

For on road... I can't think of any road other than my neighborhood I want someone changing a tire on the side of the road. Is it a pain to wait? yes. Was there a day when it was easier to change a tire on a car, speeds of traffic were less, etc? yes. Those days are over.

IMO the choices are either put sealant in it and limp to a tire shop, wait for a tow truck no matter how long, or drive on the flat and eat the tire to limp to a stop or tire shop.

 

[zymolysis]

We should start an "I have a Rivian spare and could help in an emergency" database.
I have a set of 4 winters on 20's and would be happy to loan one to anyone who gets a non-repairable flat near Boston.
I got a flat in my Model Y last year in Canada. What a nightmare. Same deal with pucks (which I luckily had precisely one of), could not get a replacement tire for 5 days, but some kind soul was willing to patch it for me.

"We should start an "I have a Rivian spare and could help in an emergency" database."
Rivian has tires/wheels! But they won't sell them (as I understand it) as spares (only sets of four) because they are missing some component in the spare tire kit. How assinine is that? Meanwhile, Rivian owners who would have had a spare tire (like me - I had one in my configuration) are hung out to dry.
Rivian - sell us the damn spare tires! You can ship later on whatever it is that is missing.

 

[zymolysis]

I think we should seperate the off-road use case from the on-road use case here. I think everyone agrees that if you are off road that is a special situation where you don't even want a compact spare, but a full size spare with the larger jacks, wrenches, blocking etc to deal with an off road tire change maybe on an incline etc.

For on road... I can't think of any road other than my neighborhood I want someone changing a tire on the side of the road. Is it a pain to wait? yes. Was there a day when it was easier to change a tire on a car, speeds of traffic were less, etc? yes. Those days are over.

IMO the choices are either put sealant in it and limp to a tire shop, wait for a tow truck no matter how long, or drive on the flat and eat the tire to limp to a stop or tire shop.

"... drive on the flat and eat the tire..."
...and destroy the rim, and perhaps cause other damage.

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