No, *I* am claiming that it was a hitch, people like *you* are claiming that it would have done the kind of damage to a gasoline car that would have been done by a hitch receiver. Fucking stop it. There's no evidence that this would have been more serious for the driver of a gasoline car. Further, that is an uninteresting question. This is just one piece of road debris. If you want to know whether a typical gasser or the model S is safer, compare incidents per road-mile traveled and do the math. As more road-miles are traveled, the math will get better. You can't know how this would have turned out for another vehicle without performing a needless experiment — needless because it will probably happen anyway eventually. Hell, it's probably happened already.

In any case, if it were a hitch reciever then the Model S wouldn't have gone over it.

No. I never told you to begin with. I'm not going to tell you about anything I'm doing besides proselytization.

Less than the average citizen, but more than someone who isn't contributing at all. Dramatically less than the typical one-percenter (for lack of a better term.)

NERD TIME! Since 1996 the only light that HAS to be there is the MIL, the malfunction indicator light, which tells you that your vehicle is suspected to be violating the federal test procedure emissions standards. The manufacturer may also implement a check engine light, which means whatever the manufacturer wants it to mean. The MIL means that a mandatory monitor has failed, and that there is stored snapshot data.

I hate to whore for a specific company without even getting paid, but Master makes hitches with a little pin on the top that stops the ball spinning so that you can change the ball with just one wrench. That way you can use a drop/rise hitch, be able to switch balls, and don't have to carry a bunch of heavy tools.

I don't use it, I have some el cheapo three-ball adjustable height drop/rise hitch to go with my lifted f250. And when I finally raise the bed, perhaps I will also install my pop-up gooseneck hitch, which is what I want to be using to pull any significant load anyway.

Harbor Freight has stores and execs in in the USA, so they're as vulnerable to liability suit as anybody. The stuff sold at Napa or wherever is made in the same country as the stuff they sell at HF. I have their 12-ton press, the fit and finish leave something to be desired (fit and finish) but there's nothing to complain about when it comes to the weight of the stock or the strength of the welds. Their cherry pickers are equivalent to anyone else's, don't ignore the weight ratings. Etc. The problem with HF stuff isn't durability, it's finish. Expect to re-bed machining equipment, de-burr edges of parts, chase threads, etc etc.

In practice, this is just a non-issue. You're complaining about the potential failure of a weld which is literally as thick as the tubing to which the balls are attached.

Personally, I have a lifted truck with an old school receiver with a recessed pin, so I have an adjustable drop hitch with a tri-ball. They've fallen out of favor but they used to make super massive pull-behind hitches that could handle real loads. Mine is literally constructed out of at least 3/8" plate, it's ludicrous. You can tell because a normal hitch won't pin into the receiver because the hole is too far back. One of these drop hitches was the only thing I could find which would fit. I have a reese replacement that I got at a yard sale, gonna fit a roll pan. The bumper is just a wind catcher.

You're both wrong, but he's more wrong than you. These motherfuckers know fuck-all about cars, period the end. They don't even know the difference between a hitch and a hitch receiver. On the other hand, the Tesla DOES have a big metal plate on the bottom that the ICE cars don't have. That IS fundamentally different. Don't pretend it isn't!

I don't know about them, but I'm a Californian that grew up watching PBS, and a trunk is something that goes in a boot.

It's pretty easy to get gasoline burning. Not so easy to make it explode, but burning is easy. Diesel is much harder but it represents a relatively small percentage of roadgoing vehicles, especially when we're discussing passenger cars in the USA, where our environmental restrictions give with one hand and take away with the other.

Driving over a 3-way hitch at speed on the freeway and having it come up and strike the vehicle is not a minor accident. That could easily have damaged a suspension component or punctured a fuel tank in a gasoline vehicle. In an extreme case, it could bounce up on end (stranger things have happened, and I've even seen some of them) and the vehicle could sort of pole vault on it, with unpredictable consequences; it might end up stuck through a floorpan, or just put a massive dent in one. Nobody can possibly tell.

In the case of this accident, it appears that it did jump up on end, because it apparently punctured the big plate which protects the batteries. That takes enough force to take this well out of the range of "minor accident".

If you had any idea how many DIY LPG conversions there are running around on the roads right now, you would apparently piss yourself. And besides conversions, it is hilariously common for people to do DIY propane systems on their diesels. Apparently it provides a power boost similar to a turbo, and propane is cheap these days so it's cheaper than using a turbo to burn more diesel. A grill tank goes in the bed or sometimes in a toolbox and gets connected with some more grill parts, like a grill regulator and nozzle. These systems are relatively trouble-free so long as they're installed such that the line isn't run someplace idiotic.

As well, you can get a propane conversion for pretty much anything carbureted for about $250, not counting the fancy tanks you have to have for road use.

I've run a 2.5 HP briggs and stratton four stroke by connecting a nipple to a camp stove (throwaway) cylinder and running a piece of 1/4 inch tubing into the carburetor. The nipple is based on a torch head that fell off, so there's a valve there. You can control motor speed by turning the valve, simple as that. The conversions use a vacuum-controlled valve, so the engine draws the fuel it needs and you control the butterfly in order to control the engine as normal. Anyone competent to turn a wrench can perform a conversion and again, there's currently significant cost savings in running propane. It's 2.50 per gallon-equivalent on one of the local reservations right now.

Stop saying that! Maybe pushing his foot out of the way, but piercing his leg? Only in a GT40, or some other car which basically sits on the pavement. We're talking about a hitch, not a hitch receiver.

The truth is that the wiring will burn unassisted. Like house wiring, it's jacketed with PVC, which emits massive assclouds of dioxin when it burns. Unlike house wiring, this is not mandated by code, it's simply cheap. There are places for fires to begin which don't involve fuel. Underhood plastics are hard to get going, but once they get going, they go alright. From there it's a short trip to burning/melting hoses and getting some fuel going. A fuel line is far from the only combustion hazard in a vehicle. It, however, is the part that really makes it exciting.

Nominally true. You would also have to build them to aircraft standards. If you miss a rivet in an airplane you don't just throw up your hands and say fuck it, but a significant percentage of the pressure welds in a unibody are bad and nobody cares.

It's called your own website. Put up a site based on any CMS, say Drupal, and then have all your friends create accounts there. But if you're paying someone else to run a site, then by definition you're paying someone else to compile data on you. Then the government gives them a choice between turning over the data or going to PMITA prison.