Longer beds

RIVIAN sells their skateboard platforms to commercial vehicle makers so you could see a long bed but under a different vehicle name.

 

I think that Rivian will have it's hands full building all the orders they have taken over the past several months, and probably have enough orders to last them through the end of 2022.

To build a 24" longer bed would require a longer wheelbase, they just can't hang more bed behind the rear axle, this has to do with weight distribution when loading the bed of the truck and towing. So if they extend the wheelbase by 20" then they could install a 24" longer pickup bed. But what reason do they have for selling a longer truck? If they have potential to sell say 20,000 more of these longer trucks a year, well great reason to invest $85,000,000 in a longer wheelbase chassis?? I don't think so.

Also there is the problem with car carriers. If they can find a way to stuff 8 or 9 of these trucks onto one car carrier, probably a longer bed version will only be able to hold 6 of the larger vehicles on one transport truck. The transport truck is only allowed to be 65 or 70 feet overall length depending on the state they are driving into. You can google car transport carriers to see how difficult it is to set up and transport a dozen Ford crewcab F-150's on a transporter, they only fit 6 on each transporter that could carry 9 cars easy.

So I don't see any incentive to sell a longer truck. Sorry to bring up the sad news.

When Rivian sees it is losing sales to those who will not buy one unless it has a certain bed length, they might change the design to something with a regular cab and perhaps a 8' bed. However I think they will keep busy enough selling the truck it already has designed.

 

Do we know if the tailgate latch is the same as existing trucks? I am wondering if the "flip over" style bed extenders I have used with other trucks will work on the Rivian...

 

I like the location of the spare tire! I think I would pull out the spare and use it for storage though. Unless I was taking a longer trip. Most times if I get a flat in town, I just take the car to my local store to get it fixed.

One problem with a really long bed extension is that the weight tends to get distributed to much on the rear axle. Might not be a problem with the Rivian, but if to much weight is taken off the front axle, steering issues can happen. We don't know how much weight is on the front and rear axles, yet lets say it is 2,500 pounds on each axle. If you load 1,000 pounds right over the rear axle, that would place an additional 1,000 pounds on the rear axle, and 0 on the front. However with the bed extender, say the load is 10 feet long and 100 pounds per foot, that could mean that 700 pounds is behind the rear axle, and 300 in front. That would place the center of that 1,000 pound load about 2 feet behind the rear axle, thus taking 200 pounds off the front axle and placing 1,200 pounds on the rear axle.

If each axle started with about 2,500 pounds, it would not create a problem. However if the factory truck only has 1,800 pounds on the front axle and 2,200 pounds on the rear axle, transferring 200 pounds off the front axle and now having 3,400 pounds on the rear axle could present a problem.

If the bed extension is used to carry a 6' long motorcycle or other light loads, it should not present a problem at all!