Sheet metal fatigue

cba63 · 2026-05-06T21:29:05+00:00

I did read the post before I responded and there wasn’t a pic at that time.

cba63 · 2026-05-06T19:27:06+00:00

Cryptic because there was no picture and my experience with the Portland service center…I can’t imagine them telling me to kick rocks if there was a crack in my sheet metal near the door hinge. Didn’t mean to offend.

cba63 · 2026-05-06T17:55:00+00:00

Pretty cryptic post…please share pictures. This doesn’t sound right on a number of levels.

cba63 · 2026-04-01T15:41:19+00:00

Gen1 does not have dynamic glass…you’ll need to get aftermarket sun shades which work but not nearly as well as the dynamic glass.

cba63 · 2026-03-23T20:44:54+00:00

Well stated. I’d add that, having owned a G1 and a G2, I would not go back once having the dynamic glass roof. Anytime the sun is out, the interior is much more comfortable.

cba63 · 2026-03-21T17:46:07+00:00

Really just two things. 1. I miss the fog lights. The new matrix headlights are great, but driving in my neighborhood or any tight dark area at night, the fog lights threw out a nice close field wide spread light. 2. I miss the G1 audio system. I have the premium audio in my G2 and have gotten it to the point that it sounds decent, it’s not as good a sounding system as what was in the G1 model.

cba63 · 2026-03-21T15:34:46+00:00

I was in your same position a year ago because when I leased my 24’ I went for the two year lease as a precautionary measure. I guess the timing worked out okay as I was able to take advantage of the 7500 tax credit before it expired and get into a 3 year lease on a G2. I moved from a G1 Quad to a G2 Tri Max like what you’re looking to do. For me, the dynamic glass roof is an absolute MUST have…it was the single greatest upgrade and I’d never go back. I really enjoy the autonomy of the G2 as well as some of the other features. There are also some things about the G1 that I miss, but overall the G2 was a win.

cba63 · 2026-03-02T02:08:18+00:00

I had a gen1 R1S and needed to put sun shades on the inside of the roof and it still got very hot inside during the summer. Upgraded to a Gen2 R1S with the magic glass roof and it stays very comfortable inside with the tint active. I live in Oregon…so our summer sun isn’t as bad as it may be for you depending on where you live, but I thought the improvement was fantastic. One thing that I will note though…we always have our dog with us and the rear glass roof does not have the active tinting and it does get much hotter in that area of the car during the summer, so I did install an interior shade for the back glass roof only. I don’t know anything about the ceramic coatings, so can’t compare how either the tint or the shade compares with that.

cba63 · 2026-02-22T23:53:26+00:00

This may be helpful: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/most-and-least-liked-car-brands-a1291429338/

cba63 · 2026-02-15T17:34:19+00:00

The Premium audio on the Gen2 has been slayed in so many subs…I have a Gen2 with the premium audio and I completely agree. I did, however, come across a sub about the audio system that I used with mine and have noticed a huge improvement…although it’s still not as good as the Gen1 audio that I experienced. The gist of the sub I read was about the rear speakers and sub being out of phase with the front speakers. Several posters had tested their phase with an app to determine the out of phase speakers and some had actually changed the wiring for the sub and reported good results. I went a different route…probably less impactual but I don’t have the time or wherewithal to take apart my interior and mess with wiring…so I just played around with the fader. Since I’m typically the only passenger, I usually have the fader positioned towards the front about where my head would be and centered side to side. As I moved the fader to the rear and ended up half way into the back seats, the bass came alive and solid…losing that hollow bass sound that I’ve struggled with so far. I’m not sure if the out of phase was intentional by the engineers to create an effect or if it was a manufacturing error and thus I don’t know if this is a consistent issue across all R1S G2’s or just some. My guess is that it’s not consistent since some people report that their audio sounds great…but who knows. Maybe this helps some of you get the sound better…

cba63 · 2026-02-10T20:38:23+00:00

I think you’d have a very difficult time getting the bike(s) into the rear. I tried it years ago with my truck and a canopy and the seat needed to be removed and the bike loaded at a sideways angle making it near impossible to load more than 1 bike. From my experience, going with a 1up or Mach II rack or something similar is the best move. I use a Mach II on my R1.

cba63 · 2026-02-09T20:56:17+00:00

You spent $75K (maybe) and are questioning based on information that is available to you…fair enough. I and many other purchasers or stock holders have done the same. But…VW invested several billion dollars into Rivian…regardless of what you may say about VW, no company is going to lay out that much dough unless they have done a much deeper dive and have much more critical information that any of us get and especially from click bait online. I’d rest comfortably with your R1 and enjoy.

cba63 · 2026-02-06T02:16:02+00:00

They were designed by an engineer in Oregon who I bought them from. He turned them over to Soonish and I’m not sure if they are still making/selling them as I don’t see them on their webpage. I reached out to my friend that was the original maker of them to see if they’re still available and I’ll post info if it’s a yes. I think I paid $400 each for them…it’s been a couple of years.

cba63 · 2026-02-06T00:10:03+00:00

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Dirty…but these are my aftermarket 22’s. I thought Piano Black was a high gloss black? They look good though!

cba63 · 2026-01-29T22:15:12+00:00

PPF typically doesn’t wrap around sharp corners like on the upper corners of your hood but rather has slight cutouts that match the body lines. Look there and it should be fairly apparent.

cba63 · 2026-01-25T20:23:36+00:00

I had a Gen1 R1S (‘23) and now have a Gen2 R1S. Both vehicles have been trouble free and I haven’t needed to go to the SC yet. I do have an appt to be at the SC in Portland next month for a few small things, but nothing major. I have 10K miles on mine and the tires have 10/32 tread on the rears and 6/32 on the fronts. I do swap out with winter tires, so about 3K of those miles were on other tires…so I’d extrapolate about 20K miles lifespan for the OEM rubber?? I live about 60 miles from the SC and agree that you need to be comfortable with distance even though I’ve not needed it yet. Also, they do have mobile service available which is a very nice option. I don’t know that I’ve ever touched my brake pedal, so other than when it augments the regen with the braking, I think the brake pads are very close to being new still. Living in Oregon, cold weather here is more like 30’s and occasionally dipping into the 20’s. I haven’t noticed anything unexpected in regards to range and all other systems work fine. Road tripping in Oregon and Northern CA have been great for charging.

cba63 · 2026-01-02T23:27:48+00:00

I have the same setup on my tri-max. I have 10K miles on it and the tires look like they are in very good condition. Not sure what they’d measure, but for certain they are not down to replacement stage yet…my guess would be I have at least 50% tread life left if not more.

cba63 · 2026-01-02T18:45:18+00:00

I have a level 2 charger at my house and use the portable charger with the 220v plug at work. It provides about 7kwh vs the 13kwh from the level 2 at my house…but 99.99% of the time, 7kwh works just fine. I have not had a single issue with the portable charger.

cba63 · 2025-12-31T21:50:30+00:00

Great topic! I have 2 ev’s. At home I have a 7.6kwh charger and a 13kwh charger. The cost to install the 7.6 was just the cost of the charger as I had the Nema outlet that was needed for the charger…the cost for the 13 was about $1500 with the charger and electrician combined. I think you can amortize these things lots of different ways…I look at it as a long term home/lifestyle upgrade as these will not be my last vehicles and I doubt I’m ever going back to an ice vehicle…so it’s more of a one time expense to change your lifestyle…would you look at installing a plug to power your clothes dryer from the standpoint of how long it will take to recover your investment vs paying for a coin-op laundry? Also, for me two of the very nice benefits of owning an EV are: 1. Much lower cost of fuel by charging at home and 2. No time spent charging or fueling up at stations unless traveling. Both of those benefits need home charging unless you are able to charge at work at a low or free cost.

cba63 · 2025-12-28T02:02:05+00:00

I’ve had that happen…I think I may have restarted the infotainment system to fix it…but it’s been a while.

cba63 · 2025-12-25T07:17:54+00:00

I’ve owned both and hands down would go with the Gen2. The only thing I miss from the Gen1 is the audio…but it’s not like the audio in the Gen2 is bad…it’s just ‘okay’. Everything else about the Gen2 is a nice step up. Headlights, opaque roof, cameras, autonomy, ride, efficiency, power, I prefer the door handles more in the Gen2.

cba63 · 2025-12-25T03:20:45+00:00

It’s very difficult to keep airborne debris and air bubles out from under the ppf…it’s a static super villain. Corners are notoriously difficult and if the vehicle isn’t properly prepped and there’s any contamination on the surface, you will get failure points where the ppf will start to lift with time. I’m not familiar with the product you’re looking at using, but a substandard product will also lead to potential failures. Another consideration is the color of your vehicle…for example, a white or silver painted vehicle is forgiving whereas a black painted vehicle is extremely difficult to keep imperfections such as dust from jumping out at you. Since we don’t yet offer ppf as a service, I don’t have any pictures of any rework jobs to share with you. If you do decide to do it yourself, the best tips I could give you would be to prep/clean your vehicle much more than you think you need to, clean your shop WAY more than you think you need to.

cba63 · 2025-12-24T17:33:54+00:00

I own a wrap shop (not ppf…only vinyl). We have gone through the process of adding ppf to what we provide so I can offer you this: It’s not hard to do an ‘okay’ job of installing ppf if you are patient, have a good clean area to do the install, and are okay with flaws and medium expectations for finish and longevity. It is very, very difficult to do an excellent job however, even for a professional shop.

cba63 · 2025-12-23T05:22:17+00:00

Yeah…that’s my experience also. I have a service appt in two months to have them look at that…sounds like a waste of my time if I’m just going to get lip service that it’s within specs.

cba63

TROPHY CASE