Tesla Cybertruck: The Tailgating Test

• We took our Cybertruck tailgating.
• It turned out to be even more useful than we expected.
• We probably could have asked it to do even more.

The Tesla Cybertruck is, at its core, a pickup truck. That means that in addition to towing, hauling and other hardcore truck duties, it needs to be able to handle the most sacred of all truck tasks: the tailgate. So for the recent UCLA vs. USC football game — and since I attended both schools for undergrad and graduate school, respectively — I rallied some friends and put together this truly critical test of our long-term Cybertruck's capabilities. 

A tailgate at the Rose Bowl is a favorite activity of mine. Instead of having to park in a lot and stand around on concrete, the Rose Bowl offers the well-kept fairways of the Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena. That means soft grass and beautiful scenery surround you. Plus, it's a total free-for-all. No campus slots to reserve beforehand and a relatively reasonable $35 parking fee per car. It's tailgating made beautiful and easy.  

November 23 arrived and it was go time. The game was at 7:30 p.m., so naturally my friends and I showed up at 1:30. What's a tailgate for if you don't have a quarter of your day to enjoy it? The Cybertruck was loaded up with everything we'd need: six chairs, an E-Z Up tent in the event of rain, a gas-powered grill, some games to play on the lawn (cornhole, another personal favorite), two coolers filled with dogs and burgers to grill, enough snacks for a small town, and one massive JBL speaker. We also used the frunk to hold backpacks, jackets and smaller items like power cords. 

The Cybertruck has three outlets in the bed — two 120-volt plugs and one 240-volt — but we only used the 120s. The first was dedicated to the big speaker and the other was used for a power strip that hooked up a modest TV, a phone charger and a Chromecast (which we didn't use anyway). A few of my friends asked, "Are we going to have enough power for all day?" I wasn't really worried about running out of juice, but exactly how much power we drew was going to be interesting. 

The hours rolled by and the truck sat there, drawing plenty of looks and a few questions from passersby — not to mention the one guy who said we had a "trash can on wheels." Night eventually came and it was getting time to pack up. One feature I was totally surprised by was the Cybertruck's truly massive in-bed lighting setup. The left and right walls of the bed are home to 2-inch-tall strips of LED lights that are extremely bright. We didn't bring our own lights, so as darkness fell it was great to have the truck be our light source in addition to our power bank. 

So, how much power did we end up using? Not enough to raise any eyebrows. We parked the truck with 66% battery remaining and 209 miles of indicated range. When everything was packed up and we checked again, we had 57% battery left and 198 miles of estimated range. The Cybertruck also tells you how much energy you're drawing from the outlets, and we were consistently using 0.2 to 0.3 kW for our stationary six hours. 

The truck's size was its only real downside. Because it's massive, parking at the Rose Bowl is tight (you're packed in like sardines next to other cars) and the Cybertruck's sightlines are genuinely terrible, getting out of our parking spot was a chore. The rear-wheel steering did help a bit, but we still had to pull an eight-point turn to get out of there safely. Thanks to the very classy Bruins fans who offered to guide us through and make sure we didn't hit anything, as well as the group of kids who kept shouting "Cybertwuck!" to keep up the morale. 

So is the Cybertruck a good tailgater? Absolutely. The outlets provided plenty of power, and we had more than enough range left to make the drive home without worry. Maybe next time I'll throw in a mini fridge and a bigger TV to see if that changes things, but for this game, our Cybertruck went the whole nine yards and then some.