WhistlinDiesel: "Cybertruck frames are snapping in half"

The internet consensus seems to be that he probably fractured the casting when he slammed the rear of the truck down onto the concrete as he drove off the edge of that row of pipes, then the force from the rough towing attempt is what tore it free. Which is why in his follow-up he repeatedly dropped the rear of the F150 onto a concrete wall, demonstrating that it bent the frame but didn’t fracture.

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It’s useful data on the brittleness of the vehicle’s frame when exposed to shock loads on the tow hitch, which are real issues that steel frame trucks handle in real situations without parts falling off. As far as I’m concerned, you can stop the video there (again, before the “full send” jump) with all of the information you need.

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For a while the Scooby Forester was the car of choice for the huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ set. Stealthy alternative to the Range/Land Rovers and in a shooting brake/Touring body style to fit in at the pub/office. A FIAT 500c with 4 Seasons tyres works for my countryside living requirements. :rofl:
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Edit: 550c? It’s not the car that the Mk 2 Panda was, comfier though. The emmisions gear really changes the peppy FIRE engine…

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The only relevant issue is the frame of the Cybertruck is made of cast aluminum, that’s why it snaps, that’s a bad idea, and dangerous, too. All the other discussion is just a distraction from that.

Nobody in their right mind would buy a truck with an aluminum frame for anything you would need a truck for.

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I have, or at least portions of it, and seeing his faith in his god being shaken like that warmed my heart a small amount.

Indeed; where in the hell are these people coming up with the money to buy these things only to destroy them in a stupid manner?

Some math questions for you:
what’s the gross weight of that style of Hilux, vs the gross weight of the CT?

I will also remind peeps that physics, like Mother Nature, is an unforgiving b**ch and should be respected. :smiley:

And the F150’s frame rails that were damaged in the “drop the back end onto a concrete block repeatedly” followup video? Sure, they were bent like a banana, but the repair for that is to bend it back- can’t do that with cast parts, at least not in a normal shop. And if the frame is cracked, it’s possible to weld it back together, or replace that section of the frame with a new one.

Ain’t cheap, but it can bring a vehicle that was heading for the junk yard back to some measure of usefulness. Still, I wouldn’t want to be the shop that was asked to do the repair job. :smiley:

No, didn’t miss it- I’m just saying that if the bumper got torn off the back end of the F150 along with a receiver hitch that it can be taken to a body shop, repaired, and put back on the road without having to figure out how to replace the entire frame of the truck.

When I first heard that Tesla was producing a truck model, I was somewhat hopeful- then I saw the visual and went “what? THAT? No, that’s not gonna be practical for anyone who uses their truck for actual work on a daily.”

I also started looking into the build quality and general QC of the rest of the Tesla line, and that was before I really learned what kind of sociopathic, egotistical bullshit artiste Musk was.

I am done speaking on this matter. :: mic drop ::

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Is that picture with him sitting with the barrel between his legs?
Look like a fine gentleman.

How much do one have to pay for e-p***s? /S

No, the issue I have is with the terrible source and awful “testing” methods people are now trying to use as gospel. I know it aligns with your confirmation bias but that doesn’t mean you should swallow it untested.

As far as “truck frames can’t be made with aluminum,” I’m sure the numerous over the road heavy duty semis that have used aluminum frames over the years would take issue with that statement. Yes they would probably be damaged if you did a ridiculous and unscientific YouTube test but they’ve been doing the jobs required of them for over half a century now.

It’s not “can’t be made with aluminum”, it’s “can’t be made with cast aluminum”

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Nope that’s a goal post move. “ Nobody in their right mind would buy a truck with an aluminum frame for anything you would need a truck for.” is what I was responding to.

The broken one here is the one nobody in their right mind would buy. It’s not a move, it’s using context.

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That’s not how I read that statement and I’m not really interested in a debate about what someone else meant, honestly.

By your estimation, who’s winning?

Kamala Harris Fight GIF by GIPHY News

Another reason to not buy something that you had already decided not to buy.

Unless, of course, it is something you had decided to buy or had bought, in which case it becomes the hill you will drive off at stupid speeds, literally or online.

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Yeah, that’s real a real picture.

Any of those have a cast frame?

Edit: I missed to add “cast” to my second statement, I can see how that was misleading. Sorry for that.

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Here’s a +20 year old Isuzu Rodeo going full send. Okay, it’s lands on icy snow, but it was a fairly solid landing and still drives away.

I’ll also add, no production truck is designed for something like Baja racing. Ridiculous long travel suspension setups and tubular frames with a ton of engineering can take jumps and not even bat an eye. Even rally cars can do a bit of air and keep going. I’m more surprised the drivers didn’t coming crawling out on some of these jumps. Slamming a +6k pound vehicle on to flat ground doing an aggressive jump at poor angles is going to translate into a lot of impact on the driver’s spine.

So The Autopian just posted a new article that’s relevant to this discussion:

FYI I didn’t enjoy the writing style for the article. Seems too much like it was written by ChatGPT and it minimizes some of the elaborate and specialized skills and procedures it takes to repair a casting, but the TLDR is that yes, you can sometimes repair damage to these castings and there are predefined repair procedures that depend on the size of the cracks and where they are located.

That’s mostly for cracks less than 2" long, though. Actually ripping off a large chunk of the casting as happened with this Cybertruck would probably require a whole new casting which may or may not be cheper than just replacing the truck entirely.

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that izuzu’s no Buick…

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A Toyota Hilux would have survived this without breaking a sweat.

@Otherbrother
MineCatGIF

tl;dw – they had to drop a building on it to finally crack the frame

Subaru also has decades of experience creating sturdy vehicles with outstanding drivetrains. While I would never want to offroad my WRX due to its ground clearance, it’s done admirably in some pretty shitty conditions that would trip up lesser drivetrains.

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I’ve seen that Buick video hundreds of times. That is an excellent execution of entry / landing angle. I’m always surprised it doesn’t roll forward more and lands rear first. I have to imagine the first +100’ before it touched down and the driver could see the road those cheeks were clenched.

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