WeeG
|
| posted on 8/3/08 at 08:28 AM |
|
|
Eagle SS Chassis - How to strengthen?
Hi folks,
Here is a piccy of an ford based front engined Eagle SS chassis, like mine which is undergoing total rebuild. It's the red tubing in the pic.
I have read over a lot of stuff regarding spaceframes on here, and get the idea of triangulation etc but just wondered how it can be applied (if at
all) to a ladder chassis like this, and is it neccesary to stiffen such a chassis for a car that will be running 180bhp?
Is there naything else I should consider altering whilst I have the body off and chassis exposed?
Thanks,
G
[Edited on 8/3/08 by WeeG]
|
|
|
|
|
zilspeed
|
| posted on 8/3/08 at 09:18 AM |
|
|
This is probably goint to see me being burned as a heretic, but here goes anyway.
Ladder chassis' can work you know, and it doesn't always stand to reason that a spaceframe is better. A book chassis has very little going
on on the centre section of the chassis and is a relatively weak area torsionally. The ladder chassis doesn't suffer from that.
I did a bit of a search on this and it led me to a discussion on Pistonheads and a certain 'Cymtriks' was certainly advocating a well
designed ladder frame chassis as being a sound basis.
(Check his posts in here, he knows a great deal more than I will ever do on this subject).
So, why not repost that drawing with tube sizes and maybe that will put a bit more meaning to it.
(I will of course point out that seeing as my old Sylva has a monocque centre section, it is better than all of your cars.   )
|
|
|
britishtrident
|
| posted on 8/3/08 at 09:32 AM |
|
|
Ladder chassis are strong --- just look at Land-Rover
I don't how much the Eagle body tub stiffens the chassis when it is bolted on --- in some GRP cars such as traditional VW based Dune Buggys
and many Lotus models the body shell makes a major contribution..
However ladder frames can be short of torsional stiffness, the only real way to improve this is using a full roll cage which might not what you
want.
Usually if a car is really short of torsional stiffness it shopws up as scuttle shake.
[Edited on 8/3/08 by britishtrident]
|
|
|
Ivan
|
| posted on 8/3/08 at 10:34 AM |
|
|
As long as it's joined properly to the VW chassis I would guess that it's more than strong enough to handle 180bhp.
Most Cobra kits are ladder chassis based and the better ones comfortably handle up to 600 bhp.
|
|
|
v8kid
|
| posted on 8/3/08 at 12:19 PM |
|
|
Ladder chassis sure are strong but not all are stiff. In sports cars we are after stiffness so the suspension can work the way its intended.
I think in ladder chassis the bulkheads are very important and easy to alter if the body is off. Roll bars can help a lot too as well as being a
"good idea".
Give Cymtricks a call he is a most knowledgable laddie indeed and most helpfull.
|
|
|
