k3g's R1T build thread

[k3g]

I'm interested to hear what sort of problems you had with your R1T. If you already posted them elsewhere and don't feel like rehashing it could you drop a link (if that's allowed here)?

Thanks

I didn't do much of a writeup. In short, my truck's Central Gateway Module (CGM) began to, and then failed while I was driving cross country. This first showed up as intermittent fast charging failures, and it grew to be a total failure to charge. I didn't write much about it because there's too many early owner posts talking about component failures, and I didn't see any need to add to it. Rivian Service was amazing in helping me stay on the road, so I want to make sure that's the highlight!

One truck update, I hit a pothole on the way home from a rather sendy weekend in the dirt:

I was able to use a friend's winch to straighten it a little, and then we used wrenches to adjust it outwards so the truck would stop going into Turtle mode due to the really bad alignment. It was juuust enough for me to be safe to drive home in the right lane at 60mph.

Kinda funny that an entire weekend of rally and drift mode shenanigans didn't do any harm, but one little pot hole did me in. Ah well.

Here's the truck looking good at camp the first night:

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[k3g]

Tie rod has been fixed, and now I have spares for the next time I bend one!

In other news, my prospeed rack is here, and I've got it installed onto the truck. I did a full writeup of my thoughts over here in the prospeedrack thread.

Here's a few pictures:

 

[k3g]

Rack updates, and some photos:

The edge trim on the front of the rack quiets it down nicely. Soon I'll be putting some lights on it, but for now it's holding my traction boards. I've got some handles and side lights on the way for it as well, but after this last trip I'm contemplating an awning for shade when stopping in random places.

 

[k3g]

I'm going to wait until I can get the truck cleaned up for some good photos after installing lighting on the roof rack, but here's two teasers of what's gone onto the truck lately!

First, a bracket to mount a Garmin Powerswitch under the frunk trim of the R1:

Install was super easy. The powerswitch comes with all the wiring you need, and Rivian was kind enough to leave a nice 12v stud free on their main LV power distro. Don't stress fellow DIY-ers, I'll be dropping a lot more details once I get nicer photos of the final lighting install.

If you want to roll your own garmin powerswitch mount, here's a link to the DXF. Toss it on over to sendcutsend or oshcut (sendcutsend shows ~$23 ea). I chose .125" 6061 for my panel, but there's lots of materials that would work well. Note that in my install, the main 12v input wires are on the driver side. I should have wired mine the other way to give a little more room around the AC compressor, but as-pictured it's fine.

If you have some other switch controller you want to mount, I can probably be convinced to tweak the CAD of mine to mount other options. Send me a DM with a link to the product you're trying to mount, so I can figure out the mounting dimensions.

The powerswitch is for powering too many lights, like this Baja Designs S8:

Also visible are some of Prospeedrack's grab handles with side lights.

A lot more photos to come once I get the truck cleaned up for some photos!

 

[zgStevieD]

I ordered some Megawatt rock sliders a while back, and they've come in!

The install was super easy, there's great videos and instructions from Electruck4x4 on how to get them on the truck. I used my badlands jack to easily position the sliders while I worked on them.

Installed, they've got great wheel to wheel coverage, with nearly no clearance impact. I've had tough sliders on other trucks (bamf sliders on my taco, for example), and these are in the same league for sure. Really high quality welds, beefy steel components. Very good product, I recommend them.

Love my MegaWatts too! Definitely Beefcake 2000!!! Though I did realize I can't bench press what I used to during the install... lol

 

[k3g]

Love my MegaWatts too! Definitely Beefcake 2000!!! Though I did realize I can't bench press what I used to during the install... lol

They work pretty good, too:

 

[zgStevieD]

They work pretty good, too:

NOICE! I was gonna say, can't wait to test 'em out... only been traveling on snowy roads (and working too much) since I've had them on!!! Summer's coming tho...

 

[Engineer]

NOICE! I was gonna say, can't wait to test 'em out... only been traveling on snowy roads (and working too much) since I've had them on!!! Summer's coming tho...

Any trouble getting your door open with all that snow and ice on the boards? Do you think adding mud flaps would help? I have megawatts on order but will be moving to MA soon where there is a tiny bit more snow than where I am in NC.

 

[zgStevieD]

Any trouble getting your door open with all that snow and ice on the boards? Do you think adding mud flaps would help? I have megawatts on order but will be moving to MA soon where there is a tiny bit more snow than where I am in NC.

Nah… pretty much just scrapes off when I open the door

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