Roller Bed Cover Might Be Leaving

[Firetruck41]

Thousands (probably ten or hundreds of thousands) of commercial trucks, service trucks, fire engines, etc, have roll up/slat doors. It's not new in any sense. Just a new application/version. I believe they are usually made of aluminum. The cases the doors roll up into are larger than you would think, took planning on our fire engine to make sure we still had the cabinet space we needed, after accounting for that space they roll up in to.

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[firsttruck]

Thousands (probably ten or hundreds of thousands) of commercial trucks, service trucks, fire engines, etc, have roll up/slat doors. It's not new in any sense. Just a new application/version. I believe they are usually made of aluminum. The cases the doors roll up into are larger than you would think, took planning on our fire engine to make sure we still had the cabinet space we needed, after accounting for that space they roll up in to.

There is are a couple huge differences between most rolling door implementations you see and the Cybertruck rolling cover.

1. Most others are mounted up high with the door dropping out and down.
Much of the force for closing is provided by gravity. When closing the motor may actually have to brake to prevent door from falling too fast or with too much force that might cause damage to itself or others.

The Cybertruck rolling cover is below and has to push door out and up.

2. Most standard rolling doors are vertical so they do not collect as much debris as flat horizontal or angled surfaces. Things like leaves from trees/bushes, trees sap, bird dropping, rocks left by birds and other animals.
What debris that does collect on standard vertical rolling door will fall off as the cover is retracted up into the spool and very little debri will enter the spool.

The Cybertruck rolling cover is much more horizontal and will need a good mechanism to prevent debris from being pulled in to the spool.

3. Most standard rolling cover have not sharp corners. The door comes off the spool and directly drops vertically down. Not corners and smooth curve of the spool.

The Cybertruck rolling cover must track around a second corner (top of the vault) that is very acute angle. This requires much more precise mechanisms and more energy use to move cover in either direction.

4. Cybertruck rolling cover will cost more and be less reliable.

 

[Deleted member 12457]

I thought the rolling tonneau cover was a nice idea but the more I think about, and see patent filings showing where it would go, the more I think it will end up being a major issue for CT users.

Reason 1: I don't see how the trough or holding tank for the tonneau cover will NEVER get dirty, full of water and garbage. It just will. I can't see how anyone would even clean it.
Comment: I see the tonneau cover chamber (I like using multiple words for same thing.) as being a waste of space. I'd rather see that space used for batteries or inside storage.

Reason 2: I use a Diamondback HD cover on my Tacoma. Not cheap and I can stand on it, jump on it, put all sorts of loads on it and it doesn't bend. It also has tie-down cleats. Something similar to this is what I'd like to see. I don't think the cleats will cause air drag.

Reason 3: I know people want solar panels on the tonneau cover but if I have a cargo rack of any kind on top of the bed, it won't do any charging anyway so why pay for something that gives me minimal charging. I'd rather have a fold-out kit with multiple solar panels I can set up while camping, etc.

Problem with cargo rack and rigid tonneau cover. Someone would need to come up with a cargo rack design that allows easy access to the bed by "opening" the tonneau cover. Opening can be very subjective. How open does it need to be. How easy is rack removal when you want to put oversized items into the bed.

Of course, if I can still afford the purchase by the time they're out, I'll get what Tesla offers but I am hoping there's some options for configurations.

 

[Tinker71]

They seem to be doing airflow tests at the track with the bed open. Makes you think they are expecting that to be a common use case. ?

That is a good explanation of what they were doing. I thought they "accidentally " got spotted. I suppose if truly legit they should have some tell tales or instruments of some kind. Maybe they were testing for sound.

 

[Firetruck41]

There is are a couple huge differences between most rolling door implementations you see and the Cybertruck rolling cover.

1. Most others are mounted up high with the door dropping out and down.
Much of the force for closing is provided by gravity. When closing the motor may actually have to brake to prevent door from falling too fast or with too much force that might cause damage to itself or others.

The Cybertruck rolling cover is below and has to push door out and up.

2. Most standard rolling doors are vertical so they do not collect as much debris as flat horizontal or angled surfaces. Things like leaves from trees/bushes, trees sap, bird dropping, rocks left by birds and other animals.
What debris that does collect on standard vertical rolling door will fall off as the cover is retracted up into the spool and very little debri will enter the spool.

The Cybertruck rolling cover is much more horizontal and will need a good mechanism to prevent debris from being pulled in to the spool.

3. Most standard rolling cover have not sharp corners. The door comes off the spool and directly drops vertically down. Not corners and smooth curve of the spool.

The Cybertruck rolling cover must track around a second corner (top of the vault) that is very acute angle. This requires much more precise mechanisms and more energy use to move cover in either direction.

4. Cybertruck rolling cover will cost more and be less reliable.

As to number 1 and number 3, should not be too difficult to solve those issues with some engineering (which apparently they have done, at least at the prototype level). As to number 2, there are already similar tonneau covers (horizontal surface) that have been in use for probably at least a decade, so, not a big problem to overcome. As to number 4, we would have to wait and see the implementation.

 

[PAPAB]

My concern with the new footage/bed is how they moved rear crossbar at the back of the cab back. I can only speculate but it looks like there is now an overhang over the front of the bed so its no longer a flush flat surface to stack, strap, or make full use of the entire bed with.

Perhaps moving the rear crossbar backwards a bit..will reduce the overall length of the cover-therefore the 'rolled up' cover will be smaller, giving more room to make a structurally sound and useable mid-gate?

 

[Crissa]

How many people are going to chime in that it can't be done because they can't imagine it being done?

• There's no reason the slats have to be tied together.
• There's no reason they couldn't run like individual cars on the track.
• There's no reason they couldn't have a break-step to catch or dump any debris before going into the roll.
• Use the on-board compressor to blow between the slats to clean them before they're stowed.
• There's no additional strength from the slats being wider like your steel cover - strength is from the thickness of each slat across the span.
• There's no reason they can't be made of stainless material.
• There's no reason the reservoir can't have clean-out access somehow.

I mean... I've seen all of these, if we're talking industrial machines. The patent seems to just be the upside-down roll inside the truck, and that's not so difficult - you just need to be able to pull on the slats to deploy them and pull on them to roll them up. You can do this at least three ways I can think of; having motors at both ends, a continuous loop of a lead, or motors spread along the track (like a roller coaster).

There's just so many ways to do this! And all have different complexities. Certainly keeping dirt out will be a challenge in the design. But people have been rolling windows down into reservoirs for decades without it being an issue.

-Crissa

 

[Deleted member 12457]

How many people are going to chime in that it can't be done because they can't imagine it being done?

• There's no reason the slats have to be tied together.
• There's no reason they couldn't run like individual cars on the track.
• There's no reason they couldn't have a break-step to catch or dump any debris before going into the roll.
• Use the on-board compressor to blow between the slats to clean them before they're stowed.
• There's no additional strength from the slats being wider like your steel cover - strength is from the thickness of each slat across the span.
• There's no reason they can't be made of stainless material.
• There's no reason the reservoir can't have clean-out access somehow.

I mean... I've seen all of these, if we're talking industrial machines. The patent seems to just be the upside-down roll inside the truck, and that's not so difficult - you just need to be able to pull on the slats to deploy them and pull on them to roll them up. You can do this at least three ways I can think of; having motors at both ends, a continuous loop of a lead, or motors spread along the track (like a roller coaster).

There's just so many ways to do this! And all have different complexities. Certainly keeping dirt out will be a challenge in the design. But people have been rolling windows down into reservoirs for decades without it being an issue.

-Crissa

True on everything you said but I see it as a potentially unnecessary item. I like to keep the extra mechanical things to a minimum. Give me a working truck without a ton of bells and whistles. The extra things end up being the things that break or simply run bad. Most working trucks are base models, not the crazy expensive high-end ones. The CT is austere, why make it complicated.

 

[Crissa]

A built-in cover that gets you a good chunk of range isn't a bell or whistle.

But I know what you mean ^-^

-Crissa

 

[beeeasybro]

I’m still stoked! Can’t put out my fire cuz this truck is gun be the best darn truck I ever DID see!

 

[Bill906]

The roller cover was one of the many things I loved about the prototype. I really hope we don’t lose it. When I get anxious from not hearing any new news on the CT I start searching photos and videos on the internet. This is my favorite CT video:

 

[Ogre]

The roller cover was one of the many things I loved about the prototype. I really hope we don’t lose it. When I get anxious from not hearing any new news on the CT I start searching photos and videos on the internet. This is my favorite CT video:

Totally agree. The disappearing vault cover is one of the Cybertruck’s super-powers. Having a secure area which seems plenty big enough for my bikes was one of the big selling points for me.

The option to delete the cover and so you can use that storage and put a different cover on it would be cool for those who don’t like it. But for me it would be extremely hard to replace this.

 

[CyberGus]

People were outraged when they added mirrors and a wiper, just think of the rioting if the vault cover is deleted

 

[Friday]

Just a thought, since there is ample energy available for an air compressor onboard, how about an air gun setup to blow debris off the tonneau prior to rolling up? I'm sure aftermarket suppliers will have multitudes of CT add-ons available post haste.

 

[EVCanuck]

I started thinking about how many comments regarding the new footage of the Cybertruck on the test track have been about the change of looks, front-end, lights, curved glass etc. For me, I don't care about the looks. It's function over form. It is still, and will always be ugly. On that note, I am afraid that the Tesla team has become aware of the functional limitations of the roller bed cover. Hence the changes to the rear part of the roof. I am trying to fathom how the cover could deal with a covering of road grit, sand, silt and ice and still maintain functionality. At the least, I think the cover will need a very good power wash before being rolled up after being driven in a northern winter, on a dirt road or even left sitting at a job site or on a farm. I do like the idea of the cover, but I think there might be a reason why trucks haven't come with one before. It won't be that functional outside the city. A post-apocalyptic machine can't need car washes! I would love to hear good reasons why I'm wrong.

You are not wrong, but you aren't optimistic either

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