What Goes On Underneath Your Tesla Can Injure You

Figure 1: Snow on a roofing system. All-time greatest snow year on record, approaching 900 inches. Alta, Utah. April 2023. Image by Elizabeth McDonald.

Background (avoid these very first 3 paragraphs if you recognize with my background): I’m a substantial EV fanboy and have actually been driving electrical vehicles now for 8 years. I likewise have photovoltaic panels on my home, so I can boast that I am driving on sunlight. I formerly owned 3 Nissan Leafs. I now own a dual-motor Tesla Design 3 Long Variety with 93,920 miles on the odometer. I paid $6000 additional when I purchased my vehicle in October 2019 for Complete Self Driving. I simply got the download for the huge FSD Beta V11 software application upgrade. I will be reporting on it in my next post. Having double motors imply that both the front and rear axles are powered, so you basically have an all-wheel-drive or 4-wheel-drive vehicle.

I teach alpine snowboarding at Brighton Ski Resort in Utah. It is 18 miles approximately completion of Huge Cottonwood Canyon. On huge snow days, the canyon is limited to 4-wheel-drive vehicles and vehicles with snow tires by huge indications with flashing yellow lights at the bottom of the canyon (see Figure 2). With my two-wheel-drive Nissan Leaf vehicles, I had hardly sufficient battery to make it up the canyon on clear roadways and would constantly require to park at the bottom of the canyon on snow days. I believed that with my 4-wheel-drive Tesla, I might increase the canyon in any sort of weather condition. This would be a high-end for me compared to the 2 rear-wheel-drive vehicles that I drove in the winter season to ski resorts in Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Colorado in an earlier life. We considered it an overall high-end when we were driving our VW Bug with a rear engine over the drive wheels. Regrettable the heating system was too weak to keep the windscreen clear.

What I didn’t understand was that this previous winter season would be the greatest snow year of perpetuity (see the snow on a roofing system at Alta this year in Figure 1). The previous record was 745 inches in 1995. This year, Alta and Brighton have actually struck 880 inches, and one excellent storm in the next 6 weeks will put us over 900 inches for the year. I was proper that even with just excellent all-season tires, I would have the ability to increase the raked canyon roadway on any day. What I stopped working to comprehend was that my Design 3 has just 5″ of clearance, and with ongoing snowfall throughout the day chewed up and loaded by other vehicles, my vehicle would be high focused in the parking area. On 2 events, it took assistance from other skiers and the parking area attendants to get my vehicle moving enough to make a run for the parking area exit. My 2019 Tesla Design 3 has just fiber board aeroshields under the vehicle. What I didn’t understand was that I was actually scraping the front aeroshield off the bottom of my vehicle in the deep, compressed snow.

Figure 2: Traction cautioning indication. Brian Head Canyon, Utah. April 11, 2023. Image by Fritz Hasler.

On another event 2 years previously, I was driving in extreme rains which ended up being triggering flash floods in North Carolina. I didn’t see 12″ of water in a low area which I struck at 40 miles per hour. In this case, I tore the rear aeroshield off the bottom of my vehicle.

What can you do to prevent these circumstances? When it comes to the deep snow, I intend on leaving my vehicle at the bottom of the canyon on those truly huge snow days. When it comes to deep water, I will listen more thoroughly to the weather forecast and prevent driving through deep water.

What can you do to boost the bottom of your vehicle to make it more long lasting? Initially, Tesla has actually updated the fiber board aeroshield on more recent Design threes, and in my case set up an updated plastic variation on my vehicle. A reader of my earlier post (see listed below) recommended setting up aluminum skid plates under the vehicle and raising the vehicle up a number of inches. This would have kept me from harming the bottom of my vehicle and would assist going out if the snow wasn’t extremely deep.

From Peter Jorgensen in the remarks area of among my previous short articles: “Hey Fritz, have you thought about getting the 1.75 ″ lift from Mountain pass efficiency? It’s quite inexpensive and it’s worked truly well on my design 3 when we get these huge Utah snow falls. You would have 7.25 ″ of clearance with that. They likewise make aluminum skid plates to change the fiber. It’s basically on par with a stock Subaru Wilderness at that point. I had Ahns custom-made and vinyl install my package in south Salt Lake. They did an excellent task.”

Thanks a lot for the idea, Peter! Nevertheless, considering that I am too broke to even get real snow tires, I will simply limp along with my present circumstance.

What if I was driving a Tesla Design Y? The Design Y has 6.6″ clearance, so it can manage a little much deeper snowfall. What about the Design S? There are inconsistencies in the different figures I see, however the Tesla Design S has a minimum clearance of 4.6″, which is adjustable. It can be raised to 8.1″. The minimum clearance for a Design X is just 4.3″, however it can be raised to 8.1″ or 13.7″ depending upon which report you think. Would somebody please verify the proper number? Likewise, inform us what the aeroshields are made from on your Design Y, S, and X. The Tesla Cybertruck when lastly launched is expected to have a minimum clearance of about 5″, however you will have the ability to dynamically raise it to 16″. You will lastly have a Tesla that you can securely drive off-road. Keep in mind: Taking A Look At Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado electrical pickup I see that have actually been raised, there is a lot of clearance for the body, however the axles and especially the differentials still have rather little clearances. I believe just next-generation electrical SUVs and trucks with center motors on each wheel will completely have the ability to resolve this issue.