CT rear bumper is not a bumper

Crissa

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That S that was sliced open hit a piece of hardened steel that was just angled right to act like a scythe at 70mph. It was a serious fluke of an accident, honestly. Any other car and the occupants might not have walked away from it.

-Crissa
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That S that was sliced open hit a piece of hardened steel that was just angled right to act like a scythe at 70mph. It was a serious fluke of an accident, honestly. Any other car and the occupants might not have walked away from it.

-Crissa
Yeah, I just recall that Tesla was pretty damned good about not just fixing new ones, but recalling and fixing all the existing ones. A pretty expensive precaution for what was at the time a struggling/ startup.
 

Crissa

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It's also why Tesla is matching ride height with full vision; so that the car can try to dodge debris in the future.

No, I don't know how it's going to do it in time.

-Crissa
 
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tmeyer3

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Hmm, I have never seen an aftermarket plastic skid plate on a full size, 1.5 ton+ vehicle. Motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, sure. Plastic bumpers, sure. But I'm also not in to pro motorsports.
 
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tmeyer3

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The hard plastic bumper is attached beneath the truck bed at the tailgate hinge area. I noticed this last night when watching footage of the CT at the Austin construction site.

bumper-tailgate.jpg




My initial thought was, hmm... thats gotta probably cause some long-term durability issues if you are loading gravel and similar loose material into the bed, especially when opening and closing. My second thought was.. where is the additional tailgate support cable? Some truck tailgates have a cable that attaches the end of the tailgate top to the side walls for added weight support. This tailgate as shown in the prototype has no visible support other than the hinge itself.

I went looking for more detailed actual video of the interior elements and this tiktok was the best view of random interior elements like the door hinges and arm rests/foot area/pedals/etc. Spent some time pausing the vid for the split second it showed different obscure interior elements like that stuff.
I wonder if the bumper is strong enough to hold the hinge? But all very good observations. It'll be interesting to see!
 


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It's also why Tesla is matching ride height with full vision; so that the car can try to dodge debris in the future.
Well Autopilot certainly isn't dodging road debris right now. Or at least not road debris the size of a dead squirrel.

Hmm, I have never seen an aftermarket plastic skid plate on a full size, 1.5 ton+ vehicle. Motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, sure. Plastic bumpers, sure. But I'm also not in to pro motorsports.
If you are looking for something to cover the underside of a truck, it needs to be 4 foot wide, 10 feet long, and stiff enough to prevent the weight of the truck landing on a boulder from destroying the underside of the vehicle. Plastic can be tough, but it's not that rigid unless you reinforce it with ribbing or honeycomb structure. A skid plate can't be 3" thick.

This bumper thing on the Tesla? It looks like it's 6" thick, can have all kinds of stiffening structure inside, and it's almost certainly reinforced by some solid steel members on each side.
 

Crissa

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BTW, "I have never seen" is called a fallacy of personal incredulity. It's similar to the anecdotal fallacy.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/personal-incredulity

I haven't seen a truck with plastic skid plates, either. But that doesn't mean it would never be possible.

-Crissa
 

Firetruck41

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I haven't seen a truck with a plastic skid plate either. I'm pretty familiar with trucks, and SUVs set up for off roading and overlanding. Of course it is still possible that there are some trucks with plastic skid plates, cardboard skid plates or skid plates made of chalk, I haven't seen all trucks in the world yet.
 

Deleted member 12457

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Ever heard of a roo bar / bull bar?
1629154374655.jpeg
Title of forum, "CT rear bumper is not a bumper." This photo looks like something attached to the front. Doesn't matter because these aren't typical bumpers. Mounted on trucks would ride up the back of the car or push through the front or rear window. Most things would go under the vehicle with a bumper/bull bar like this. This isn't a bumper, it's an accessory to hole lights and winches while pushing aside (maybe) deer, elk, black bears but probably not grizzly bears. ;)
Because there will be a market for it.

I just added a rear bumper made of 1/4” plate steel to my truck. If someone rear ends my truck, I won't be too worried.
Unless you're hit by a semi, dump-truck, or monster truck. 1/4" steel will bend but what it also will do is push everything in front of it into the passenger/driver compartment.
 

Deleted member 12457

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Because it’s America and people are generally free to do what they want.
Yes and no. There are vehicle codes that cover all sorts of modifications to vehicles and insurance companies don't have to insure your vehicle if you've make changes that affect the safety. You make changes without notifying your agent, get in an accident, and they don't have to pay to fix your vehicle with the thousands of dollars of non-original things. I had to inform DMA and my insurance agent when I moved states of all modifications so I'm not making this up.

Of course, your state may not care one bit what you so to your vehicle but your insurance agent probably will.
 


Firetruck41

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1/4" steel will bend but what it also will do is push everything in front of it into the passenger/driver compartment.
Not likely, there's 6.5' between the bumper and the passenger/driver compartment.
 

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Not likely, there's 6.5' between the bumper and the passenger/driver compartment.
And everything in the bed will just be pushed to the front.

I don't remember a time I've ever actually used my bumpers, front or rear. I had a couple dings but nothing that really messed anything up. For that matter, knock on an entire rain forest, I've only been in one accident (technically it was an accident but I ran over a compressed gas tank a county truck dropped off the back of their truck and couldn't get around it--this was back in 1970-72, somewhere around there).

I see both bumpers on a truck being used for things other than protecting the people in the truck. Of course there are people who can't seem to stop before they hit something so maybe for these people any kind of bumper would be helpful.
 

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I have lost the bumpers on my cars multiple times. And I don't mind using them, either. These two things are, oddly, completely unrelated.

-Crissa
 

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Title of forum, "CT rear bumper is not a bumper." This photo looks like something attached to the front. Doesn't matter <Snip>
At the end of the day, does exoskeleton Cybertruck even afford attachment points to support bolt-on protection? Why not a rear bmpr that looks like that?

One Cybertruck vulnerability, at first glance, looks like 90* angle corners on the rear exoskeleton and dropdown tailgate. Tesla have frosted these areas in plastic bumper and fender flares.

Ordinary and common usage probably fine. Heavy industrial, cross dock loading and offroad adventurers will quickly discover your advice. Pay to repair or protect.

Protection may be cheaper to buy fold down and swing away fabrications designed to be installed as first line defense.
 

Deleted member 12457

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At the end of the day, does exoskeleton Cybertruck even afford attachment points to support bolt-on protection? Why not a rear bmpr that looks like that?

One Cybertruck vulnerability, at first glance, looks like 90* angle corners on the rear exoskeleton and dropdown tailgate. Tesla have frosted these areas in plastic bumper and fender flares.

Ordinary and common usage probably fine. Heavy industrial, cross dock loading and offroad adventurers will quickly discover your advice. Pay to repair or protect.

Protection may be cheaper to buy fold down and swing away fabrications designed to be installed as first line defense.
I was referring to this bumper --
Tesla Cybertruck CT rear bumper is not a bumper 1629404712096


Is this a rear bumper or a front bumper? Would you put it on the rear end of a truck?

Looking at the exoskeleton, which doesn't show much, along with parts of patents that don't show much more, I'm not sure how anything will be able to be attached to the exoskeleton. It appears like there's 6 mounting areas on the top for a rack of some kind but I'm not seeing where you could even attach anything that would provide the sturdiness for a bumper or wench.
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