Just installed first production Overland Ruff Rax bed rack on R1T -- review & photos

[Josh.Gonzales96]

Have you tried getting to the spare tire with the rack installed?

Any chance you mountain bike, and know whether or not you could still carry a bike on a tailgate pad with this installed?

With the OEM crossbars or this aftermarket rack? I did not have to get my spare out with the OEM cross bars, but it looked like an absolute pain in the ass, with this aftermarket rack I can easily access it now.

my tailgate pad is actually shipping right now and should be here in a few days. But it looks like everything should fit fine. I might (and probably should have) just do a test fit with my bike with no pad or just a blanket to see if it fits. But it looks like it will have no problem. I’ll post a pic and tag you when I do. For reference I run 29s and a size large bike

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[MReda]

With the OEM crossbars or this aftermarket rack? I did not have to get my spare out with the OEM cross bars, but it looked like an absolute pain in the ass, with this aftermarket rack I can easily access it now.

my tailgate pad is actually shipping right now and should be here in a few days. But it looks like everything should fit fine. I might (and probably should have) just do a test fit with my bike with no pad or just a blanket to see if it fits. But it looks like it will have no problem. I’ll post a pic and tag you when I do. For reference I run 29s and a size large bike

Thanks, I've also got 29s and a large, so those pics will be perfect, look forward to seeing them.

For the spare, I've got the OEM crossbars, just interested in this rack. I've been tempted to relocate the spare to the bed (and lose half my space) or to a tray on top of the OEM crossbars. I'd rather get a bed rack, though. Thanks for the response.

 

[pklomboy]

hmm i wonder if a platform camper will clear that antenna with the bed rack.... thoughts?

 

[Josh.Gonzales96]

hmm i wonder if a platform camper will clear that antenna with the bed rack.... thoughts?

They sell different size risers for their rack, so without them I doubt it would clear. With them yes, then it all comes down to may or may not having to shim the risers or the oem roof crossbars to match each other but that would generally be fairly easy.

 

[jclicky]

That’s not going to happen. You could probably fit 400 watts of solar on the roof rack which is not enough to do anything meaningful for charging the truck. A battery pack large enough for a few dozen miles (18kwh) would also be massive overkill for any kind of camping power source.

Thanks! A solar panel application, for me, at leas how I’m planning for it, is really more about other more limited circumstances:

• Sapping the spare battery for lights, a range, other camping equipment, re-charging electronics, winter heater, etc.; a set of 2 or 4 panels can recover these small losses against a larger pack, if a major 15Kwh batt, stored in the gear tunnel, is primarily charged (to top off initially) off of AC. The BlueYetti backup systems can charge damn fast off of a variety of sources & can handle multiple solar inputs, plus have been tested to provide clean EV charging for, again, an emergency ~10mi. of range, worst case
• As @Josh.Gonzales96 said, when sitting idle for days or weeks, like say, car camping with a ground tent on the Eastern side of the Sierra, which doesn’t get a ton of shade in the summer months, a specific case-use I have in mind.
• Sitting idle while at a wilderness trailhead, for, again, days or weeks; drip-charging or maintaining the full capacity of a major battery locked safely in the gear tunnel or frunk, is entirely possible & helps negate the possibility of major vampire drains, which have happened even when Rivians were parked in storage mode

I totally get the fair warning, many people have no idea what it takes to draw even a few hundred watts of solar (ideal conditions & a nearly 50% overhead above what you are targeting to deposit, unless you get really advanced panels with many small sections), so I appreciate the word of caution.

But my case-uses here are very similar to a Jerry can for an ICE; I’m not actually planning to fill the electric Jerry can on solar: instead filling it at home (like I’d fill a Jerry can at a gas station).

But can the panels on a bed rack like this drip charge to keep the battery topped off? Absolutely could & would, especially for longer trips.

But ain’t nobody here expecting more than a couple of emergency miles here.

Still, could beat turning this thing into a hybrid, lol.

 

[jclicky]

hmm i wonder if a platform camper will clear that antenna with the bed rack.... thoughts?

Overland Ruff Rax also has riser attachments you can put on the top of their racks, so I would think you could elevate any camper you want to clear the fin if it doesn’t already.

 

[Josh.Gonzales96]

Thanks, I've also got 29s and a large, so those pics will be perfect, look forward to seeing them.

For the spare, I've got the OEM crossbars, just interested in this rack. I've been tempted to relocate the spare to the bed (and lose half my space) or to a tray on top of the OEM crossbars. I'd rather get a bed rack, though. Thanks for the response.

I didn’t forget about you. Here’s some pics. It fits. But I have to load the bike with the tailgate down, and kinda lift it up as I close the tailgate. Easy with one bike, might get more complicated with more than two

 

[JamesJP]

Thank you so much for posting this! I am about to take delivery and the only thing keeping me from buying these racks is the potential efficiency drop. Please keep us updated on how it goes. We plan to keep our tent (Condor XL) on all the time but if we get a huge drop in efficiency, then it just wouldn't be worth it.

I saw another post were someone put tape across the roof spoiler when they had the tent at bed height and that seemed to fix the problem. I would really like to have it high so I could see through the back window.

Thanks again and pls post highway efficiency when you get a chance.

Mahalo!

 

[MReda]

I didn’t forget about you. Here’s some pics. It fits. But I have to load the bike with the tailgate down, and kinda lift it up as I close the tailgate. Easy with one bike, might get more complicated with more than two

Thanks! Really appreciate it.

Sounds like for around town use where I may need to carry my bike and maybe a friend's, I could make it work, but for a bike trip where I may end up with four back there, I'd probably have to remove at least that rear cross bar on the rack (or the entire rack) to make loading and unloading possible.

 

[doshi0AD]

Love the raceface pad; May have missed on the posted thread but is that the "mid size" on your R1T?

 

[electruck4x4]

@Josh.Gonzales96 , I assume you had to pull up the side rail plastic , remove the Rivian proprietary crossbar cargo mounts, and install the billet Ruff Rax ones. Is that correct?

Apologies if that has been asked before. I ask because we’re considering other (non bed rack) accessories for these mounting points and would like to easily swap them out.

 

[Josh.Gonzales96]

@Josh.Gonzales96 , I assume you had to pull up the side rail plastic , remove the Rivian proprietary crossbar cargo mounts, and install the billet Ruff Rax ones. Is that correct?

Apologies if that has been asked before. I ask because we’re considering other (non bed rack) accessories for these mounting points and would like to easily swap them out.

nope they mount in the factory receivers without removing anything. Easily removable too! And my tonneau is still usable.

 

[EVTrukHog]

Kudos! I really like this rack on the R1T, but not sure I can justify the price point. I hope continued production options improve the pricing.

 

[EVTrukHog]

Here’s the first customer delivery of Overland Ruff Rax bed rack system for the R1T (not affiliated with them at all)

I go into more detail on the Reddit page , but a quick rundown.

I previously ran the tent on the bed with rivian racks. I had about an average of 1.8ish efficiency, now (small sample size) I am getting 1.99 efficiency. I have included pictures of efficient before and after the rack. I was very surprised by the efficiency boost, I believe it’s because now the spoiler directs the air below the tent, rather than directly at it. I will post a 1k mile update.

Also included pictures of visibility out the rear window before and after the rack. This was a huge perk for me.

This mounts to the factory receivers, no drilling required! Tonneau cover is still 100% usable.

I understand at first the price was a question for some people, they have since adjusted their prices but it is still a hard pill to swallow. From my personal experience with them, I believe it's worth the money, but everyone uses this truck in different ways, so for some people it might now be worth the money. Just to put this in perspective as of right now this is the only bed rack system you can buy right now, and one of the only ones who figured out how to use the special Rivian Receivers. Another commented on one of the forums was this "there may be a Rivian premium but the reality is the R1T is a much lower volume truck compared to the Tacoma and some of the other vehicles they make these for. I’m assuming they priced these so that the breakeven/profit point accounts for the lower number of expected units sold." which definitely makes a good point, we don't own a tacoma, we own a very low production and new to the market vehicle, it will take some time and competition until prices for accessories fall more in line with some vehicle you all may be used to.

Some of the main driving factors for this purchase for me personally, I wanted more bed access again, I wanted increased visibility, I want convenient mounting solutions for my adventures, and just simply love the looks of this!

If you have any questions, or picture requests, let me know and I’ll try my best to answer all of them! My goal is to answer as many questions as I can, supply as much information of the rack, take pictures, and provide an unbiased opinion! I will be doing my best to post updates along the life of them also

Do you leave the bed rack on the truck 100% of time, or remove it often? Ease of removal/install? I'd love to see pics of the RTT and Awning simultaneously deployed on this rack... thanks for sharing! Really nice setup!

 

[jjswan33]

Its a really smart design they went about it, hopefully he will post a YouTube video or something explaining exactly how he designed it and how it works so all can see!

As I understand @DCE has the patents for these mounts so that is probably who needs to provide details. Sam at Overland Ruff Rax was being careful what he could share with me because he didn't want to step on anyone's toes.

I am supposed to be getting my roof rack and some extra mounts (hopefully shipping today). I will certainly share what I can when those arrive.

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