Added some cross braces to the front of my chassis as well as some mounts for my rad and fan.

20mm ERW 1.2mm wall. very light but very strong in compression.

Thoughts?


Description


Description

First thought is, good idea but too many? A single brace from corner to corner is certainly worthwhile, but you'll get diminishing returns for each extra one. Six is just adding weight.

What's your thinking behind mounting the radiator high? Is it to line up with the bodywork?

I think I would have put the ends where the wishbone brackets are....

On the chassis I built I did torsion tests on the finished chassis.

My thinking was that the suspension loads were fed into the upper tubes TR 1 & 2. When stressed, the front void had a measurable distortion.
After adding the diagonal tubes exactly like you did the distortion moved to the engine bay area and a bolt in cross brace (to mirror TR 5) cured this.
Then the stress was spread equally right through the chassis.

Each additional tube added to the total torsional rigidity.

I stopped at the first diagonal, as you have said its not a lot more weight after all but you are only making work for yourself for little gain.

[Edited on 29/12/15 by mark chandler]