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Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

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21–30 of 93 posts

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#21
post #8
post #3

To my untrained (WRT off-roading) eye, I didn't see that much difference between the two. I also wonder how much difference there would be due to driver skill. And as mentioned in TFA, Ford has been making trucks a lot longer than Tesla.

To me it looked like the CT primarily used its rear motors here, and perhaps also didn't have a "crawl" mode (it'd be XDrive in Subaru speak, I guess) as it was kind of all or nothing. Traction control systems can be upgraded; it'll be interesting to see Tesla return serve on this one. FWIW I reckon 99.9% of these monster trucks will never see conditions like in this video. And that's being generous. Australia has so…

The FBT exemption incentivises the common crop of dual cab utes. Those are Hilux, Ranger, etc.

The much larger F150 shown here can only be had by first importing from the US and then converting locally to right hand drive. The associated engineering certificates and approvals are non-trivia. By that point they’ve picked up the luxury car tax due to the costs involved. They also attract a higher registration/CTP fee due to weight and risk.

So, they’re actually heavily disincentivised by taxes and policy. That’s before you even look at the cost to comprehensively insure. Very steep due to the substantial repair costs driven by parts availability.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#22

As much as I wanna hate on the Cybertruck, tests like these are kind of irelevant as the tires could end up making more of a difference than the car. Granted it's Tesla's responsibility to ship the car with adequate tires to its customers.

Yes, this is a tire test. My Tacoma would skid (scary) on Seattle's steep, wet streets, until I got Michelins. Huge difference and not because of the truck.

Can I ask which tire brand you had before, the ones that were skidding?

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm? Its pretty massive to me. The Tesla has like no suspension travel. The suspension is barely compressing, and you can see the body bounce over the terrain as the wheels lift or almost lift. If you covered the top of the truck from view, I'd say it looks like a cheap crossover. And the base F-150 is not really a long travel truck, its just... you know, sprung like a truck. A little side by side UTV could run over t…

Also, according to the article, the Ford is on road tires whilst the CT is on all-terrains.

Not a massive factor on that dusty surface. Tyre pressure would make more of a difference I’d wager.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#24
post #2

It's not easy towing all those batteries up a slippery surface. I'm interested to learn what other significant tradeoffs there are between ICE vs electric when off-roading.

F150 lightning is all electric as well

I understand, what I'm trying to communicate is how now it's a triumph for them to get up a modest hill. Totally different power to weight ratio.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#25

Looks like the Tesla has an open diff with poor brake lock diff control, I think the lighting has an option for a locking rear diff wonder if they were using it, looks like it. Interesting thing about the Rivian quad motor version is while it has full software control due to a motor per wheel, this can be a downside for crawling like this because it has no way to send torque from one side to the other, so if say only…

>this can be a downside for crawling like this because it has no way to send torque from one side to the other I'm pretty sure that there'll eventually be some sort of LSD/locking programming for electric motors. Take the existing F-150 Tremor for example. It comes with a locking rear diff and a Torsen diff in the front axle. If you have a quad motor vehicle, someone could easily write a "locking rear diff" mode that…

It's not about turning at the same pace, the side that has no traction cannot send its torque to the side that does without a mechanical connection. Each wheel is limited to the maximum torque of a single motor vs torque being sent to all wheels in a traditional single ICE engine with transfer case and lockers.

You can see a quad motor Rivian performing worse than the new dual motor due this issue, the dual motor can use brake locking to send full torque from one side to the other, the quad motor cannot:

https://youtu.be/I9J52zE5boc?si=Fn1KA6Mtb_FFTGDc&t=2652

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#26
post #3

To my untrained (WRT off-roading) eye, I didn't see that much difference between the two. I also wonder how much difference there would be due to driver skill. And as mentioned in TFA, Ford has been making trucks a lot longer than Tesla.

I'm with you, both trucks struggled a bit but made it to the top. Is this kind of driving an important use case though? I would think it would be more impressive to compare how these trucks handle towing trailers.

Depends on where you're at. In my area while you're not going up this type of hill, terrain very similar to this is common when you're out in the sticks looking for a newborn calf to get it inside and out of the cold.

Not everywhere a truck needs to do this stuff, but also not everywhere is it all just towing capabilities.

Source: Live in rural Iowa on farms.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#27

As much as I wanna hate on the Cybertruck, tests like these are kind of irelevant as the tires could end up making more of a difference than the car. Granted it's Tesla's responsibility to ship the car with adequate tires to its customers.

CT was on all terrain tires while Ford was with road tires in this test

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#28
post #3

To my untrained (WRT off-roading) eye, I didn't see that much difference between the two. I also wonder how much difference there would be due to driver skill. And as mentioned in TFA, Ford has been making trucks a lot longer than Tesla.

I'm with you, both trucks struggled a bit but made it to the top. Is this kind of driving an important use case though? I would think it would be more impressive to compare how these trucks handle towing trailers.

Depends on where you live and your expectations ... here's a bunch of grey haired pensioners on holidays in Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5SlLRuBQ0

Their vehicle has pretty good suspension for that type of thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4k1ZbJS80E

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning Breezes Up Obstacle Where Tesla Cybertruck Struggled

#30
post #3

To my untrained (WRT off-roading) eye, I didn't see that much difference between the two. I also wonder how much difference there would be due to driver skill. And as mentioned in TFA, Ford has been making trucks a lot longer than Tesla.

I'm with you, both trucks struggled a bit but made it to the top. Is this kind of driving an important use case though? I would think it would be more impressive to compare how these trucks handle towing trailers.

Depends on who you are.

For towing, no.

As a farm truck in steep terrain, the ability to get up and down rough tracks on steep slopes is absolutely part of the brief.

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