jcreviston
General
El Cap R1T Feb. 1, 2023
Posts: 29
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Post by jcreviston on Apr 7, 2023 20:37:38 GMT
So cool! I love having the option to have power or not and the price seems very fair to me. Are you concerned that considering many of our uses will be in natural (dusty/dirty or sawdusty) environments that the lower track will trap these elements and restrict tray movement and/or power conduction? Ease of cleaning/maintaining?
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 8, 2023 4:38:41 GMT
So cool! I love having the option to have power or not and the price seems very fair to me. Are you concerned that considering many of our uses will be in natural (dusty/dirty or sawdusty) environments that the lower track will trap these elements and restrict tray movement and/or power conduction? Ease of cleaning/maintaining? No, not really. The lower rail is inside the truck and most of the time you will likely only have one of the gear tunnel doors open as you can only slide the tray out one side at a time, so there won't be air moving through the tunnel. The utility tray itself also blocks a large portion of the opening. Lastly, dust / saw dust won't actually hurt the rail and can be vacuumed out with a wand and brush attachment if you somehow managed to accidentally dump a bucket load of sawdust inside the gear tunnel, just like you normally would as part of your regular maintenance / cleaning ritual. It's still a little hard to visualize I know, (I'll have images of the power track installed soon) but the power tracks live in the space between the two blue arrows--so the lower track is not exactly hanging out in the breeze =)
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 9, 2023 3:33:45 GMT
Update on the 110 outlet/s mounted on the gear tray.This shows an outlet mounted to each end of the gear tray which allows you to easily swap between different modular payloads--like the Camp Kitchen or the Utility Tray as two examples--without having to fiddle too much with the power systems. The beveled section at the base of each outlet helps with alignment when you are swapping modules.A top view showing the bevel. I mostly posted this one because it is a face and needs a caption =)Another top down view from farther back to get a sense where the outlets are mounted on the tray.Another view of the outlet with the rubber weather cap removed.The same view with the rubber weather cap in place.The closest plug with rubber weather cap, the plug on the other end with it removed.The Utility Tray being mounted on the Gear Tray. The rubber weather cap has been removed form the outlet and placed on the cap holder on the end of the Utility Tray.This shows the oversized hole for easier placement. As you lower the tray the bevel in the plug body will function like an indexing pin to help position the Utility Tray correctly.A closer view of the oversized hole in the Utility Tray. You can see the bevel just starting to come into view.The Utility Tray is now fully seated on the Gear Tray. You can also see the rubber weather cap still stored on the end of the Utility Tray.This shows the rubber weather cap removed from the holder and installed on the outlet.The rubber weather caps are designed to be used with one hand as you typically have whatever it is you want to plug in in your other hand. I really dislike the spring loaded flaps as they usually require two hands to use. The cap is installed on the plug on one end and stored on the other. The bright color makes it easy to tell at a glance if you remembered to put the cap back on the outlet when you were done using it.A view of the plug as seen from inside the Utility Tray. It would function the same way on the Camp Kitchen, or any other module you have installed. The ability to quickly and easily swap different modules is one of the driving design goals for this project.The same view with the cap removed. If for any reason you don't want or need an outlet at one of the locations, there is a screw on blanking cap. Both are sealed against water intrusion with rubber gaskets.Please let me know if you have any questions.
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jcreviston
General
El Cap R1T Feb. 1, 2023
Posts: 29
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Post by jcreviston on Apr 10, 2023 3:45:38 GMT
Comment: Man, I'm impressed. This looks fantastic. Appreciate the attention to detail e.g., ease of finding the hole on the cargo tray, cap holder, etc.
Question: How do you anticipate powering the tray overall? I'm assuming you'll want to tap into the existing 120V outlet in the gear tunnel?
Caption (outlet face photo): "If I'm a good boy, maybe one day they'll let me ride in the frunk..."
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 10, 2023 13:45:15 GMT
Comment: Man, I'm impressed. This looks fantastic. Appreciate the attention to detail e.g., ease of finding the hole on the cargo tray, cap holder, etc. Question: How do you anticipate powering the tray overall? I'm assuming you'll want to tap into the existing 120V outlet in the gear tunnel? Caption (outlet face photo): "If I'm a good boy, maybe one day they'll let me ride in the frunk..." Yes just plug directly into the outlet. AWESOME caption =)
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Post by phatman113 on Apr 10, 2023 17:11:32 GMT
"What do you mean, I don't exist yet?!"
I love all the work and attention to detail you're putting into this, it's definitely far beyond what I was expecting from a simple utility tray and I'm totally here for it!
I scrolled back and couldn't find it, possibly because it's not officially decided yet, but do you know the internal measurements for the utility tray? I've got a DIY tonneau cover and am curious how it will fit here if I'm carrying it with me vs leaving it installed...
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 11, 2023 0:58:22 GMT
"What do you mean, I don't exist yet?!" I love all the work and attention to detail you're putting into this, it's definitely far beyond what I was expecting from a simple utility tray and I'm totally here for it! I scrolled back and couldn't find it, possibly because it's not officially decided yet, but do you know the internal measurements for the utility tray? I've got a DIY tonneau cover and am curious how it will fit here if I'm carrying it with me vs leaving it installed... I don't have final dimensions locked in yet, but, it's currently about 60" long x 8" tall x 12" wide volumetrically as measured from the gear tunnel floor. Mounting is fairly far aft.
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Post by phatdaddy on Apr 13, 2023 15:04:06 GMT
As noted by others, your attention to detail… both in design thinking and in communicating same to us… impresses the heck out of me. I consider myself quite the DIY’er, but this is beyond anything I would likely ever tackle on my own. I am more than willing to help support your efforts through my purchases to have options for such well thought out and custom fit designs and products. PLEASE keep it up! Power delivery through the slide out will be very advantageous for my camping and tool storage/use centered around maximum utilization of the Gear Tunnel. Thanks!
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 14, 2023 0:27:34 GMT
As noted by others, your attention to detail… both in design thinking and in communicating same to us… impresses the heck out of me. I consider myself quite the DIY’er, but this is beyond anything I would likely ever tackle on my own. I am more than willing to help support your efforts through my purchases to have options for such well thought out and custom fit designs and products. PLEASE keep it up! Power delivery through the slide out will be very advantageous for my camping and tool storage/use centered around maximum utilization of the Gear Tunnel. Thanks! I appreciate your support and kind words =) To be fair to your DIY skills, I'm not exactly out in the garage hacking away at this like I would on a personal project. I have resources available to me for my work that most DIY'ers don't have access to.
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 22, 2023 18:04:36 GMT
I want to see how you guys feel about an idea I was noodling around with while working on the two way drawer slides. Please keep in mind that this is just an idea at this point. There is no point in investigating it farther if there is no interest in it from the group.
Anyway, I have been staring at the drawer slides in CAD a lot the last few weeks and working through use cases and how people would interact with the tray. Stuff like, where will people be standing after they have opened the gear tunnel door, where can/can't they reach the release catch, where would they grab to slide out the tray, etc. What can be done with one hand and what would require two, and how does that change for right versus left handed people, and how does that change again from one side of the truck to the other. Think of it as the nuts and bolts ergonomics.
The thought of making the tray powered pops into my head fairly often as it would be really nice to just push a button and have the tray slide out, push it again and have it slide back in. I usually nip that thought in the bud as "too fancy for a truck" but last night I decided to have a quick look at how involved it would actually be--The R1T is a luxury truck after all, and it WOULD be pretty cool. I only spent about 30 minutes looking at it so nowhere near "fleshed out", but at this early stage I don't think it would actually be overly complicated. Again, that was a brief preliminary look at it and I don't want to do a deeper dive if there are not that many of you interested.
To address some of the things I know you will ask. I would design it to be a very robust long lasting system that required little to no maintenance--as close to bulletproof as is possible--aka "it just works". Off the shelf motors with industry standard NEMA mounts for easy repair/replacement down the road. I would want the drawers to slide in/out at a reasonable speed--nobody wants to stand there 2 minutes while it slowly moves in/out. I would probably make it one push out with a second push to stop it if you didn't want it fully extended. If there was no second button push it would just extend until it hit the limit switch. The same for retracting the drawer.
The one you will want to know about most is cost. Just running through a very quick parts list--so this is a quick and dirty estimate--it would probably be in the neighborhood of $100-$150 depending on features and materials.
I admit the idea of it being powered really does appeal to me personally. What do you guys think?
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Post by lorenvorreiter on Apr 22, 2023 21:33:05 GMT
I think having it powered would be great and would happily pay that extra cost, as long as it doesn't limit it to one-sided extension. I'd hate for that to remove the ability to slide the tray out either side of the truck
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Post by shift4 on Apr 22, 2023 22:23:31 GMT
I love the idea of it being powered and would not mind the extra cost.
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 22, 2023 22:28:45 GMT
I think having it powered would be great and would happily pay that extra cost, as long as it doesn't limit it to one-sided extension. I'd hate for that to remove the ability to slide the tray out either side of the truck It would be powered out both/either side. I would intentionally set it up so that you had to be physically standing on the side you want to use though for obvious safety reasons.
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Post by bksnacker on Apr 23, 2023 2:22:23 GMT
Sounds pretty cool to me. Would the powered and non-powered be mutually exclusive? It might make sense to go with one design initially , but would be a good hedge if you're able to leave yourself the option of making it both ways eventually. That is, the modules could dock with either design. I'd vote powered if you don't identify any issues after diving in. Cool stuff as usual.
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Post by BoxGods on Apr 23, 2023 2:36:29 GMT
Sounds pretty cool to me. Would the powered and non-powered be mutually exclusive? It might make sense to go with one design initially , but would be a good hedge if you're able to leave yourself the option of making it both ways eventually. That is, the modules could dock with either design. I'd vote powered if you don't identify any issues after diving in. Cool stuff as usual. The slide tray itself would be powered so it wouldn't really matter which module was on it--Utility tray or Camp Kitchen.
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