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the long way downunder

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I agree big heavy/fancy/expensive ball bearing slides are way overkill, but just sliding something in and out that rubs on the interior surfaces of the tunnel is not good for the tub or the gear tunnel. I think slide rails are the perfect middle ground.
I haven't seen any wear, yet. I have some plastic sheet on the factory rubber mat. Just enough for the friction to hold it in place, and for the plywood to slide over it. Definitely not a long term proposition and I'm no carpenter … my "patented" genius idea was to use some "furniture slides" (slippery plastic or fabric disks that go under the furniture feet to move across floors) then remove the factory carpet and winter mat, put down another piece of ply and that becomes the working surface so that nothing in the tunnel is subject to movement.
That genius idea requires some more genius to deal with having the tray not shimmy around and vibrate and create friction wear points.
I also need to deal with snow melt. A shovel, some chains, gloves and a snowjoe, all amount to several handfuls of snow melting into the tunnel. A couple of days of snowy weather and it could get to be a problem.
I do wonder what Rivian was thinking when they designed the details of the tunnel. I would have liked it to be a big plastic "hose out" with no edges or seams (the plastic trim pieces don't fit, the other materials in the tunnel don't look well-suited to water sports or snow.)
 

windblowlc

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@BoxGods , please sign me up for the slide out tray with rails.
 
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BoxGods

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please take my damn money now!!!!!!!!!!!! sign me up!!!!!
Only you can sign you up and you can do that HERE

It is the slide out kitchen sign-up page but just mention you want the slide out tray and Marsha will make sure you are on the right list =)
 
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BoxGods

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I like the kitchen design a lot, it is more flexible than the Rivian camp kitchen design. I’m not quite ready to commit though, I have a suspicion that the Rivian kitchen and gear shuttle were paused due to potential Gear Tunnel changes to accommodate the refactored tonneau cover and I want to see where that lands before going all-in on anything for the tunnel.

While I love the aluminum overall, the one suggestion I’d make for the kitchen is to use Richlite material for the countertop as the original demo Rivian kitchen did. It is a wonderful, sustainable material that is weatherproof, has a nice feel to it, and can be used as a cutting board (I have a few Richlite cutting boards of various ages that get abused and hold up great).
Thank you for the great suggestion. It is a lovely material for sure--one of my favorites.

Expensive and maybe a tiny bit on the heavy side for this application. That being said, the counters are designed to be removable / replaceable and I can provide precision CAD files for anyone wanting to have a cabinet shop fabricate countertops with it.

There is a cutting board included in the design and Richlite might be the perfect option for that rather than UHMW though.
 

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BoxGods

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BoxGods

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I haven't seen any wear, yet. I have some plastic sheet on the factory rubber mat. Just enough for the friction to hold it in place, and for the plywood to slide over it. Definitely not a long term proposition and I'm no carpenter … my "patented" genius idea was to use some "furniture slides" (slippery plastic or fabric disks that go under the furniture feet to move across floors) then remove the factory carpet and winter mat, put down another piece of ply and that becomes the working surface so that nothing in the tunnel is subject to movement.
That genius idea requires some more genius to deal with having the tray not shimmy around and vibrate and create friction wear points.
I also need to deal with snow melt. A shovel, some chains, gloves and a snowjoe, all amount to several handfuls of snow melting into the tunnel. A couple of days of snowy weather and it could get to be a problem.
I do wonder what Rivian was thinking when they designed the details of the tunnel. I would have liked it to be a big plastic "hose out" with no edges or seams (the plastic trim pieces don't fit, the other materials in the tunnel don't look well-suited to water sports or snow.)
Those are all great ideas and I really love your DIY spirit.

After spending several weeks staring at the funky gear tunnel shape for hours at a time and trying to fit a square peg into whatever shape hole that is...I hear you man. My buddy Jeff thinks that after Rivian's engineers had designed the cab, frame, bed, and battery tray they basically noticed the left over space and said..."we should use that". So the gear tunnel was born as a sort of afterthought.

As a 20 something I had a mid 80's El Camino that had the same type of storage area behind the seats--no outside access so you had to flip the seat forward. which made it harder to get too but man was it ever useful. I remember it being a lot bigger and more boxy than the gear tunnel.

I loved that car a lot which may be why the gear tunnel is such a draw for me as a designer.
 
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BoxGods

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Thanks for that. Sounds like it is hard to accidentally slide all the way out. I think I was more concerned about it sliding too far out and hitting the car parked next to me. 😎

so to confirm, it sounds like that would likely not happen easily?
As odd as this will sound, comparing ball bearing drawer slides to a slide rail is a bit like two pedal vs one pedal driving with the slide rail being one pedal. When you stop applying force friction will bring the tray to a stop fairly quickly.

The slide rail WILL take a bit more starting force but you get fairly noticeable feedback. The thought of a long heavy battering ram shaped item on ball bearing drawer slides freaks me out too so you are not alone there.
 
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BoxGods

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@BoxGods both of your ProBoards links are failing to load for me, getting an "ERROR CODE: 570" page.
I was getting a message that host servers were down also. They are saying they are aware and are working on it.

Just in case yours is a different issue, this is the site address.
 
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BoxGods

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@BoxGods one other issue, I tried to click on an image to view it and got the following error:
I think the host server people have it all sorted out and working again now. Please let me know if that is not the case.
 

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BoxGods

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For apples to apples, the Rivian gear shuttle is $1500, right? So this shuttle option, while not powered, is significantly more affordable?
I am a little worried that this is a trick question but $1,500 - $350 = $1,150 so I am going to go with yes =)
 

the long way downunder

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Those are all great ideas and I really love your DIY spirit.

After spending several weeks staring at the funky gear tunnel shape for hours at a time and trying to fit a square peg into whatever shape hole that is...I hear you man. My buddy Jeff thinks that after Rivian's engineers had designed the cab, frame, bed, and battery tray they basically noticed the left over space and said..."we should use that". So the gear tunnel was born as a sort of afterthought.

As a 20 something I had a mid 80's El Camino that had the same type of storage area behind the seats--no outside access so you had to flip the seat forward. which made it harder to get too but man was it ever useful. I remember it being a lot bigger and more boxy than the gear tunnel.

I loved that car a lot which may be why the gear tunnel is such a draw for me as a designer.
I see El Caminos "everywhere" – I wonder about these auto industry decision-makers who end vehicles that were successful. The Aussie "ute" continues to be a successful type of vehicle in Australia and other countries where a fun-to-drive yet practical vehicle makes more sense than carrying around extra seats that go empty and a cargo area that's too nice (and too small and enclosed) to be useful. The pickup manufacturers in the USA seem to think their 2 door, short-bed pickup is only for low-end models and sold purely as a work truck (still costing $30K+) which I think they will have to rethink … and just look at the success of the Maverick … I think that bodes well for the R2T.
By the way, another success that comes to mind is the Ford Excursion. I had a 2005 6.0 … an engine with a reputation for failure when overtaxed (in tow trucks for example) but in the Ex, it lasted 150K miles when I sold it as a cult vehicle and had people lined up to buy it. Zero issues (actually, the high pressure fuel pump, known to quit at 100K miles gave up at 120K miles, my fault for lack of taking the (expensive) precaution to swap in a new one at home and instead have to pay some lucky shop to do it for me. Anyway, that Ex is still the most fuel efficient vehicle I've owned on a per-passenger basis and towing 10K still getting 14 mpg … etc. But Ford "only" sold a few hundreds of thousands of them and decided it wasn't selling well … could be because they didn't update it for 5 years … and dealers seemed not to appreciate it or try to sell it as the only heavy duty turbodiesel SUV tow vehicle on the market … could be …
 

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This looks great! I originally ordered the camp kitchen and was disappointed when Rivian removed it prior to delivery but I’ve since settled on a diy option because it’s really hard to justify the cost, especially when they bundle it with unnecessarily expensive titanium Gucci cookwear that’s nicer than what I have at home. Your option is a perfect middle ground between a diy setup that I’d cobble together vs the very expensive Rivian option. If you hit this price target I think you’ll sell quite a few of these, I’m definitely in for the first production run, hope we get to 50 soon!
 
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BoxGods

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I see El Caminos "everywhere" – I wonder about these auto industry decision-makers who end vehicles that were successful. The Aussie "ute" continues to be a successful type of vehicle in Australia and other countries where a fun-to-drive yet practical vehicle makes more sense than carrying around extra seats that go empty and a cargo area that's too nice (and too small and enclosed) to be useful. The pickup manufacturers in the USA seem to think their 2 door, short-bed pickup is only for low-end models and sold purely as a work truck (still costing $30K+) which I think they will have to rethink … and just look at the success of the Maverick … I think that bodes well for the R2T.
By the way, another success that comes to mind is the Ford Excursion. I had a 2005 6.0 … an engine with a reputation for failure when overtaxed (in tow trucks for example) but in the Ex, it lasted 150K miles when I sold it as a cult vehicle and had people lined up to buy it. Zero issues (actually, the high pressure fuel pump, known to quit at 100K miles gave up at 120K miles, my fault for lack of taking the (expensive) precaution to swap in a new one at home and instead have to pay some lucky shop to do it for me. Anyway, that Ex is still the most fuel efficient vehicle I've owned on a per-passenger basis and towing 10K still getting 14 mpg … etc. But Ford "only" sold a few hundreds of thousands of them and decided it wasn't selling well … could be because they didn't update it for 5 years … and dealers seemed not to appreciate it or try to sell it as the only heavy duty turbodiesel SUV tow vehicle on the market … could be …
I have never understood why they haven't brought the El Camino and Ranchero back either. Just imagine an El Camino EV. I think I would wet my pants and not even be embarrassed. Rivian if you're listening, an El Camino / Ranchero / Brat type vehicle on the R2 platform would be a bold BOSS level move.
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