Air Suspension Tilt o' Whirl

Ogre

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Poking through the shortened version of the launch day, I saw something I didn't notice before. They lower the rear air suspension while its on stage to put it in loading mode. You can see it start going down when Elon first mentions the Quad. I did a couple screen caps right before and after the truck was lifted.

The Air suspension is one of my absolute favorite features on this truck. A lot of trucks have pull out steps to help you climb up into the bed, this is way better. In the Jay Leno video you see Musk step right up onto the tailgate.

This is a truck which can have 16" of ground clearance. Any other truck with that kind of clearance you damned well need a stepladder to get up into it.

Tesla Cybertruck Air Suspension Tilt o' Whirl Air Suspensio



Tesla Cybertruck Air Suspension Tilt o' Whirl Screen Shot 2021-09-07 at 8.59.51 PM


Tesla Cybertruck Air Suspension Tilt o' Whirl Screen Shot 2021-09-07 at 8.59.06 PM


I'm sure there are other threads about this way way back... but this was the first time I'd seen it actually moving and I haven't seen a ton of good examples of this working.

I think Tesla is going to be working the air suspension pretty hard. Being able to change dampening on the fly means it should have decent on highway performance and still be good off-road.
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Poking through the shortened version of the launch day, I saw something I didn't notice before. They lower the rear air suspension while its on stage to put it in loading mode. You can see it start going down when Elon first mentions the Quad. I did a couple screen caps right before and after the truck was lifted.

The Air suspension is one of my absolute favorite features on this truck. A lot of trucks have pull out steps to help you climb up into the bed, this is way better. In the Jay Leno video you see Musk step right up onto the tailgate.

This is a truck which can have 16" of ground clearance. Any other truck with that kind of clearance you damned well need a stepladder to get up into it.

I think Tesla is going to be working the air suspension pretty hard. Being able to change dampening on the fly means it should have decent on highway performance and still be good off-road.
Now go watch the test ride videos from that night. Notice how no one struggles to climb up into it? no one reaching for those "oh shit" handles to get inside the truck?
That's what I love about the air suspension in this thing.
 
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Now go watch the test ride videos from that night. Notice how no one struggles to climb up into it? no one reaching for those "oh shit" handles to get inside the truck?
That's what I love about the air suspension in this thing.
I was going to write a big post about what all this enables, but I think it's been beaten to death already (there are 8+ threads talking about this under Similar threads at the bottom).

I just hadn't seen the truck actually lowering when watching the video before and don't think anyone had composited the raised and lowered photos together so you could really see the difference in height.

Seriously see this as a huge differentiator and surprised by how little the press seems to care about it in the few comparisons I've seen between it and the other trucks.
 

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Poking through the shortened version of the launch day, I saw something I didn't notice before. They lower the rear air suspension while its on stage to put it in loading mode. You can see it start going down when Elon first mentions the Quad. I did a couple screen caps right before and after the truck was lifted.

The Air suspension is one of my absolute favorite features on this truck. A lot of trucks have pull out steps to help you climb up into the bed, this is way better. In the Jay Leno video you see Musk step right up onto the tailgate.

This is a truck which can have 16" of ground clearance. Any other truck with that kind of clearance you damned well need a stepladder to get up into it.

Air Suspension.png



Screen Shot 2021-09-07 at 8.59.51 PM.png


Screen Shot 2021-09-07 at 8.59.06 PM.png


I'm sure there are other threads about this way way back... but this was the first time I'd seen it actually moving and I haven't seen a ton of good examples of this working.

I think Tesla is going to be working the air suspension pretty hard. Being able to change dampening on the fly means it should have decent on highway performance and still be good off-road.
Yup, it was cool then (during the unveiling) and it is still cool.
 

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I never owned a car with one but people that do seem to love the ride quality which is what I am after the most.

After loading ATV, you could see the front going back down but I had a hard time noticing the back going back up. I wonder with 3500 lb payload capacity, if bed is loaded to the max at lower position in winter, will air suspension be able to go back up without blowing up the rubber?

Can someone that knows about these things or have experience with them when they fail, shed
some light on how they typically fail? When you hit a bump on the highway after 8 years? New when you overload,……? Basically when you get your CT what you watch for, how you would maintain it and when you replace them?
 

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Air suspension is Elon’s greatest Engineering automotive challenge. The finest suspension offroad and on pave ever I’ve experience was the Queen’s coachmaker Range Rover. Rover knows a thing or two about royally satisfying a tough customer. They achieved it on spring steel coils un-torsion barred in my 1991 RR “Hunter” edition.

Air suspension in subsequent years in the RR line never met the durability required of offroad. Thousand dollar Monday’s dealers joked were the line of RR’s in the driveway twisted down on one side from a weekend off-pavement. A single pebble is all that would take to puncture an airbag.

Soo looking forward to just this one technology piece from Tesla. Rebound is the ultimate challenge. Designing a system that dynamically attenuates pressure differentials as the vehicle height is raised by air pressure is critical. Human wet meat injury is susceptible to acceleration G-force loading on rebound. People get hurt and brain trauma is cumulative; not readily detectable CTE injury.
 
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The Model S and Model X have adjustable air suspension and the Model X has adjustable dampening. So a lot of this isn't new to them, obviously those aren't really "off road" vehicles even though the Model X is SUVish.

This will have about 5 times as much stroke and adjustability. Also, needs to deal with 2+ times as much weight and much more weight variability. It'll be interesting seeing the issues people have.
 

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Air suspension is Elon’s greatest Engineering automotive challenge. The finest suspension offroad and on pave ever I’ve experience was the Queen’s coachmaker Range Rover. Rover knows a thing or two about royally satisfying a tough customer. They achieved it on spring steel coils un-torsion barred in my 1991 RR “Hunter” edition.

Air suspension in subsequent years in the RR line never met the durability required of offroad. Thousand dollar Monday’s dealers joked were the line of RR’s in the driveway twisted down on one side from a weekend off-pavement. A single pebble is all that would take to puncture an airbag.

Soo looking forward to just this one technology piece from Tesla. Rebound is the ultimate challenge. Designing a system that dynamically attenuates pressure differentials as the vehicle height is raised by air pressure is critical. Human wet meat injury is susceptible to acceleration G-force loading on rebound. People get hurt and brain trauma is cumulative; not readily detectable CTE injury.
Again, Citroen DS was the revolutionary vehicle for air suspension, variable road clearance, etc etc. The height is controlled not by pressure (that's more a requirement of weight) but by volume... and it used not air balloons, but (in its case) high-pressure hydraulics in cylinders with pistons.... and the gas was in a "suspension sphere" at the end of the suspension cylinders. So you don't have to worry about a rock puncturing a rubber balloon or something, at least in that implementation.
 

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Again, Citroen DS was the revolutionary vehicle for air suspension, variable road clearance, etc etc. The height is controlled not by pressure (that's more a requirement of weight) but by volume... and it used not air balloons, but (in its case) high-pressure hydraulics in cylinders with pistons.... and the gas was in a "suspension sphere" at the end of the suspension cylinders. So you don't have to worry about a rock puncturing a rubber balloon or something, at least in that implementation.
That means Tesla suspension engineers have the choice not to go down the path Range Rover took. That is promising new information.

If it’s hydraulic, fluid dynamics offer more possibilities for technological control versus ambient air suspension known limitations. Tesla could have finer granularity, adjustability and ride height control merely one fortuitous side-effect versus primary in the case of bagged air suspension. Elon’s onboard air didn’t allow my thinking any other idea beyond bagged air suspension.

It would be like having no shocks to being able to have adjustable King brand offroad dampeners. The only question remaining on my wishlist is whether Tesla will break new ground for a production truck in wheel travel. Definitely, I’d want more than a FORD Raptor in the desert and why not? Match the Trophy Truck wheel travel numbers that approach 30” rear and 28” front. Hydraulic would enable that and provide means to control it all dynamically with Tesla Purevision system tie-in.

Driver’s get to select comfort, handling and terrain preferences letting alien cyborg technology handle the magic bits. Suddenly Baja 1000 is within the realm instead of unobtainium Trophy Trucks. Suddenly Cybertruck cargo weight means it could handle larger slide-in campers Offroad. Now Cybertruck is getting you places! Places you want to go.
 


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That means Tesla suspension engineers have the choice not to go down the path Range Rover took.
The Cybertruck's suspension will almost certainly be inherited from the Model S and Model X suspension. (From article on Model S suspension)

Tesla Cybertruck Air Suspension Tilt o' Whirl strut


Seems like with the Cybertruck they might want to protect it more.

You can get an idea of what it work like in action on the Model S.



Obviously not a lot of off-road action there!
 

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The Cybertruck's suspension will almost certainly be inherited from the Model S and Model X suspension. (From article on Model S suspension)

strut.jpg


Seems like with the Cybertruck they might want to protect it more.

You can get an idea of what it work like in action on the Model S.



Obviously not a lot of off-road action there!
Air as shown in the video is utilized to jack-up and down chassis height. Static conventional shocks terminate at the chassis. So interesting that Tesla implements a version of the old traditional hand air pump piston-in-cylinder to effect ride height. Much better than rubber bagged air bladders Range Rover chose.

That’s an improvement even without the hydraulic dynamics. Maybe someday Tesla will tackle dynamics, computational suspension and purevision integration. For street use fixed shocks are fine. Air lift rife height convenient. It will work fine as weight loads up the suspension.

After that, things get interesting for Cybertruck performance as offroad forces test those components dynamics. CT exoskeleton appears to preclude long trailing arms to add travel. IDK whether the frunk structure would collapse under long travel A-arms. Secretly hoping Tesla engineered for offroad use => FORD Raptor
 

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Secretly hoping Tesla engineered for offroad use => FORD Raptor
I am also holding out hope for a similar level of functionality. Elon has said:





Seems like people don't take Elon at his word. I get that 2 weeks in Elon time can equate to much longer timelines in our collective space-time continuum. But other than the 2 weeks issue, pretty much everything else Elon says turns out to be either right on the money or even better than he had let anyone know.

And sometimes Elon even comes out of left field with features that are crazy better than anyone else had thought would be available. For instance the 4 wheel steering on CT.

So I get that most people are skeptical about the CT being able to compete well at Baja. But I'm willing to bet that Elon will surprise the skeptics. I'm just going to be patient and keep the hope alive.
 
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Air as shown in the video is utilized to jack-up and down chassis height. Static conventional shocks terminate at the chassis. So interesting that Tesla implements a version of the old traditional hand air pump piston-in-cylinder to effect ride height. Much better than rubber bagged air bladders Range Rover chose.

That’s an improvement even without the hydraulic dynamics. Maybe someday Tesla will tackle dynamics, computational suspension and purevision integration. For street use fixed shocks are fine. Air lift rife height convenient. It will work fine as weight loads up the suspension.

After that, things get interesting for Cybertruck performance as offroad forces test those components dynamics. CT exoskeleton appears to preclude long trailing arms to add travel. IDK whether the frunk structure would collapse under long travel A-arms. Secretly hoping Tesla engineered for offroad use => FORD Raptor
They are going to have computational/ dynamic suspension. They already have it in the Model X and Model Y. It should be a lot more compliant off road and stiffer on the highway. What I'm not sure about is if the lift adjustment also adjusts travel or just ride height. Do you actually get that 12" or whatever of travel off-roading or is it just like adding spacers to lift it?
 
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So I get that most people are skeptical about the CT being able to compete well at Baja.
My only concern about Baja is charging times and locations. They are going to need to add portable Superchargers all over the place to make it work.
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