Cybertruck is waterproof enough to serve as a boat to cross rivers, lakes & calm seas -- confirms Musk 🚤

[SwampNut]

The inspectors don't know where you're going ^-^

-Crissa

Why would you assume that?? It’s on the forms, they asked for evidence (reservations), etc. they all knew.

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[Tinker71]

I wonder if you could make a hubcap with flaps that grabs the water and then fold back down on the up and forward part of the wheel spin.

I hate to say it ,but this might be just another excuse to raise or justify the price increase that was already inevitable. You have to admit it would be pretty cool in an emergency and nobody else is remotely claiming this. Physical upgrades to the truck might also be minimal.

 

[rr6013]

I'll take mine to the boat yard to get bottom painted.

I have a funny story about the CA agriculture stop station going nuts when they found one dead mussel on my boat which the pressure washing had somehow missed. The punchline is that when they finally got me on the phone with the QM expert and he asked where we were going (Catalina Island), he was livid that they woke him up or something. Those are freshwater mussels, perfectly fine to dump them into salt water, they will die.

Funny and a good story.

First production EV to Catalina Island wins! That’s a four hour sail on a good day, so more than adequate test for Bragging Rights.

 

[Crissa]

I wonder if you could make a hubcap with flaps that grabs the water and then fold back down on the up and forward part of the wheel spin.

I hate to say it ,but this might be just another excuse to raise or justify the price increase that was already inevitable. You have to admit it would be pretty cool in an emergency and nobody else is remotely claiming this. Physical upgrades to the truck might also be minimal.

It's a natural outgrowth of two things:

The truck's electronics need to be sealed against weather;
The truck is made of a few, large parts;
The truck needs a wading depth of a couple feet.

If you have enough sealing to resist pressure, then you end up with a boat.

-Crissa

 

[Tinker71]

Funny and a good story.

First production EV to Catalina Island wins! That’s a four hour sail on a good day, so more than adequate test for Bragging Rights.

Wow, you brought up a good point. Idaho, Montana and Utah probably many more states have quagga muscle/invasive species check points for boats. I would hate to get tangled up in that.

The truck should drain pretty good and I doubt anyone will be in the water long enough for anything to start growing, but invasive weeds getting on suspension could be a real problem if you were to go from lake to lake.

It should be intuitive, but without being registered as a boat. You shouldn't drive your CT in the lake. If you are registered as a boat you stop at the check points.

 

[firsttruck]

Wow, you brought up a good point. Idaho, Montana and Utah probably many more states have quagga muscle/invasive species check points for boats. I would hate to get tangled up in that.

The truck should drain pretty good and I doubt anyone will be in the water long enough for anything to start growing, but invasive weeds getting on suspension could be a real problem if you were to go from lake to lake.

It should be intuitive, but without being registered as a boat. You shouldn't drive your CT in the lake. If you are registered as a boat you stop at the check points.

They might not drive across but driving into lakes & ponds already happens today by off-road drivers of trucks, jeeps, SUVs, ATVs. Has been happening for decades. Some even get stuck or breakdown for some reason and and not recovered for days or weeks and later dump/leak lake/pond water & material back on driver's home location. Same thing happens to vehicles that have been in floods. Water, mud & stuff lodged in flooded vehicles will be deposited in other locations (even across the country).

No check points

 

[Tinker71]

They might not drive across but driving into lakes & ponds already happens today by off-road drivers of trucks, jeeps, SUVs, ATVs. Has been happening for decades. Some even get stuck or breakdown for some reason and and not recovered for days or weeks and later dump/leak lake/pond water & material back on driver's home location. Same thing happens to vehicles that have been in floods. Water, mud & stuff lodged in flooded vehicles will be deposited in other locations (even across the country).

No check points

I agree, but these vehicles were not advertised as a boat/to float. Invasive species is one tough animal.

 

[JBee]

I wonder if you could make a hubcap with flaps that grabs the water and then fold back down on the up and forward part of the wheel spin.

I hate to say it ,but this might be just another excuse to raise or justify the price increase that was already inevitable. You have to admit it would be pretty cool in an emergency and nobody else is remotely claiming this. Physical upgrades to the truck might also be minimal.

I've mentioned this a few pages ago, but I don't think the CT bouyancy cost much or anything extra to make happen.

I think the missing door handles and electric locking mechanisms are there so they can install better door seals without people having problems closing them. With better seals comes cabin bouyancy which is free. The tailgate/frunk will be powered for the same reason.

The only other thing is that they will include foamed sections for positive displacement so it can't sink. This will likely be in dual use form of water proof closed cell sound insulation foam inside fenders, doors, hollow floor volumes etc.

Every new car will float for a while, the question is how long can you extend that floating time without adding a bilge pump. Who know maybe it will have a bilge pump too, but expect it to get uncomfortable when the battery dies.

As for wheel water paddles, I've been tossing this idea around for a few days already, and have gone back to the prototype wheels to see if I can find some clues there, because I beleive the amphibious feature is something EM was considering before launch already, and is only now really confirming it to keep the hype up. The wheel design could have some folding panels ...hard to tell if that was what inspired the hub design.

The closest I've come so far is having a wheel hub design that is "unlocked" by activating a mechanism on the hub that allows paddles to extend out and down, either manually or by air power. Or that the wheel rotation produces thrust by sucking water through the spoke "propeller" of the wheel, in the direction from the front to the back. You steer by alternating motor rpm with quadmotor and dual rear motor.

I imagine that sucking inwards will result in better forwards motion as both wheels thrust converge under the vehicle and could even potentially be partially ducted backwards on the inside of the wheels. You basically end up with two inwards facing propeller wheels that produce thrust towards the middle, where each side needs to be redirected backwards. You can also just have brake cooling ducts directly on the wheel to direct thrust like these just facing backwards:

The only thing is that when the wheel is out of the water it needs to close off the rim propeller shape otherwise it would suck air whilst driving along and create lift under the rear of the CT and would use more energy too.

Numbers wise having some 250kW per wheel available would actually get this CT thing up on a plane over the water, which presents a whole heap of other dynamics that need a solution, like trim etc, so maybe the motors will be limited to 20kW each or so in water o get 5-10knots or so.

Another version is installing a small wheel, hub or axle driven water pump on each rear wheel (or front?) Inside a structure like that brake duct or built into the inboard gear casing itself. Going by jet ski water jet sizes even a 4" impeller should be good enough on each wheel. An electric clutch could activate it to avoid energy use, and it would be mounted just on top of the lowest suspension arm.

Yet another way, although unlikely, which might work if you can solve the driveshaft, wheel alignment and wheel housing clearance problem, is to simply pivot the whole wheel by 70-90 degrees and use the wheel rim propeller without any ducting.

As an add on accessory I can imagine installing a roller driven water jet pump as well. That could be installed at the top of the suspension stroke of the wheel. To activate it you pull up the wheels using the air suspension, which then pushes the wheel against the roller on the inside of the wheel arches. The wheel then spins the roller which drives a water jet, one on each side of the vehiclefor differential thrust. The rear 4WS steering would be locked out for this.

Of all if them I like the motor casing incorporated water jet pump the best, but there might be a better solution yet. If I had proper pictures of the suspension, drivetrain and underneath of the CT I could draw something up.

 

[firsttruck]

I agree, but these vehicles were not advertised as a boat/to float. Invasive species is one tough animal.

Huh, Invasive species know to wait for officially registered boats instead of just invading whatever happens to be there.

 

[Tinker71]

I've mentioned this a few pages ago, but I don't think the CT bouyancy cost much or anything extra to make happen.

I think the missing door handles and electric locking mechanisms are there so they can install better door seals without people having problems closing them. With better seals comes cabin bouyancy which is free. The tailgate/frunk will be powered for the same reason.

The only other thing is that they will include foamed sections for positive displacement so it can't sink. This will likely be in dual use form of water proof closed cell sound insulation foam inside fenders, doors, hollow floor volumes etc.

Every new car will float for a while, the question is how long can you extend that floating time without adding a bilge pump. Who know maybe it will have a bilge pump too, but expect it to get uncomfortable when the battery dies.

As for wheel water paddles, I've been tossing this idea around for a few days already, and have gone back to the prototype wheels to see if I can find some clues there, because I beleive the amphibious feature is something EM was considering before launch already, and is only now really confirming it to keep the hype up. The wheel design could have some folding panels ...hard to tell if that was what inspired the hub design.

The closest I've come so far is having a wheel hub design that is "unlocked" by activating a mechanism on the hub that allows paddles to extend out and down, either manually or by air power. Or that the wheel rotation produces thrust by sucking water through the spoke "propeller" of the wheel, in the direction from the front to the back. You steer by alternating motor rpm with quadmotor and dual rear motor.

I imagine that sucking inwards will result in better forwards motion as both wheels thrust converge under the vehicle and could even potentially be partially ducted backwards on the inside of the wheels. You basically end up with two inwards facing propeller wheels that produce thrust towards the middle, where each side needs to be redirected backwards. You can also just have brake cooling ducts directly on the wheel to direct thrust like these just facing backwards:

The only thing is that when the wheel is out of the water it needs to close off the rim propeller shape otherwise it would suck air whilst driving along and create lift under the rear of the CT and would use more energy too.

Numbers wise having some 250kW per wheel available would actually get this CT thing up on a plane over the water, which presents a whole heap of other dynamics that need a solution, like trim etc, so maybe the motors will be limited to 20kW each or so in water o get 5-10knots or so.

Another version is installing a small wheel, hub or axle driven water pump on each rear wheel (or front?) Inside a structure like that brake duct or built into the inboard gear casing itself. Going by jet ski water jet sizes even a 4" impeller should be good enough on each wheel. An electric clutch could activate it to avoid energy use, and it would be mounted just on top of the lowest suspension arm.

Yet another way, although unlikely, which might work if you can solve the driveshaft, wheel alignment and wheel housing clearance problem, is to simply pivot the whole wheel by 70-90 degrees and use the wheel rim propeller without any ducting.

As an add on accessory I can imagine installing a roller driven water jet pump as well. That could be installed at the top of the suspension stroke of the wheel. To activate it you pull up the wheels using the air suspension, which then pushes the wheel against the roller on the inside of the wheel arches. The wheel then spins the roller which drives a water jet, one on each side of the vehiclefor differential thrust. The rear 4WS steering would be locked out for this.

Of all if them I like the motor casing incorporated water jet pump the best, but there might be a better solution yet. If I had proper pictures of the suspension, drivetrain and underneath of the CT I could draw something up.

OK you thought this through more than I have. I am starting to believe the floating part won't cost much at all. Interesting that you think Elon might have thought about this prior to reveal.

Potential propulsion in the water at the expense of watts per Km while driving won't be tolerated much. Every electric clutch will add complexity, cost and a failure point that won't go over well either.

That is probably why Elon mentioned the hitch mounted water drive. 3-5 HP powered from the 220VAC inverter power. Some sort of remote control.

Simplicity is why I was leaning towards an amphibious hub cap option. It might reduce your range but it would be treated different. Like people that opt for the large wheels for esthetics.

 

[Tinker71]

Huh, Invasive species know to wait for officially registered boats instead of just invading whatever happens to be there.

What is more likely to spread invasive species. ? Someone who mud bogs and crosses a creek occasionally or someone with a amphibious CT.

 

[firsttruck]

What is more likely to spread invasive species. ? Someone who mud bogs and crosses a creek occasionally or someone with a amphibious CT.

There are a lot more mud boggers, water crossing off-roaders, flooded cars/trucks/SUVs than amphibious vehicles.

Depends on mud bogger.
Depends on creek, pond/lake.

Many flooded cars/trucks/SUVs spend days or weeks in water.

Cars/trucks/SUVs that fall/driven off bridges, found in ponds/lakes, mud boggers, water crossing off-roaders do not get precision pressure washed while at side of lake/pond before being hauled or driven away. A lot of pond/lake crap will later be leaked/dropped in a different land location or washed into a different storm drain (non sewer system) and river system.

 

[slomobile]

Just thought of a new off-road adventure for CT: re-enacting the Huckleberry Finn story of floating down the Mississippi River. That could be fun actually. And one might be able to do it on a single charge. Most of the way would be using no propulsion. But you could drive up a riverbank each night to camp. Use power to cook dinner. Then drive back into the river the next day to keep going. If you hit a sandbar, just drive over it.

That could make for one very lazy summer trip.

I'll join the river convoy as you float past Memphis. Inner tubes with coolers, etc.

 

[charliemagpie]

Another version is installing a small wheel, hub or axle driven water pump on each rear wheel (or front?) Inside a structure like that brake duct or built into the inboard gear casing itself. Going by jet ski water jet sizes even a 4" impeller should be good enough on each wheel. An electric clutch could activate it to avoid energy use, and it would be mounted just on top of the lowest suspension arm.

Excellent

The tires will be self-inflating ? We have air at each point already.

AWS by Air

 

[Sirfun]

Just start building the damn things. I couldn't care less if it floats!

My son has a good point to add to this comment.

If they don't start building it in a year. IT BETTER FLOAT!!!

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