Boxed a-arms

[Kenshiro]

Hi,,

I will be making boxed a-arms for my crazy front wheel drive project,, I have a metal sponsor that laser cut pieces for me so thats no problem,,

what i wonder is what plate thickness i should get,, and also height of bung for the heim. I have been looking at several designs but just need some kind of measurements to work on


Car is aprox 1200 kg race ready,, ( engine in front )

Picture is from MOCKUP,,,!!!!!

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[atomicjoe23]

That's a pretty light car. . .I would think that 0.188" thick material is the thickest you would need; you could probably get away with 0.120" with a good desigh.

[Scott_F]

I would use 3mm, maybe 4mm if available.

[DesertGuy1]

.128" for main structure components and .080" or .090" for any doubler/re-enforcement plating (4130 material).

Don't understand bung height question...component locations are "driven" off of your design, there is no "it is always here" answer for all suspensions.

[atomicjoe23]

For the bungs are talking about the length of the bung themselves? I know some places offer short and long bungs. . .not sure what else you could mean.

[Kenshiro]

For the bungs are talking about the length of the bung themselves? I know some places offer short and long bungs. . .not sure what else you could mean.

The thickness of the a-arm minus the platethickness for box,,

I will have the square bungs made 38mm, plate them with 3mm plates on both sides,, 44mm thick A-arm when done, aprox 60 cm long

using FK 3/4" Heims ( JMX 12 )

Does that sound ok,, reinforcement plates on critical areas and inside the structure

[atomicjoe23]

Oh, I gotcha. . .you mean how thick should the A-arm be, not how thick should the plate the A-arm is made out of should be, right?

[atomicjoe23]

I hadn't really ever given that much thought before. . .totally dependent on the size of the square pinch bungs then (assuming you are using square pinch bungs) if you are making boxed A-arms out of sheet metal; if you are boxing a tubular structure then it's dependent on the size of tubing you are using for the skeleton of the arms.

44mm (~1.75") sounds pretty good to me; that's the size tube you would use for tubular arms (give or take a little) so it sounds about right. . .figuring out the strength of the structure based on sheetmetal thickness and A-arm thickness to make sure they are strong enough (FEA would help there).