Asininedrivel
caviar connoisseur
Yeah but my understanding is the body of the Cybertruck is an 'exoskeleton' welded together... so you'd be getting an entire new frame rather than just a panel.
Electric Vehicles etc
- Thread starter Cardy George
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Haakon
has an accommodating arse
Will be interesting. The new "giga casting" method used in newer Model Y is presenting some questions on repairability, will be interesting to see how it pans out long term.
But its of no surprise to anyone that repairability has been steadily of less importance to the car industry in general for many many years - its all about cost of manufacture. Tesla is no different and has been VERY focused of assembly processes (Musk as said the car factories are its achievement, not the cars!).
dazz
Downhill Dazz
I'm not so sure on that, the few little bits I just read indicate that his 'new metal' is unlikely to be weld friendly. It sounds like it could be somewhat similar to some existing duplex grades of stainless which need careful consideration when using. Very strong, quite hard, great corrosion resistance. Fatigues, cracks and falls apart under certain conditions.
Stredda
Runs naked through virgin scrub
Yes that could well be the case. It could be a mixture of castings and exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is supposed to be lighter than conventional body on chassis designs.
If it is based on an austenitic stainless steel as I have read that it is, it would be easily weldable. It's the martensitic stainless steels that are difficult to weld.
I'm fairly sure they would have done their homework on the best material for the design they intend on using.
it's good to see someone thinking outside the box and not going with what has been done with the cab chassis for the last 100 years.
Scotty T
Walks the walk
How many cars with bent chassis get repaired these days? It would be interesting to see given the same impact how repairable any other EV made with traditional methods vs Tesla is. My guess is nobody is set up with insurers to repair any EV's yet, because there are all makes of EV appearing in auctions as write offs that don't have much damage.
Indeed.
dazz
Downhill Dazz
Oh for sure they'll be doing their homework. And just because it's 'based' on an austenitic grade doesn't guarantee good weldability. I spent a few years melting 304/316 bits together and well know it's weldability. Once you start messing with the grain structure via cold working, things change a lot. You need to know what's going to happen to the parent metal in the heat affected zone as well as the transition out of that zone.
On top of all of that, if you've ever spent some time in a shop specialising in S/S food industry plant then you'll know the distortion nightmare that a welded sheet metal exoskeleton would be. The seams on 304/316 tanks and hoppers shrink like crazy, it takes good design and skilled fabricators to produce a quality result. Maybe they have enough simulation software to program a robotic welding rig to control the entire process from pre-heat through to post weld cooling accurately enough to get an acceptable result. Or maybe some post weld robotic english wheel reworking of the welded seams? Could be some cool stuff come out of this...
Really hard, high strength steels and welding typically just don't mix.
Stredda
Runs naked through virgin scrub
Yes, distortion will be the biggest challenge. You would be designing it in a way that welding is sparsely used. They certainly won't' be welding big, long seams or anything. Spotwelding will be most likely the welding of choice, that's if it's welded at all, it may be mainly bonded, and have very little welding at all.
We'll just have to wait and see I suppose.
dazz
Downhill Dazz
Yeah, I reckon you're onto something there. Could well borrow tech from advancements in the composites field and be mostly glued together.
rowdyflat
chez le médecin
Its great but our experience in Victoria is that the chargers once established are poorly maintained ,some are always down , in our case RACV blames Chargefox who blames Taiwan and China for lack of parts .
Tritium blames Chargefox for not telling them and churns out new chargers for which they are well paid by govt . and waits to be sold to a probably foreign buyer or private equity group.
They should not be able to sell new ones without keeping parts for the existing because the initial ones are in critical places for rural people and you can be stranded as happened to us last Monday at Euroa.
Fortunately we rang and Chargefox connected us to the Charger.
Eventually it will improve and Tesla will be opened to non Teslas hopefully competition and sheer numbers of EVs will help.
You cant currently use credit cards and the app only works if the phone network and internet are available which was down early this week.
Tritium blames Chargefox for not telling them and churns out new chargers for which they are well paid by govt . and waits to be sold to a probably foreign buyer or private equity group.
They should not be able to sell new ones without keeping parts for the existing because the initial ones are in critical places for rural people and you can be stranded as happened to us last Monday at Euroa.
Fortunately we rang and Chargefox connected us to the Charger.
Eventually it will improve and Tesla will be opened to non Teslas hopefully competition and sheer numbers of EVs will help.
You cant currently use credit cards and the app only works if the phone network and internet are available which was down early this week.
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
We bought the normal range Atto3 as it can do 330km in the worst of tests. People posting 15kw/100km at minimum in real life tests after 5000km.
The furthest distance my missus would ever have to go in 1 trip would be from our house to Melrose at 270km.
She has range-anxiety even thinking about it... currently now with a 150L Prado, she cant even let it get to 1/4 without panicking.
This new rollout puts a charger at Pt Wakefield and Snowtown on the way. Previously there was only a charger at Clare which was out of our way.
The furthest distance my missus would ever have to go in 1 trip would be from our house to Melrose at 270km.
She has range-anxiety even thinking about it... currently now with a 150L Prado, she cant even let it get to 1/4 without panicking.
This new rollout puts a charger at Pt Wakefield and Snowtown on the way. Previously there was only a charger at Clare which was out of our way.
When you are out in the wild wild west you wonder how people without big tanks survive. Chillagoe to Normanton on gravel sees a lot carrying Gerry Harveys to make sure they get to the other end. Funny what you get used to. My car has a 40 odd litre tank and because it does pretty well on fuel if you dont use all 7,300 revs all the time it is no issue.
EDIT: I should add the Prado has about 15L left in the main tank when the tripmeter says nada to empty so another 100km or so.
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
Had to Hambo that, 600km of gravel
And soft in places.Had to Hambo that, 600km of gravel
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
Better safe than sorry, could be more soft bits than usual. I drove 300km of the Birdsville track and met the grader coming up, it went from 100mm of bulldust and baby head gibbers to highway quality immediately.
The Simpson is around 600km and hard for 15km after Poeppels corner
actually the big dunes on the QAA can be hardpack in-between depending on the year. Worthy of a Gerry Harvey of two.
mark22
Likes Dirt
Yep did it my Patrol diesel didn't need a gerry can ( did take one though just in case). Lovely trip (five days) had a couple of short detours around flooded clay pans however the rain brought out lots of yellow and white wildflowers.Better safe than sorry, could be more soft bits than usual. I drove 300km of the Birdsville track and met the grader coming up, it went from 100mm of bulldust and baby head gibbers to highway quality immediately.
The Simpson is around 600km and hard for 15km after Poeppels corner
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It didn't break down?
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
It's a beautiful place, very strange how it can differ one year to the next. Both times I have crossed it, it's be up at 50°C.