I spent the past 2 days casually designing my next buggy project. It is going to be a 2-seat mini powered by a 'busa motor.

The buggy is about 52" wide at the shoulders, and is 62" at the widest point. It is almost 127" long total.

The design is obviously missing the engine compartment as well as tabs.

The buggy is built out of 1.25" x 0.090" chrome-moly. The total weight thus far is 217.4 pounds. Some of the tubing will be replaced with 0.060" tubing, but only where there will be low stress. The total weight should then be somewhere between 200 to 210 pounds.

Here are some screenshots of the design:

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Tell me what you guys think. Like/dislike

Where are the anti-sway bars?

HEY!!...don't make me come over there socal!

ooops...forgot to change my screen name from my brothers....

Looks like you been looking at yoshi's posts. In my opinion there is too much tubing.

that does look awfully familiar...

Thats what i was thinking.

here is a new design I have been working on. I put it in photo shop and added some color to it so it almost looks like a real picture...

Make it look like yoshi's



Except...











Just a little "better looking"

Yea...it does somewhat ressemble yoshi's....I was adding some points in and stuff after I got the basic part of the frame done and when I drew the tubing in i was like.....uh oh....so there are a few parts here and there that look like his....
from the front profile it is totally different thought....yoshi's at the bottom is narrow and then as you go up it goes out and then back in again....but goes out and out....
and yea...there are a few tubes in there that can be eliminated...im still tinkering away trying to make it better...
I want to get the weight somewhere in the 170ish area...165....we'll see...
i will peobably end up designing a few more before I pick one....I will kepp posting the designs as I get them done.

How about this one???

I just start pushing buttons and stuff....its nowhere near done...just the basic outside skelton....



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...perhaps I shouldnt quit my day job just yet.....

...one day when I am really bored I will sit down and get more into it....

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ oh yeah... now that looks original!!!

What program are you using?

Looks like Bend Tech Pro to me, same program that I designed and build my rail with, it works great!

BMGM37

man, where have I seen that new design before? hmmmmmmmmmm




































































































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But what are you going to name it?

They share some of the same lines but you need to start someplace...




Keep going.

There aint nuthin new under the sun when it comes to roll cages. It's all been done!

If you're gonna copy something, copy a class 1 or 10 chassis.



They look cool, and you can say something vague about "race proven design."

Yea...the program I am using is bend tech pro....its an all right program and for the price you can get it for and the stuff it can do, you can't really complain.

That 2nd design I just whipped out in like 30 minutes....

I think at work today I will start doodling up some designs and then next week I will put something together on the program.

Like Tenaja said...when It comes to roll cages, its all been done....
The only thing you can change are the lines, but even then, there is so little room for new things.

Its one thing to picture something, but you draw it out, its completely different.

I like the first design, I think I will take some tubing out of that as well as add more curves to it and then maybe flare out a little around the rear tire area...we will see....

...I am not really worried about the basic design of the chassis looking similiar to somebody elses, I just want to take a whole bunch of things I like and mash them together. The thing that will be different than every body elses will be just how I make my tabs and mounting plates, dashboard, body panels, and I have a pretty wild idea for a suspension system. I dont think anybody has done it in a sandrail.....at least to my knowledge....
I'm gonna give the suspension guy a call after I get out of work today, so we will see what he has to say. I sent him an email and hes interested in the application for it. Hopefully it works out.

Well if you wanna be different, try something like this. It has the chains running down the trailing arms for damn near unlimited travel with no cv's or u-joints to work with. They also did something different with the rear shocks. I'm gonna try the chain setup later on after I find some time to start experimenting. At $1000 for a set of u-jont axles and 5 or $600 for regular cv's and axles, chains may actually be cheaper....
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Not exactly what I had in mind for my suspension set up......haha

That whole chain setup is pretty interesting though...The only thing that limits the travel are the shocks. Not a bad idea.

that chain setup is an interesting idea, but it has to have a little unsprung weight problem

Yeah, it's probably got more unsprung weight.



As for looking like some other chassis, don't worry too much about it, most of the chassis out now are pretty similar, just concentrate on making every tube count.


Consider looking into more of the unorthodox features, like corner bracing vs x bracing, sleeved tubing in high stress areas vs thick tubing throughout, square tubing, plated vs tube parts, etc.

Personally, If I was gonna copy anyone, I'd copy Yosh, I like his designs...

I'm not trying to copy anybody. I try to do my own thing, but since I know what type of things I like, when I am done designing something, it will more than likely resemble the things I like. I am trying to break free from that and make something unique. Yea the design might ressembly a combination of things, but in the end its nowhere near a copy. A chassis does influence the final look of the complete rail, but in the end, its all about performance-power and handling.

atleast thats how I feel about it.

That's what I'm saying. Don't worry about trying to make it look different, it will end up looking a lot like a lot of other rails, because form follows function and everyone is trying to optimize the same characteristics.



Just remember that a lot of the better designs have hidden features, you can't see where all of their strengths lie.

Why thank ya. I've really taking a liking to Spooners rail, that thing is just bad ass man.....

What does a program like that run and how easy is it to use? Are there any free programs out there?

Pro-Tools sells software for tubing. $60.00 - $275.00 depending on what level you want to take it too.

Pro-Tools Tubing Bender Software

Dont you have some work to do?

urznaim
dont worry
if you like some details on my design be my guest and use it ...
to be honest i ripped some of the design clues right of off the Lamborghini Gallardo anyway ..



Thanx Yoshi!

Depending what version you get, it is anwhere from 60 to 500 dollars. There are 4 different versions available....I got the second best one.
The better version you get, the more input you can put into the program...to see what I am talking about, their website is 2020 Solutions

The program I use, I just go into create assembly and then from then on, its pretty much a single origin point you start with. You specify X, Y and Z and then you connect the points. You can specify tubing and tooling also.

You can only save it in their format which I believe is .bta and some other one, so you can take it over to Pro-E, UG, or any of those higher end drafting programs and do stress analysis or anything.

But like I said, for the price you pay, its not a bad little program. you can take individual pieces out of the assembly and it shows a little movie clip on how to bend it depending on what type of bender you got. It also specifies how long to cut the tube, where to bend it and how much to bend it.
On top of that, when you specify tubing, you enter in how much it weighs per inch and from that, it shows you how much tubing you have used in the entire assembly and how much the whole thing weighs along with individual pieces.

The only thing that i hate is that if you are in zoom, pan or rotate mode, you can create points or draw lines....kind of annoying switching back and forth. Also, I don't like the rotate thing too much...its kind of sloppy and its weird getting used to it.

The software I got was bend-tech pro...and I got that for $285. Really good investment for the hobbyist....takes a lot of guess work out of things and saves you time in the long run.

everybody gets their inspiration from something else. Just one line in your "unique" design can make it ressemble something else now a days. Just looking at your little avatar, I can definately see the ressemblance to the Gallardo.
it's all good.

"great racing background"

Can you check on the file extentions for the bending software? Would be interesting to see how their files react in SolidWorks. Thanks.

are there better programs in that price range $60-285?

This is the only program I have ever seen for specifically bending tube. SolidWorks does not even have it. Well not really. There are a couple or ways to make it happen.

I know for the assemblies...there is only the .bta extension which stand for bend tech assembly. There might be different file extensions when drawing individual pieces. I am not sure because I have never just drawn individual pieces, but I will look into it.

With bend-tech pro, you can not move files interchangably with solid works. There is talk about Bend-tech SE having an interface soon for solid works. I do not know when it will be done. You will be able to save the files with the .dxf extension.

I like good ol' Autocad.

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It's hard to design a good looking one of frame without it looking like someone else's design. When you do come up with something it ends up looking like a pile of doodoo.

You go uzranium !!! Dare to be different , I like it !!!. But what ever you do please make the gas tank and exhaust NOT look like an afterthought !!!..... .