iceT
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| posted on 11/7/03 at 04:20 AM |
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Material for Chassis
Hi All,
I am about to start building, hopefully by next month. Gathering all the tools required now, from welder to steel...
I am looking at building everything from ground up, iuncluding the chassis, based on RC's book with moded IRS instead.
Am thinking/wondering if I should be using any other type of steel instead of the 16swg RHS mild steel? how about 4130 crome-moly? Anyone care to
comment?
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 11/7/03 at 09:02 AM |
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what would you gain by using anything other than normal mild steel? (whatever normal is)?
If its chassis strength, adding a few extra braces can increase 'book' chassis strength by 70 - 100% or there abouts. Check for Cymtrik
's posts.
atb
steve
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 11/7/03 at 09:03 AM |
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Soemthing to consider, if you want to save a LOT of time, is buy an MK engineering chassis, with suspension parts included.
You will have a big start in some of the tricky areas (suspension). ANd they are really nicely made.
The book isnt IRS. There seems to be a total lack of plans for an adapted book chassis to IRS. If you go your own way, you have a fair deal of design
work to do.
Many on her ehave used the simple proven live axle as per book without problems. Jon Ison has a cortina based axle on his, and he also runs a race car
- Jon has never posted complaints on his live setup.
Good luck whatever way you do it, but deviating from the book will give a lot of knock on problems.
atb
steve
[Edited on 11/7/03 by stephen_gusterson]
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craig1410
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| posted on 11/7/03 at 12:14 PM |
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Hi,
I believe 4130 is difficult to weld and requires normalisation afterwards to avoid stresses. Mild steel is what virtually everyone uses so I'd
stick with that.
Stephen is right that a live axle is finebut they are getting thin on the ground now in some parts of the world. As an alternative, take a look at
de-dion axles. GTS racing are planning to start manufacturing kits for de-dion axles or you can build one yourself quite easily. They bolt on to a
virtually standard "book" chassis in place of the live axle but should perform better in some respects such as better traction and lower
unsprung weight. Do some forum searches on de-dion (and de-deon and dedeon etc etc as it is spelled in various ways it seems...)
Good luck,
Craig.
ps. Check my website for an example of a de-dion system. (Use www link below.)
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Alan B
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| posted on 11/7/03 at 02:03 PM |
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I seem to have said this before........but, where do you buy square chromoly tube?
I'm not saying it doesn't exist.......but I have never seen any..
No, as the others say, if you are building and book style square tube frame mild steel is fine.
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iceT
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| posted on 14/7/03 at 02:15 AM |
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Thanks all for your input.
actually, I wanted something that won't rust and avoid the hassle of chassis painting. But I read somewhere that stainless steel may not be
suitable.
Buying one ready made is rather an impossible option for me. By the time i import it, I will be paying thru my nose, plus our local import tax etc....
Over the weekend, thought about it, painting can't be that bad... will try to do best job to protect the chassis from rust as where I come from,
climate is always humid and lots of rain.
anyways, thanks again all of you, will stick to mild steel!
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twentyover
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| posted on 18/7/03 at 04:52 PM |
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Uh- Okay
4130 steel does rust (just like other iron based alloys) so you'd need to coat it some way.
Dr Hess is building a stainless framed locost w. an IRS- you may want to get in contact with him on the 'other list' for details- I think
he's using 303
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Stu16v
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| posted on 18/7/03 at 11:06 PM |
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quote:
... will try to do best job to protect the chassis from rust as where I come from, climate is always humid and lots of rain.
Yeah? And?
Quite a few of us live in the UK you know...
Dont just build it.....make it!
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