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Camp Kitchen Frustrations? Anyone else?

Kmann1994

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njcoach24

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I'd love to go into detail about how the design is completely impractical for actual camping or overlanding, but I'll save you the time.
I would love to discuss it from this angle. I want it just because its cool, especially if tailgating at the mall or stadium lol. But I can't believe its a good idea to cook right next to your tent or truck in Bear Country. I'm in Jersey, camp a lot in PA/NY. We have black bears.

Should this be a worry? Or am I over thinking it? I think if I do get it, I will have it in the truck 2-5 times a year and I will want the space empty the rest of the time.

Do any of you overland? What are your thoughts?
 

crashmtb

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I would love to discuss it from this angle. I want it just because its cool, especially if tailgating at the mall or stadium lol. But I can't believe its a good idea to cook right next to your tent or truck in Bear Country. I'm in Jersey, camp a lot in PA/NY. We have black bears.

Should this be a worry? Or am I over thinking it? I think if I do get it, I will have it in the truck 2-5 times a year and I will want the space empty the rest of the time.

Do any of you overland? What are your thoughts?
you’re definitely overthinking it. Pretty much all of my camping is in western Canada & US. Bears are a big concern, especially this year. I really worry more about raccoons.

Just slide the kitchen away at night regardless of animals. Seems easy enough. And most campsites have “sterile site” rules. Everything has to go away anyhow.
Food In the front trunk, since that’s where there’s cooler space. About as safe as a bear locker at most campsites.


besides, People with campers/RVs cook right next to their beds all the time. ?
 
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GHuff

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I'm not remotely trying to imply that the camp kitchen team could solve any of the reasons for delivery delays. That's non-sense Rivian fan-boy talk.
I know there is a chip shortage and I know almost everything is hard to do and get post-covid.

I know the camp kitchen is not directly delaying the delivery of the vehicle and is not directly responsible for all of my frustrations, but it is no question using Rivian resources. It took people, hours, energy, coordination, money, 3rd party contractors, etc. to build and deliver the camp kitchen. Therefore, it is indirectly responsible for the delays or at least an example of poor leadership/management that is responsible for the delays.
My post is to just point out three things:
1) the camp kitchen is not the best allocation of resources. Yes it generates lots of free press and organic leads. But when you can't even deliver on the actual product, it's a shallow marketing ploy.
2) this is likely just one example of many (I hope I am wrong) of Rivian not allocating resources correctly and making incorrect business decisions.
3) It is frustrating as hell to be waiting and waiting for your Rivian, get zero communication on it, the most detailed communication you get about the vehicle is about the damn camp kitchen, AND when they finally do provide some communication about the vehicle, it's that they are simply delaying it further. The best, most detailed, and most informative video Rivian has EVER released was about the camp kitchen!

It's just another misguided business decision and a bad look.

Last point, if you have the resources to hire a team to develop and build a pet project like the camp kitchen, why not try to develop and build something more useful and practical that gets used more than 4 times a year? Like maybe a power tailgate, monochromatic roof, front-gate, removeable roof, a working phone app, after market bumpers or winches, foot step in the rear bumper, simply making a video of the interior of the vehicle, making a video of the infotainment system, adding an interior work surface (like F150), 2-way power (like Lightning), weekly email updates, creating more service centers, putting on events and demos, etc. The list of things that 99% of customers would find more useful and important than a $5,000 camp kitchen with string lights, soup lade, and stainless steel coffee grinder is endless.
To allocate resources to something that (I'm going to guess here) maybe 5% of Rivian customers purchase is bad business. And when you deliver on that, but fail to deliver on many things that impact 100% of customers, it's infuriating.
And , I am also of the personal opinion that the design of the camp kitchen is unbelievably impractical and only useful as the lead designer said in the video...something along the lines of "we went a few miles out of town on a weekend and grilled out and had a great time". Smdh
 

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Honestly, I hard disagree that the camp kitchen did anything to hamper Rivian's delivery timeline, or honestly was anything but a great idea by them.

And lets be real here, they released 1 story (which talked about a camping trip) and 1 3 minute video on the kitchen. Of course we have "full" information on the camp kitchen - its a tiny, fairly uncomplicated piece when compared to an entire electric truck. If they have only released a 3 minute video for the entirety of r1s/r1t, people would be even more up in arms then they are today.
 
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GHuff

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I would love to discuss it from this angle. I want it just because its cool, especially if tailgating at the mall or stadium lol. But I can't believe its a good idea to cook right next to your tent or truck in Bear Country. I'm in Jersey, camp a lot in PA/NY. We have black bears.

Should this be a worry? Or am I over thinking it? I think if I do get it, I will have it in the truck 2-5 times a year and I will want the space empty the rest of the time.

Do any of you overland? What are your thoughts?
Bears are not the main worry or concern with the camp kitchen. The sink is removeable and that is where a lot of the smell and food particles would be.

My main issues with it are:
- 30 piece custom utensil set? Just why? What happens when you need to replace one fork? The packing slot for that soup ladle is also custom, so you can't just simply buy a new one. What percent of people need or will use a coffee grinder?
- the string lights are just silly. Likely to tangle and break. Prone to wind. Just install a light on the vehicle. Plus keeping track of two flimsy poles is annoying. And I doubt they put off much light.
- Most people that go camping have their own gear already. So why include a completely 100% custom 30-peice set that you can't use anywhere else? If you have your own culinary, utensil, camping set up, you can take that anywhere...you can put it in your buddy's car, you can put it in a trailer, you can take some things back packing, there are many ways you can use your camping gear. There is only one way to use this camp kitchen...and that's with a R1T
-For some reason, every single picture and video shows the grill and sink facing towards the doors of the vehicle rather than the tailgate. You can't open your door when you are using the camp kitchen. If you've ever camped out of a truck the bed and tailgate is where the action is. The tailgate is a natural table. It makes more sense to have the grill and sink be on the tailgate side.
- You can buy your own induction / electric cook top for $100. A really really nice one for $400. Just buy that and the Gear Tunnel Shuttle (it has a plug and slides out forming a table) and you have a camp kitchen without the hassle of dealing with a 30-peiece custom set of silverware.
- How often do you really go camping out of your car? 5 times a year? If it is more, I can almost guarantee you will be using a different set up than this.
- A giant soup ladle? A hand coffee grinder? Never once have I needed items like these while camping. What about the person that doesn't like coffee...now they have to buy a coffee grinder and haul around a $50 coffee grinder. And they can't use that space for anything else because the fittings are so custom in the camp kitchen.
- The bed of the truck has power and a tailgate that folds down. Buy your own electric stove top and put it on that.
- Gear people like their gear. They like their own stuff. Everything is bought for a reason and used for a reason. They don't like buying large sets of 30 items because they know they will not use all of it. Every person and adventure is different. Amateurs that go on one weekend trip a year might benefit from a 30 piece set like this, but not real adventure people.
- Further on gear people liking their gear....Gear people like to research everything they buy. Why? Because they rely on it. They need to. They will not eat a hot meal or boiled water if the stove stops working when they are in the middle of nowhere. They may want to check the weight of some items. They may want to return something to a store.
- it includes a set for 4 people. What if you have a family of 5? What if you only need 2? VERY few people will have a constant an exact need for a 4 piece set. Anything other than a family of 4 is excess.
- the entire thing is excess and unnecessary.
- The entire philosophy and mindset of campers is not to waste and be resourceful and take and use what you need.
- Last and probably my most important reason: Similar to my point about gear people liking THEIR gear....Gear people and campers and adventure seekers and overlanders almost certainly have their own gear. Already. And it's probably organized and stored how they like it and to their needs. And you can simply pack that up in a box, put it in the gear tunnel or truck bed on your next adventure. And if your adventure is different than the one you went on the month prior, you will pack different and take different things. Simple example: if you are traveling with 5 people, you will take 5 plates. If you only traveling with 2 people, you only take 2 plates and maybe leave the industrial sized soup ladle at home. When you have your own gear, you can use it for anything; it's not tied to just the three weekends when you take your R1T camping.
- one last point: what happens when the stove breaks? When the sink snaps in half? When you lose a fork or a soup lade? You are going to have to contact Rivian or Snowpeak. Rivian shouldn't be in the business of dealing with these minor issues that have nothing to do with a function EV. That's silly.

All in all, it's not a practical purchase or design. And is not a valuable use of Rivian resources. Especially when there are still so many other questions and unknowns and delays.

IF Rivian were to deliver the R1T on time and with other things they originally promised (power tailgate, monochromatic roof, a working app, extra battery pack, etc.) then it would be a different story. But to spend resources delivering an impractical OPTIONAL add on product is annoying.
 

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All the stuff In the kitchen set is straight out of the snow peak catalogue. It is not proprietary.

you’ll probably be able to buy it without those things too(which is how it was originally). Or, and this is shocking, not at all.

pretty sure the kitchen is the 20 in the designer’s 80/20.
 

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GHuff

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Dude, not every product is meant for every customer. I've given the camp kitchen zero thought. Just not for me. It's something that appeals to some and it's generated a little buzz. Where's the harm?
The harm is that haven't delivered on other items. It was a mindful decision by management to spend resources on the camp kitchen rather than on something else. I find it hard to believe that the engineers and designers of the camp kitchen couldn't have been working on something else. And hard to believe that the salaries of those people couldn't have been allocated to say the salary of a programmer designing an app that we are supposed to have.
 

crashmtb

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While I don't mind that we have a camp kitchen or team on it (and it 1,000% is not the reason for delays), I will admit that it's extremely annoying that it got the most detailed video we've seen about the vehicle yet lol
Maybe it’s the most complete thing on the vehicle ?
Certainly not the case…probably…I hope
 

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The harm is that haven't delivered on other items. It was a mindful decision by management to spend resources on the camp kitchen rather than on something else. I find it hard to believe that the engineers and designers of the camp kitchen couldn't have been working on something else. And hard to believe that the salaries of those people couldn't have been allocated to say the salary of a programmer designing an app that we are supposed to have.
Once again, you've figured it out. There simply wasn't enough money to hire any more engineers so they were waiting for the camp kitchen team to finish before they could focus on the vehicle production.
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