Update on the New DC & Rzeppa Driveshaft. Installed and Driven - Sven Build

[David Czarnecki]

Hi everyone. We got the DC to Rzeppa driveshaft and am happy with the initial results. Now time to get some miles on the Design-Build-Go Grenadier. I did some highway driving and spirited back roads driving including some hard accelerations and deaccelerations. So far so good but need far more hours so going to get as many as I can to feel more confident.


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/fN-kJMqb4kU

 

[MileHigh]

Awesome, thanks for the update. Looks really interesting. I think yourtesting over the next couple weeks will show any kind of gross issues, but what do we need to really understand if this solves the problem? A number of trucks and tens of thousands of miles? And what is the failure that we think might happen that the double Cardon will have some kind of wear or other issues?

 

[David Czarnecki]

Awesome, thanks for the update. Looks really interesting. I think yourtesting over the next couple weeks will show any kind of gross issues, but what do we need to really understand if this solves the problem? A number of trucks and tens of thousands of miles? And what is the failure that we think might happen that the double Cardon will have some kind of wear or other issues?

I look at it this way, you saw the condition of my shaft at truck at the beginning of the video at 13k miles, so I could keep buying stock driveshafts or take a shot at this one. To make it worse, a failure could cause far more extensive damage to the transmission if it broke. So my primary concern is preventing catastrophic damage. My first goal is to get comfortable that it works without vibration and then progress from there. This particular driveshaft is still a prototype without the additional center grease fitting on the DC portion that the five being built now will have. The next iteration is being build and one of my customers will get one. They are aware this has risk and are fine with it. I am looking for a solution that works for me and my clients that we have lifted trucks for.

As for completely saying any solution solves the problem, It's going to take long time with multiple samples being run concurrently. So others will have to try it as well to prove it works or doesn't. In my career, I have been an Automotive Engineer and participated in engine testing at the GM powertrain headquarters in Milford, MI and an Aerospace Engineer doing jet engine testing for Pratt and Whitney on commercial and military engines. I personally do not believe that INEOS has the resources to solve this issue as a manufacturer even when Grenadiers that are stack have occasionally failed driveshafts. They are too small. At the end of the day, to prove any solution take a lot of hours and multiple users accumulating hours to prove or disprove it. Some early adapters will try it like me and some people you will never have enough data for and that is ok. To me I am trying to just put out the information for people to validate if this meets their acceptable risk level as we gain data. One truck or 10 trucks isn't going to do it. The major issue I see as you grow the sample size is are the other conditions such as the caster being done uniformly? The data will get skewed with trucks set up with different configurations. That is why I am primarily focused on the DC to Rzeppa over the DC to DC which will likely require adjustable control arms based on my conversations with Sven and others. I would like a driveshaft with the least modification.