Full size spare wheel - underbody mount?

[Dohmar]

Hi Folks
Just signed up - I'm from Adelaide, South Australia and hope to be putting my deposit down as soon as concrete plans are announced to make the R1T in RHD.

I'm wondering if anyone else has thought that the full size spare would be better served as hanging underneath the body, rather than under the bed?

The practical point being that if you need to swap the wheel out and your bed is fully loaded with equipment or a hard tonneau cover, you'd have to unload the entire bed to get to the spare. A lot of off road 4wd's have theirs bolted underneath the body so that they can be swapped out once jacked up.

I realize this might not be possible given the architecture but perhaps something to consider if at all possible.

And please, get the RHD version made ASAP.

-D

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[electruck]

You raise a great point. Counter points might include loss of an optional storage bin (for those willing to forego or relocate the spare tire) as well as a likely reduction of aerodynamic efficiency and range.

 

[Dohmar]

Plastic cowling covering the underbody rear should act as a diffuser much as the natural aerodynamics already do. Its not so much of a loss if your space is having its access port shifted, rather than removed. I would wonder whether the full sized spare would slot horizontally under the rear chassis rails without impinging on the rear drivetrain

-D

 

[electruck]

Check out this video. Lots of good views of what's going on in that area, especially around 0:50 and 1:05. It looks like access from below would be blocked by what I believe is the air suspension accumulator as well as some other structural bits. I don't see much hope for an under mount spare without significant re-engineering for which it is already too late for the R1 platform. Perhaps with a future model.

 

[electruck]

Also some good pics here showing the under body fairings for improved aero. Assuming this doesn't change too much from concept to production.

 

[ElectricTrucking]

The tire storage was one important point that drew me to the R1T when I made my deposit Nov 29 2018.

 

[Coast2Coast]

ElectricTrucking. What about tire storage attracted you to the R1T? I'm guessing a full size tire stored on board and it doesn't hang down and get in the way of the undercarriage. Anything else? Is lack of access to the spare when the bed is filled an issue?

 

[ElectricTrucking]

ElectricTrucking. What about tire storage attracted you to the R1T? I'm guessing a full size tire stored on board and it doesn't hang down and get in the way of the undercarriage. Anything else? Is lack of access to the spare when the bed is filled an issue?

Easy access to the spare and not laying on my back. Convenient every time I have to check tire pressure. I have known my fair share of people that are driving around with a flat spare. I don't see an issue with the spare blocked on a few occasions. With the large frunk and tunnel I will not use the bed that much.

 

[Dohmar]

Having the wheel under the body doesn't make it harder to get at. Actually, if you're jacking up the rear of the car then you're getting better access to the underbody wheel. Also the aircompressor, I assume, would have a hose long enough to reach the front wheels, so it should be able to also reach an under body wheel.

Not on the cards for the R1T obviously, but perhaps R2T. I could also see this happening if the bed was extended and a second rear set of tyres were added to make the bed larger/increase payload/make it more of a trademans vehicle instead of an offroad leisure vehicle.

Personally I'm very happy with the R1T design, I just think if we ever take advantage of the modular bed system, you might get some custom made tool boxes that sit on the bed, ie :
http://www.gtfab.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tool-Box-Custom18.jpg

Those types of addon/custom made toolboxes are very popular here in oz with tradesmen, and also people that go offroad for weeks at a time.

I imagine aftermarket firms will be very eager to create modular addons to the R1T, though if you eliminate the sides and put something on the top of the flat bed, you'd not be able to access that space without some serious manual labor.

-D

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