I picked up my chassis yesterday and it felt a lot heavier then I was expecting (took two people to lift it)
I was wondering if anyone knew the sort of average chassis weight? It includes the floor and rear bulkhead (which seem to be made from 4mm plate!!).
How thick should the box section walls be?
Thanks!
If it is made to book spec the box section is 1" square tube x 1/16" thickness. The rear bulkhead is usually 1.2mm alloy sheet.
Steel plate seems excessive for the loadind on it. As a guide 2 people shold be able to easily lift the chassis even with a 16gauge floorpan fitted.
Locost chassis is supposed to be made with 25mm box section, 1.6mm thick. Should weigh around 70kgs without any floor / panels.
Floor should be 1.6mm steel max, often people use Ali, 3mm ali is about the same weight as 1.2mm steel floor.
The front pedal bulkhead should be something substantial if the master cylinder is mounted directly to it. If a third party pedal box is fitted this
shouldn't be necessary.
The rear bulkhead can be 4mm thick steel but its VERY seriously overkill and heavy (plus weight in the wrong place). Its also very expensive for a
sheet that big.
Some people do make the chassis out of 2mm steel instead of 1.6 due to availability of the metal.
When i lifted mine to fix it to the garage rafters for storage, i struggled on my own. I reckon it weighs about 60Kg for the frame only.
4mm?! that's armor plating
16 gauge 1" chassis shoudl weigh 54 kg without weld. i know cos i cut all the sections of my tube before welding them and weighed them up.
4mm Plate is overkill... I would be stripping that off and putting in 1.6mm ally... But 2 people shouldnt find it hard to lift a chassis with the plates on it...