I'm not surprised with this (rumor) news. I love the concept of the electric tonneau - but have always felt it was the first thing that was gonna break. It was 100 degrees here last week. The cover would only open about 18" before it would bind. I was highly suspect that the top had expanded enough to cause the problem (having been fully exposed to the blistering sun). Sure enough once the cover was in the shade for about 20 minutes it opened all the way. But it clearly showed the weakness of the design. If that cover is stuck --- so is everything in the bed of the truck. Imagine being a contractor and having critical parts stuck in the bed of the truck with a $500/hour crew waiting for them. I'd be happy with the same cover without the mechanized open/close. Just a manual handle to roll it in and out with some sort of a latch as it hits the tailgate.Yikes! If it makes you feel any better, I hear that Rivian will be replacing all tonneau covers via recall very soon (just waiting for new hardware). My truck is in the shop right now and when I mentioned the tonneau cover I was told "we'll look at it, but we're not fixing them until we can replace them".
How would a manual roll with same design be better? If it’s binding now it’ll bind then. If you think it’s a bad design then you’d want a different design — not a manual version of the existing tonneau.I'm not surprised with this (rumor) news. I love the concept of the electric tonneau - but have always felt it was the first thing that was gonna break. It was 100 degrees here last week. The cover would only open about 18" before it would bind. I was highly suspect that the top had expanded enough to cause the problem (having been fully exposed to the blistering sun). Sure enough once the cover was in the shade for about 20 minutes it opened all the way. But it clearly showed the weakness of the design. If that cover is stuck --- so is everything in the bed of the truck. Imagine being a contractor and having critical parts stuck in the bed of the truck with a $500/hour crew waiting for them. I'd be happy with the same cover without the mechanized open/close. Just a manual handle to roll it in and out with some sort of a latch as it hits the tailgate.
Good point... but my bad for not providing better clarity. I meant a system that is similar in appearance and using the same track system. Just using manual operation to store and deploy. Agreed the expansion/contraction of the panels needs to be addressed.How would a manual roll with same design be better? If it’s binding now it’ll bind then. If you think it’s a bad design then you’d want a different design — not a manual version of the existing tonneau.
“Very soon,” you say (back in June’22). 🤣Yikes! If it makes you feel any better, I hear that Rivian will be replacing all tonneau covers via recall very soon (just waiting for new hardware). My truck is in the shop right now and when I mentioned the tonneau cover I was told "we'll look at it, but we're not fixing them until we can replace them".
You know, RIVIAN never said that. You quote some random post on the internet from someone who "heard" something from some unspecified other person who probably also got it from some random internet post or YouTube video.“Very soon,” you say (back in June’22). 🤣
Sure, eventually, they will fix it as it’s under warranty. What they are doing now is just disabling it I either the open or closed position, at customer’s preference.You know, RIVIAN never said that. You quote some random post on the internet from someone who "heard" something from some unspecified other person who probably also got it from some random internet post or YouTube video.
This whole "soon" trope is becoming tiresome, especially in cases where it's not deserved.
The other part of the quote, "we'll look at it, but we're not fixing them until we can replace them", is at least consistent with everything RIVIAN is saying about the tonneau. They don't have a fix yet, but when they do they will fix the existing ones.
Rivian took a lot of risks to develop a truly new and unique vehicle. Most of these risks paid off but some, like the tonneau, didn't do so well. But if they didn't attempt these things, if they just stuck with the "tried and true", then the result would be massively disappointing and they would have already failed as a company. In many ways fixing the tonneau is going to be more difficult than the original engineering, because any fix has so many more constraints, in terms of space available, components available, etc. A completely new design probably requires change to the body and would be prohibitively expensive, and a minimal fix like adding a second motor will probably be more reliable than what we have but will still have some of the same problems. They have to find a cost-effective compromise that will make the tonneau more reliable without a requiring a massive expenditure (such as new body panel stampings).
Anecdotally, MY tonneau works fine. And if it ever does break, I fully believe that Rivian will fix it.