The Tesla Cybertruck is built with a cast aluminum frame. Get up to 40% off your RIDGE wallet here: https://www.ridge.com/JERRYRIG (discount code: JerryRig) Huge thanks to RIDGE for sponsoring my science projects. This helps the cyber truck be manufactured extremely quickly. However - cast aluminum is not good for towing as we see in this Cybertruck durability test video. The hitch breaks around 10,000 pounds. (4500kg) Which is far too close to the 11,000 pound towing capacity. Yikes.
While the Gigacasting method is *terrible* for the Cybertruck it is actually an amazing manufacturing process for Tesla's other vehicles which i highly recommend: https://ts.la/zack10701
If you want an electric truck that can still tow 11,000lbs and not snap in half - might i recommend a Rivian: https://rivian.com/configurations/list?reprCode=ZACK1594426
While the Gigacasting method is *terrible* for the Cybertruck it is actually an amazing manufacturing process for Tesla's other vehicles which i highly recommend: https://ts.la/zack10701
If you want an electric truck that can still tow 11,000lbs and not snap in half - might i recommend a Rivian: https://rivian.com/configurations/list?reprCode=ZACK1594426
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FunTranscript
00:00That's not good. That's not good. It's moving. It's moving! It is cracking so much.
00:06Oh!
00:07When Tesla started making the Cybertruck, they invented something called the Gigapress,
00:13which is the world's largest 9,000 ton aluminum injection molding machine that can effectively
00:19make Cybertruck frames out of aluminum within minutes. Very impressive.
00:24However, when it comes to enabling truck stuff, like towing, it sounds like Tesla just took
00:29a steel receiving hitch and bolted it straight to that cast aluminum frame, which raises
00:34some eyeballs after Whistle and Diesel's hitch completely separated from his truck during
00:39one of his videos. He's also not the only one who's had his hitch completely fall off
00:43while towing.
00:44So today we're going to scientifically see at exactly what weight the Cybertruck hitch
00:48actually breaks off, or if it really was the fault of the brutal impact that Whistle and
00:53Diesel's truck received before it snapped. I don't know exactly what's going to happen,
00:58but we do have a Cybertruck and a 50,000 pound excavator, and we'll see which one breaks
01:04first.
01:05I do know, however, that casted aluminum is more porous than, say, extruded aluminum or
01:10steel. So if I had to guess, I would say that the Cybertruck is probably cooked. However,
01:16we do have a control truck over there. It's a Dodge 2500. It has a steel frame and nearly
01:23the same towing capabilities as the Cybertruck, so we can get a direct comparison on how
01:28the two materials perform...aluminum or steel. And of course, the bullet hole from one of
01:35our previous experiments should not affect the outcome of this scientific experiment.
01:41Someone else who's been experimenting with different materials is Ridge Wallets, the
01:44sponsor of today's video and the maker of the wallet that I've had in my own pocket
01:48for the last 6 years. They just released a new wallet design with built in internal magnets,
01:54making it MagSafe compatible, meaning the wallet securely connects to your iPhone or
01:58MagSafe enabled protective grip case. Incredibly cool. My own Ridge wallet that's lasted me
02:03for half a decade so far is made from titanium. You can see the difference in finish after
02:086 years of use. Fun fact, titanium was actually floated as a material to plate the Cybertruck
02:13with before they settled on stainless steel. If titanium isn't your jam though, Ridge has
02:17over 50 other colors and styles to choose from. The wallet holds 12 cards plus cash.
02:23You don't have to take my word for it though, Ridge has sold over 5 million wallets over
02:26the past 10 years. You can get one for yourself at Ridge.com slash JerryRig and use the code
02:31JerryRig to get up to 40% off of their anniversary sale right now. The rain is coming down. We're
02:38still doing this test regardless though. Ridge.com slash JerryRig and huge thanks to Ridge for
02:42supporting my science experiments.
02:46We're trying not to disturb the construction workers too much, but they have agreed to
02:50let us borrow their excavator. This is such a cool project. To accurately quantify how
02:56much pressure is being applied to the hitch, we have something called a crane scale that
03:01is normally, you know, supposed to be used on a crane to tell how heavy the load is.
03:04In our case though, we've parked the Cybertruck on a ledge and created a custom hitch that
03:09holds the scale while we press down on it with an excavator. And we will just keep on
03:15pushing until something breaks. The scale will probably break at 20,000 pounds, but
03:20I think that the aluminum casting on the Cybertruck will break long before that. We'll make sure
03:26to have cameras set up on this. It's accurate to within 5 pound intervals, so we will get
03:31a very, very exact number if the Cybertruck breaks. Since the Cybertruck has a towing
03:37capacity of 11,000 pounds, I think if we see the hitch snap off before that, before 11,000
03:43pounds, Tesla has a rather large problem on their hands. Since an improperly loaded
03:48trailer, or a trailer hitting a pothole at 80 miles an hour, could distribute those loads
03:53on the hitch. If the hitch of the Cybertruck snaps off between say 11,000 and 15,000 pounds,
03:59I don't think Tesla has an immediate problem on their hands. However, they might have a
04:03problem down the road since aluminum does not have a fatigue limit. It will just continuously
04:08get weaker and weaker forever, especially as it gets stressed from towing. Not that
04:14people who buy Cybertrucks are going to be towing on a regular basis, but still, it's
04:18a truck. It's implied that it can do truck things. Steel on the other hand does not have
04:23a fatigue limit. So when we test the Dodge over there, it's a 1994 and it is probably
04:27just as strong today as it was 30 years ago. Anyway, that's a whole lot of talking and
04:33now it's finally time to start testing. Let's get the excavator over here. Because we're
04:37putting so much weight on the back of the Cybertruck, we're nervous that the front
04:41of the Cybertruck might come off the ground. So we're using the other tractor to strap
04:46in and keep the front tires pinned to the mud. Moment of truth. We got the excavator
04:52attached to our custom hitch and scale. We're going to start applying pressure. Alright,
04:58it's go time. Go for it. Just a little by little. We're at 70, 100. This is terrifying.
05:06300! 6! I'm scared. Oh my gosh. Okay, so right now we are officially at the...we are exceeding
05:15the tongue weight. We are 15...3,000. 4,000. So far so good.
05:28My rear suspension is sluggish. Yeah, it is sinking. Oh, I'm terrified dude. You can hear
05:36the front end of the truck. Do you hear something? Yeah. I hear something happening at 6,000
05:45It's not straight anymore. It's definitely not straight. Dude, 67. That was a crack.
05:55Dude, my heart is racing man. Oh, this is not good. That's not good. That's not good.
06:03It's moving. It's moving. The alarm's going off. 8,000. The excavator's over there up on
06:16its tracks. We might have him get a little closer so we can put more than 8,000 on it.
06:20But man, the truck is creaking. Creaking more than a millennial going downstairs.
06:24Alright, we're going to position the excavator a little closer so we can get more of the 50,000
06:28pounds on that hitch. But 8,000 pounds, that's farther than I thought it was going to get. I
06:33thought we were going to break sub 5. See any damage yet? No, it looks fine. Did it just kink?
06:38The hitch is back to straight basically. Alright, that's not bad. Boy, they handled
06:42a little more than we thought. Yeah, so far the aluminum's doing good. Pretty good. He got 8,000.
06:48Yeah, it's not bad at all. I thought it would break at like 4 or 5. Round two. I still think
06:54there's a big issue if it breaks under 10. Oh my gosh, dude. It is moving. 9,000 pounds.
07:04Oh my gosh. Oh, dude. 10,000? 10,000. Dude. It is cracking so much.
07:16Oh, dude. That was right at 10,000. Oh my gosh. Dude. 10,000 pounds. Dude, that's wild.
07:40Yeah, that took the whole frame with it. 10,000 pounds. That is...that's
07:44easy. That is one improperly loaded trailer away from catastrophic failure.
07:49What do you think about that, dude? I think you're crazy.
07:53You're not wrong. Okay, let's figure out what happened here. Besides the obvious that we did
07:57this. Yeah, well, you know, that's...that's the point. Was this glued? Yeah, I think that was
08:04glued. Alright, so they glued that part together. Alright, so let's assess the damage here. So
08:10right here, it looks like this casting broke. This is where that was bolted to. So this...what
08:15do you think this is? The purple stuff? It's like an adhesive. But it's got to be a temporary
08:20adhesive, right? Like there's no way that was... That is how they build their cars.
08:23What the freak? No, it's just... That whole thing is held on with the adhesive.
08:27So there's adhesive here. But I think it's just to line it up. Dude, we totally jacked this up
08:32too. So this might have been like one of the previous cracks. And then like this crack right
08:37here, that's the giga casting. The steel hitch is here bolted to the aluminum, but it's the
08:42aluminum casting that broke off the face of the truck. Which like I'm pretty sure is the exact
08:48same place that it broke on Whistle and Diesel's truck. Obviously his had the impact first and then
08:53he yoinked it, but 10,000 pounds where it breaks is not a good thing. Well, should I just pull
08:57forward? Is it still going to drive? I think we just break this off and call it good. It says
09:04high voltage system error detected. Oh no, it's not going to drive. Electrical systems
09:09unable to support all features. Can you put it into drive? Let's find out.
09:16It's not letting me drive. Oh no! I think we broke the truck. It's not even driving anymore.
09:20The Cybertruck has 23 different error messages on the screen right now, so we're just going to
09:25drag it out of the way. It says something wrong with the high voltage pack, which like, you know,
09:29we ripped off the hitch. Oh my gosh. We still have the steel frame Dodge Ram 2500 to test out
09:37here in a second, but the Cybertruck's aluminum castings being glued together is not something I
09:42had on my 2025 Bingo car. To be fair, it is important here that we mention there is a
09:47difference between tongue weight and trailer weight. Normally while you're towing you want
09:51the trailer weight to carry 90% of your load, and only 10-15% of that load resting on that tongue
09:57or ball of your hitch. However, there are real world situations where the Cybertruck's trailer
10:02weight becomes tongue weight while operating under normal towing conditions, like cresting a steep
10:08hill or driveway. That 11,000 pounds of trailer weight becomes tongue weight and the Cybertruck
10:13hitch could snap off. Or pulling another vehicle out of a mud pit while off-roading, or off of a
10:19tall obstacle like Whistle and Diesel did. Both situations can easily apply 10,000 pounds of force
10:24non-linearly. Or worst case scenario, your 11,000 pound trailer jumps the ball while driving on the
10:30freeway at 80 miles an hour and gives the safety chains a sharp downward jerk and the whole rear
10:36end of your Cybertruck is now gone, safety clips included. The truck is now totaled, getting 28
10:41different error messages just because the bumper ripped off is wild. A cast aluminum frame with
10:463-16th wall thickness is just a slap in the face to anyone who bought one of these Cybertrucks.
10:52Thinly cast aluminum is not enough to hold an 11,000 pound trailer in all conditions,
10:57and I'm curious to see how Tesla's going to make this right. The Cybertruck is not a rigid stainless
11:01steel exoskeleton super truck like it was advertised. It's a soft, supple, porous,
11:07mose 3-level cast aluminum with the towing ability of a pop can.
11:13But we do still have one test left, a normal truck with its steel hitch bolted to a steel bumper.
11:20This one's actually already a little bit bent so it makes me nervous. It's a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500.
11:27Oh they're twins! They match! Yeah, there's no engine in this one so it's just the frame
11:32and the hitch is what we're testing. Just pulling it back a little bit.
11:39So one thing I do want to point out with this truck though is that it is...it's been in a wreck
11:43and it looks like the hitch is already slightly pre-bent. Just want to point that out. We don't
11:47know how that's going to affect the actual downward force, but if steel is in fact so
11:52much better than aluminum, it might not affect it at all. There's only one way to find out.
11:57You know how it is.
11:58Okay, let's do it!
12:063,000. 4,000.
12:145,000. Oh boy.
12:204,000.
12:245,000.
12:286,500.
12:328,000. This suspension is killing me.
12:34We're at 10,500.
12:36His tracks are coming off the ground.
12:3810,700.
12:40Go out! There you go!
12:42Look at his tracks, dude.
12:44Yeah!
12:46I don't know if the excavator can do more weight than that.
12:52Not breaking at 10,000 pounds is good.
12:54He's got as much weight as he possibly can.
12:56As much weight as he possibly can is the back of the excavators.
13:00We need heavier machines.
13:02He's bouncing at 10,700, but it's still not breaking.
13:06Do we have any heavier equipment?
13:08Let's just bounce it.
13:10Bounce it! Bounce it he says!
13:14Look at that!
13:18So it looks like with our current situation, we can't get over 10,000 pounds on this hitch.
13:24He's bouncing on it hard.
13:26But where the Cybertruck broke, the Dodge is not breaking.
13:30I wish we could get some more weight on it though.
13:32But we are fresh out of construction equipment.
13:34Got that truck over there pinning the front.
13:36He's bouncing on it. Holy smokes.
13:42I mean that does go to show that at least this hitch on the steel frame is stronger.
13:54I was hoping that we'd be able to get more weight and figure out when the steel frame would break.
14:06But we've maxed it out with the equipment we have available.
14:10And the steel frame on the Dodge truck did not break at the same weight that the Cybertruck did break.
14:16Which is interesting and scientific information, but I do wish we could get a catastrophic failure point on the steel frame.
14:23It's just not going to happen today.
14:25Either way, I still have the opinion that a steel frame is much stronger than cast aluminum.
14:31And if I see a Cybertruck towing on the freeway, I would not want to be anywhere close to that thing.
14:37Especially because an improperly loaded trailer hitting a pothole could put that much weight, 10,000 pounds, onto the hitch and have it snap off.
14:48Not only just snap off, but snap off with its little safety hooks as well.
14:54So the trailer, whatever trailer you have, you know, your $100,000 RV is going to be skittering down the road by itself.
15:01Because there's nothing left holding it to the Cybertruck. Wild.
15:05You know what doesn't break though? A Ridge wallet. Get up to 40% off with the link in the description.
15:10That's that. Let me know what your thoughts are down in the comments.
15:12And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.