Tesla and its vehicles are a polarizing topic in the automotive world. The company has its die hard fans that will go to the mat over even the slightest issue, and they believe that Tesla can do no wrong. On the other side, there are those that can see mistakes and flaws in Tesla’s vehicles and shout them from the rooftops. Thus, when video hit the Internet showing a Tesla Cybertruck attempting and failing to climb a snowy slope, the rage machine on both sides kicked into overdrive. Today, we’re going to dive in and examine what was really going on.
The videos were posted to Instagram by one Matt Chambers, who noted that it was actually a video shot by a friend of his who helped with the recovery. The Cybertruck is branded as an “RC”, or “Release Candidate” model, with stickers on the side denoting that it’s an engineering prototype. We see the truck attempting to climb a steep slope near a pine forest at the Corral Hollow OHV Trail, with a Christmas tree loaded in the bed. It helplessly spins its wheels and makes little forward progress, and is eventually pulled back on to a flat trail by a Ford.
Ultimately, from what we’re told about the incident, and what we can see ourselves, there are a number of factors at play behind the Cybertruck getting stranded in this situation. Let’s tick them off one by one.
The first thing to reckon with is the slope. Video and photos are often a poor indication of just how steep a slope is, but there are certain context clues that tell us that the truck is contending with a fairly decent incline. If you look at the people in the background of the shot, you can get an idea of the angle of the terrain. It’s not an impassable slope, by any means, but steeper inclines do rob a vehicle of grip.
Steep Slopes Are Hard To Climb, Especially If Traction Is Low
This is fairly obvious, but let’s get into it; it’s all about friction and that friend of ours from physics, the normal force. (What follows is a heavily simplified explanation; for a deeper one, dive into some beginner’s physics and engineering courses).
The more friction between a tire and a surface, the more power you can put down to move in the direction you want to go. The amount of friction available can be determined by an equation where the friction force equals the coefficient of friction multiplied by the normal force. Ultimately, the coefficient of friction is determined by the surfaces involved – in this case, rubber and snow – and is affected by things like wetness, surface contact, and so on. If the coefficient is zero, there is no friction at all between the two surfaces in question. Higher coefficients are indicative of more available grip. Rubber on asphalt in the dry can have a coefficient around 0.7 in typical cases. Obviously, in the case of rubber on ice, which is much slipperier, the coefficient can be as low as 0.15.
However, the coefficient only tells half the story. You can have a good coefficient of friction, but if the normal force is low, you won’t have much friction, and thus grip, anyway. For our cases, the normal force is always perpendicular to the surface on which a vehicle rests. It’s the equal and opposite force to that of the car’s mass being pulled down by gravity. As the gravity pulls the car towards the ground, the ground exerts an equal and opposite force in return. This is what stops your car falling through to the center of the Earth.
The problem is that on a slope, gravity keeps pulling straight down, but the normal force remains perpendicular to the slope. What this means is that the normal force ends up equal to only a fraction of the gravitational force, and the steeper the slope, the smaller that fraction is. Effectively, the component of the gravitational force that is perpendicular to the slope generates the normal force, which helps with grip, while the rest is tugging the vehicle down the hill.
[Ed Note: Just as important as the drop in normal force (and thus friction) is the fact that the force due to gravity — which is giant given the vehicle’s girth — has a significant component pulling the truck down the slope (m*g*sin of the angle). This means that tractive forces pushing the truck uphill will have to overcome that plus the other opposing forces that would exist on a flat grade like rolling resistance, bearing resistance, etc. -DT].
The Tires Clearly Weren’t Ideal
With the physics out of the way, we should move on to the specifics of the situation. It’s plainly apparent that the Cybertruck doesn’t have the right tires for the situation. It looks to be wearing a relatively tame set of all seasons which are never going to be the best kit for snow, dirt, and mud.
Beyond their lack of aggressive tread, all seasons generally use rubber compounds that aren’t super grippy in low temperatures, either. When things get really cold, the rubber tends to become harder and less compliant, so it can’t mold to a surface as effectively and generates less grip. Winter tires are specifically designed to remain more supple in lower temperatures to avoid this.
My Autopian colleague Pete performed some Google magic and discovered this forum post, which shows the tire above is almost certainly a Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT, as previously seen on Cybertrucks in the wild. It’s an all-season, all-terrain tire. In other words, it’s a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
Here’s an example of a Goodyear Wrangler Territory (left). More aggressive tread designs such as the Dunlop Grandtrek SJ6 (center), Falken Wildpeak AT3W, or one of Goodyear’s more heavily lugged Wrangler models would have helped the Cybertruck – or any other truck – find more grip on that snowy slope. Production Cybertrucks are to be shod with the Pirelli Scorpion ATR, which is known for good performance in snow.
Along with the impact of tire choice, we can further speculate that tire pressure played a role. Dropping tire pressures is a simple way to get more grip, particularly in softer surfaces. As tire pressure goes down, the contact patch on the tire increases in size. This is because as a greater surface area of tire is required to support the vehicle’s weight with less air pressure in the tire. You want more rubber in contact with the ground trying to find some purchase and something to grab on to, to help pull the car along. By airing down the tires, you spread the vehicle’s weight over a greater area of rubber, and increase the chance of the tires gripping and moving the car, rather than simply slipping and spinning. A great example is the way that tank tracks take this to the extreme, creating excellent grip by spreading a vehicle’s weight across a long, wide tread.
In snow, airing down for a larger contact patch can be particularly helpful. It tends to help the tire “float” over a wider patch of snow because the tire’s load is spread over a greater area. This is desirable compared to seeing a higher-inflated tire punch through and sink into the slush. It’s very similar to how things work when sand driving.
[Ed Note: I haven’t had a tun of success airing down in the snow, though admittedly I haven’t done it a ton. -DT].
The Prototype Traction Control System Likely Needs A Few Updates
We can also see the Cybertruck, which is all-wheel-drive, is failing to put its power down. It’s spinning wheels both front and rear. According to the posts, this was in part due to a software issue which disabled the ability of the rear brakes to act as a locking differential. We don’t know exactly what drivetrain configuration this pre-release version of the Cybertruck had, but let’s explore the topic of why this can cause problems offroad.
Vehicles with open differentials face a common problem when tackling difficult terrain. An open differential transmits torque equally to both wheels. This becomes a problem when one wheel is on a slippery surface or dangling in the air without contact to the ground. This is because the further limitation of the open differential is that it can only deliver as much torque as the wheel with the least grip can take. Thus, if one wheel is spinning freely and putting down virtually no torque to the ground, the other wheel will get the same tiny amount of torque, and the car will go nowhere.
In the case of the Cybertruck seen here, it appears it may be suffering this problem. Some off-roaders get around this flaw by using the brakes. Hitting the brakes creates some resistance for a wheel dangling in the air, allowing it to accept more torque. This higher torque can be transferred to both wheels, hopefully providing some forward motion. Some modern vehicles use computer systems as a sort of “faux-locker” to selectively brake the wheels independently to generate this effect and allow forward motion. For example, the wheel spinning freely can have its brake engaged to create some resistance, allowing the differential to send more torque to both wheels. It’s not as good as a real locking differential, but it can sometimes make enough difference to get your vehicle out of a tight spot. In this case, though, reports from the ground are that a software issue disabled this feature on the Cybertruck.
It’s worth noting, though, that production Cybertrucks may not be victim to the same circumstance. As reported by Drew Baglino, Tesla’s SVP of Powertrain and Energy, production dual-motor Cybertrucks come with differential locks front and rear. A locked differential effectively allows 100% of torque to be transferred to a single wheel on an axle. It doesn’t matter if one wheel loses grip or has no contact with the ground; full torque can be sent to the other wheel to provide propulsion. In the case of the tri-motor Cybertruck, there is only a front differential lock. However, that’s because each rear wheel gets its own independent motor, and thus there is no need for a rear differential at all.
Front diff locker for tri, front & rear locker for dual.
— Drew Baglino (@baglino) December 1, 2023
Locking diffs would have probably been a great boon in this case. Combined with the prodigious low-down torque available from the truck’s electric motors, it may have had more luck crawling up the slippery slope without needlessly spinning its wheels.
Of course, it bears noting that we don’t have all the information. It’s possible that this slope is steeper than it looks, and slipperier than it looks, and that it may have been difficult for even a better-equipped Cybertruck to get up without issue. What would really fill us in is if we had footage of another truck in the same conditions doing a better job. Regardless, there’s still plenty that could have improved the Cybertruck’s chances, as discussed.
Just to be clear… this is a Super Duty and NOT advertising. Glad a @Ford owner was there to help. https://t.co/Rr78EY9k2T
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) December 13, 2023
Hilariously, this pre-production truck had one more flaw that complicated everything. It had zero recovery points fitted, and thus had to be recovered via a tow rope wrapped around the suspension. This is not ideal, and suggests the team involved with testing the truck had not properly prepared perfectly. If anything, you’d expect a prototype to have recovery gear available at all times given the higher likelihood of something breaking or failing.
Overall, the video doesn’t mean the Cybertruck is awful off-road. To avoid a similar situation yourself, make sure you’ve got snow tires, and that they’re appropriately inflated to optimize the conditions. Remember that going up a steep slope cuts your grip, and consider if you can safely find a way to make it up a lower grade instead. Engage diff locks if you have them, or any traction control or faux-locker aids that your truck might come with. And, if all else fails, make sure you’ve got the right recovery gear to make towing your truck out easy. Happy wheeling out there!
Some cranky notes here.
The slope isn’t that bad. You don’t need to look at the people because there are an absolute shit-ton (tun?) of vertical references all around called trees.
This wasn’t deep snow, so there is ground purchase to be had. I don’t think other road-usable tires would have helped that much. The real problem is the weight of the thing. As David mentioned, the gravity/slope factor compounds the weight disadvantage to the point of it becoming a Ford commercial. I think there is just some contact patch equation here that can’t be overcome without much larger tires. Like I’m talking Aliens M577 Armored Personnel Carrier sized tires which just wouldn’t be viable on a road going vehicle. I’m beginning to think that there might be a limit to how heavy you can make an EV and still have it excel off road without untenable compromises having to be made.
I suspect we are going to see a lot more of these fail videos starring the Tesla KET.
I don’t really think anything would walk up that unless there is flat ground below and they can get a running start.
The weight is definitely a disadvantage on loose surfaces. I think this is because you have to start worrying about the terrain shearing against itself instead of the tires losing traction.
Also contact patch depends-since this snow isn’t super deep I think you’d want to go full rally car and have skinny tires so you can dig into it.
Yep, they certainly missed pointing out the heavy weight aspect. It is so much easier to get a lightweight vehicle unstuck than a heavy truck, especially if the ground it is on won’t support the traction without the vehicle digging in.
But, ‘snow’ covers a huge range of conditions. Fresh snow when it’s 15°F gives much more traction than the day after it got up to 35° & the sun made it mushy. As mentioned, I’d like to see that truck that pulled it out go up the same ground before I call this a real fail.
Note that I am not any sort of fanboy: I’m not defending this exercise in ego. But I am interested in seeing fair comparisons
David Tracy, a man without a cask of wine.
Serious cybertruck (or EV truck in general) question: EVs very famously have specialized low rolling resistance tires to maximize efficiency/range. How much of a hit would the range take with (say) winter tires or other tires with more aggressive treads/better performance in snow and off-road conditions? (i.e. Is it just a few %, which is an overall marginal effect, or is it more significant given the range optimization of the standard tires?)
You can use Rivian’s direct numbers here.
They have an “EV-specific” AT tire (275/65/20) that returns approx 2 mi/kWh. The default config has a 21” all-season (275/55/21) that returns approx 2.3 mi/kWh.
Net is a difference of like 40 miles on a full charge, or around 14%.
I have an R1T and can confirm, after having gone from 21” to 20” OE rims/tires that these numbers generally stick.
Others have gone to more aggressive 20” ATs and are seeing further reductions in efficiency. It’s all about the tread and rolling resistance.
I can’t tell a difference in efficiency between the regular all season tires (17″ wheels) and the snow tires (15″ wheels) on the Bolt. I’ve even seen references that tires with some taller, flexible lugs can potentially even help with rolling resistance, as there’s less resistance to the deformation of the tire contact patch. Mud tires, that would be a different story though on something fully set up for offroading. That said, I’ve had people amazed by how well the Bolt does offroad in mud with the snow tires on.
It truly makes me happy that you take your Bolt out in the mud.
Salud! Sir-or-Ma’am. 🙂
Jim Farley should send back a “How to design an off-road vehicle” folder in exchange for the “how to design a 48v vehicle” folder.
Chapter 1: Recovery Points
You need them.
Chapter 2:….
Oh oh I can continue this one…
Chapter 2… improving traction
2.1 offroad snow tires when the Temps are regularly below 45 degrees F
2.2 Airing down tires in slick conditions
Chapter 3… coming prepared for the conditions with recover gear
Chapter 4 enable RC vehicles with traction “e-locker” logic that can be manually adjusted during testing (this may be significantly harder than any of us can know…)
My Fiat Panda was good at this stuff, largely because it was not. (Largely )
Looks like snow over wet / icy grass with a pretty decent bumpy slope. That would be tough for many vehicles! Good samaritan helped out.
Don’t use it off-road. Easiest solution ever. If you have the dosh for a cybertruck, you can pay for having your tree delivered. By someone with proper equipment.
I have a much shorter answer for why it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Because anyone possessing the sense to be ashamed of the Cybertruck isn’t driving one.
Depending on the surface under the snow, my 4Runner with rear locker and 3Peak AT’s probably wouldn’t have made it either. If that was snow over ice, fuhgeddaboudit.
FYI the tire analysis is slightly off here. The tire on the truck is indeed the Territory MT. From what I’ve seen of this tire, there are actually multiple versions of this tread pattern. The one that comes on the Bronco is less aggressive, that appears to be what is on this truck. I believe GM uses the more aggressive version, and that is also available aftermarket.
The Goodyear tire pictured is indeed a Territory, but not the MT model (which stands for Maximum Traction, not “Mud Terrain”). That one pictured may be the “Workhorse” or “TrailRunner”. The “Territory” name seems to cover most of their truck/CUV tires, much like Toyo and their “Open Country” line.
The Dunlop tire pictured is a winter tire, not an all-terrain, and while perhaps better for this specific situation, it would not be an ideal off-road tire.
The Falken are generally considered a good tire that performs well, but they’re made offshore and balancing issues are common.
I bet your 4Runner has recovery points though.
Stock, not really. Toyota is notoriously bad at recovery points. The new Tundra and Sequioa, even in TRD PRO trims, do not have any front recovery points. A lot of older Toyota 4X4’s, current gen 4Runner included, have tie down loops on the radiator support (tucked up under the bumper) that are specified in the manual as NOT being recovery points. The consensus among owners is that they’re suitable for static recovery, but not kinetic. It’s recommended to use a bridle to spread the force to both points during a static recovery.
For my 4Runner, I purchased aftermarket front recovery points from Apex Overland. They were $150 a few years ago, now they’re up to 200-ish.
At the rear, for vehicles so equipped the factory receiver hitch is a suitable recovery point. I have a receiver attachment with a shackle mount. In a pinch a hitch pin can be ran through the loop at the end of a recovery strap, though this isn’t really recommended as it can potentially bend the hitch pin.
It would be nice if Toyota could learn from Ford, Jeep, and GM when it comes to recovery points. Even a Jeep Renegade has prominent and easily accessed front recovery points.
Oof. My 94 Toyota Pickup has beefy tow hooks on the front that look stock.
Western PA here – a lot of people with off road trucks used to fit narrower snow tires in the winter, to cut through the snow to the surface underneath. No floatation tires used in winter. This slope looks to be grass, the snow may actually have better traction than the wet grass would! Guessing the biggest factors are mass and tire.
To be perfectly honest, the best winter car I ever had was a fwd stick shift. Complete control over the traction. Unless the snow was over about 6″ on roads I could go and stop about anywhere. 4wd is a crutch for many people an an excuse to drive stupidly. My current Toyota hybrid is excellent in snow as well, very precise throttle control.
Bingo. RWD vehicles with manual work well in snow too, it’s what most of us had growing up. And when it got really nasty, a set of chains.
Pizza cutters!
Actually, I don’t know that I’ve seen that addressed at all. With the gigacastings and all the fancy crap on these, how easy or not is it going to be to get tow attachments and other such things on them? How does a tow hitch attach to this thing? On my truck it bolts through the frame. On these its going to…. attach via tapped inserts?
No silly, you’ll just put Cybermagnets on the Cyber Exoskeleton. Oh wait, it’s stainless so that won’t work. OK, you place a Cyberhook into the CyberGigacasting. Oh wait, it’s not designed for lateral load in a single point, so that won’t work. OK, you put the CyberBeast tow strap around the front suspension and give it a good yank. Oh wait, the suspension isn’t a good anchor point, so that won’t work. OK, put out an over that air update for CyberBeast don’t get stuck mode. See, it’s simple.
My guess is that where the cradle is on the front they’ll design brackets you can put on. Pictures of the underside show no way of mounting anything from skidplates to push bars without drilling into structurally integral areas.
The only thing I’m getting from the Cybertruck is that they designed a car first and then shoved all the engineering into the body of a ute. Not a truck. A ute.
To be fair, battery protection results in a rudimentary skidplate already.
I’d like to hear David’s thoughts on how well the battery protection in a cybertruck might act as an actual skidplate.
Can you help me understand the difference between a truck and a Ute? I’m assuming you’re considering an f150 or similar a Real Truck™.
A ute is based on a car, has an integrated bed, and is designed to be used as a daily driver. So something like the Honda Ridgeline, Chevrolet El Camino, and Hyundai Santa Cruz counts as a ute, but the 1961 Ford F-100 Styleside doesn’t, even though it has an integrated bed.
Albeit I’m just using “ute not truck” as an inside joke insult since the thing so desperately wants to be placed in the same standing as trucks like the F-150, Silverado, RAM, and Tundra.
I really think a Cybertruck should be placed in the same standing as other relatively-not-very-useful crew cab short bed suburban-dad-minivan half ton pickups. I don’t think it’ll actually be really worse in any regard than the competition. It probably won’t be better either, but we’ll see. Except the Tundra, it might be better than the Tundra, which absolutely should not be placed int he same standing as the American pickups. Don’t even think about the Titan.
Most pickups also are based on a car and are designed for daily driving, so your distinction is based on whether or not it has a bed crack? What about the 2nd gen Ridgeline fake bed crack?
The distinction gets fuzzier as time goes by and we approach the vehicular singularity where everything simply becomes “An Car” where bodystyles are a thing of the past. But no, most trucks aren’t based on a car. The Ford F-150 shares nothing with any sedan or hatchback in Ford’s lineup, the Silverado doesn’t share anything with the Impala, and the RAM doesn’t share anything with the Charger. The Santa Cruz however is based on the Santa Fe CUV, which the Santa Fe is basically the fat sister of the Kia Optima/K5. This distinction too will become blurrier once those sedans die in the next two or three years, leaving only the CUVs.
So not the scorpion atr, but I had the scorpion all terrain plus tires on a yukon xl 2500, and it was an incredible tire. Better winter traction than a (old) set of winter tires, incredible grip in mud, and surprisingly, the quietest tires that truck has ever seen.
The nuance the angry populous always seems to miss with events like these is the very large and very prominent RC decals, meaning Release Candidate. While the generally means roughly hardware complete, it is still very very much a development mule, and that means we really can’t glean all that much useful information from its performance. It’s hardware is there, but testing like this is done to get the car to fail, figure out why, and then work on programming and software to make it more capable.
Pair that with everything mentioned in the article (Heck yeah Free Body Diagrams) and of course it’s going to struggle. I don’t want to blindly defend the CT or Tesla, but they have a decent track record of OTA updates that make genuine improvements to their vehicles over time, autopilot and FSD notwithstanding.
How can you build a prototype vehicle for on road and off road use literally built for finding out what works and what doesn’t without building in recovery points?
Failure of both the CT and writer. Such a Tesla apologist headline.
Yes, physics apply to us all. Cybertruck’s brand is overcoming rules that apply to everyone else.
The promise => boast => apologist cycle from Tesla (and especially their fans) is tiring
I would call the Autopian many things, but “Tesla apologist” is not one of them.
I feel like they’ve been trying very hard to be nice/fair to Tesla lately, but it’s not really catching.
I feel like they err on the side of positivity whenever possible as part of their pro-car ethos. They don’t shy away from calling out the indefensible (see also: every article involving FSD) though.
We’re reading the same headline, right? I pointed out this article and this writer is apologizing for CT’s bad outcome. If it happens repeatedly, then it becomes what Autopian does.
Setting the CT aside for a minute, do we not agree on the following?
1: When screw ups happen, one should think and say “yes, this was a CF, I learned something and I will do better.”
2: They should NOT thing and say “no, here are all my excuses, people are you with me?”
The tech world (which I work in and whose playbook Tesla follows to a tee) makes big promises, under-delivers, makes excuses, and says what was originally promised will be “in the next release.” Tesla’s big innovation was to propagate this with OTA updates.
We have a culture problem that is truthless and intentionally dishonest with Tesla leading the charge on this in our beloved car space. Let’s not incentivize nor support this behavior.
Ah yes… the old assumption of:
= I must be have the best setup for snowy roads ever
False…. vehicle weight (and balance) plays a much larger than people think. Tires do as well, of course.
That’s why two of my guy friends got their vehicles stuck on a snowy inclined driveway (Silverado z71, and wrangler). Yet… one of the gals just casually drove right back up and out of the same driveway in her Impreza hatch without much wheelspin or drama of any kind… on worn OEM tires.
This is also why I was able to pass Range Rovers and everyone else that were sliding around on Vail pass in a rental Chevy Spark. That little hatch was shockingly good in snow, on what I assume were OEM tires (because it was a rental).
When I was in college, we got 17 inches of snow nearly overnight. This was in Kentucky, where snow events like that aren’t very common. Anyway, I dug out my 1972 Super Beetle and went about my grocery errands as usual. I got some pretty incredulous looks from people in Suburbans and all wheel drive SUVs who were stuck on hills that the Beetle climbed with no issue. On the cheapest set of Chinese tires you could buy at the time (2015). Narrow tires, good ground clearance, and a rear engine make for an unstoppable car in the snow.
EXACTLY
You also bring up another very good point. Wide tires (in general) are overrated.
Sure you can air them down to get a larger contact patch while crawling over a boulder… which is done maybe 1% of the time.
Skinny tires > wide tires on snowy roads, from plenty of my own experience driving both in severe winter conditions, across a wide variety of vehicle platforms/configurations. UNLESS you live in some place like Iceland where your only option is to float above the snow, then the inverse is true.
Yep, Feb 2010 Pittsburgh got 21″ overnight. The old ’99 Grand Cherokee w/ narrow tires was mobile until the plows came. Used it to drag the fwd daily to a plowed road the next day.
21″ might have made it hard to see the parking chairs haha
I had off street for my Camry and the wife’s Corolla. Jeep was on street (back alley). Only other mobile vehicle in neighborhood was a late ’90s Ram. Snow came Friday night, main roads were clear Sunday but they never plowed our alley. I spent several hours Sunday afternoon dragging a Camry inch by inch up that alley to the cleared road so I could use it for my highway commute Monday and leave the wife the Jeep for daycare and her job. The city roads were much worse as a whole than those in the suburbs/exburbs (nowhere to put the snow). I had a 75 mile round trip commute at the time. Once I left city limits fwd was a beast.
Back in 96 we got iirc 16 & 18 inches back-to-back in SW Virginia. I had just broken in my new sears card on the best tires I could get to fit my 68 Beetle. Out in farm country, they were literally driving tractors to the local store. I slid in and parked it in a bank sideways, sauntered in to buy coffee & beer, then passed a struggling K5 Blazer on Super Swampers on my way out. One of my best days ever on backroads. Rode all over, stopping to help people push and/or shovel. Burnt 2 tanks of gas that day—and I still smile thinking of it: thanks for reminding me!
Sounds like a fun day indeed!
I drove my old Volvo 240 all over NYC during the last snowstorm (2015? something like that), even on the day when all of the roads were shut down. The long wheelbase made her incredibly controllable and you got like fifteen seconds’ warning before any unwanted sliding. She could also be driven sideways for several blocks without drama.
If you’d left the question mark out of the headline it would’ve served as a more accurate assessment of the truck in question.
It looks as if the Ford is pulling the CT out without the use of a winch. Recovering using the pulling truck in reverse is a bad idea as the ring and pinion gears are not very strong when force is applied in that manner.
But I thought it was BUILT FORD TOUGH (/s)
They apply a sticker that says that to the transmission at the Chinese factory.
By that logic every pickup should break their rear ends when backing up loaded trailers…
I mean, other than the fact that this truck was off-trail in an OHV area which is a big no-no, but seems on brand for Tesla owners.
Where did the tree come from? I don’t off road with a tree fresh from the parking lot vendor.
You can get tags and harvest from public lands in most places. Annual adventure for us growing up. Head out on the logging trails and find the perfect enough tree. Dad usually had to pull someone stuck like this about every trip.
A lot of farms offer cut your own tree in my area, never saw it on public land though.
Yep, part of the way forest thinning is maintained to prevent fires. We always used to get a tag and cut one in the mountains where I grew up. It had to be a particular min or max trunk diameter, so it prevented you from hauling out a Rockefeller center sized monster and helped thing the undergrowth which causes faster fire spread.
Makes perfect sense, likely illegal in my area. Thanks!
I think it is all national forest service land aside from specifically protected areas and then dependent on state and local rules beyond that.
You missed the one thing we should really be hammering this idiot (the driver) for: Driving off trail illegally like a jackass. Thanks for wrecking up the hillside while you were at it.
Typical techdouche move.
Like the Ford that pulled it out? 🙂
I don’t see any bullet holes though.
Checkmate haters!
Do you smell like cheese and peppermint schnapps?
Close. Bailey’s and beef jerky.
F it, I’ll close my eyes and take a bite.
All that said, I feel as though a big truck should have more capability off road than my ’84 Honda Civic did back in the day.
I lived in a rural area at that time, and from all available footage that thing could get places that would absolutely flummox the Cybertruck.
But big trucks always have and always will suck off-road. Your feeling otherwise stems from bad marketing.
Still pretty funny that it got stuck though
But we aren’t worried how a Christmas tree doesn’t even fit in the bed of a “truck”
Christmas trees often don’t fit in the bed of a truck. they’re famously long.
Yes, but they sit IN the bed, not on top of the truck and stick up higher than the roof.
“Hey Griswold, where do you think you’re gonna put a tree that big?”
How long is the bed? Most pickups these days have 5-foot beds that can’t even carry a bicycle without slinging the front wheel over the tailgate (though this is actually a secure way to carry a mountain bike, lots of riders do it even with 8-foot beds).
Any Tacoma, or even (non-longbed)crew cab fullsizes would have had the same issue.
What I find weirder about the tree is that they chose to rest it on the roof rather than hanging this out of an open tailgate. I’m thinking they were planning on getting a photo op.
I got to pick up our tree in my kei car this year. Looked awesome, the tree is only two feet shorter than the car.
The biggest question is – what was the Cybertruck doing there at all? You’re supposed to stay on the trail.
This is part of what made us all laugh at them in this video. Quite a “how’d that work out for ya?” situation.