All the critical stuff underneath a Model Y is well protected. You'd have to hit something sharp and hard going at high speed to take damage. For 6 years on and off I've been working on salvage Teslas, and personally owned over 20 different examples. Even when the car goes off-road at high speed, and rips the wheel/suspension off one or more corners, there rarely is critical damage to the battery or motor(s). This includes all the processing in the auction lot, where they move cars around with giant forklifts. Even those don't do anything but scrape up the bottom and damage front/rear trim.
The most sensitive part to damage is the front bumper cover/fascia. If your obstacle makes it under that, then you are likely OK. A normal ICE vehicle is way more likely to take damage, as the bottom isn't smooth, and there is lots of stuff hanging down, such as exhaust systems, fuel tanks, etc. The bottom of any Tesla is almost perfectly smooth. As long as you are going slow, the worst you are going to likely have is cosmetic scrapes. (The bottom of the battery is all aluminum, so it will not rust once you scrape the paint) If you can take a Honda with 6.5" of clearance on it, I'd say you can take a Tesla. Of course, be warned that Tesla does not cover warranty issues caused by going off-road. On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 6:37 PM Peri Hartman via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone have advice on using an air dam to reduce drag ? Read on, > I'll get there. > > I'm reconsidering buying a tesla Y. It's a crazy amount of money and I > may get cold feet. But I have to replace my ancient honda or keep fixing > it (which is costing average $2k / year). And, I want to replace it with > something that is adequate for going on the cascade mountain forest > service roads, as well as modest road trips. > > I could buy the Bolt, which seems to be an excellent car. But I don't > think I can using it in the mountains. That's a must, since I'm there > perhaps 20 times a year. > > My biggest concern with the tesla is damaging the battery or other > critical underside stuff. On my honda, I've had numerous ground strikes > but no serious damage. It has 6.5" clearance. I found a company that > makes 1.5" suspension spacers that fit in the model 3 and the Y, which > would give my 8". I think that's enough that I can visually judge and > slow down, so as not to have a severe strike. (It's harder than you > think, if the sun is casting tree shadows across the road - almost > impossible to see any deviations.) > > If I raise the chassis, I'll get more drag. Thus, the question of > installing some kind of skirt. Does anyone have advice on this ? Would > it make a difference ? > > (P.S. I'll keep the honda odyssey regardless but drive it only for > hauling large stuff. Maintenance should be minimal.) > > Peri > > << Annoyed by leaf blowers ? https://quietcleanseattle.org/ >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20210301/7c0adede/attachment.html > > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ > LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20210228/fb76398c/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
