Everyone has an origin story. This is ours.

[BoxGods]

My buddy Jeff and I have been big EV fans for about five years now and chat about the latest EV news almost daily. He placed his R1S reservation, (2/2019 order LE LG R1S 21" Road) and joined the rest of you in the "Great Wait".

My day job is product design and manufacturing so I was especially interested in Rivian's slide out camp kitchen--and a little concerned that they were "dabbling" with something that was better left to the aftermarket industry. I know that seems counterintuitive but when you consider the potential size of Rivian's annual revenue, the likely take rate for the camp kitchen, and all the added complexity at a time when they need to be 100% focused on deliveries, it just didn't make a lot of sense.

They would need to sell 18 units to generate the same revenue they collect with one truck--not an easy task when maybe 15 out of every 100 truck customers buys the camp kitchen. It's likely not the best use of capital / human resources and even if everything went perfectly to plan, (it never does) the impact on Rivian's bottom line basically amounts to a rounding error. Said another way, it's like paying your brain surgeons to mow grass.

My other concern was that the aftermarket would bring a better design to market for half the price--a project I would actually LOVE to tackle myself. I was certain somebody would be announcing a product release "very soon", but two years later...nothing but crickets. In fact, the aftermarket has, thus far, all but ignored Rivian. The Cyber Truck is still at least a year away from starting production and there are already over a dozen companies working on cool projects for it--with probably twice that many on the way for the Lightning. A thriving aftermarket is all but essential for any "marquee" vehicle. It doesn't matter if it is a VW Beetle, a Jeep, or a Bronco--nothing says you have arrived and people love your brand like a booming aftermarket. It's possible Rivian was trying to jump start the aftermarket with the camp kitchen, though it may have had an unintended chilling affect.

Which brings us to the reason our little collective has come into being. Our goal is to send the message that Rivian is worthy of some love from the aftermarket industry--with the best way to prove that being by doing it. In the boards below you will see current projects we are working on that are ready to start production, and for brainstorming other projects the community would potentially like to see developed further. My hope is that we can empower everyone to share their input, provide insight / transparency into the design and manufacturing process, and most importantly get everyone excited about all the cool things we can create together for our trucks.

[lethargic_wombat]

Thank you both for spearheading this venture. I am a fan of all the designs you have put together. I have never been a consumer of an early design item from a company that is just starting out. One of my initial thoughts ties into your statement "...if everything went perfectly to plan, (it never does)". How do you envision supporting an item like the refrigerated cooler, in the event "warranty service" is needed, for, say, a defective cooling unit? While it would be great to have a standard limited warranty. Is that something you envision being able to offer, considering this is getting off the ground on a relative shoestring budget? Again, I'm new to this type of venture and really want it to succeed. I'm just trying to see what level of risk we are taking on. I wasn't sure where to post this as it pertains to all products. Hopefully this is the right thread. Thanks.

[BoxGods]

Nov 9, 2022 16:52:28 GMT lethargic_wombat said:

Thank you both for spearheading this venture. I am a fan of all the designs you have put together. I have never been a consumer of an early design item from a company that is just starting out. One of my initial thoughts ties into your statement "...if everything went perfectly to plan, (it never does)". How do you envision supporting an item like the refrigerated cooler, in the event "warranty service" is needed, for, say, a defective cooling unit? While it would be great to have a standard limited warranty. Is that something you envision being able to offer, considering this is getting off the ground on a relative shoestring budget? Again, I'm new to this type of venture and really want it to succeed. I'm just trying to see what level of risk we are taking on. I wasn't sure where to post this as it pertains to all products. Hopefully this is the right thread. Thanks.

Dibs on "energetic sloth" =)

Warranty support is a good question. The cooler is designed from scratch to "live the Rivian Adventure lifestyle". By that I mean it will hopefully be used in lots of remote places and needs to be as "field repairable" as possible. The cooler body and lid are roto-molded with 3mm thick walls and are about as durable as it gets--there is no reason they wouldn't outlive the truck. All of the refrigeration components are standard form-factor off the shelf parts wherever possible, and ALL of them are accessible, including the evaporator.

The goal is that if you are in the middle of a months long adventure in the jungles of South America and the compressor dies, there will be a refrigeration shop within a few hours that has a replacement in stock, and that any reasonably competent refrigeration tech can swap it out. The fans are off the shelf standard sizes available everywhere and each has a redundant backup.

The compressor will have a 2 year replacement warranty from the manufacturer and I will keep a few here in Texas that I can ship out right away. As for the actual repair, it would cost more to ship something the size of the cooler than the labor would be at your local refrigeration repair shop. Another example of a wear part would be the rubber gasket seal for the lid. It is the same seal used on RTIC and YETI coolers and is available on Amazon.

The larger point is that it is designed to be easily repairable with commonly available parts--not as a throw away item.

[lethargic_wombat]

--Dibs on "energetic sloth" =)-- Well played.

Thanks for the info. Easily sourceable parts in the design will make all the difference. I was hoping that was the case when you mentioned "field repairable" in the cooler description.

[BoxGods]

Nov 9, 2022 21:14:17 GMT lethargic_wombat said:

--Dibs on "energetic sloth" =)-- Well played.

Thanks for the info. Easily sourceable parts in the design will make all the difference. I was hoping that was the case when you mentioned "field repairable" in the cooler description.

To be candid, the thought of making a plastic item this large that is designed to be a 2 year use and throw-away item is revolting to me as a designer, (and as a human being in general). Plastic as a material is neither inherently good or evil in and of itself. It is how we chose to use it that determines that. I could have packed the components into a smaller / tighter space but that would have made repair so much more difficult. Also, in 15 years there may be new refrigeration technologies so having everything easily removable and in a reasonably sized space, it will be fairly straight forward to upgrade components.

[Rivian Gear Tunnel Enthusiast]

I would suggest trying to create a gear tunnel storage box. Make a few sizes on it. One that will fit the entire gear tunnel, and then one that splits it in two. It would be very convient to have 3-4 gear tunnel storage boxes that are all for different activites. Say I am about to go camping, I grab my camping gear box that has all my camping gear (camp stoves, chairs, tents, utensiles etc) out of the garage pre packed and slide it into my truck. Now im off. Or if I want to go fishing. Ok, i grab my fishing gear box out of the garage slide it into the Rivian gear tunnel and away I go. Having a few different gear boxes that can slide in and out of the rivian would be great and store in a garage when they are not in use.

[BoxGods]

Feb 27, 2023 18:34:57 GMT Rivian Gear Tunnel Enthusiast said:

I would suggest trying to create a gear tunnel storage box. Make a few sizes on it. One that will fit the entire gear tunnel, and then one that splits it in two. It would be very convient to have 3-4 gear tunnel storage boxes that are all for different activites. Say I am about to go camping, I grab my camping gear box that has all my camping gear (camp stoves, chairs, tents, utensiles etc) out of the garage pre packed and slide it into my truck. Now im off. Or if I want to go fishing. Ok, i grab my fishing gear box out of the garage slide it into the Rivian gear tunnel and away I go. Having a few different gear boxes that can slide in and out of the rivian would be great and store in a garage when they are not in use.

That is actually quite clever. Not slide trays or anything complicated. Just molded plastic tubs / lids sized to specifically fit the gear tunnel--and be reasonably modular for storage in the garage.

The issue would be cost as these would be very low volume--so nowhere near as cheap as a basic Rubbermaid tote that is produced by the millions. Would people be willing to pay $50+ for a gear tunnel specific tote when they are used to paying $15 for the normal boxy ones?

[BoxGods]

Feb 28, 2023 7:52:04 GMT BoxGods said:

Feb 27, 2023 18:34:57 GMT Rivian Gear Tunnel Enthusiast said:

I would suggest trying to create a gear tunnel storage box. Make a few sizes on it. One that will fit the entire gear tunnel, and then one that splits it in two. It would be very convient to have 3-4 gear tunnel storage boxes that are all for different activites. Say I am about to go camping, I grab my camping gear box that has all my camping gear (camp stoves, chairs, tents, utensiles etc) out of the garage pre packed and slide it into my truck. Now im off. Or if I want to go fishing. Ok, i grab my fishing gear box out of the garage slide it into the Rivian gear tunnel and away I go. Having a few different gear boxes that can slide in and out of the rivian would be great and store in a garage when they are not in use.

That is actually quite clever. Not slide trays or anything complicated. Just molded plastic tubs / lids sized to specifically fit the gear tunnel--and be reasonably modular for storage in the garage.

The issue would be cost as these would be very low volume--so nowhere near as cheap as a basic Rubbermaid tote that is produced by the millions. Would people be willing to pay $50+ for a gear tunnel specific tote when they are used to paying $15 for the normal boxy ones?

I noodled around with the economics for doing these as a low volume product last night and they would need to sell for closer to $90 - $100 each to be feasible. You could make them left / right side agnostic so they shared the same mold but you would still need two molds--one for the body and one for the lid. There is obviously a huge difference between spreading the mold costs out over 100k parts vs 100 or 200 parts.

That being said, the solution might be to push them more "up market" quality and features wise. That way you can better justify the higher price. More secure lids, maybe with water/air tight seals comes to mind. Have them integrate with the slide rail used for the camp kitchen and slide out utility tray for increased versatility. I don't mean you would need the rails to use them, but rather you could easily use them with the rail installed--no need to remove it IOW.

I will certainly keep thinking about other potential features.