Cybertruck engineers bend upper control arm in testing

[Gurule92]

Plenty of time before real customers get theirs.

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[Gurule92]

The upper is not bent, IMO, simply a different viewing angle causing it to appear that way. You would have to ask yourself, what would have impacted it to cause it to bend upward? Other components would have needed to fail before the upper control arm could have been pushed upwards by an outside force. Launching the vehicle in Baja would not have done this either, as this is a pivot point for the upper ball joint. Rather, the strut tower would have likely blown out, or the chassis control arm mounts would have ripped. I'm leaving it at that...

Possibly a big rock got kicked up?

 

[CHC]

Raptor upper control arm comparison

 

[SolarWizard]

The upper is not bent, IMO, simply a different viewing angle causing it to appear that way. You would have to ask yourself, what would have impacted it to cause it to bend upward? Other components would have needed to fail before the upper control arm could have been pushed upwards by an outside force. Launching the vehicle in Baja would not have done this either, as this is a pivot point for the upper ball joint. Rather, the strut tower would have likely blown out, or the chassis control arm mounts would have ripped. I'm leaving it at that...

It’s absolutely bent. Don’t focus on the arm. The Ball Joint is destroyed.

 

[cvalue13]

Those pictures aren't from the same angle so they won't line up like you are showing. You can't even see the label in the top image.

the picture isn’t intended to show the angle of the yellow line, though

it’s intended to show the departure from the yellow line, and the angles of other pieces relative to it

maybe it’s better displayed this way, here with these red lines all being erfectly parallel:

in contrast:

 

[SpaceYooper]

Regardless of what damage was done, the UCA doesn't look like it would hold up well at all.

I replaced the UCAs on my truck when I went to 35" tires. I would hope the CT used forged or tubular UCAs in production. Like others here, I'm surprised they even tried this.

 

[scottf200]

@cvalue13 did a nice job with the pictures and lines.

Just look closely at the rubber protector and you can see it is deformed/compressed pretty differently.

Hard to believe people are defending this at this stage of development.

 

[Crissa]

Just look closely at the rubber protector and you can see it is deformed/compressed pretty differently.

Yes, the two photos are at different angles, so no, I don't see how it's deformed.

The lines of the lower bulb (in the supposed upper image) are parallel. They wouldn't be if the arm was bent.

-Crissa

 

[Mini2nut]

I think it's clear that Tesla's goal was weight savings and low manufacturing costs. Even the rear lower control arms are steel.

Beefier aftermarket upper control arms are very popular in the off-road community. Plenty of vendors manufacture stronger arms.

Toyota tackled this problem by offering forged upper control arms as standard equipment on their Tacoma TRD Pro. They even come painted red from the factory. This 2022 change severely crippled the aftermarket upper control market for the TRD Pro model.

https://twstatic.net/attachments/2022-toyota-tacoma-trd-pro-005-jpg-jpg.4638567/

 

[scottf200]

Curious. To me one looks compressed and one looks opened up.

 

[Mini2nut]

Great close up’s. You can see the difference in the upper ball joint rubber boot.

The Cybertruck would have to encounter one hell of an impact to bend an upper control arm.

 

[Crissa]

Curious. To me one looks compressed and one looks opened up.

Great close up’s. You can see the difference in the upper ball joint rubber boot.

The Cybertruck would have to encounter one hell of an impact to bend an upper control arm.

Curious. To me one looks compressed and one looks opened up.

Yeah, but do you see the difference in photo angle? Look at the wider shot and the distance between the arm and the well cowling in the two images.

-Crissa

 

[Crissa]

So we'll halve the thickness of the steel, then rivit them together, and then totes it'll be better 'cause it's twin ply, right?

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

Yeah, but do you see the difference in photo angle? Look at the wider shot and the distance between the arm and the well cowling in the two images.

-Crissa

Can you show the line that's supposed to have bent?

'Cause I'm not seeing it. Is the bottom one normal?

I was going to ask this yesterday already:

You really can't see how it's bent up on the end?

 

[Robesaw]

I’m shocked they even tried to offer a stamped steal upper control arm. The balljoint size looks a little suspect too.

“Kicking butt in baja” is gonna require the aftermarket 100%

I agree. I wonder if this was required for wheel tear away in crashes?

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