Trucks that take part in power-pulling events almost exclusively use locked differentials to ensure the power is sent to the driven wheels equally, no matter what. Maximizing traction is key to ensuring a good run, and locked diffs play a big part in maintaining it. This could explain why Tesla Cybertrucks have become better at pulling seemingly overnight.
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Tesla Cybertrucks have a lot of pulling power
Even though a Tesla Cybertruck doesn't have the usual prerequisites to be recommended for pulling heavy loads (plenty of weight and a separate ladder chassis), it more than makes up for that with its sheer torque and traction. With the recent addition of Off-Road Mode that allows the driver to manually lock the mechanical differentials, it looks like it's become something of a tractor-pulling sensation too.
This newfound pulling ability may have come thanks to a recent software update that finally unlocked the truck’s Off-Road Mode. It gives drivers a lot more control over its many systems, and it allows them to manually lock the front and rear differentials in dual-motor trucks or just the front differential in the tri-motor Cyberbeast.
The videos posted by S.E. Robinson, Jr. on X and John Doan on Facebook, appear to show the same dual-motor Cybertruck at the same event performing two separate runs shot from different angles. On the first run, it goes 280 feet and just over 299 feet on the second run, which is just shy of what is known as a “full pull.” This apparently crowned it as the king of the 2500 class on that day, outperforming all the modified diesel trucks, which are usually the winners.
In another video shared on X by Teslanomics, a different Cybertruck whose powertrain configuration we don’t know (although it’s probably another dual-motor), puts on a show for the crowd. You can hear people’s surprised comments as the truck makes towing the trailer seem easy. As the electric pickup makes its silently impressive pull, you can hear one person repeating "There's no way, there's no way."
Pulling enthusiasts will often heavily modify their trucks to maximize their pulling potential with the goal of making them capable of doing a full pull. The fact that what appears to be a bone-stock Cybertruck almost hit the 300-foot mark has to be impressive. It didn’t match the 318-foot pull that Tesla showed in its official Cybertruck pulling video, but that only makes us wonder what a tri-motor Cyberbeast will do with the new off-road update installed.
The power-pulling crowd doesn’t seem to be very kind to electric trucks, but they can’t question their impressive show of force. At least none of the spectators screamed “Go back to California,” as they did in another Cybertruck power-pulling video that we covered. In that video, they put a dual-motor Cybertruck up against a Ram pickup and the Tesla truck (whose differentials couldn’t be locked at the time) lost to the diesel pickup with a 207-foot run.
