There are many reasons to hate the Cybertruck. Looks, shoddy workmanship, flat out performance lies, Man-child business owner, etc…

But my biggest gripe, and this is the unpopular bit, is that in my opinion, it’s not actually a truck at all.

The Cybertruck is a uni-body construction, often called a “car chassis”. It shares that with the Honda Ridgeline, Hyundai Santa Cruz, and a few others. Trucks that are meant to do actual work use a body-on-frame construction because it has more ability to flex and twist when you put a heavy load in the bed or towing something heavy.

To put it simply, if you put a heavy enough load in the back of a uni-body truck, you’re going to lose some traction on the front wheels as the weight will tilt the entire body backwards, whereas real trucks made for work are developed with the bed mounted separately to avoid that issue.

I know that yes, Santa Cruz, Cybertruck, Ridgeline, etc… are still technically classified as a truck. But in my (unpopular) opinion, anything uni-body shouldn’t be classified as one.

  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    19 hours ago

    Yeah that’s unpopular - I shared that view in the early days of unibody construction but manufacturers can do a lot more with that now. Why not judge whether it’s a truck by whether it can do truck things?

    We’re way past the point where trucks are used for stereotypical truck things and they’re used for a much wider range of uses. Most don’t need to be so heavy duty to fulfill their use case.

    Unless you’re also going to claim we don’t need 80% of the trucks we have, you’re just being pretentious about the need for heavy duty vehicles and what manufacturers are able to design

    • Adderbox76@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      5·
      19 hours ago

      Unless you’re also going to claim we don’t need 80% of the trucks we have

      I would never presume to claim any such thing. I drive a 2021 Canyon quarter-tonne precisely because I think there is a use case for lighter duty trucks for people like me who aren’t doing much more than hauling home-reno trash to the dump and moving some furniture for friends.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        21·
        17 hours ago

        That’s a pickup truck.

        (Or in some places we call them a “pick 'em up truck.”)

        The Cyberwhatsis will never be a pickup vehicle because not only can’t it carry anything heavy, it also actively repels girls.