Rivian's Unique Body-On-Frame Architecture

Jordan is joined by Scott Hildreth to discuss various observations and potential questions about Rivian's Body-On-Frame structure and construction.
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Outro:
Music from KZbin Audio Library [Aka YAL]
Music provided by RFM: • Video
#Rivian #R1T #ElectricTruck

[@officepatina]

As a mechanical engineer, these insights are incredibly valuable. I appreciate you making this content freely available.

[@MunroLive]

Thanks for watching, Mike!

[@paintedpony2935]

Yes! Thank you.

[@tommitchell9653]

A huge Thank You to Cory and Sandy’s son for initiating Munro Live on U tube, a real breath of fresh air in a world of BS. Also great to see the up front team enlarge and grow more comfortable in front of the camera, looking at you Ben. kudos to Eric for smooth camera action and placement, I appreciate it when the engineers address him by name and give him some credit. These episodes covering the Rivian tear down are pure gold for them and they are getting the information for free just by watching, they should be required viewing for all the engineers, designers and assemblers in the company, if they iterate at the same pace as Tesla, cut production costs and slowly raise prices as more vehicles receive enthusiastic owner reviews the future could be rosy for them. I certainly hope so.

[@phxees]

Damn these guys have a deep bench. Very impressive. Great work!

[@KetterHomeImprovements]

Incredible work Jordan and Scott. I am beginning to understand why someone can't build something like this in their garage. The complexity is amazing and while all I am learning from you guys is exciting... it is also very sobering to understand why cars are so expensive. Looking forward to the next video.

[@rkan2]

I mean.. the frames and the bodies could certainly be built in a garage.. Not like you are running a steel mill of course.

[@DominicDSouza]

Fascinating! So great that anyone can just get access to information like this. Thanks so much for providing such great information in an accessible way.

[@patrickkenny2077]

The videos just keep getting better! It is truly an amazing education in understanding what goes into the design and manufacturing and the tradeoffs that are made. Thank you!!

[@spuddy4063]

Once again a massive congratulatory kudos to the Munro & Associates team for putting together a most excellent deep dive into the RIVIAN product. This may be an overbuilt vehicle, but we all appreciate the value for money that Consumers want these days. As to the presenters of this segment, bravo to Sandy Munro for having created this company and allowing his creation to setup a team that excel at showing off why they have jobs in this company. Trusting one's team of employee's to this extent is an exceptional feat that all companies can learn from. Empowering the TEAM to add value to the Munro Live experience certainly impresses me and I wish that I had thought of this as a managerial exponent of building a superior Well put together team of workers that allow everyone in this company to continue to show their dedication to what the company is there for. BRAVO Sandy, keep those employee's showing off their talents and your company will continue to grow well into the future.

[@cameronfuture7467]

Simply brilliant. How lucky are we to be witness to such a brilliant channel with people who know what they are talking about. The general knowledge you get to understand why and how manufacturers do things is excellent. The teardowns are not only educational but they are a must watch for anyone interested in engineering and production imho. Well done to all the guys at Munro.

[@Clark-Mills]

14:08 Acronym expansion... GD&T : Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing 24:06 EDM : ??? Suggestion to the editor: Possibly overlay (even for a second, we can rewind/pause) on-screen all / any acronyms. We can ignore the ones we've learnt and learn the new ones that we've learnt from you guys over the years. :) Thank you as ever for the wealth of knowledge you are sharing with us.

[@TennisGvy]

I would guess "electric drive module" since afterwards he says "how the motors are integrated"

[@jasonhunt007]

Thanks for the video series. I am more informed if I decide to buy a Rivian in the future. I also understand that Munro is the consultant of choice for existing and future BEV manufacturers and these tear downs are educational for everyone.

[@bobr.6312]

I have former students who work at Rivian. In conversation, the comments were "in the production versions now wedling is pretty much done by robots." So perhaps what you have is, as noted, an 'early run'...not completely set up for rapid production. I have ridden in more than one Tesla and will say, the Rivian 'feels' much more solid than a Tesla and there was a distinct lack of 'body noise' that is present in the Teslas. The Tesla's were model 3 and the Rivian was an R1T truck. Thank you for an indepth review.

[@seanz6586]

A model S rides MUCH nicer than a model 3. Why not compare similar priced vehicles?

[@Smarmey]

Valuable insight, thanks.

[@snazzy]

@@seanz6586 Good point. The Rivian R1T rides much better than the Tesla Model S too.

[@aaronwalsh8469]

That’s a lot of mig welding, it’s fine as long as your stampings are consistent. The biggest pain in robotic mig welding is bad stampings. When you have that much mig welding your going to have a lot of manual mig welding to fix all the bad welds.

[@TheDisgruntledMechanic]

I usually 2x the speed of most videos I watch I don't with any of these Rivian videos! TY!

[@cruiser97eric1]

I would like to see the power bed cover/tonneau reviewed in a future video. Will that really be the first thing to break in the truck as some R1T reviewers think?

[@transendre1]

Would be cool to see the FEA(Finite Element Analysis) on the frame and assembly. From all the ride reviews, drivers say the R1T handles like a sports car. Would be even cooler to see a dynamic FEA that simulates the truck going through turns.

[@tonydiebold4899]

I was thinking the same thing

[@TamagoHead]

No idea about the overlap between how Tesla shares, but SpaceX computer guys use novel approaches to FEA & CFD.

[@mgmacius]

Wow. That would be totally orgasmic

[@greasemonkey1489]

Probably looks very similar to how a sports car performs. It’s essentially a unibody vehicle as an assembly

[@robertrobertson5120]

Very good explanation for the functionality of the framework. Can't wait for the Lightning arrival and teardown!

[@dennislyons3095]

Really enjoy the insights to these tear downs. I particularly like it when there is the "belt & suspenders" approach to safety. Another insightful video. Thank you.

[@mattbrew11]

I own a large business (solar) but I put myself through college and still do build suspensions for baja running trucks and rockcrawlers ( jeeps) . That being said this frame looks a lot better built than both tundra and especially tacoma frames. They are typically covered in splatter and the rear is embarrassing. I won’t touch one without the owner being cool with me fully boxing and bracing it. Im no structural engineer and don’t pretend to be one but I know what works in abusive high demand off road use.

[@SimonPhoenix313]

or high demand mall parking abuse

[@mattbrew11]

@@SimonPhoenix313 haha well maybe that too but these aren’t bolt on suspension and low pro tire rigs but a chase truck can definitely cruise to sonic 😂

[@SimonPhoenix313]

@@mattbrew11 yup 😂

[@arto1313]

found this munro channel and have watched a ton of videos and liked a lot .

[@MunroLive]

Thanks!

[@paulaxford6754]

Yep, M.E. here too. Really enjoyed watching this and looking forward to more on the Rivian from Jordan and Scott.

[@heathwirt8919]

Great presentation guys, very detailed and concise.

[@AndrewGerberi]

Amazing video per usual- engineer's dream to watch these. Thank you for the effort!

[@MunroLive]

Our pleasure!

[@fred993a]

Excellent structural analysis! Thank you!

[@techiheed1845]

Thanks for that one! Always a joy to watch.

[@MunroLive]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@pablopicaro7649]

Thanks for the review, that is a incredible (excessive) amount of welding, must be very time consuming and extremely expensive. Riv seems like need a LOT more analysis to reduce that cost area.

[@jimanderson4444]

You said it Pablo, they need to mega press out those chassis members.

[@TANOCA17]

Longitudinal parts of the frame could have been aluminum extrusions. Ends of extrusions could be connected to aluminum sand and or die castings as with Tesla Y structure (doesn't need to be as mega as those castings). That would eliminate most of welding operations.

[@patrickkenny2077]

@@jimanderson4444 I would love to understand from the Munro folks if that is possible/practical. It seems like some fairly "easy" castings would really simplify the production process.

[@charleshaggard4341]

@@patrickkenny2077 Hopefully they will get into that more, but they paid big money for this vehicle and I imagine they will keep most of their recommendations for paying customers. Looks like their first customer should be Rivian. lol

[@GET2222]

This is a nice way of saying this is a mess and very expensive. TESLA MODEL 3 was bad too.

[@cessealbeach]

I was waiting for this segment, Very interesting and very unique design, forsure its over engineered and on the other hand they could have reduced a lot weight and still maintained structural integrity . Thank you for the nice presentation

[@patreekotime4578]

It would seem so. Surely theyve done loads of FEA. I do think the truck is generally overbuilt though. Not a bad thing for a first time build!

[@ChaimLoecher]

Behind every great young mind at Munro sits an even greater older mind... great content!

[@jm100368]

you calling him old?

[@TennisGvy]

This is what I've been waiting for!

[@MrFoxRobert]

Thank you!

[@budgetaudiophilelife-long5461]

THANKS JORDAN AND SCOTT…for sharing this with us 🧐😍😍😍

[@techfixr2012]

That bolt can handle the dynamic operating load, but will shear, in a crash, it allows force absorbsution but then as the gel that they noticed suppresses sparks from the impact, the forces from the crush then hit the actual components. That starts to transfer the impact forces to the other side of the vehicle, helping to minimize the damage as a result of having an extremely rigid center structure to isolate the energy cell. I think that front architecture is impact mitigation considering just how seemingly 150% overbuilt everything else seems to be. It does not look finessed in any way. It really looks like they made a seriously large amount of the decisions in the design on the basis of does it work. I fell like they absolutely succeeded. I can't wait for about 2000 hours of lesson learned meetings and let's fix the second generation. Great first product and I sincerely hope they can improve efficiency and increase margin with a quality product that people desire.

[@brandoYT]

Hand built is easy - volume production really, really difficult.

[@techfixr2012]

Absolutely. Anybody can build 1 awesome thing, can you build 10k? 10 Mil, can you scale to meet your market?

[@TennisGvy]

Yeah, that's why the discontinuity isn't so important. It's there for crush, and after impact it's no longer discontinuous

[@richardnedbalek1968]

Jordan is a consummate professional. Scott sure knows how to pick ‘em!

[@michaelplotkin7383]

Great video, thank you

[@MunroLive]

You are welcome!

[@Heckofadeal]

Great job !!

[@MunroLive]

Thank you!

[@waynelevett3632]

I am an old school mechanic and love learning the new ways to manufacture and build cars. I already think I could convert one to RHD lol. That'll probably be my new business in Australia 🦘

[@royatkin161]

Great review,

[@olivierfischer-morelle3571]

Awesome video. After watching it, one of the biggest concerns for me is that - Rivian will struggle to achieve any meaningful volume to its production output given the way they engineered the existing body/chassis construction and assembly. Jordan and Scott do a good job pointing that out. So, unless they can find ways to modify and lessen the complexities on how they manufacture and assemble these vehicles, their production volume target goals will probably not happen. All this will affect whether they can actually make money on these vehicles going forward and that will have an effect on the Company's stock price and valuation, not to mention Rivian's survivability. It is one thing to blame low production volume on "chip shortages" and "supply chain issue" as Rivian likes to point out (They have produced very few vehicles to date since the fall of last year), but to me the elephant in the room is the actual way they engineered this vehicle for what seems like low volume manufacturing according to the experts at Munro and it is not just the chassis and frame, as evident in some previous Munro videos. Yes, I can understand production ramp up and especially the incredible challenges of production vehicles, but it seems someone forgot to keep it as simple as possible for high volume manufacturing and these don't seem like simple changes but rather some significant reengineering designs for mass manufacturing. They can really use Munro's input! Rivian still has a ton of cash (13 billion?), but that can quickly disappear without volume. Love the truck and the concept and I hope Rivian succeeds, but Ford and the other established manufactures - know how to design trucks for mass manufacturing and profitability. The stock analysts covering this stock really should do their homework and watch these videos and challenge Rivian with some tougher questions rather than just accepting "part shortages" if they don't meet their target of 25K by the end of the year - I hope they do!

[@marklearmonth9380]

Very interesting video.

[@charleshaggard4341]

Great video, guys. Can't wait for the next one. When you start looking at the battery, motors and inverters, would ya'll please compare how the different voltages between the vehicle brands, like 400 volt of Tesla and the 900 volt of the Lucid and the voltage of this Rivian make a difference in power, range and recharging speeds and the thickness of the wiring? Thanks

[@brianb-p6586]

They could try, but the voltage doesn't really affect the power or range.

[@MrBadgas]

Great detail. “Huh, that’s interesting” gives cause for pause. I’m seeing this one as hard to ramp up production. Sure hope they hire Munro ASAP.

[@MunroLive]

Good call!

[@HatArmor]

Can't wait for my Rivian this fall!!

[@SCWgreg]

Great review. Thank you Munro and Associates for sharing. You’re helping the industry grow and mature. Very obvious Rivian is in its toddler stage. Much more engineering work and revisions to make. Very expensive and slow build process. Love the rig… but I’ll wait a year a two, before I buy one.

[@brandoYT]

reminder 10 years in the making

[@toddmarshall416]

23:15 "...'cause this is a fairly substantial bracket on both sides...'" : The black bracket is supporting a substantial black cross member "below". That little bolt above into the silver piece is just fastening a cover.

[@mini2nut67]

Thanks again Monroe & Associated. You are the only YT channel that I subscribe to. After viewing this new video I can see why Rivian is only cranking out 60 units per day.

[@dougfreeman6875]

Very interesting. Now I'm curious to see how Ford made the F-150 Lightning...

[@MunroLive]

We will be tearing one down this fall!

[@patreekotime4578]

Im betting on a similar approach with the widened rails and cross-car structure bleeding over into the body. From a packaging perspective it makes a ton of sense.

[@williamelkington5430]

Thanks very much. Fascinating! When will you do the same sort of analysis on the Rivian software?

[@tianjohan4633]

Have I missed a video? I was hoping to see the skateboard in details with the battery pack still mounted into the skateboard to get a better understanding of the scale and proportions. If you have raw video of that could you possible include a little section of that in the next video? I love you tear downs. Keep up the great work and keep shooting and sharing. Awesome work guys.

[@MunroLive]

Sorry but we removed the battery first.

[@brianb-p6586]

@@MunroLive The removal of the battery would have been good to cover, particularly since it apparently involves removing bolts down from the interior of the body, which is unique to this design.

[@tianjohan4633]

@@MunroLive Thx for your reply. So no footage of that process?

[@brianb-p6586]

The obvious answer to the mystery of the small fasteners on that cross-vehicle beam is simply that it is only intended to support ancillary equipment, not to stiffen the structure.

[@greasemonkey1489]

Agree. The body does that.

[@SteelSculptor]

Explains why ford bounced on them, the "skateboard" was a bit of BS. This frame is completely integrated with the body. Requiring a certain body structure to actually do the work. Since you can't just bolt whatever to this frame, it's not really a platform. Kind of weird unibody / bof hybrid. Tahoe/Denali is similar. The frames are there, but really need the body on top to work correctly. I put a '59 chev pickup on a '97 tahoe frame and it was really flexy. The truck body did not have the correct polar moment in the mid section that the SUV frame needed.

[@patreekotime4578]

Nonsense. EVERYONE building a ground-up EV truck will likely be taking a similar approach. And vehicle frames isnt a duality, it is a spectrum. Cybertruck will also break the "rules" about "the two types" of vehicle structures. And this is a GOOD THING. Automotive companies have been trapped in this way of thinking about vehicle structure for 60 years. Good riddance.

[@brianb-p6586]

I agree - it's not a skateboard in any way. There's nothing wrong with that.

[@ouch1011]

This frame looks a lot like the structure that you would typically see in a heavier unibody vehicle, like an SUV or unibody van. I am not a mechanical engineer and I don’t build cars, but my assumption would be that some of the benefits of a body on frame vehicle would be improved isolation of the cabin from the drivetrain and suspension, removing the structural element from the body and removing the need for subframes. The Rivian does not make use of any of these advantages. My question would be then, what is the advantage of using the body on frame layout *for this vehicle* ? Why not just make it unibody?

[@PhotoHoag]

Better 3rd row seating in SUV maybe? Do you think possible VAN for amizon uses same frame?

[@brosefv759]

IMO Rivian wanted to make an off road capable truck. Generally speaking Body on frame (BOF) is way better for offroading the a unibody design (UBD). A BOF type of vehicle can handle the twisting forces of offroading far better. That plus a BOF also can tow a lot more weight than a typical unibody design. I think it has to do with sturdyness of the frame of the truck. I mean literally the frame is hauling 100s if not 1000s of kilos. Where as with a UBD the entire structure has to deal with the stresses of hauling a trailer or a load in the bed. I could see a UBD vehicle deforming overtime from all the pulling forces. Where again a truck with a sturdy frame wouldn't deform because of how strong that frame is. Just my opinion.

[@greasemonkey1489]

To me, it was to secure a patent and make a “universal” platform. The RPV delivery van is mounted to the same (I think lightly modified) “skateboard” chassis. And of course, the R1S too. I can also see the need for an air and active hydraulic suspension system with this design. Even though it’s independent suspension, it would probably be a rough ride on conventional springs/struts. Too rigid is not good for comfort and wouldn’t be for everyone.

[@EssPhour]

@@brosefv759 Quite a few years back I had a friend who had a Jeep Cherokee, it was a great and nimble little off roader, I was out visiting him in Colorado and we went out and did a little off roading, blasted through some whoops at one point, no biggie, we go back to town and run the truck through the automatic car wash, all of sudden there is water pouring in both back doors,....It ends up those whoops we blasted through folded the unibody frame, we looked closer and sure enough you could see daylight between the door frames and truck body. We didn't notice the extra wind noise from the gaps because he had some noisy our road tires.......So yeah Unibody don't hold up so well when things get a little rough.

[@dorhocyn3]

That is a lot of welding! I wonder how many miles of Mig wire they used to build that?

[@greasemonkey1489]

A couple notes from an engineering enthusiast- on the torsional rigidity vs a body on frame truck, the R1T body looks to offer unibody rigidity to the frame, end to end. The cab and bed of a conventional pickup are independent bodies which would require more of that ladder structure along the frame. On the strut tower bracing- while mounted low on the R1T, I would argue it’s just to supplement what the bulkhead/firewall of the R1T body handles in terms of loads from the suspension. Again, in contrast to a conventional body on frame vehicle where the spring perches/strut towers are relatively short and attached very close to the top the frame rails.

[@aayotechnology]

Interesting analysis. But I wish you had shown the underside of the body where it meets up with the frame.

[@justinjones1644]

I really hope RJ made watching these a homework assignment for Rivian's engineers. There are surely tons of reasons they did what they did. Even if they did things the way they did just to get producing trucks until they could streamline, I hope there is still something they found useful in these videos.

[@anomof]

Exactly plus once structures were removed they forgot that there was a cross structure connecting the front shock mounts, they were so bewildered on and thought it appeared to be missing, only because it was removed an located in their garage.😉

[@mayflowerconsulting5540]

Great stuff, as always. Will you propose an aluminum HPDC shock tower that incorporates the black brackets? At minimum, a big weight savings and probably easier to assemble.

[@wizzyno1566]

I did welding when I was an apprentice. I was shit at it. Or at least I thought I was until today... 🤔

[@randolphtorres4172]

THANKS4GIVING

[@brianb-p6586]

While the lack of crossmembers is notable, and the Munro staff explained why it was done and how that is addressed structurally, I think that it is interesting to note that the Jeep TJ Wrangler was also completely lacking in welded-in crossmembers except at the ends... and it didn't have a rigidly attached body for strength.

[@jimdetry9420]

On a recent video some definitions of Acronyms appeard on screen. That was useful. Please do so on ALL your videos. It is a rare acronym that doesn't have multiple applications across different fields. For example, it took me a few videos before I could connect "IP" to Instrument Panel and not Intellectual Property.

[@dougk5456]

Great review!! I see corrosion problems with the body bolted directly to the frame. The snow belt and salt water. Water wicks into tight joints and will be a future problem.

[@chris6770]

Great insight, thank you. Now I'm concerned for Rivian and it's ability to scale and cut costs. Would like to know how they came to some of their design decisions. Mega castings sure save you a lot of grief.

[@thankscraig8361]

Thank so much World Peace

[@arthanareeswaranbalasubram1147]

Good one

[@docsnider8926]

Very informative video! The whole car looks more like an early prototype than a production car. What puzzles me a bit, is the impression, that the crew is more kind to cars made in the US. I

[@z4zuse]

19:54 nice to hear a casual reference to mm

[@ramirorivero683]

Impressive, for modular work. It gives them great flexibility for tucks, SUV and Vans.

[@Zedus-rl9hp]

but strange design and construction - very complex, tight tolerances. Not designed for large quantities.

[@ramirorivero683]

@@Zedus-rl9hp If their construction method is made for that tight tolerances, it could work. New batteries with better energy densities could be used at once

[@alanmay7929]

@@Zedus-rl9hp wrong!!!!!! It’s still the first production and optimizations are already been made lol…..

[@Zedus-rl9hp]

@@ramirorivero683 nobody intentionally makes unnecessarily low tolerances, because this is expensiv, especially with this production method. And you can install batteries with a higher energy density in any design, Rivian has no advantage there.

[@Zedus-rl9hp]

@@alanmay7929 What has been changed? lol....

[@ChessMasterNate]

I know they mostly do electric cars, but I'd really like to see a Ford Maverick taken apart. I am really impressed that they can sell that very efficient, yet pretty well performing, hybrid for $20,000. And, I guess, I would like the reassurances a tear down can provide.

[@PhotoHoag]

Yeah Maverick does seem like the truck many people should get. Enough for hardware store, occasional moving furniture, and really good MPG.

[@OweEyeSea]

Those lines sandwiched between the battery pack and cab seem like a serviceability nightmare if any of them have a problem.

[@brianb-p6586]

Removing the battery - which is more work in this case than other EVs because of the bolts through the body floor - does seem like a lot of work to even inspect those lines.

[@EngineeredtoWin]

How did the welds at 11.40 pass inspection...incredible stuff.

[@xxwookey]

A coachbuilt camper on top of that looks like a really good plan. How much will you sell me just the bottom half for Rivian?

[@wongman2001]

You know, as we dive deeper into serious tear downs, I missed some of Sandy/Cory’s quirkiness like mike jug stress loading, BBQ off the roof, airbag triggers, yet I still love this channel

[@antoinepageau8336]

Watching these videos on the Rivian tear down, makes me wonder if it's going to be too late / too costly for them to ramp up. Question is, will someone step in to take it to the next level...

[@bobwallace9753]

Bezos may use his own money (a small fraction of it) to help Rivian ramp. I can see him doing so just to 'keep face' in his attempt to not be totally overshadowed by Elon. HIs rocket company looks like a toy compared to SpaceX. Elon has no interest in playing 'who's got the biggest boat'. Elon is leaving Jeff behind in overall wealth. I suspect Jeff doesn't want to lose another of the contests he has created on his own. Rivian looks like they've got a good engineering team. I'd like to see them survive. We need several manufacturers of EVs working to replace ICEVs.

[@PhotoHoag]

Does seem like it will be expensive to make a lot of the changes needed. Kinda locked into high price because high prices to change.

[@gene6690]

The great thing about Munro is that they filter out all the BS from the PR and advertising departments of the manufacturers. And kudus to those manufacturers who agree to exposing all their warts to the public. In the long term, it will only make their products so much better 💥💥

[@jeffreyhampton9130]

Nice.

[@calholli]

It's actually easy to get your bolt holes on the frame lined up perfectly. You just need a jig that has all your bolts already in it--- stick that through the slightly oversized holes in the frame and then screw on the bolts on the backside-- and then weld them in place; now when you unscrew your bolts, all of your holes are in the same place as the next. It just takes a jig.. and it's easy to see that's how they did it, and why you can see the welded nuts underneath the frame.... If not, you can always simply have oversized holes on the body side, and use washers if you must.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

Regarding the >100 bolts joining body to frame. It's no surprise. Way back in 2002, Audi had one bolt every 50mm (2") just to hold the dash into the body shell. The structure was extremely solid but so it should be. It's a significant cost in parts, assembly labour and weight.

[@koloasurf2012]

Hi can you let us know, what is being mounted on the frame on the lip sticking out of the frame? Can a running board be mounted there?

[@flyingyakdeath]

the ladder rungs in a ladder frame construction provide very little torsional stiffness along longitudinal axis

[@koloasurf2012]

Really like the indepth info on the Rivian. Have a question for you, since you taken this truck apart. I am looking for a place to hook up a running board and is there a place you can plug in a power running board version. Also have you tested any of the one that are out there in the market place. Thanks in advance

[@jairokg]

Wow

[@realMysta]

You guys ever going to do suspension?

[@Nphen]

If managers, engineers, and executives at Rivian aren't watching this video series about their product, then they aren't going to last. The engineering content of this video alone could be worth millions of dollars per year in production to Rivian.

[@maksimd6033]

Please video about suspension

[@tommays56]

Gotta wonder how WELL that boxed frame is gonna due in the RUST belt

[@livh2290]

That's my dad! 😄

[@fmucklo]

I was very surprised that they hand-welded portions of that frame. It's almost like a prototype. Thanks for the great video and insights.

[@Robert-cu9bm]

It takes a lot too set up a robot welder. If something is not positioned quite right, the welder doesn't care it follows it's program

[@fmucklo]

@@Robert-cu9bm How will they achieve volume production without robot welders? Hand welding is ok if you only intend limited production.

[@WANDERER0070]

Why not use robotic welding to make good line every time? What kind of paint is the frame coated with and how long will it last.?

[@tyyap76]

Ooof, the lines that are buried/sandwiched between the body and battery pack is scary... If anything goes wrong, a full teardown is required to fix those...

[@brianb-p6586]

Was any of this really surprising to anyone who is technically competent? Wide rail spacing, lack of crossmembers, dependence on the battery case and body to add torsional stiffness... all obvious. The lack of isolation between body and frame is the only surprise. The Ranger EV of 1997 used the 4WD version of the regular Ranger frame, with crossmembers removed and modified for more battery space - the design approach was established decades ago. The Ranger EV didn't have wider-spaced frame rails, because it couldn't deviate that much from the base design economically, and had to still use the stock body. The original generation of the Mercedes ML-class was promoted as using the body to contribute substantially to stiffness to the separate frame... even with compliant body-to-frame mounts. An interesting comparison would be the Ford Transit chassis-cab: the Ford upfitter manual specifies that the second unit body (SUB) added to the rear (whatever the upfitter adds) should be fastened at all of the many provided points to integrate the SUB to the base vehicle structure, and the battery pack of the E-Transit is fastened this way.

[@martylawson1638]

lots of "schedule" weight on the Rivian. The right choice to get your first product out the door asap and optimize after you have users. Look forward to rev 2 and 3, lots of new ideas to flesh out.

[@barneyjensen4470]

As an overall concept and the off road and other capabilities and features it's incredible and outside the box, pun intended, some of the things are definitely WTF such as the dash. Unfortunately if it makes it it'll be more of a mall crawler. It seems like it got to the point where it was like, damn it we've got to build it.

[@fathead689]

Jordan is always well dressed, especially in this episode.

[@myusernamethisiss]

Can you guys review the audio system alone?

[@MunroLive]

We will consider it.

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Nothing goes over proper engineering. Given the size of the US pickup market my bet would have been a "casted" frame. Perhaps some OEM should make just casting elements for the various makers? Just thinking in the way of lean design.

[@WentzCraft]

It's weld "spatter" not "splatter"

[@mgarcia8878]

When will we see this for the Lightning?

[@MunroLive]

We will be tearing down a Lightning this fall.

[@lengould9262]

Trying to make out that back end. Is that a solid beam rear axle?

[@cruiser97eric1]

There are two motors in the rear with an axle going from each motor to a wheel. The front is similar, for a total of 4 motors.

[@brianb-p6586]

There's an earlier Munro "hoist review" of the Rivian that Sandy kept (so they didn't tear it down, but they did look at it). The rear has a multi-link independent suspension. None of the new and coming generation of battery-electric trucks uses a beam axle. And yes, the Lordstown thing does have a rear beam axle, but it's never going into production. 😉

[@cruiser97eric1]

@@brianb-p6586 The Lordstown Endurance pickup is in fact going to production this year. Foxconn is in charge of producing it for Lordstown Motors after they bough the factory from Lordstown Motors.

[@brianb-p6586]

@@cruiser97eric1 Yes, Foxconn bought the factory to build something for someone. If the Lordstown Endurance actually gets built, everyone (including Foxconn and Lordstown management) will be surprised.

[@cruiser97eric1]

@@brianb-p6586 You are misinformed. The purchase of the factory by Foxconn was contingent on reaching an agreement where Foxconn would make the Endurance for Lordstown Motors starting this year. In addition to Foxconn now being a contract manufacturer for Lordstown Motors the two companies have started a joint venture to design and produce future vehicles using the MIH platform. Foxconn will also make the Fisker PEAR at that factory but that won't happen until 2024.

[@Zedus-rl9hp]

It's a good thing Sandy wasn't there, he would have thrown a tantrum over all the screws 😁

[@brianb-p6586]

The lack of Sandy's usual rants was refreshing; so was Jordan's constructive attitude of being interested to learn more, rather than judging what he doesn't yet understand.

[@johnhoskins4098]

The stacking and hand welding create constraints but at the end of the day will the quality of build be much better than other manufactures based on the tolerances that have to achieve?

[@patreekotime4578]

Their whole point is that it will be difficult to speed up production while maintaining those tight tolerances across large interfaces. They may need to rethink some of their build process to be able to ramp.

[@legostud]

It looks like welds are thicker than the adhesive. I wonder if that’s why the adhesive didn’t get squished more.

[@gman9543]

Doesn't the battery pack essentially act as a giant crossmember between the frame rails? I thought the trend these days was to make the battery part of the structure.

[@greasemonkey1489]

I think the body assumes that role more in this application. Unlike a truck cab and bed, it’s essentially a unibody on frame. If that gear tunnel is all metal, it could essentially act as a big rigid tube at the center of the truck. (Not sure if it is)