Cybertruck is waterproof enough to serve as a boat to cross rivers, lakes & calm seas -- confirms Musk 🚤

[Cyberman]

Will you be using your Cybertruck's boat-like features, and in what way??

Just tweeted this morning by Elon Musk.

"Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy"​

Perfect. The seas are pretty calm between San Diego and Hawaii, so a trolling motor and some solar panels are my best friends. What could happen?

Sponsored

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

Scariest weather I ever encountered was a weird snowstorm-thaw-freeze that my wife and I were trapped in some time ago. We made out OK, but vehicles were trapped or off the road everywhere. Worst of all, the sudden snow-thaw created massive pools of water that submerged cars beyond driving level on on-ramps and other areas where water pools. The water then froze and destroyed the cars. I love the idea of a vehicle that could cruise through such situations.

 

[bad61]

Hurricanes have a tendency to sink boats... And Elon did qualify that the water should not be "too choppy". I'm guessing most bodies of water in a hurricane would be "too choppy".

Floods, Rivers, Lake's crossings I really meant

 

[charliemagpie]

Some trucks can cross up to 700mm deep, some 800mm.

CT can cross the Mariana Trench

 

[JBee]

----------------------

Elon says he wants to smack down ICE.

Both Ram 1500 TRX (ICE) and Ford F-150 Raptor (ICE) has wading depth of 800mm and both have larger bottom body footprint than Cybertruck.

Besides the Land Rover Defender (ICE), Ram 1500 TRX (ICE) and Ford F-150 Raptor (ICE) there are still many other ICE trucks and SUVs with wading depths of 700mm or more.


---------------------------------

Tesla Cybertruck
Length 231.7 in (5,885 mm)
Width 79.8 in (2,027 mm)
Wheelbase 149.9 in (3,807 mm)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Cybertruck

---------------------------------


2022 Ram 1500 TRX
Exterior length (") 232.9
Exterior body width (") 88
Wheelbase (") 145.1
https://www.ramtrucks.com/trx/specs.html


How the Ram 1500 TRX Dominates the Ford Raptor
... the RAM 1500 TRX has a water fording depth of 32 inches (812mm)
by Allison Barfield
Published on August 31, 2020
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/how-the-ram-1500-trx-dominates-the-ford-raptor/

2022 Ram 1500 TRX price and specs
.... Ram quotes 295mm of ground clearance, an 812mm water fording depth
By Alex Misoyannis
June 2022
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2022-ram-1500-trx-price-and-specs/

---------------------------------

2022 Ford F-150 Raptor - Water Fording Depth - 32 in (81.0 cm)
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...50-Raptor-Card-Version-1_RQ-EN-US_10_2021.pdf

2021 Ford F-150 Raptor
https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/product/2021/f150/raptor/pdf/2021-Ford-F-150-Raptor-Tech-Specs.pdf

SuperCrew with 35" tires
Wheelbase 145.4
Overall length 232.6
Overall width 96.0
Width w/o mirrors 86.6
Ground clearance 12.0

---------------------------------


2023 Ford Ranger Raptor - Water Wading 850mm
https://www.ford.com.au/showroom/future-vehicle/next-gen-ranger-raptor/specifications.html



---------------------------------

2022 Ford Ranger - wading depth of 800mm
https://www.ford.co.uk/vans-and-pickups/ranger/features
.....
WADES RIGHT IN
The Ranger goes where lesser vehicles may fear to tread. In fact, the Ford Ranger’s wading depth of 800mm lets it prove itself both on dry land and through water.

---------------------------------

* All vehicles below are ICE type vehicles

Vehicles with high water wading depth Don’t want to risk your drive during unexpected floods?
By Autodeal on Mar 02, 2022
https://www.autodeal.com.ph/articles/car-features/vehicles-high-water-wading-depth

The Philippines is prone to weather extremes, this can come in the form of sudden and heavy rain to baking hot heat. While we can’t do much against the heat, there are cars out there that can handle a sudden flood or two with ease. Whether you are going off-road or wading through a flooded street, your vehicle’s wading depth matters. Aside from its grounded clearance, some buyers often consult the wading depth capacity of the model they’re eyeing, many Filipinos put this into consideration given the high probability of flooding during the rainy season.

.....
Ford Everest midsize SUV able to wade waters as deep as 800mm.

Ford Ranger Raptor wading depth capacity goes up to 850mm

Ford Ranger too can wade up to 800mm.

Nissan Terra SUV 800mm wading depth

Mazda BT-50 pickup 800mm wading depth

Mitsubishi Montero Sport midsize SUV can wade up to 700mm

Nissan Navara can also wade up to 800mm

Nissan Patrol Royale 700mm water wading capacity.

Toyota Hilux able to wade up to 700mm of water

Toyota Fortuner has a water wading capacity of 700mm

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado able to wade 700mm of water

Toyota Land Cruiser can wade through water as deep as 700mm


---------------------------------

Thanks for the info, but there wading depths are typically limited by engine air take height for the ICE. EV has no such limitations. That's why for ICE you get a snorkel to improve wading depth and keep water out of your engine. (And for better dust control)

My point is that Cybertruck is designed to float ie be amphibious, all the others are not designed to float, rather to sink, so they get the good wading depth.

If you design it to float, you want it to be as far out of the water as you can, which means the sealed underbody becomes the things that starts floating, not the cabin volume which is much higher up.

You can either have good buoyancy or good wading depth but not both, unless you can get the wheels further down from the underbody. BTW amphibious trumps wading depth any day of the week in my book.

It really just needs an electric powered jet ski water jet sitting in the rear bumper, and wading depth becomes irrelevant anyway.

 

[charliemagpie]

Enter stage left, I have been meaning to ask :

Why does Elon say ' waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat '

Why briefly? If there is buoyancy, it floats.

If it can 'float' 500 meters, why can't it float 50000 meters?.

What is the issue?

 

[JBee]

Enter stage left, I have been meaning to ask :

Why does Elon say ' waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat '

Why briefly? If there is buoyancy, it floats.

If it can 'float' 500 meters, why can't it float 50000 meters?.

What is the issue?

Everything that floats tends to leak over time, that is why boats have bilge pumps. It doesn't just leak through cracks it can also leak through certain materials. In this case I assume the cabin area provides a good part of the buoyancy so those door seals might be dirty or partially damaged or roughed up, and over time the trickle that comes in there will cause it to sink. I'm pretty sure you could get it to float longer with a bilge pump. So long that is powered too.

I'm wondering if they will add a "boat mode" which might actually lock the windows open to activate etc. So people can get out, or maybe you have to stand in the bed to activate. I'm sure there will be some limitations, and if it has a water jet drive integrated then as soon as you battery gets flat or you're to far out, it would just turn around to come back.

 

[charliemagpie]

Yea.. all that is true.

Perhaps short distance=leak potential.

I'm thinking there may be enough buoyancy to flood the car up to the seat.

I really don't think Elon would design a vehicle that sinks and people drown.

No way.

It must be able to float like a cork, maybe at worst get your arse wet.

 

[TAP1A]

We are now entering October, i wouldnt expect any BIG news on delivery dates or expected times till maybe January

 

[JBee]

Yea.. all that is true.

Perhaps short distance=leak potential.

I'm thinking there may be enough buoyancy to flood the car up to the seat.

I really don't think Elon would design a vehicle that sinks and people drown.

No way.

It must be able to float like a cork, maybe at worst get your arse wet.

The "used for a time as a boat" statement is not the same engineering problem as "it will sink and drown everyone onboard".

For example: The 4680 battery pack is over specific weight of 1 at around 2.09 meaning it won't float itself, even with the foam injection it has around the cells. It weighs 740kg and is around 350litres in volume. In total we need around the same volume of buoyancy as we have weight, so we need the volume of the battery again, just to support the battery weight.

We can keep on going like this until you fill up all the voids in the car with foam which in turn offsets the mass of the other useful components, like motors, drivetrains, seats and nuts and bolts etc.

It's entirely possible to make the CT intentionally with positive buoyancy but I'm not sure it can be done without encroaching on the interior airspace of the cabin, frunk and vault areas, and by doing so reducing the useable volume of the vehicle.

Just as a rough guideline, the CT "boat" part, is 5.8m x 1.9m and about 0.9m high, up to the bottom sill of the windows. That's roughly around 10 cubic meters in volume, of which we need about 27% or 2700kg and 2.7cbm of volume to keep the CT afloat. We can add some extra buoyancy from the underwater tyres, but that will be offset by the open and water filled wheel openings. So that works out to roughly 270mm depending the exact shape and volume of vehicle underwater.

Now that waterline is already above the cabin floor, meaning that even if you have buoyancy front or rear of that, it wouldn't be useful until the water level rises to that level. So the door seals will have to hold the bouyancy, or let the floor flood so that something else can keep it out of the water. This doesn't mean that the CT will sink if the cabin floods, even completely, but it does obviously mean that failed door seals will fill the CT cabin up with water, which is a problem on multiple levels.

You might not personally drown in that scenario, but the CT cabin might need a retrofit.

PS the waterline is pretty close to the bottom of the rear tailgate, so even the tailgate would have to stay up and be sealed to make this work. Unlike some renders floating around with the tailgate down whilst in water.

 

[Kirsten]

----------------------

Elon says he wants to smack down ICE.

Both Ram 1500 TRX (ICE) and Ford F-150 Raptor (ICE) has wading depth of 800mm and both have larger bottom body footprint than Cybertruck.

Besides the Land Rover Defender (ICE), Ram 1500 TRX (ICE) and Ford F-150 Raptor (ICE) there are still many other ICE trucks and SUVs with wading depths of 700mm or more.


---------------------------------

Tesla Cybertruck
Length 231.7 in (5,885 mm)
Width 79.8 in (2,027 mm)
Wheelbase 149.9 in (3,807 mm)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Cybertruck

---------------------------------


2022 Ram 1500 TRX
Exterior length (") 232.9
Exterior body width (") 88
Wheelbase (") 145.1
https://www.ramtrucks.com/trx/specs.html


How the Ram 1500 TRX Dominates the Ford Raptor
... the RAM 1500 TRX has a water fording depth of 32 inches (812mm)
by Allison Barfield
Published on August 31, 2020
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/how-the-ram-1500-trx-dominates-the-ford-raptor/

2022 Ram 1500 TRX price and specs
.... Ram quotes 295mm of ground clearance, an 812mm water fording depth
By Alex Misoyannis
June 2022
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2022-ram-1500-trx-price-and-specs/

---------------------------------

2022 Ford F-150 Raptor - Water Fording Depth - 32 in (81.0 cm)
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...50-Raptor-Card-Version-1_RQ-EN-US_10_2021.pdf

2021 Ford F-150 Raptor
https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/product/2021/f150/raptor/pdf/2021-Ford-F-150-Raptor-Tech-Specs.pdf

SuperCrew with 35" tires
Wheelbase 145.4
Overall length 232.6
Overall width 96.0
Width w/o mirrors 86.6
Ground clearance 12.0

---------------------------------


2023 Ford Ranger Raptor - Water Wading 850mm
https://www.ford.com.au/showroom/future-vehicle/next-gen-ranger-raptor/specifications.html



---------------------------------

2022 Ford Ranger - wading depth of 800mm
https://www.ford.co.uk/vans-and-pickups/ranger/features
.....
WADES RIGHT IN
The Ranger goes where lesser vehicles may fear to tread. In fact, the Ford Ranger’s wading depth of 800mm lets it prove itself both on dry land and through water.

---------------------------------

* All vehicles below are ICE type vehicles

Vehicles with high water wading depth Don’t want to risk your drive during unexpected floods?
By Autodeal on Mar 02, 2022
https://www.autodeal.com.ph/articles/car-features/vehicles-high-water-wading-depth

The Philippines is prone to weather extremes, this can come in the form of sudden and heavy rain to baking hot heat. While we can’t do much against the heat, there are cars out there that can handle a sudden flood or two with ease. Whether you are going off-road or wading through a flooded street, your vehicle’s wading depth matters. Aside from its grounded clearance, some buyers often consult the wading depth capacity of the model they’re eyeing, many Filipinos put this into consideration given the high probability of flooding during the rainy season.

.....
Ford Everest midsize SUV able to wade waters as deep as 800mm.

Ford Ranger Raptor wading depth capacity goes up to 850mm

Ford Ranger too can wade up to 800mm.

Nissan Terra SUV 800mm wading depth

Mazda BT-50 pickup 800mm wading depth

Mitsubishi Montero Sport midsize SUV can wade up to 700mm

Nissan Navara can also wade up to 800mm

Nissan Patrol Royale 700mm water wading capacity.

Toyota Hilux able to wade up to 700mm of water

Toyota Fortuner has a water wading capacity of 700mm

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado able to wade 700mm of water

Toyota Land Cruiser can wade through water as deep as 700mm


---------------------------------

I had no idea this was a thing.

 

[Broccoli2]

“ Gurgle, gurgle , swoosh… crickets”.

Haha, I don't think there will be crickets at the bottom of the lake. Just saying

 

[CyberGus]

Sometimes Elon just seems like a walking/talking meme.

Sometimes?

 

[CyberGus]

Perfect. The seas are pretty calm between San Diego and Hawaii, so a trolling motor and some solar panels are my best friends. What could happen?

Get the marine-Starlink and you can livestream it

Sponsored