what are you using?

Edited: 11/10/2009 6:27:48 PM by nofnaround

Just wondering what size tubing you use for your control arms? Suicide doors uses 1.25" diameter dom 1/4" wall which sounds heavy.Thanks

pretty sure max builds all his own.

From what I've seen max seems to make a majority of his out of plate.  I made mine out of 1.25 with 3/16" wall   I think SD's lowers are actually 1.5" with 1/4" wall, the 1.25 is for the uppers 

Thanks. I have 1.25  3/16" wall dom tubing in my shop so i was hoping it was heavy enough. I think I will use something  alittle lighter for the uppers.

I was wondering the same, about the plate arms that is. It looks like maybe 1/8 inch?

This is a question that is tough to answer. I think that as a whole the minitruck industry uses material that is way too thick, but the thing is that thick is safe. In almost every case we use 1/8" thick materaial, tube or plate. BUT (and this is the important thing) we are careful to not create any stress risers when building parts.

A stress concentration (often called stress raisers or stress risers) is a location in an object where stress is concentrated. An object is strongest when force is evenly distributed over its area, so a reduction in area, e.g. caused by a crack, results in a localized increase in stress. A material can fail, via a propagating crack, when a concentrated stress exceeds the material's theoretical cohesive strength. The real fracture strength of a material is always lower than the theoretical value because most materials contain small cracks that concentrate stress. Fatigue cracks always start at stress raisers, so removing such defects increases the fatigue strength.


Correct?


If so would that be like placing an air bag to far back or too far forward on an 1/8" plate arm? Not correctly distributing the force of the air bag? Thanks.

I was also wondering if it's worth making the arms adjustable with threaded bungs and studs for alignment?

---------------------------------------------Originally posted by lwrthnu07A stress concentration (often called stress raisers or stress risers) is a location in an object where stress is concentrated. An object is strongest when force is evenly distributed over its area, so a reduction in area, e.g. caused by a crack, results in a localized increase in stress. A material can fail, via a propagating crack, when a concentrated stress exceeds the material's theoretical cohesive strength. The real fracture strength of a material is always lower than the theoretical value because most materials contain small cracks that concentrate stress. Fatigue cracks always start at stress raisers, so removing such defects increases the fatigue strength. Correct? If so would that be like placing an air bag to far back or too far forward on an 1/8" plate arm? Not correctly distributing the force of the air bag? Thanks.---------------------------------------------Haha! Yes, that is correct. Your analogy is a little off, but you got the idea.  

Shaune, you should always build some sort of adjustment into your arms.