Powered 40 qt Frunk Cooler and 12 gal Water Tank w/ washdown sprayer concept (by @BoxGods)

[Dgephri]

A long time PC modding and gaming buddy who I chat with daily about Tesla and Rivian were talking about a thread in RivianForums.com where forum member DannyC fit a small DC powered cooler in his R1T Frunk.

My buddy is a product design and manufacturing engineer with 20+ years of experience in rotomolding, CNC, electronics, SolidWorks, and other ventures for his actual day job.

On the concept of a bespoke cooler for the strange limitations of the Frunk volume, we got to talking about my coolers for camping, the Dometic style in overlanding, and if it would even be possible for the Frunk to use such a unit with more volume than current retail units offer.

We bounced ideas around for about 4 months, worked with the great Sue Smith from Munro & Associates for engineering assets, and DuckTruck let us poke around his R1T to take hundreds of photos.

The Design Brief ended up being a cleansheet 40 quart powered refriderator/freezer to specifically fit in, and work with, the R1 platform: highly robust, field repairable, functional, and likely to outlast the Rivian itself.

While working on these issues, we came up with the addition of a potable water tank to sit in the lower well of the Frunk: DC powered pump, solid state fill limit switch, baffled interior, washdown sprayer, and sturdy enough to replace the stock Frunk folding deck.

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[Dgephri]

You can visit here: https://rivian-aftermarket.proboards.com/
For sign-up specifics and the other Rivian projects we're working on.

 

[Dgephri]

reserved

 

[Dgephri]

reserved

 

[astonius]

Unfortunate the removal of the frunk 12v socket complicates this a bit.

 

[Dgephri]

Unfortunate the removal of the frunk 12v socket complicates this a bit.

Yes, this limits our potential production scope to the 12K already delivered but the potable water tank can easily have a small rechargeable battery.

 

[AxelR]

I haven’t gotten my R1 but this would have been awesome (maybe Rivian will revert their move).

 

[Dohmar]

Yes, this limits our potential production scope to the 12K already delivered but the potable water tank can easily have a small rechargeable battery.

How are you going to circulate the air from outside in to the frunk? You'll burn the compressor out if you don't recycle the air

 

[Dgephri]

We have seen other forum users with data on a powered cooler in the Frunk and they are getting enough airflow. Designer: "There is too much surface area/mass from the frunk itself for heat to be an issue. Said another way, warm air from the compressor is not enough to also heat the frunk mass. Additionally we went with dual fans for extra airflow and redundancy."

 

[Joints4Sale]

Yes, this limits our potential production scope to the 12K already delivered but the potable water tank can easily have a small rechargeable battery.

Don't let that stop you. It might actually be better to design a hardwire solution. From the looks of it there should be enough talent behind this project to come up with a solution. A simple fused SAE connector wired to the 12v would actually be better than the now discontinued 12v receptacle.

 

[rubenclark]

Where is there a link to reserve?

 

[AllInev]

Yes, this limits our potential production scope to the 12K already delivered but the potable water tank can easily have a small rechargeable battery.

Do you have a website? If not, how can we track the status of this project?

 

[FutureTruck]

10/10 well done sir.

 

[BoxGods]

Don't let that stop you. It might actually be better to design a hardwire solution. From the looks of it there should be enough talent behind this project to come up with a solution. A simple fused SAE connector wired to the 12v would actually be better than the now discontinued 12v receptacle.

Joints4sale thank you for the thoughtful reply. I agree.

As far as the cooler portion of the 12V DC goes there wouldn't really be any changes required--as long as you are supplying a "clean" 12V DC the cooler is happy and doesn't care where it is coming from. It could be from a traditional 12V car style plug or a 12V DC wall adapter in the garage etc..

I also agree that it likely would not be all that difficult to wire in a dedicated 12V DC plug into the frunk and putting together a nice kit for that with the plug, fusible link, wire, etc. would be pretty straight forward. If you have watched the Munro frunk tear down videos the frunk tub is easily removed to expose the area underneath also. A few how to videos would help as well.

All of the above being said, I have no way of knowing how much appetite Rivian owners have for DIY projects like this or if they would be OK with spending $100 - $150 to have a shop install the plug.

After a lot of discussion the current consensus is that it would be better to focus first on the 12k or so trucks that have already been delivered with the 12V DC plug. If there is enough interest from that group to get 400 - 500 orders then it is worth moving forward with the project. Having those coolers "out in the wild" might then generate enough interest in the community to move on to a 12V DC plug kit and a second 400 - 500 unit run.

 

[BoxGods]

10/10 well done sir.

Thanks =)

It's actually been a really fun project.

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