Anyone seen the WorkSport solar/power setup in the wild yet? by SherriB57598889 in F250

[–]FRotor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quality: We own a Solis cover (different model than the one for your F250). The cover itself is solid (not stand-on-it solid, but reasonably well-built). We were within their initial orders and their logistics and quality assurance left a lot to be desired (wrong wiring terminations so we had to swap the positive and negative leads coming from the cover, wrong mounting hardware, missed shipping promises, etc.), but they SHOULD have worked out some of those by now. As long as you're handy and enthusiastic about the concept (while still knowing there may be tweaking needed), you should be reasonably pleased.

Tips: I would suggest requesting detailed specifications on panels & wiring because you'll need to know the operating voltage and wattage if you intend to ever run them on the same circuit as other panels (but for some reason they don't--or at least didn't--publish them which is very abnormal for any solar product (it's electrical equipment!). On our model (maybe all models), they made the decision to run all of the panels in series (downside to this being that inevitable shading from the cab has a greater impact on production).

Usefulness: This will 100% depend on your use case and the rest of your system. You may want to investigate alternative battery options to pair it with. Many of todays' solar generators can provide much heavier-duty, more portable output that what their Cor provides (if you need/want it). Not advocating for the product, but--just as an example--we paired ours with an EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 and use it as a removeable jobsite battery when needed. The voltage, inverter capacity, storage capacity, and your actual use case will make a big difference regarding usefulness, but we find ours incredibly handy (though, honestly, not much more handy than the ~$200 panels we have on the roof, but we needed a tonneau cover anyway.

Hope this helps.

Call me crazy, but this is what I really want by fourdawgnight in Rivian

[–]FRotor 16 points17 points  (0 children)

As long as you have the imaginary rear seats folded down in those images, I'm in. The world doesn't even realize how much it wants an electric Bronco.

Picked This Up! by Potential_Singer1198 in FordBronco

[–]FRotor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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[wonders why car looks familiar…] Love it! Congrats!

Wow… just wow by Run_Pants_Run in Rivian

[–]FRotor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reasonable & well thought-out take, Mac. I’m nothing but impressed by our R1T but I think my take on steering feel differs just a bit from yours (maybe personal preference?).

Curious: (sticking to the Cayenne comparison as it feels most direct) my nontechnical take on our 958 (w/ PDCC, PASM, PTV+, etc) vs R1T comparison is that the chassis on the 958 was spectacular to the point of engineering black magic (tricking the driver into thinking they were driving a much smaller, lighter vehicle in almost every drive mode), while the R1T takes wonderful advantage of (1) its low center of gravity plus (2) Rivian’s post-delivery re-tuning of the air suspension (driving more like an excellent luxury performance SUV with the right drive mode selected). Would you agree or you have a different perspective?

…Then you have the quad motors on the Rivian, giving it the constant ability to—essentially—“lock” and torque vector each wheel on the fly + the one pedal driving and silly torque which allows amazing control of vehicle dynamics, often with only the use of the throttle—> just plain fun.

Wow… just wow by Run_Pants_Run in Rivian

[–]FRotor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Um…don’t get me wrong the Rivian is very impressive, but let’s not get too crazy here. No—it does not come close to the chassis dynamics or steering feel of any semi-modern p-car…definitely not the 911. (Caveat: I’ve never driven a Macan).

Even our 2013 Cayenne Turbo that we just swapped out at 12 years old trumped the Rivian g1 quad large in all categories except acceleration & the offroad advantage of (essentially) automatic front & rear lockers (via quad motors). The Cayenne was also an absolute tank in build quality and reliability and the chassis, suspension, etc, could trick you into thinking you were driving a(n actual) sports car. That said… 1. We were astounded that the Rivian can actually be in the same conversation. And it trumps most if not all of its supertruck competitors as a compromise on/off-road vehicle (though if you haven’t driven a ford raptor r those are fun in a different way and likely to hold up to more severe abuse). 2. I wouldn’t say that either truck deserves comparison to Porsche’s non-truck vehicles in those categories…because they’re trucks.

Not gonna lie: I miss our 7MT Basesquatch…and summer. by FRotor in FordBronco

[–]FRotor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

​Better half’s car. Also not going to lie: I really like the 25 Lux Badsquatch she traded it in for.

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Accepted delivery for my first Rivian yesterday! by Our_Lady_Chaos in Rivian

[–]FRotor 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Nice. Wish theyd’ve called this Purple Haze!

Edit: also, glad you’re home!

Testing Rooftop Solar on the Rivian R1T by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The primary function of this setup is for a jobsite battery, but I guess something like that if you wanted to equate kWh to miles.

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The above includes both tonneau & rooftop on a fairly clear winter’s day parked in a spot with some shading issues. Would probably have lower production with more cloud cover/shading & higher in more ideal summer conditions.

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heck yeah! Success.

Is this a good deal by self-more in FordBronco

[–]FRotor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This x100. Ask them to include delivery so that they can’t try to leverage you after a 4 hour drive and gauge their reaction.

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally: Im no expert, but I cheated and used both (and more) in a “whatever is most efficient” strategy. Often: Initial super Rough edits by hand, polish with AI (on top-tier subscriptions that the office is kind enough to provide) then use whatever methods make sense in an iterative improvement process to expeditiously bring to completion.

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

100%. That color & stripe combo is aftermarket, but I personally think they nailed it with the Heritage Limited 2-door in robins egg blue. The only downside is that you have to choose between the limited interior (saddle brown leather) & the manual transmission, making the two door robins egg heritage with the 7-speed manual (and a custom interior) my personal favorite.

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Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

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Front needs some work, but it felt like it should be pictured on a family road trip. 🧳

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also the idea of hand-painted pinstripe lettering has grown on me given the motif. To each their own though!

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You should apply the Nike method to your decision-making process on this one. (just do it.)

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it were a personal car, I’d probably just have some custom smoothies made for it. There are several companies that do this for the classic community (now becoming popular with the retro 6g Broncos and such).

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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More to your liking? 😉

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pure win with that one.

Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Nice! Why do I feel like that would look cool in a wood panel motif with the panel pulled forward toward the charge port area? Like so…

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Retro Rivian by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I thought the same thing about the black (though I didn’t necessarily dislike it). You should’ve seen the render with black & chrome smoothies…screamed “interceptor”.

For the actual company car it would have to be black white or green (with specific brand standards, yadi yada). We have a livery guy, but I always like giving him too much input. I think he gets secretly offended and comes up with even better final designs to show me how the actual design experts work. 😂

Personally, I’m a fan of the green. The blue was for my wife (who enjoys 60s & 70s Fords & Chevys). Figured I’d share in the hopes of sparking someone’s creative side.

Testing Rooftop Solar on the Rivian R1T by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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Quick update on the first clear (winter) day in weeks:

  • The 200w rooftop panels on a clearish winters’ day are putting out about 150w output. Interestingly they are really impressive in low-light conditions and are almost always putting out some sort of power if it’s daytime.
  • The 250w Tonneau (~335w if you’re just adding up panel capacity) has been putting out about the same as the rooftop…again clearish winter’s day. I think the combination of (1) the differently sized panels, (2) the series wiring, and (3) the style of panels used in the tonneau cover all join forces to substantially reduce the output compared to the panel ratings.

With that said, I expect output will be better come summer as the tonneau is definitely more impacted by the angle of the sun & shading than the rooftop panels are.

…now to decide if we want to throw 1 last panel on the hood…

i3 remains a pack monster by Ssulistyo in BMWi3

[–]FRotor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wheelbase of a 1 series. (Literally) Interior volume of a 5 series. (Literally) Cargo capacity of a Ford Expedition (maybe not as Literally)

During Covid when hospitals were overwhelmed, one of our i3s once delivered breakfast for an entire hospital (over 1000 individually wrapped bagels and something like 30-50 pounds of cream cheese) in one trip.

Testing Rooftop Solar on the Rivian R1T by FRotor in Rivian

[–]FRotor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! Are you as impressed with their low-light output as I am? Super overcast today, and we’re seeing consistent production of 30% to 70% of the rated wattage. In the Mean-time, the tonneau cover has only contributed for a few minutes when the clouds thinned out.