How-To DIY: Adjusting R1S Liftgate/Tailgate Alignment

Vincent · 2025-01-10T19:33:15+00:00

A friend needed to support his son who would be running a 'very cold' marathon on Sunday while rucking a 30 pound pack. The outside temps will be around 15F-20F the whole time. The location of the race is nowhere close to any L2 chargers, but he's not worried about driving distance to or from the race - it is 50 miles away from his house. He says he will be sitting in his ruck with his laptop and watching his live track+Garmin inReach data for the duration of the race (about 4 hours). He thought about taking his Honda EB2800i gasoline powered generator, if he can use the level 1 EVSE attached to the generator and keep the truck running with full heat + power - without really consuming much of the truck's main battery? He feels it's super dorky to have a gas generator running while attached to a Rivian in the woods, just so he can stay warm, but don't know if it would work ok this way and 'preserve' the main battery so he doesn't need to worry about driving range when we wants to head home. He talked to me about it and I told him the simple answer is NO. I tested this theory the other night when I was plugged into a 5.9kW charger. To maintain the interior amenities (interior and exterior lights, radio, heater, seat heaters), it took almost all of the charge. I charged for 15 minutes, it delivered 1.6kW, and the truck consumed 1.4kW, delivering only 0.2kW to the truck battery. Told him he would be using a laptop at another 200ish watts. The little trickle charger charges at 1.4kW on a good day, 1.2kW is normal for me. You can slow the bleed, but you cant stop it. My advise to him was for him to charge it up to 100% at home, and roll the dice is what I would do.

Rivian Mom

Active Wheeler

Dec 30, 2024

My friend's new R1S was delivered with a tailgate/liftgate that didn't align well when closed (seemed like it simply wasn't closed all the way). So he decided to just try to fix it himself, and surprisingly it was super simple.

The main latch has a decent amount of adjustment in it, so he loosened the three bolts, slide it back a bit, tightened the bolts, and then tested the door. SO MUCH BETTER!

Before:

After:

According to him, you can also adjust the tailgate position by moving the latches on the left and right that it latches to. Said he didn't want to mess around too much, just wanted to make the simply/easy adjustments. I am sure you can fix just about any misalignment with the right amount of time. The trim panels over the latches just pulls off to give you access to the bolts.

He did file a support ticket, but figured he'd probably spend the right amount of time to get it perfect. Driver side alignment still isn't as perfect as he wants, but it at least looks like the door is closed properly. Last we spoke, he said there is still something a little weird going on near the bottom of the rear window. If he has the time, he might mess with it a bit more.

The Bolts for adjusting the upper door