Umm, an F-150 comes with options for either a 5.5’, 6.5’ and 8’ bed options. The lack of an 8’ bed option on a Cybertruck is the first thing that made me realize it wasn’t an actual work pickup, just a silly toy. You yourself note it can’t tote a full sheet of plywood.
(heh, ninja’d and answered)
The DeLorean used 0.6 mm - 0.8 mm thickness panels. One can guess that non-structural components like the flared wheel arches were on the bottom end of that. The Cybertruck is 1.4-1.8 mm thick. It also uses a different alloy and goes through a hardening treatment substantially beyond what the DeLorean did.
And even at that, the flared arches aren’t that extreme. It isn’t impossible to stamp stainless–it’s just difficult, and becomes more difficult as the complexity of the shape increases.
Thanks, Doc!
Not to defend the CT, but because of the undercut in the front of the bed it’s pretty much exactly 8’ to the back of the lowered tailgate, just the same as all the rest of the crew-cab pickups… At least Ford does offer an 8’ bed, but that makes for a very long truck.
It seems the ship has sailed on work trucks being used to haul material around anyways. Trucks carry toolboxes and misc crap in the bed, and haul a trailer to carry larger/longer items when required.
I know it makes for a big truck. I’ve driven several. Fact is, without an 8’ bed, you can put a full sheet of plywood or drywall back there, but there’s no good way to keep it dry and protected without one. For does offer an 8’ bed in their crew cab with an ICE, but not in the Lightning.
I’ve had 6.5 foot beds in pick ups for decades (since I was in high school) Just leave the tail gate down and a 4x8 sheet of plywood or drywall or whatever is no problem.
I prefer the shorter length for maneuverability and parking. Not that the 4 door cyber truck has that going for it. I also prefer standard cabs. None of that crew/stretch cab stuff.
Most people seem to like the extended crew cabs, and if you get that plus the eight-foot bed, you’ve got a really long vehicle.
Yeah, I can see wanting the crew cabs for lots of reasons. Especially if you have a family, or cart your ‘crew’ around. I have neither.
I really need the shorter wheelbase for plowing. When I used to go 4-wheeling with them it was also a BIG plus.
My brother has a full sized 4 door 8 foot bed. He is a bit unhappy with how big it is I think. He used to drive 18 wheelers.
Yeah, we spent quite a bit of time trying to identify good vehicles for when we had three kids, and then we stumbled onto the F-150 with crew cab, which was great (plus we ended up using the truck for a lot for truck-y things).
The Cybertruck is efficiently packged for length, though. It’s 5683mm long. The F-150 Lightning, on the other hand, is over 300mm longer, despite only having a 5.5 ft bed.
So the F-150 is about a foot longer, despite having a bed a foot shorter. The Cybertruck is only about 300mm longer than a Ford Maverick midsize pickup truck. It’s almost exactly betwwen the length of a Maverick and an F-150 short bed. The F-150 with the same length bed as the Cybertruck is significantly longer.
More to the point, they don’t actually exist. At least not with the F-150 (the only one I tried). Build a custom config with an 8’ bed and it says “this combination is not available” with anything but the regular cab. And some options packages only come with the 5.5’ bed.
One thing I would be pleased about if/when ever EV pickups become perfected and economically practical for the mass market (which as discussed the Cybertruck is admittedly not even close to being) is that it could enable the return of the reasonably-sized non-behemoth light pickup truck. ICE pickups have bloated up in part due to a perverse incentive in CAFE standards being more lenient for bigger, heavier trucks.
Actually, the smaller trucks are a hot segment right now. The Ford Maverick and Ranger , the GMC Canyon/Chevy Colorado, and the Toyota Tacoma are very popular among non-work truck owners who don’t have to tow huge trailers.
A winning package for me would be a midsize crew cab hybrid. Give it a 75 kWh battery, a small 4 cyl range extender under the hood. All electric range might be 150 miles, but with the range extender maybe 400 miles. Sell that for under $40,000 base, and you’ll sell a zillion.
If Tesla doesn’t want to build gas engines they should consider a standard bus in the bed for a range extender. Then the thirs party could come up,with a gas one, diesel, hydrogen, battery, whatever.
It might be possible already. They already have the connections for an extended battery pack. Doesn’t seem impossible to reverse engineer.
Yeah. But they should publish it and encourage its creative use. and maybe supply whatever fittings and attach points such a thing would need.if the standard rails don’t suffice.
I could see frame generator manufacurers like Champion or Generac taking a swing at a mobile gas generator range extender. Ford is supposedly working on one for thr Lightning. I think they put it on the backburner after the announcement, but I’ll bet the RAMCharger has them rethinking that strategy. That, plus the growing pile of unsold Lightnings on dealer lots. There might be some good deals coming if you are considering one.
If PHEV trucks become the norm, the Lightning is in trouble if they don’t find a solution. I don’t know how much re-emgineering it would take to put an engine back under the hood, along with exhaust, etc. The Cybertruck can’t do it at all. I don’t know if an extra 50kWh battery is going to cut it.
Some more of that exciting rear axle activity. I’m sure it will turn out to be his fault somehow.
As a 10-year-old, the AMC Gremlin was by far my favorite Hot Wheel and it was so cool when I saw it in the wild. The love for the Delorean I will never understand though. Looked ugly as shit to me then; looks ugly as shit to me now.
I actually didn’t mind the Gremlin. The Pacer was much, much worse.
The Aztek, on the other hand, brooks no argument. Anyone who likes the Aztek is objectively psychopathic.
Agree. The Gremlin was OK.
Best friends folks had a Pacer. He called it the fish bowl. And it had a number of mechanical problems. It was interesting though… the passenger side door was bigger to allow access to the the back seats.
The Aztec was an interesting concept, that is sort of like some sort of cross overs that we have today. Ugly as sin though.
The PT Cruiser is sort of in the same class. I guess a lot of folks liked it though. That’s cool, but… um… hard no for me. Every seen a PT Crusier convertible? Did you have to pull over to stop laughing?