superfluid
Well-Known Member
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- Mar 29, 2021
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- Austin, TX
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- Rivian R1S, Kia Telluride
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TLDR;
Worth the wait, weight, and cost. They're the highest ROI addition I've made to my R1S so far: they help the family and me enter/exit smoothly multiple times a day, and their unique kick-out feature saved me a torn sidewall on their first trail outing. And I think they look great.
Here is my experience installing and wheeling with Electruck's Megawatt Rock Sliders at Hidden Falls Adventure Park in TX.
Delivery and Unboxing
First and foremost, Brenton Murray, @electruck4x4's owner, provided excellent customer service. He responded to every question I emailed about availability, timing, and build status. He was honest about manufacturing delays. Then, the sliders shipped.
They were wrapped in fabric and packed in thick corrugated cardboard.
When I pulled them out of the box, they exuded quality. They were hefty and stiff. What showcased the engineering and welding skill that went into them most was how they sounded. When tapped with a tool, they had a very short, damped ring. The steel and solid welds ate up all the mechanical energy. I don't understand the difference between "Drawn Over Mandrel" and "Hot Rolled Electric Welded" fabrication techniques, but Electruck states that DOM yields much higher strength, which is why they use the more expensive method on the Megawatts. The result speaks for itself. I was confident they would take a rock hit with 7,000+ lbs of kinetic weight landing on top of them.
Installation
I needed six hours and two trips to Home Depot to install the Megawatt sliders. Others have done it in two hours, but I didn't have all the tools I needed and I got the wrong tools on my first trip to Home Depot. The underbody plastic panels took me much longer to remove than I expected. I also took the opportunity to teach my kids how to work on a car, a skill my dad taught me and I got to pass on.
If you have all the tools and have practice removing panels, the install will go much faster for you.
Tip: Get a 3/8" torque wrench rated in ft/lbs and a 3/8"-to-1/4" socket adapter to adapt the supplied Torx bit used to remove the Rivian's frame bolts.
As instructed, put your Rivian in Off-Road mode and the Highest ride height. That gives you the most room to work underneath the vehicle.
The Rivian's plastic underbody panels are attached with clips that take some convincing to release. I found that using a flathead screwdriver to compress the clip made the process much smoother. But I didn't figure that until I finished the left-side panels and got to the right side. You'll know what I'm talking about when you do it.
The Rivian's Torx frame screws are huge and deeply set. They gave me a lot of confidence that they wouldn't fail under stress.
Tip: The instructions I received were for an R1T. At first, I worried they’d sent me the wrong sliders. But they were the correct length. You have work out which Torx bolts to unscrew to mount the sliders onto the frame. Simply line the mounting holes up with the bolts and you’ll see which bolts to remove.
If you're installing these sliders on an R1S, you'll probably find that they extend all the way back past a plastic piece in front of the rear wheels. (I don't have pictures, but you'll know what this is when you do it.) This plastic underbody piece is just long enough to prevent the slider from mounting flush to the frame at that spot. I removed the screw attaching the underbody piece, used shop scissors to cut it into a shape that fit inside the slider, mounted the slider, and reattached the underbody piece. I put a bit of Locktite on the panel screws to keep them from rattling out. It works.
For those with the reinforced Underbody Shield like I have, the Megawatts work just fine with them.
On the Trail
I didn't take many photos or videos of them in use on the trail because I focused on enjoying time with my dad. But I'll post what I have and describe the important bits.
In this video, the sliders struck a rock at the 0:35 mark when I went off-camber. You can argue whether they protected my door panel or if the body would have cleared the rock if the sliders hadn't been sticking out. Either way, the sliders ate up this hit with ease. Again, you can hear how strong they are.
The sliders paid for themselves when I had my dad drive us through a dry riverbed. The riverbed was narrow, so I advised him to climb over a big rock instead of going around it. He did, but it was too tall. We jack-knifed the passenger side of the vehicle onto it. The front passenger wheel hung off the ground.
We switched drivers. Since the front driver wheel sat on the ground, I decided to continue forward instead of trying to back up in the tight riverbed. I turned driver to slide the vehicle off the rock using the sliders. The vehicle slid off the rock as I expected. But I didn't think about the trajectory of the rear passenger wheel. As I drove us forward, the rear lurched to the driver's side as the Megawatt's kick-out did its job and shoved the back out, moving the rear tire off the path of the rock. If the sliders hadn't had a kick-out, I'm sure I would driven the tire across the side of the rock and torn a side wall, and needed to learn how to extract a flat R1S out of a narrow riverbed.
I chose the Megawatts for the kick-out feature, expecting they would be useful someday. They were useful on the first day and saved me the high cost in time and money of pulling an R1S out of a riverbed. They paid for themselves.
Highly recommended.
Worth the wait, weight, and cost. They're the highest ROI addition I've made to my R1S so far: they help the family and me enter/exit smoothly multiple times a day, and their unique kick-out feature saved me a torn sidewall on their first trail outing. And I think they look great.
Here is my experience installing and wheeling with Electruck's Megawatt Rock Sliders at Hidden Falls Adventure Park in TX.
Delivery and Unboxing
First and foremost, Brenton Murray, @electruck4x4's owner, provided excellent customer service. He responded to every question I emailed about availability, timing, and build status. He was honest about manufacturing delays. Then, the sliders shipped.
They were wrapped in fabric and packed in thick corrugated cardboard.
When I pulled them out of the box, they exuded quality. They were hefty and stiff. What showcased the engineering and welding skill that went into them most was how they sounded. When tapped with a tool, they had a very short, damped ring. The steel and solid welds ate up all the mechanical energy. I don't understand the difference between "Drawn Over Mandrel" and "Hot Rolled Electric Welded" fabrication techniques, but Electruck states that DOM yields much higher strength, which is why they use the more expensive method on the Megawatts. The result speaks for itself. I was confident they would take a rock hit with 7,000+ lbs of kinetic weight landing on top of them.
Installation
I needed six hours and two trips to Home Depot to install the Megawatt sliders. Others have done it in two hours, but I didn't have all the tools I needed and I got the wrong tools on my first trip to Home Depot. The underbody plastic panels took me much longer to remove than I expected. I also took the opportunity to teach my kids how to work on a car, a skill my dad taught me and I got to pass on.
If you have all the tools and have practice removing panels, the install will go much faster for you.
Tip: Get a 3/8" torque wrench rated in ft/lbs and a 3/8"-to-1/4" socket adapter to adapt the supplied Torx bit used to remove the Rivian's frame bolts.
As instructed, put your Rivian in Off-Road mode and the Highest ride height. That gives you the most room to work underneath the vehicle.
The Rivian's plastic underbody panels are attached with clips that take some convincing to release. I found that using a flathead screwdriver to compress the clip made the process much smoother. But I didn't figure that until I finished the left-side panels and got to the right side. You'll know what I'm talking about when you do it.
The Rivian's Torx frame screws are huge and deeply set. They gave me a lot of confidence that they wouldn't fail under stress.
Tip: The instructions I received were for an R1T. At first, I worried they’d sent me the wrong sliders. But they were the correct length. You have work out which Torx bolts to unscrew to mount the sliders onto the frame. Simply line the mounting holes up with the bolts and you’ll see which bolts to remove.
If you're installing these sliders on an R1S, you'll probably find that they extend all the way back past a plastic piece in front of the rear wheels. (I don't have pictures, but you'll know what this is when you do it.) This plastic underbody piece is just long enough to prevent the slider from mounting flush to the frame at that spot. I removed the screw attaching the underbody piece, used shop scissors to cut it into a shape that fit inside the slider, mounted the slider, and reattached the underbody piece. I put a bit of Locktite on the panel screws to keep them from rattling out. It works.
For those with the reinforced Underbody Shield like I have, the Megawatts work just fine with them.
On the Trail
I didn't take many photos or videos of them in use on the trail because I focused on enjoying time with my dad. But I'll post what I have and describe the important bits.
In this video, the sliders struck a rock at the 0:35 mark when I went off-camber. You can argue whether they protected my door panel or if the body would have cleared the rock if the sliders hadn't been sticking out. Either way, the sliders ate up this hit with ease. Again, you can hear how strong they are.
The sliders paid for themselves when I had my dad drive us through a dry riverbed. The riverbed was narrow, so I advised him to climb over a big rock instead of going around it. He did, but it was too tall. We jack-knifed the passenger side of the vehicle onto it. The front passenger wheel hung off the ground.
We switched drivers. Since the front driver wheel sat on the ground, I decided to continue forward instead of trying to back up in the tight riverbed. I turned driver to slide the vehicle off the rock using the sliders. The vehicle slid off the rock as I expected. But I didn't think about the trajectory of the rear passenger wheel. As I drove us forward, the rear lurched to the driver's side as the Megawatt's kick-out did its job and shoved the back out, moving the rear tire off the path of the rock. If the sliders hadn't had a kick-out, I'm sure I would driven the tire across the side of the rock and torn a side wall, and needed to learn how to extract a flat R1S out of a narrow riverbed.
I chose the Megawatts for the kick-out feature, expecting they would be useful someday. They were useful on the first day and saved me the high cost in time and money of pulling an R1S out of a riverbed. They paid for themselves.
Highly recommended.
Sponsored
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