frame question? thin or thick???

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How thick do the walls of a frame HAVE to be for it to be safe?

or maybe how thin can they be with out killing myself? lol
 

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what do you plan on doing with it? off-road needs to be a bit thicker than street/track. if adding suspension, significantly thicker.
 

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Depends on construction method too. If your using a space frame
style of truss construction (think triangles) then it doesn't have to
be very big. If your building a simple ladder frame like most home built karts then is has to be considerably bigger. Next time
your in a BP or warehouse look at the steel rafter holding up the roof - none of those pieces would be strong enough by themselves for a go kart but when put together properly they can hold up a roof full of snow. Strength is found more in your
construction tecnique then anything else.
 

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DCC - go to my thread "another Kart project finished" You'll
see I used thinwall 3/4 inch OD tubing - I can stand (over 200lbs) on the side rail and it has next to no flex. You would have to have a very large single tube to be able to do that. It's lighter AND stronger than a single bar frame. It does involve more welding and cutting though.
 

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what do you plan on doing with it? off-road needs to be a bit thicker than street/track. if adding suspension, significantly thicker.

its prob gona be a street but idk yet i havnt made set plans...


monocoque, semi-monocoque

huh? haha

DCC - go to my thread "another Kart project finished" You'll
see I used thinwall 3/4 inch OD tubing - I can stand (over 200lbs) on the side rail and it has next to no flex. You would have to have a very large single tube to be able to do that. It's lighter AND stronger than a single bar frame. It does involve more welding and cutting though.

that makes sence...
so is what u have the strongest frame type almost? or well stronger?

what is the best design for it to be strong with pretty thin walls?
 

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mono, and semi-mono refers to types of construction. on one, the skin of the aircraft is used to reinforce the frame members without adding weight. super rigid, super strong
 

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This type of truss construction is the best - the webbing inbetween the bars doesn't have to be very big at all.
 

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okm so thats the strongest would it have to be like that all throughout the frame? or just main areas?
 

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you could run those as I beams on the perimeter, and for the engine mount. what would you say that construct weighs? 30% more than regular round tube?
 

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No, because it's small and lightwieght tubing. My rail design on
my kids kart on one side is a lot lighter than one same length
1.25 inch square tubing .125 thick. and the square tubing will
flex if I stand on it, mine won't. You should be able to build a
stronger AND lighter kart with space design. You'll find you don't need as much bridging as you think. Try some - test till
you have the strength you want.
 

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ok i will tonight then

is it good? will it work well? this is the first frame im building so yeah kinda new to it.
 

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It will work great and it's still thick enough to weld without too
much problem. Show us some drawings of what you're thinking
Engine size, one or two wheel drive, what kind of drive, wheel
size etc. or pics of the stuff you've got together so far.
 

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thta the problem idk what im thinking haha right now all i have is the pipe but i wana do live so 2 wheel drive i have some wheels laying around so i might use those haha just gota find them

could i do and offroad kart and it be ok?

or maybe what can i not do with this pipe?
 

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"gotta find them" Ha ha, that's a familiar thing for all of us. Hey I
saw a program the other day said messy people and do it yourselfers are smarter. You could build anything out of this pipe
it just depends how much pipe you can use. Race cars are built out of similar stuff. Offroad with suspension would just require more bridging and bracing. What you can't do with this
pipe is smoke it
 

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haha no think i could even do that with it to!:sifone:

thats good! like i said i can get a SH!T load! like enought to make a few small karts or one really big one:drool5:
 

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Good one. Your lucky. Count on using more than you think cause you'll make some screw ups, then again maybe not, but it's good to know when your building something you got extra in case. So is the military gonna miss this stuff? (just kidding)
 
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