LocostUSA.com

15 months to the day.....ROLLER!!

I think you might have some trouble with the brackets for the top of your front coilovers. I looked back and it seems you had to change them.

Looks strong for equal loads, like bumps, but on cornering the loads will not be balanced against each other. It may also be putting a lot of torque on the upper chassis rail...

I'm not sure if the torque on the upper rail will be significant enough to warrant concern, however, the cross bar is not triangulated and it could be a simple fix.

I show two options. One option is shown in the top view with a extra brace running from the outer top rail to the inner top rail support piece "S" or "T" noted in the book plans. The other option could be to triangulate the base of the shock support to the cross tube shown in the front view sketch. I would think option #2 triangulation would work better as the round cross brace tube is 4130 seamless tube and fairly stiff to bending loads. I want to keep the weight down so I really don't want to do both.

I'm not sure which is better.

I clamped a piece of 1" square tubing to something solid with a foot section hanging off the bench and put a large crescent wrench on it and leaned on it. It does bend and twist.

I think you should try a little experimenting and see what it looks like. The static load on that mount is maybe 200 pounds ( roughly ) and it should probably be able to take a 3g load - 600 lbs. Anyway, think of a way to put a load on it with your weight. Put a block under the wishbone to pick the tire up just a bit and jump on the frame and see if you can feel it move around.

It's interesting, your not far from those special anti-roll suspensions on a DAX etc. If those brackets were on pivots and cross connected with two bars etc.

Honestly, I don't know if your in trouble or not, you just get so used to looking at the bracing in these space frames, it kinda jumps out at you...

In my case I used 'Option 1'
Al

Nice progress on the car Locofinn.

We had the tubes twist in the curb incident. On Marc's car we put a tube between the two spring tower to prevent them from twisting.

On my chassis I just welded a piece of 1/8 underneath to tie the the outer chassis tube to the V in the front, kinda like you option 1. If it wants to twist it will have to riped it off.


I'm currious to see how my solutions will hold up to the track.

Cheers,

Fred

Nice looking chassis. I like the gray color too. I think I'm still just a bit ahead but have come to a stall as I am working on rebuilding my engine.

As for the cross bracing, I went completely across under the uppaer chassis rails. I must be using shorter shocks.

Looks very, very nice. Happy roller day!

Starting preliminary assembly. Brakes will be next but I need to get final fit on the pedals so I put in the seat. Fun working on something clean for a change.

Looking fantastic!

Is there plenty of clearance between your head and the interior diagonal bar?

Also, on the front steering tie rods, do they have clearance as full bump to the lower A-arm regardless of steering angle?

My heads big but not that big!!! This photo view will answer your questions. I get full bump/droop with no bind, lock to lock. Took awhile work through that during design of the front arms. I still don't like the scrub radius but others have run this setup successfully even at road course speeds. Solo speeds are significantly less. This is a low speed solo-only machine and it will stay that way. I might end up changing out the spindles to ChevetteFiero eventually to narrow up the front end if anything. Another reason I went with the front arm design I did, easy and cheap to change quickly. Right now everything is working to plan. Thanks for the input. It is why I post this forum.

2.5" ground clearance @ normal ride height. Good thing the motor sump will be above the bottom of the chassis. I also think I will need a tilt trailer also to load and unload.

Anybody have good plans on how to build a lightweight open tilt trailer? If I can build a car, I can build a trailer!

I drive my FF onto it's trailer. Ground clearance is three of my fingers. I make a little effort to park it so the trailer hitch isn't too low, but it seems to work. The ramps aren't that long either. I'll have to go look how it works. ( haven't done it recentlym but planning on hitting the track next month, so suppose I had better get on the ball and figure it out! )

I think the trailer is open between the steel c-sections that take the cars tires. I don't remember how close the first cross memebr is to the very back of the trailer. It's pretty easily doable.

Edit: OK, I measured my fingers - that's 2 inches.

Your really making nice progress on your build.
Your right if you can build a car you can certainly build a trailer... That's what I'm thinking also.
As for plans for a tilt trailer here what I found on the OZ clubbie forum, itès a nice little single axle trailer. Planning to build mine with a tire rack in the front.
Plans: http://users.bigpond.net.au/paulmartensdesigner/images/Snottrailer.pdf
Pictures:http://users.bigpond.net.au/paulmartensdesigner/images/SnotTrailerimages.zip

Cheers,

Fred