Cybertruck “not a real truck” says survey among truck drivers

[firsttruck]

Anyone who has ever pulled a 5th Wheel or gooseneck horse trailer knows the cyber bed angle is not compatible with performing such a task. Other than that... It's a freaking truck!

So all the millions of ICE pickup trucks (many which are full-sized) that can't safely tow those monstrously large trailers are not "real" trucks trucks either.

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[charliemagpie]

I can't believe Elon will limit Tesla's potential with a single model in each category.

The phone analogy is not ok.. seems a hand-held device suits 99%.

How many variations of trucks are needed for practical purposes? ?

If there is enough need... Tesla will make it. Elon is sandbagging. 10 my ass!! lol IMO

 

[Crissa]

Anyone who has ever pulled a 5th Wheel or gooseneck horse trailer knows the cyber bed angle is not compatible with performing such a task. Other than that... It's a freaking truck!

Anyone who says that is an idiot, who apparently doesn't know that fifth wheels need to be matched to the truck no matter what, and come in different neck heights and designs.

One made for a low, standard truck won't work with a taller truck, no matter what.

And the fifth wheel hitch can just be an arm, like you'll see with wildcat trucking.

Like, why is it always said 'impossible!' what is the point of saying that? This is just the stupidest argument that seems to pop up randomly off topic.

Or hold a toolbox, or swap beds for a utility bed, flat bed, etc.

Folks sometime forget there’s a reason legacy trucks haven’t gone unibody / slopeback

if you want to compete in fleet, it’s a whole thing

No, no, and no.

None of that has anything to do with unibody. And very few of the F150 size trucks are modified like that. It's usually larger trucks.

Ugh.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

Or hold a toolbox, or swap beds for a utility bed, flat bed, etc.

Issues shared with the Rivian, the Hummer, and the Silverado EV, oddly though never mentioned as a big concern for those vehicles. Weirdly a unique concern for the Cybertruck.
Tesla can leave the 0.5% of the market who want flatbeds to Ford. (Since apparently Chevy doesn’t give a damn about this either).

 

[cvalue13]

Issues shared with the Rivian, the Hummer, and the Silverado EV, oddly though never mentioned as a big concern for those vehicles. Weirdly a unique concern for the Cybertruck.

Personally, I don’t view any of those as real contenders for anything - and only the Silverado is an actual full-sized pickup truck.

Nor do I think they legit expect to produce/sell the numbers Tesla does.

 

[Ogre]

Personally, I don’t view any of those as real contenders for anything - and only the Silverado is an actual full-sized pickup truck.

Nor do I think they legit expect to produce/sell the numbers Tesla does.

Nice little dodgy there.

 

[cvalue13]

Nice little dodgy there.

Ha! I’d direct you to my follow-on of yesterday

Tesla’s apparent goal is to sell a lot of these CTs. The chance of doing so is probably primarily levered by price, but right after that is an ability to replace as many legacy trucks and as much legacy truck functionality as possible.

Personally, I think Tesla would have scratched off the idea whiteboard an unfettered ability to tow goosnecks or any other massive trailer. The battery power and charge infra just isn’t there yet, even for Tesla - at least to the extent of offsetting the competing desire for unibody simplicity of construction and the (assumed) aero advantages of the sloped tail.

As for competing across fleet, which is a surprisingly massive segment, perhaps there again construction simplicity and aero trumped any competing desire to have the portion of fleet that requires various utility bed offerings.

Then again, perhaps what’s under the sheet is Tesla’s (partial?) answer? Ford currently has 95% of the BEV fleet van segment, and surely Tesla wants in.

 

[HaulingAss]

It's really odd to think people buy a Cybertruck to tow a gooseneck trailer. Even the photo posted here doesn't show a 1/2 ton truck towing a gooseneck.

The F-150 Lightning is not endorsed by Ford to tow a gooseneck trailer either and it looks like a "real truck" to those dumb enough to judge whether a truck is "real" or not based only upon whether it looks like the trucks they are familiar with.

The maximum trailer weight a Ford F-150 Lightning can tow is 5K lbs. without a weight distribiting hitch and 10K lbs. with weight distribution hitch and that requires the extended battery and leaves not much more payload capacity than the driver. Oh, and get this, Ford limits the Lightning frontal area to 60 sq. feet (the air conditioner must be included) on the Lightning equipped with extended range and for maximal towing.

Plenty of configurations of ICE powered F-150's can't even tow 9-10K lbs, even when equipped with the maximum tow package. Last I checked, the top of the range Cybertruck is rated to 14K lbs.

The next thing the naysayers will claim is the Cybertruck is not a real truck because it doesn't come standard with air horns.

 

[cvalue13]

No, no, and no.

None of that has anything to do with unibody. And very few of the F150 size trucks are modified like that. It's usually larger trucks.

Ugh.

What has nothing to do with unibody? Maybe you’re taking exception to my loose use of the term “unibody”? That *is* the colloquialism for trucks with a unitized bed and cab, and has been for quite some time

And I didn’t say anything about an F150.

The CT appears to possibly have the payload and suspension of at least an F250 if not an F350. These are platforms of choice for a whole lot of chassis-only fleet sales.

So, if the CT was capable of offering a chassis-only option, it would be a contender (setting aside whether/when utility body makers would provide options for CT fitment).

And especially for those larger platform trucks like the F250/350, the weight that the bed can hold (or the weight the truck can tow) does have a lot to do with the separation of the cab from the bed

The 1963-ish Ford first posted above was a short-lived design, because with any material weight in the bed the front doors would no longer open.

This isn’t to critique the CT’s unitized design as being in any way flawed, as it’s taking an altogether unattempted approach (that I’m sure has been well thought out).

But for traditionally manufactured bed-on-chassis designs, there is absolutely a reason the bed is separate from the cab and it absolutely has everything to do with the underlying utility needed for chassis-only fleet sales

so, “no, no, no,” what, exactly?

 

[Ogre]

Ha! I’d direct you to my follow-on of yesterday

You dodged my suggestion that the Cybertruck was treated differently on this by claiming the Silverado is “real contenders for anything”… which is about equivalent of saying the F150 Lightning is not a real contender for anything… a comment you’d get pretty butt hurt about.

This whole debate about “not a real truck” is literally people arguing about a bunch of things which tiny numbers of people ever bother with and most existing trucks are incapable of. But since the Cybertruck might not be able to do it, it’s suddenly a big deal.

I point out the hypocrisy and you want to say that those trucks—the ones nobody claims aren’t pickup trucks—aren’t contenders.

Hell, 95% of F150s can’t do most of the shit you guys are throwing at the Cybertruck claiming it disqualifying. Exceedingly few F150s, including your precious Lightning cannot tow a gooseneck trailer simply due to weight. Is your Lightning not a truck due to its pathetic towing capacity?

Quit with the hypocritical standards.

 

[Ogre]

How to ”prove“ Cybertruck is not really a truck.

Step 1:
Come up with a feature which 90%+ of trucks do not meet.

Step 2:
Apply that standard to the Cybertruck.

Step 3:
Explain away any if the millions of other trucks that don’t meet the criteria in step one as being insignificant.

Step 4:
Rise and Repeat

 

[cvalue13]

You dodged my suggestion that the Cybertruck was treated differently on this by claiming the Silverado is “real contenders for anything”… which is about equivalent of saying the F150 Lightning is not a real contender for anything… a comment you’d get pretty butt hurt about.

No man, you just get kinda paranoid about this whole “unfair” treatment shtick - to the point of being disingenuous about your own views in order to have reasons to squawk.

You yourself would never seriously suggest the Hummer or Rivian are capable of being successful work/fleet trucks.

Which segment is obviously what I was talking aboutRE toolboxes, utility beds, etc.

But for your present purposes, just to have something to be butt-hurt about, you’re temporarily acting like they’re contender work/fleet trucks only in order to create a basis for alleging unfair treatment of the CT.

As for the Silverado, I don’t have ANY kind words for that thing - I think I was the first in this forum (or was it the Lightning forum?) to dump on it for being a rehashed Avalanche. And just like the Avalanche, I’ve not given it a third thought since, least of all as being a contender for a work/fleet truck. I could get proven wrong, but unlike Tesla/the CT, I don’t have any belief that a legacy truck maker can create a unified cab-bed design that has:

• the necessary payload
• the necessary max towing
• with a midgate, the necessary safety, or
• the requisite bed size

… to be a serious contender for work/fleet trucks. You might compete missing one of these metrics, but all of them?

Seriously, as between you and me, the only “hypocritical standard” I see is you acting like any of those vehicles are serious contenders as work/fleet trucks, despite not believing that yourself, only so that you have any basis whatsoever to allege they TOO should be critiqued.

 

[cvalue13]

Plenty of configurations of ICE powered F-150's can't even tow 9-10K lbs, even when equipped with the maximum tow package. Last I checked, the top of the range Cybertruck is rated to 14K lbs.

A huge draw of the unveil stats of the CT was that it has the capabilities of a full-bed F250/350 within the footprint/envelope of a F150 SuperCrew with a 5.5’ bed. That’s incredible.

Accordingly, what’s NOT incredible is incessant comparisons to the capabilities of an F150. It’s exactly like a Chevy person going on, and on, and on, about how their 2500 series truck can out-tow an F150. No sh*t, that’s what MAKES it a 2500 series- they built it that way.

so which is it?

do you want to in one breath contend the CT is as capable as an F250/F350, OR

or do you want to in the next breath compare the CT to the capabilities of an F150?

because doing both, incessantly, makes you look silly. Like one of the towing-ignorant urbanites who were remotely impressed by the unveil’s tow-“battle” between a Class 2B-3 medium-duty, >8,501 GVWR, 4WD truck against a Class 2A, <5,600 GVWR, 2WD truck

Next we’ll see a commercial of a F350 Dually with 60 sandbags in the bed tow-“battling” a CT like a rag doll and your hair will burst into flames

 

[Ogre]

No man, you just get kinda paranoid about this whole “unfair” treatment shtick - to the point of being disingenuous about your own views in order to have reasons to squawk.

Here you are doubling down in more sub 1% issues. Suddenly you’ve stopped talking about gooseneck trailers. Why? Because talking about that just highlights your hypocrisy. But you tell me I’m being paranoid? Maybe instead of making ad hominem attacks you could quit being a hypocrite?

You are hung up on your preconceived notion of what a truck should look like to the point where you ignore what 99% of trucks actually do day after day. So instead of talking about that, you drag out all kinds of examples of “truck things” the Cybertruck can’t do. People point out your truck can’t do it and suddenly you stop talking about that thing and want to talk about other tiny issues.

Is the Lighting actually a truck? We know it can’t pull a gooseneck trailer. Nor does it have the cargo capacity for a proper utility bed. There is zero point in putting a flatbed on it because it can’t haul enough cargo to justify a flatbed.

So exactly what can your “definitely a truck” Lightning do that the Cybertruck cannot? That makes the lightning a truck and the Cybertruck not a truck?

 

[Ogre]

Accordingly, what’s NOT incredible is incessant comparisons to the capabilities of an F150.

This is literally what the truck is designed to compete with.

Not sure how you missed that memo. The F250 sells in very small numbers compared to the F150. The 150 is spot on exactly what Tesla is targeting. Watch the launch night video again if you are this punched out,

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