Model 3 Powered Trunk Retrofit w/ Steve Sheridan

[00:00:00] Hey everybody before we start I do want to let you know that I was on Allison Sheridan's podcast and we discussed creating Custom GPTs, and if you don't know what that is it's kind of it's just like an AI chatbot

[00:00:12] Customized to whatever task you need it to do if you're interested in that subject Head on over to pod feet comm and check out Allison's blog post You can also find a link directly to the video that we recorded in the show notes now

[00:00:29] Allison has a couple of different podcasts I don't know if this particular segment is gonna be on the no silicast or on chitchat across the pond my recommendation to you is To subscribe to both because you won't be disappointed

[00:00:45] So again link in the show notes or go to pod feet comm. All right, let's jump into the show Hello everyone and welcome to the kilowatt podcast a podcast about renewable energy electric vehicles Autonomous driving and much much more

[00:01:24] Just out of curiosity did anybody think that was better than any of the other ones have done? Let me know Bodie at E Yeah, 918 digital calm on today's episode We are gonna sit down with Steve Sheridan and Steve's gonna give us some of his reasons for

[00:01:39] Installing a powered trunk on his wife's Allison's model 3 performance that did not come with a powered trunk So without further ado what's let is it a do yeah without further ado Let's welcome Steve Sheridan to the show Welcome Steve

[00:02:00] Thank You Bodie glad to be here. I am glad you're here You tease this a little bit on the 39th Avenue kilowatt Thanksgiving trivia extravaganza retro edition And and you were nice enough to Now I'm teasing it. I'm over teasing

[00:02:20] We're gonna talk about installing a retrofit lift gate on a model 3 specifically Allison's model 3 performance and you tease this a little bit During that episode the Thanksgiving episode and you were nice enough to type up all the notes and and basically do all of the work and

[00:02:42] Agree to come on and do an interview with me. So thank you very much for doing that my pleasure All right now after that awkward introduction Let's go ahead and move on what what's the motivation for installing a powered trunk? Allison's

[00:02:55] She has an original original model 3 right what the one of the first ones up Yes, she does she has a Tesla model 3 2019 so I think they first came out in 2017 but very few changes were made from 2017 to 2019

[00:03:12] Okay, so it is one of the originals close to the original I think they did change the glass in in the model threes the the clear roof and possibly the Rear window glass

[00:03:28] Yeah, yeah, and I think the seats as well because I know they had some some third-party seats And they just decided to build their own seats later on in the build process But they're sent for this for these purposes. It's almost the same

[00:03:43] Okay, and then go ahead the motivation was that So I have a Tesla model y at 2020 got into year after Allison And she kind of liked the fact that my hatch is powered. I've got a powered lift gate hatch and

[00:03:59] I heard her make a comment one day boy, that would sure be nice if I had a powered trunk or lift gate and So I kind of stuck that back in my mind for future reference so

[00:04:13] Since then I've I've been looking and we can talk about what that experience has been like Whenever you have a popular vehicle, there's going to be an aftermarket That pops up around that specific vehicle so

[00:04:29] There's no shortage. I did a little Google search before we got on of these lift gate retrofits by third-party companies Do you think that had anything to do with Tesla offering their own retrofit? I do I

[00:04:45] Did the same thing when I first heard about Allison's desire. I went online and searched and found a bunch of third-party options and

[00:04:53] I you know I get on the Tesla forums the Tesla Motor Club forum reddit and this this request pops up more often than I thought it would And a lot of I'll call them Luxury cars although it's debatable whether Tesla is actually much luxury have powered lift gates

[00:05:11] Tesla does not probably to save cost at least they didn't in the Model 3s So that brought up this whole community of third-party options And I was considering going down that path But I was concerned about the fairly significant mods that are required to make this

[00:05:30] Retrofit for a trunk a powered trunk and whether that would impact my warranty on the car Is there anything? Specific that you were concerned about like what was the thing that gave you the most pause well

[00:05:43] I looked at the directions because many of these are designed to do yourself I wasn't quite comfortable taking that on it involves changes to The wire harness that goes to the rear and even inside the cabin of the car

[00:06:01] And there are some of the retrofits involved taking off the bumper And I was not comfortable with that because then you get into the sensors I have we both have USS you know ultrasonic sensors and I didn't want to mess with any of that so

[00:06:17] That combined with concerns about the warranty. I decided not to pursue The third-party option, so I just waited And not that long ago right Tesla announced that they were doing these retrofits Right just September of this year is when they first popped up

[00:06:34] And I was all over it because I've been looking for it and kind of keeping my eyes open Soon as I saw that it was available I went online and they were sold out not available And a lot of people complained about that

[00:06:50] But but to Tesla's credit at least they were responding to what I think was a very strong Consumer demand and that's borne out by the fact that as soon as these things come available They're sold out and they are generally available for a day at most

[00:07:06] Online and then they dry up, you know the stock goes away and then they become available Three four weeks later So it's not it's high demand hard to get your hands on

[00:07:18] You really kind of have to keep your eyes open if you want to get one of these Retrofits from Tesla as opposed to a third-party So it's like the Tesla equivalent of getting the Taylor Swift tickets, I guess

[00:07:31] Close. Yeah, I think Taylor Swift might even be a little bit more in demand Let me put it this way The power truck retrofit would not down the internet as Taylor Swift or at least the ticket sales site Why did Taylor did that make sense?

[00:07:51] Do you want to compare and contrast the other than the self install versus Tesla installing it for you some of the third-party? Retrofits versus the Tesla retrofit sure There are you know, there are different third-party options and they're not all the same but That the Tesla

[00:08:13] The Tesla retrofit Does not offer a kick sensor for instance that allows you to open the trunk just by swiping your foot underneath the bumper Generally in the center some third-party options do and several other cars offer that option aside from Tesla

[00:08:32] This one does not on the good side This this option does provide two powered struts to open the trunk and not just one And it's interesting. We'll get into maybe the years because there's a model year issue here

[00:08:47] but the newer Teslas that do include a powered trunk only have one powered strut and that causes, you know, a kind of a torque on the trunk as it's closing and That's led to some problems and consumer complaints about the trunk not latching properly as it closes

[00:09:05] Do you think that that will be like a? A feature going forward in some of the newer Teslas with the two powered struts It seems like a small thing to try and save money on I

[00:09:17] Would think it would because if you compare that against what I think are going to be a lot of service calls And in the cost and the time to address those calls to me this this makes sense Plus they have the design in the retrofit that they've provided

[00:09:32] So I mean they have a way to do it and they've already designed the option So I think yes and what are we looking at in terms of cost difference? Yeah, that's another difference. The third-party options tend to be cheaper

[00:09:46] They range from four or five as high as six hundred dollars But generally around four hundred for most of them that does not include installation but you can get installation for Not necessarily from Tesla, but from a third party maybe for a couple hundred bucks

[00:10:06] So you can definitely get away cheaper going with third-party But I was willing to pay a bit more to have Tesla do the job and not be concerned about the impact on my car

[00:10:16] And and ensure that it was done right and if not I could go back and get it done right get it fixed Yeah, and another benefit and I didn't know this this is after we were talking offline a couple weeks ago is that you can

[00:10:34] You they'll they'll set it up in the Infotainment on the infotainment screen so that you can Open it as if it came stock with that car and the same with the app Correct. In fact, it's it's just as if it came stock with the car

[00:10:50] So you have all of the same options you would if it came stock including opening and closing from the You know it's on screen that the in-car screen Which has already has a trunk open close. It's just it becomes a powered trunk open close button. Okay

[00:11:09] you can you have a and The way you open it from the exterior is you just basically click it with your finger underneath the little latch as you would normally The unpowered trunk but once you do that it automatically lives

[00:11:23] So you have to do a manual click if you will just to disengage the latch and then it powers up It's similar to the Model Y Okay, and then to close they add a button to the head to the trunk

[00:11:36] Kind of the underside of the trunk where our Model Y button is to close it with a push of a button And you can also open and close from the the mobile app the Tesla mobile app

[00:11:49] That's that's fantastic. So there's really no difference from that in the stock power trunk Do you know if if somebody was to decide to do this and they wanted to use a third party?

[00:12:02] Obviously, they're not going to be able to use the Tesla app or any of the Tesla software do this Do they have their own app to make some of this stuff? more convenient like if you're

[00:12:13] One of my favorite things to do is what I'm heading to my car with a bunch of groceries Is to open my car as soon as I can see it so that I can just start loading as soon as I get there Especially in the summertime. Yep

[00:12:26] Is do any of these third parties offer something similar to that or is it just strictly? Your it'll open by itself when you manually activate that button You know, I didn't investigate this too much But I seem to I was surprised by this

[00:12:43] I seem to recall at least one of the manufacturers hands grow maybe that That where the the people who installed the option said they were able to get Tesla through a service call to Enable the on-screen open close feature and Have the app work as well. Oh

[00:13:06] So similar to the the Tesla retrofit now I can't vouch for that and anyone is gonna go down that path should check first right thoroughly because I think it's very brand dependent and You should probably count on I

[00:13:21] Mean if you're gonna go down that path count on it not working That way and then be pleasantly surprised if it actually does Right, right All right. So we mentioned that it's difficult to schedule

[00:13:34] So once you were able to schedule and you got your Taylor Swift take it Well, let me clear let me clarify. It's difficult to order difficult to order. Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah my bad Yeah

[00:13:45] Once you once you were able to order it what was the scheduling process and the timeline like yeah, so I Jumped on the soon as that became available. I jumped on the Tesla app Which is how you go about

[00:13:59] scheduling a service for all all service activities on a Tesla and Well, actually the first thing I had to do was purchase it in the app in The mobile app and and by the way, I forgot to mention

[00:14:15] There is a limitation on which Model 3s can take this retrofit I mentioned the the 2017 is when they first came out I should say 2021 is when Tesla started offering powered trunks as standard equipment So there's a gap from 2017 to 2020 where there are no powered trunks

[00:14:36] Unfortunately Tesla made a wiring harness change from 2018 to 2019 and the Power trunk retrofit requires that new harness the one starting in 2019 So only the 2019 and the 2020s without powered trunks can take this retrofit Okay, so fortunately Allison's was a 2019 so it was in the window

[00:14:59] So got it. Where were we scheduling scheduling? So I jumped on the website. They will verify your car can take the retrofit They'll check to verify it's in the right year range

[00:15:13] Did that paid for it and then immediately was able to set up a service to have it installed So already purchased now just set up the installation. That's going to depend on your service center

[00:15:25] But mine had openings, you know in the next few days. We got one that was convenient set up Set up the appointment And then when you drop it off, how long did they say it was going to take?

[00:15:39] Yeah, this is interesting and I've read about this a lot online prior to taking it in that Inevitably since this is a new item for a lot of service centers And in fact, it was the first powered retrofit for the service center

[00:15:52] I go to for the Tesla Model 3 A lot of them will say it's I think their service manual says three to three and a half hours Did not take that long and I didn't think it would everyone online was saying this is a full-day job

[00:16:09] And I can see why after looking at the the instruction manuals for the third-party options. It's quite involved There's a lot going on Routing back through the harnesses making changes adding hardware removing a bumper in some cases

[00:16:23] I don't know if they had to do that in my case but in any case I got it back after seven and a half hours and

[00:16:32] You know that I thought it might even be I thought it might be a couple days since it was the first time they had done one They were kind of it was interesting when I took it in they were kind of excited because it was the first one

[00:16:43] They were gonna do I'm thinking so my car's the guinea pig you're practicing on okay. This is gonna work out But it turned out okay There was just just one item well, we had a little issue with I

[00:16:58] Did have a question like when you get done with this do they I mean obviously you don't need to be taught how to open the trunk from your the screen it's pretty obvious but did they did they walk through it and Did they show you you know?

[00:17:16] This is how you open it from the app. Did they just make sure it works with make sure That you knew that everything was working properly Yes actually since I Was pretty knowledgeable of this retrofit before I ever went in I

[00:17:32] I was going through those steps myself because I wanted to verify all of the functions work that I thought should work But they were in the kind they were kind of in the process of showing those to me anyway

[00:17:43] So it had they had they not I would have done to myself, but I think That for a new customer that's not quite as up to speed on this retrofit They would walk you through all the options

[00:17:55] Okay, and then so I did check all the buttons and all the controls and that That that little issue Yeah, you caught that at the at the dealership or at the same yeah fortunately Fortunately it was at night

[00:18:09] And actually nighttime is not a great time to pick up a car that's been serviced because you can't see let's say if they dinged it up Or but this one I was a great one because it were the lights that are inside the trunk were out

[00:18:22] And so when the truck opens they support they're supposed to turn on automatically there. It was dark And so I knew that was an issue Pointed that out. That was the only thing I could find that that had an issue

[00:18:35] They took it back in spent about 15 minutes and they explained some reasons why I didn't really care too much But they fixed the problem brought it back out and they were working just fine excellent and then What was the overall? Feeling afterwards like

[00:18:58] Jubilation or was it just a little neat? Yeah, I would say about it Right Partial jubilation because it's not actually my car. It's my wife Allison's car So I'm not going to be using it near as much. I occasionally do drive it

[00:19:16] But she's the one that's gonna get the most joy out of a power trunk I already have one but I know what it's like to have one and I know I would be bummed if I didn't so

[00:19:25] I was happy because I was able to hopefully make her happy is maybe the way to think of it But I was probably most pleased that it just worked

[00:19:33] I mean it I took it in it took a longer than they thought but everything worked out and so I was I was just Relieved that the job was done well and and the truck worked

[00:19:45] And you know I will say because the I don't know if we said the price For Tesla to install is it's around $800? Yes, and that includes installation that includes installation I will say that Tesla seems to be pretty decent on their pricing for things

[00:20:04] I mean, they're probably higher than than what it would cost for third party but the quality and the Piece of mind that you get from The company that's going to warranty their work and also warrant your car Like the the moment you install a third party

[00:20:25] Let's say lift gate in this situation and you have a Catastrophic failure on your car. It doesn't matter Doesn't matter that lift gate was a catastrophic fail the cause of it or not

[00:20:38] You it's going to be a lot harder to get that problem fixed and they might end up cost you way more than $800 Right that piece of mind is worth a lot and I'll say when I saw the $800 price tag

[00:20:49] I did not feel gouged. I felt like it was reasonable not not cheap not inexpensive But not hot higher than I expected is kind of

[00:20:59] Mental of the road and I expect to pay a little bit more with Tesla for that piece of mind and so worked out great for me Yeah, yeah, I was looking at their wraps

[00:21:09] Because I wanted to get my car wrapped when I got it and then I looked at the prices and I said nah Nah, that's all right We'll wait until the car is a little longer in the tooth and maybe we we refresh it eight years down the road

[00:21:22] There wraps from from all of the people that know about you know, I Don't know anything about putting wraps on a car But from all the people that are experts in that area

[00:21:34] They say that it's pretty decently priced. Maybe they're a little higher than what you would get at The local shop not too far away from where you live But they're in the ballpark or they should be with the quality of wrap that they're using

[00:21:49] Yeah, can you get that with let's say bringing in a used model Y or model 3? I do not know if they'll retro because I'm sure that all their wrap stuff is in the factory when you order it Right. That's why I'm wondering if that's even an option plus

[00:22:06] The they generally want the paint to be in a super pristine condition I think the underlying paint before they wrap it It's not you know if they get a used one. I'm not sure if they can count on that

[00:22:18] Yeah, and especially if you go to if you go it's like a used one from Pennsylvania And it's hiding a lot of rust damage that you may not know about right You don't want to just cover that up and pray for the best Back to the trunk though

[00:22:32] There's some limitations after you got it you discovered Yeah Again, I've done a lot of research. I knew what this limitation would be but it's real and it bothers a lot of people

[00:22:45] Basically the trunk the maximum height that the trunk opens is reduced quite a bit after the retrofit Or as a result of the retrofit you can adjust the maximum trunk opening or the the trunk opening height

[00:22:59] You know with the same procedure that Tesla has for the model Y and their other their other hatches But even at its maximum height the maximum full opening it's still lower by about eight inches from the unpowered trunk maximum height and

[00:23:18] You know just to get for a you know a sense of how high that is I think I wrote down What those heights are? Yeah, so it's with the with the powered

[00:23:33] Trunk it opens to 65 inches at the point where you would let's say bump your head on the bottom of the trunk The lowest point of the trunk when it's open 65 is five foot five and For a lot of people that is lower than they are tall

[00:23:49] So naturally as you're if you're not aware of it or not used to it You would bump your head on that trunk Allison is just about that height maybe a touch lower so it's not a problem for her

[00:24:02] I have to admit I bumped my head on her trunk once already I'm a little taller and so I've gotten used to it and I just don't lean in as far but the just for comparison the Unpowered trunk is 73 inches high

[00:24:21] At the bottom of where you'd bump your head so quite a bit quite a bit taller Yeah, quite a bit. Hey, I will say because you've included pictures of the Before and after with the trunk open and closed

[00:24:34] One of the things that I didn't appreciate until we were chatting about it right now is The way that the trunk on the Model 3 is designed versus the hatchback on the Model Y The model wise nice and open you can easily slide things in and out of it

[00:24:49] The Model 3 trunk there's there's a pretty I Wouldn't say narrow But there is a constrained opening for you to put things in and that that does lead to if you're if you're taller You may have to lean down and then you're gonna bump your head

[00:25:06] Right when you when you're exiting or you're gonna bump your head when you're going in right so I mean Yeah, the end of the world You're not gonna brain yourself where you're gonna have a long-lasting brain injury but

[00:25:19] I've smacked my head on the side of my on the corner side of my Model Y And with it fully open. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I mean mine's closed We talked about this a little bit offline, but mine's I lowered mine down a little bit

[00:25:34] So wouldn't hit the garage door when the door was up But yeah, it's right about here right about temple height and I wasn't paying attention. I looked away and then I went to put something back in the car and just right here Just back

[00:25:50] It was enough to make me say a swear word Non the girl scout save no So yeah, I think Overall it sounds like it was a successful purchase. I know Allison was excited about getting it done Would you do it again? I

[00:26:12] would I would do it again, but there is kind of a funny Ending to this you recall when we started I said I recall I Remember Allison saying, you know, I sure like a power trunk kind of like you have your powered hatch

[00:26:28] After I got it installed and I was asking her how do you like it dear is is this what you were hoping for? She said, you know, I don't recall asking for this Which was pretty humorous, but she nonetheless she appreciates it and she seems to like it

[00:26:46] I Don't know if I was just imposing what I wanted on her car, but we had a little miscommunication In any case, I think it worked out fine because she seems to enjoy it. I think that's a that's a really good

[00:27:00] Example of anybody who's been married for any length of time. Yes Because I have done things from for my wife with this with the same intention of wanting to be a good husband And my wife would have said this is great

[00:27:16] How did you think of it or why? What brought this to mind because I can't remember ever wanting something or wanting to do X Y or Z? Uh-huh, so yeah, it's a it's a it's a tale as old as time

[00:27:32] Yes. Yes, it is. So do you have any we're gonna end on this question Do you have any advice for anybody who is looking to retrofit? Yes, their model 3

[00:27:42] Yes, first of all make sure that you you know you have a model 3 that fits in the in the model year range 2019 or 2020 and I know that's limited and

[00:27:51] I wanted to apologize to people who maybe listen to this but realize this is just for a small set of listeners people Model 3 owners who have a 2019 or 2020? But the other point we should make is that it does it does point out that Tesla

[00:28:07] appears to listen at least in some cases to To their customers desires or requests in this case the request for a power trunk But yeah, um, the recommendations I would make is if you really want this and your car is eligible

[00:28:23] You have to monitor the website pretty consistently. I was looking at the website Two or three times a day every day to see when it popped up and again The reason is it goes away quickly

[00:28:35] So jump on it if you see it open up and you really want it jump on it while you can make the purchase in schedule Schedule your an appointment. I would I would caution everyone to

[00:28:48] Consider the trunk opening height if they're gonna do this for some people. This has been a Non-starter when they they realize how low the trunk is for us. It wasn't an issue, but it might be for others

[00:29:00] But I think overall the convenience is much better when your your arms are full or you're You just want to have your trunk open ready for when you arrive. It's or you don't want to bother closing it

[00:29:13] You can do it on the go. I think it's all worthwhile to us and it was Good purchase Excellent. Well, thanks Steve so much for coming on and sharing this with with the listeners and Honestly, I I want to say that Sierra and Brad already have

[00:29:34] This because I think there's is a 2021 but if they don't I'm definitely gonna turn them on to it because they travel I don't know nine months out of the year. They're on the road to different places Air being being across the US because of remote workers

[00:29:49] And I I don't know how beneficial would be to them, but I would imagine it would be sure sure Yeah, let me know if they if they do I'd be curious Yeah, I'll have to I want to say it's 2021 so they're probably safe

[00:30:01] But Steve where can people find you if they want to follow what you're up to? Well, I'm on the social media sites You know X and mastodon and threads at SP Sheridan at mastodons SP Sheridan at Astrodon.com and On YouTube, I'm at Steve Sheridan or SP Sheridan

[00:30:25] Yes, and you know Steve obviously is a fan of electric vehicles He's also a fan of space. So if you want to get some good space content or just to have a nice conversation Steve's Steve's your man for sure. I do love my space

[00:30:43] Well, thank you very much Steve for coming on it really appreciate it. Yeah, Bode. It was fun. Thank you All right, I want to thank Steve for taking the time and hanging out It's it's honestly, it's very nice to sit down and chat with Steve

[00:30:57] I always enjoy it and I'm really glad he was willing to share that information with us As always, I'll put Steve's links in the show notes And if you have any questions you can send them to me or you can follow Steve on the social media sites

[00:31:12] And you can ask him yourself your choice Email is Bode B O D I E at 918 digital comm you can find me on Twitter at 918 digital a Huge. Thank you to Steve for coming on and sharing a little bit of his time a media ochre

[00:31:26] Thank you to everybody else. I'm just kidding huge. Thank you to everybody else. I Hope you all have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you I guess in a few days