Tesla Cybertruck Rear Giga Casting Snaps In Half While Trying to Pull a Ford F-150, & Yes, It’s a Good Thing

Cody from the WhistlinDiesel YouTube channel has just released his long-awaited Cybertruck durability test. And Cody’s brand of extreme testing has shed light on some of the Cybertruck's strengths and weaknesses.

For his test, Cody pitted the Tesla Cybertruck against a Ford F-150, with the main objective being to answer the question, “Is the Cybertruck a real truck?” once and for all.

Cody’s durability test goes far beyond any reasonable day-to-day use, and it is hard to justify some of the testing for anything beyond the entertainment value.

Having said that, during this unconventional testing, Cody believes he has uncovered one critical Cybertruck failure that could affect the truck in a regular daily use case.

The Ford F-150, which was being tested for durability alongside the Cybertruck, got stuck, so Cody decided to use his Cybertruck to pull it out.

Up to this point, everything was relatively normal; however, while the Cybertruck was pulling the Ford, the F-150 ran into another ditch, and this abrupt stop sheered off the Cybertruck’s tow hitch together with the rear giga casting.

Here is what Cody said as he got out of his Cybertruck to analyze the damage…

“Did something just break off? I think we broke the rear bumper. Look at the Cybertruck. What? No, are you kidding me? Our whole frame just snapped.

The hitch is hooked up to what? It just came off. You can't even fix that; that's a totaled truck. What good does the hitch do if it's barely bolted on aluminum? If you were towing a trailer, it would have just fallen off. That's crazy.

Any other normal truck could pull that F-150, and you're not going to break the frame because it’s made of steel. You have to have a steel core, and you have to have something holding the tow hitch together. 

The Cybertruck looks cheap; it’s cast aluminum—that's what they bought that press for. Let's say your trailer hits a pothole or gets a flat; it could shear the whole giga casting off.

What's the towing capacity? 11,000 pounds? To get that certified, they have to go through a ton of testing. A normal truck would never break like this. It's got to be able to do truck things. That was the most truck thing ever, which is to pull out another truck.”

It will be putting it mildly to say Cody was disappointed to see the Cybertruck’s giga casting break in half while trying to pull the Ford.

This is understandable since being able to pull and tow is one of the core functionalities of a pickup truck.

However, before we condemn the Cybertruck, if we examine the whole situation, we can see that not only did the Cybertruck perform the way it was designed to, but the fact that the Cybertruck giga casting sheered off is actually a good thing.

If the Cybertruck’s giga casting fell apart while simply trying to pull a stuck vehicle, of course, that wouldn’t be good; however, in this case, Cody has been severely damaging his Cybertruck, and he specifically damaged the tow hitch and rear casting in one of his previous tests.

Cody ran a speed bump test to evaluate the Cybertruck's suspension. During this test, the Cybertruck went over large tree logs at high speeds. After completing the run, Cody went to analyze the Cybertruck and discovered a piece of wood stuck to the tow hitch.

Cody even says, pointing to the tow hitch, “Is that the part that got hit? I didn’t even know that was there. We just discovered the Cybertruck has a tow hitch.”

It appears that the tow hitch and the rear giga casting were damaged during the suspension test, and that’s most likely why the giga casting sheered off while trying to pull the F-150.

Okay, this explains the damage, but you might be wondering how the rear giga casting sheering off could be according to design and, more importantly, a good thing.

Tesla designed the giga castings on the Cybertruck and Model Y to break off if they come under stress outside the intended load path.

By breaking off at predetermined points, the giga castings will not transfer the energy of the impact into the vehicle's cabin. This allows the giga castings to serve as crumple zones during a crash.

Another advantage of the Cybertruck giga casting breaking off cleanly is its repairability. Because it is a single gigantic piece of aluminum, when Tesla first introduced giga castings, people were rightfully worried that this component would be difficult to repair following an accident.

However, the clean way the giga casting sheers off suggests that during an accident, you don’t have to replace the entire giga cast, but rather, you can break off a section of the giga cast and replace only that part. This makes the Cybertruck much more easily repairable. 

Despite this one point about the giga casting sheering off, WhistlinDiesel’s first Cybertruck durability test appears largely fair. This is the first installment of what will likely be a durability test series, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as the next video drops.

Until then, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.

So, what do you think? Are you surprised to see the Cybertruck’s giga casting falling off while trying to pull an F-150? Also, do you think the Cybertruck needs a steel core to be better at towing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments by clicking the red “Add new comment” button below.

Image: Screenshot from WhistlinDiesel YouTube channel

For more information, check out: My Tesla Cybertruck Rear-Ended a Chevy Silverado, The Silverado is Worse Off, but My Cybertruck Will Cost More to Repair

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.