The Cybertruck owner's manual says its hitch is only designed to support vertical loads up to 160 lbs.
Tesla claims its cyber truck It's designed for any planet and is durable enough to go anywhere and take on anything, but Your owner's manual says that your hitch assembly is only designed to support vertical loads of up to 160 pounds, which is less than the weight of the average American woman. WhistlinDiesel Cybertruck Durability Test Video on YouTube It has over 23 million views and caused quite a stir around the real-world durability of Tesla's most polarizing vehicle. A member of the Tesla Cybertruck The Facebook group was the first to point it out hitch The surprisingly low vertical weight limit of the package is noted in the truck's publicly available owner's manual.
Marc Thomas Sessa was the Cybertruck Facebook Page Member pointed out the vertical weight limit section and hypothesized that it could be a confusion between the Tesla Model Y's vertical hitch limits, since it has the same limit. For the Model Y, a midsize luxury crossover that will likely never face the strenuous usage scenarios that pickup trucks face, that weight limit seems more reasonable. For a pickup truck that is meant to compete with the likes of the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado, triple-digit weight limits have not been the norm for a long time. Sesa said,
Do you want to see something fun? #dieselwhistler He may have had a point. This comes straight from Tesla's website. The Cybertruck can only handle a vertical load of 160 pounds on the hitch before causing damage.
What's interesting is that the Cybertruck shares the same payload limits as the Model Y. Was Tesla just lazy and copied and pasted the same limits? Or is it really that low?
Most manufacturers do not distinguish between tow bar weight limits and vertical load limits. Typically, the tow bar weight limit is 10% of the towing capacity. Therefore, an F150 has a tow bar weight limit of approximately 700 to 1,000 pounds.
160 pounds is nothing on a hitch. Let’s demand that Tesla either update its manual or update the hitch design so we can start doing truck stuff with our trucks. In the towing capacity section of the Cybertruck owner’s manual, the maximum tongue weight is listed as 1,100 pounds. Tongue weight is supposed to be 10 percent of a vehicle’s maximum towing capacity, so the 1,100-pound tongue weight limit matches the Cybertruck’s 11,000-pound trailer towing limit. However, this conflicts with Tesla’s 160-pound vertical hitch weight limit. Other manufacturers don’t list separate vertical hitch weight limits — most just provide tongue weight limits.
In the towing capacity section of the Cybertruck owner’s manual, the maximum tow bar weight is listed at 1,100 pounds. Tow bar weight is supposed to be 10 percent of a vehicle’s maximum towing capacity, so the 1,100-pound tow bar weight limit matches the Cybertruck’s 11,000-pound trailer towing limit. However, this conflicts with Tesla’s 160-pound vertical hitch weight limit. Other manufacturers don’t list separate vertical hitch weight limits—most only provide tow bar weight limits.
The owner's manual says that exceeding the hitch's vertical load limit of 160 pounds can cause damage, but tongue weight limits are there to prevent uneven weight distribution that can cause poor driver control and overload the axle, not necessarily because the hitch is at risk of damage. A vertical weight limit for something like a hitch-mounted bike rack might stress different components than a trailer since all the weight is on the hitch with no wheels of its own to distribute the weight, but this hasn't been noted as an issue for any other trucks. Torque News said:
Many people in the comments seem to believe that the Cybertruck's 160 lb hitch capacity is just a typo inherited from the Model Y manual.
While others believe that since the Model Y and Cybertruck are the two Tesla vehicles with aluminum gigacastings, the 160-pound rating could be something inherent to that design.
Whether it’s an issue with Tesla’s aluminum parts or simply an example of Tesla failing to properly edit the Cybertruck owner’s manual, a 160-pound weight limit for a truck hitch is pretty pathetic. If any Cybertruck owners are reading this, proceed with caution, as Tesla could potentially screw you over with repairs, as the owner’s manual warns against exceeding this limit. Even if you don’t tow and just want to install a hitch step for easier access to your truck bed, you could end up in serious trouble.
