Cyber Wheel Covers Installation: These things are a B$&ch (updated with install video)

[T35L4]

I literally just removed all four of mine ten minutes ago (with a pair of gloves since the edges where you need to place your fingers are somewhat sharp) to bring my tires up to 50 psi. I took delivery last Wednesday, and my tire pressure was at 47 psi all the way around. I just got around to getting this done.

Mine came with 47 PSI as well. Why did you bring it to 50 PSI? Just curious if it's for range efficiency reasons.

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[rrizzi7210]

Mine came with 47 PSI as well. Why did you bring it to 50 PSI? Just curious if it's for range efficiency reasons.

I would say 50% for efficiency reasons and 50% for even wear and tear on the inside of the tire vs. the outside. I've noticed after two sets of tires on my Model YP, 89K miles, mostly highway, they do not wear evenly in the rear if pressure is off by just 3 PSI. The reason I know this is my right rear tire had a prolonged leak since it was replaced the 1st time, so it always was a little low each week compared to the other rear tire, and when I replaced that set at 79K miles, I was able to clearly see the uneven wear pattern while it was up on the lift.

Its been about three weeks now since bringing my CT CB tires up to 50 PSI, and when cold in the morning, they are all showing 49 PSI, so in about a week or two, I will reset them to 50 PSI while they are cold. Our outside air temp here in South Florida each morning is anywhere from 78F to 83F this time of year. As winter approaches, I'll have to keep repeating this process to get morning tire pressure to 50 PSI every few weeks or so.

When we hit 93F to 95F around 2 pm on average, 50+ mile driving tire pressure approaches 53 or 54 PSI, which is fine, since the rating and recommending pressure of 50 PSI for a CT CB is when the tires are at their coolest point throughout the day. I'm sure this cold be different in the North where your temps vary between -20F and maybe 40F in just one day.

 

[HaulingAss]

Video review below.

These things are a bitch. Despite watching the Tesla video and other videos, I still managed to scratch my wheels and broke 2 clips off the covers while installing them.

Sorry to hear that, I hate breaking things myself. For that reason, I learned long ago to not make assumptions or take shortcuts when doing an unfamiliar task. Watching a video can help, but there is no substitute for direct observation of how the pieces fit together. I will generally look over something and fully understand the intended fit and function before trying to assemble parts. It takes an extra 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or even a minute or more, depending upon the complexity of the task, but that time spent will be dwarfed with one installation error that requires time and money to acquire new parts.

Simple logic dictates one should avoid taking the shortcut of making assumptions and hoping for the best. Sometimes it works out, and that can reinforce the path of taking the shortcut, but overall I've found the best path is to spend the bit of time it takes to fully understand the exact assembly process. Dissasembly is more problematic because often you cannot observe the intended process until it's disassembled. But assembly lends itself very well to careful inspection first. Once the process is fully understood, repeating the process is simple and repeatable.

TLDR; The hard way is often the easy way. Knowledge is power.

 

[HaulingAss]

Mine came with 47 PSI as well. Why did you bring it to 50 PSI? Just curious if it's for range efficiency reasons.

Pressure varies with temperature. Everyone very far north of the equator should be adding air to their tires this time of year. I've found 51 to 52 psi (stone cold) is working out well with the Cybertrucks OEM AT tires for normal pavement driving. This equates to around 53-54 psi in the middle of the day, assuming I haven't been doing extended freeway driving. Because they are black, solar radiation increases the pressure a surprising amount. After extended freeway driving during the day it equates to around 55-56 psi. This is not too much pressure for high-speed freeways.

People who drive like grandma might want to reduce those numbers by 2 psi. But always keep in mind that air cannot go into your tires, unless you put it there, and it is always leaking out, hopefully very, very slowly. But even the best tires slowly leak air.

 

[HaulingAss]

The "aero" covers scratched the rims on my MY. I've seen a lot of people complain about that. They were never removed except when I changed tires, but there were very obviously and some rather deep scratches in the rim.

Just be aware, if you use these...you will likely keep them on or have scratches.

I've been taking aero covers on and off multiple Model 3's for over 6 years (at least 4 times per year, per car) and the wheels are often very dirty with road grit when doing so. All of them look very nice with respect to scratches caused by the aero covers. Meaning visible scratches are almost non-existent and invisible.

That's because I take the extra minute to wipe off the dirt on the portion of the spokes that the clips on the wheel covers slide over with my shop rag before pushing the covers on. I also wipe any abrasives off the faces of the plastic clips. Pushing the covers on straight helps too, it keeps the clips square to the spokes, reducing the opportunity of abrasives to get caught under the pressure contact points.

It's not possible to clean the contact points when removing the covers but I haven't found it to scratch the wheels. I simply grab the covers with both hands 180 degrees opposed, and yank them off in one fast motion, straight out. When they need new tires installed, I remove the covers at home, to prevent the tire shop employees from doing it.

I haven't inspected the Cyber wheel covers yet, but I suspect the same kind of attention to these details will go a long way towards avoiding problems. After all, it's simple physics and you want the physics working in your favor, not against you. None of this is complicated if you understand the processes you are doing.

 

[Ward L]

These wheel covers must come close to setting a new record for total cost. They look expensive to make with plastic and rubber together. Add to the cost of the first design and wow, glad I don’t have to pay for the new set. Wait, I did pay for both!

I can’t imagine any other auto manufacturer selling a car for 10 months without hub caps, only Tesla. It also brings into question the economic “Hub Cap Theory” by the old radio broadcast “Money Talk” guy, Bob Brinker. His Hub Cap Theory stated you can’t pay union workers $50/hr in Detroit to install hub caps when someone in China will do it for $2/hr. Tesla is having their owners install their own hub caps! Another genius Elon move!

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