GM: Aluminum truck beds are stupid. Ours will be carbon fiber!

[freebeard]

Buying a pickup, ripping off the bed, and making a flatbed out of recycled pallet wood is a Springfield thing.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Buying a pickup and not putting anything in the bed is kind of an East coast thing.

It's a Duhmerica thing.

[freebeard]

Springfield = Duhmerica

You're Homer-ing in on it.

edit:
I misread your quote.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

If you use some sort of bed liner on top of the carbon fiber, isn't that just increasing the weight that you're trying to reduce with carbon fiber?

In the end, even after a carbon fiber bed is fitted with a liner, it's still supposed to remain lighter than a steel bed without the liner.

Another advantage is that it won't be so prone to damage like sheetmetal beds that corrode due to moisture buildups between the bed and the liner.

[freebeard]

Basalt won't corrode as well.

[ptjones]

I have a 2016 F150 4x4 2.7L ECB which I got for the better MPG's upto 26 Fuelly MPG's so lighter is better. Not bad for a four wheel drive truck.

Paul

[Daschicken]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

It's a Duhmerica thing.

Yup, I live in the heart of it too.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The cost is due to the manual labor involved, but there has to be a way to automate.

There is carbon fiber is cheaper than steel if you have 10 year design cycles,

Any shorter and you don’t get your investment out of the dies.

[hayden55]

I haven't read everything but the first page. The type of carbon fiber they are talking about using is an interesting type. Carbon fiber is a blanket term for any type of mix that qualifies as carbon fiber. The really strong weave that people impregnate for one way strength panels (race skins- hoods, fenders, etc...) are very fragile. The stuff they are using will be identical to the type of "Carbon fiber" Ford used on the gt350. Its basically a lightweight plastic/carbon composite mix that is lighter than plastic but still as resilient to fracturing and looks just like normal plastic composites...
If you look closely at the plastic looking radiator cover with webbing. Thats the "Carbon fiber" I'm talking about. Basically becomes lighter than fiberglass, cheap to manufacturer and paint, and isn't as damn fragile as some of these impregnated composite weave body panels.
Realistically GM is just being hard headed and won't hurt themselves with their own "aluminum beds are ****" marketing campaign they had on Ford so they will implement a carbon fiber bed, and have aluminum body panels every where else like what is standard.

[freebeard]

I haven't read everything but the first page.

If your prefs were set to 40 per, you'd still be on the first page.

From watching 'AvE vijeos' on Youtube, I've learnt about fiber-reinforced injection-molded plastics. At scale, they could do a bedliner overmolding.

Don't know much about carbon fiber except that it isn't graphene. But basalt fiber is available as everything from felted mats to a variety of woven fabrics up to twills. As well as rigid panels and preformed extrusions, similar to other composite materials.

Apparently there exist very high-temperature epoxies for firewalls and firetrucks, etc.