YouTuber Cody Detwiler, known as WhistlinDiesel, released a video on Friday in which he stress-tested a Tesla Cybertruck and a Ford F-150. Although Detwiler's testing of the EV truck comes months after other social media users, his tests may be some of the most rigorous yet.
Before the series of durability tests started, the Cybertruck rolled off a rollback tow truck, surviving while the Ford F-150's driveshaft instantly broke. Detwiler was infuriated that it took half the day to figure out how to charge the Cybertruck at a Supercharging station (full context: Detwiler did not have a Tesla account for charging).
While the Cybertruck outperformed the F-150 on the 'speed bump test,' 'offroad test,' and 'pothole test,' the EV truck suffered a rear frame separation of the tow hitch and bumper when pulling the stuck F-150.
"Our whole frame just snapped!" Detwiler yelled, adding, "The hitch is hooked up to what? It just came off. You can't even fix that."
"The rear gigacasting… just fails! I mean, it just tears right off! You can see in the screenshot above that a bolt hole acts as a stress concentration," car blog The Autopian noted after reviewing Detwiler's YouTube video.
"Pulling an F150 will not break a Cybertruck's rear frame," one X user said, adding, "This video shows that prior to pulling the F150, the Cybertruck's rear frame slammed onto a concrete block, which is what caused the actual damage."
Pulling an F150 will not break a Cybertruck's rear frame
— Adrian Dittmann (@AdrianDittmann) August 4, 2024
This video shows that prior to pulling the F150, the Cybertruck's rear frame slammed onto a concrete block, which is what caused the actual damage: pic.twitter.com/45xrhji0lD
After that, Detwiler strapped explosives to the door panels of both trucks. The YouTuber claims 'C-4'... It appears the Cybertruck withstood the blast.
The F-150, not so much.
The Autopian summarized the rest of the video as follows: "The rest of the video shows the Cybertruck's numerous build quality issues, its steer-by-wire failure making it hard to tow the thing onto a trailer, and other problems, though it does ultimately demonstrate the truck's superior off-road capability and the toughness of its body panels."
The auto blog concluded, "The Cybertruck's performance in the video is mixed, though the host ultimately crowns the F-150 the winner by one point."
