Hmmmm billet aluminum trailing arms.....I need to speak to a structual engineer
billet doesn't have to be aluminum
I'm glad to see you will be ditching the hollow dana 44 housing, this rig will finally make sense again.
CK5
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Mr. Clean's dune cruising 71' K5 "Oprah" beams, links, and turbo ls powwwa
- Thread starter Mr.Clean
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billet doesn't have to be aluminum
I'm glad to see you will be ditching the hollow dana 44 housing, this rig will finally make sense again.
I'm sure Heath can run the numbers. Either that or I can get them to my lil bro who will be a structural engineer in another semester.
Woah woah you didn't tell me you could make dxf files in cad! Hmmm..
You never asked
For future reference as well i can do far more then just dxf files. 3D modeling, 3d countouring, tool pathing. Literally anything you could think of could make it happen at the shop.
billet doesn't have to be aluminum
I'm glad to see you will be ditching the hollow dana 44 housing, this rig will finally make sense again.
Yes its time to fully embrace the 2wd! And yah but billet is one of those words that instantly triggers aluminum. Just because you see way more of it.
Now my mind is ticking 100mph. What type of materials do you think i would have to use if i machined a solid trailing arm. What would the strength vs. Weight br compared to a dom tube with boxed plating be you think?
Im heading into work tonight ill draw a quick drawing of whats in my mind so you can see, but im imagining a width of 2 1/2"s with 1" webbing interlays on each side to cut out as much weight as possible. If the weight vs strength come out to be the same i would probally atempt it. I think for me machining trailing arms would be cheaper amd easier then building tube plated ones.......and just look sick
but there needs to be a rhyme for the reason. Any other engineers have input on tube/plate trailing arm vs one piece machined trailing arms.
I'd say it would have to be 7075 at least. I'm not familiar with the t6 designations. Solid round stock with some properly placed gussets might work. The main issue i can think of is aluminum isn't as good in compression as it is in tension. I'd overbuild it and go from there.
Yes its time to fully embrace the 2wd! And yah but billet is one of those words that instantly triggers aluminum. Just because you see way more of it.
Now my mind is ticking 100mph. What type of materials do you think i would have to use if i machined a solid trailing arm. What would the strength vs. Weight br compared to a dom tube with boxed plating be you think?
Im heading into work tonight ill draw a quick drawing of whats in my mind so you can see, but im imagining a width of 2 1/2"s with 1" webbing interlays on each side to cut out as much weight as possible. If the weight vs strength come out to be the same i would probally atempt it. I think for me machining trailing arms would be cheaper amd easier then building tube plated ones.......and just look sick
Any other engineers have input on tube/plate trailing arm vs one piece machined trailing arms.
...because race truck!
I'd compare it to 4130 for weight savings, because chromoly plated with .065 and 1.5x.095 tube is very strong and lots of racetrucks used 4130 because it's so strong.
Im heading into work tonight ill draw a quick drawing of whats in my mind so you can see, but im imagining a width of 2 1/2"s with 1" webbing interlays on each side to cut out as much weight as possible. If the weight vs strength come out to be the same i would probally atempt it. I think for me machining trailing arms would be cheaper amd easier then building tube plated ones.......and just look sick
Any other engineers have input on tube/plate trailing arm vs one piece machined trailing arms.
What do the "money no object" race trucks do? It seems like even the richest race teams use fabricated trailing arms.... so that would cause me to question "WHY" they do it. It's certainly not to save money.... they could machine out billet arms in a heartbeat if they wanted to. My suspicion is that it's either too heavy to achieve equivalent strength in billet....or it's more of a serviceability thing (easier to weld in the field during a race if it's damaged).
-G
Icon is making these for Toyota land cruisers for the rear. I'll post some other stuff I found.
One thing I thought of was hydro forming, motocross bikes are all completely aluminum and consist of a mixture of cast and hydro formed tubing. They work excellent. Now a radius arm might not be as big a deal as it seems, it's fixed on one end and pivots on the other and almost all the force is compression. Heck you might be able to use a solid stock threaded on one side for a joint and a hole drilled for the mount on the other end..
I suspect trophy trucks aren't using it because it is not common anymore for beams to be on a no money object truck,
They use them in a arms all the time though.
What do the "money no object" race trucks do? It seems like even the richest race teams use fabricated trailing arms.... so that would cause me to question "WHY" they do it. It's certainly not to save money.... they could machine out billet arms in a heartbeat if they wanted to. My suspicion is that it's either too heavy to achieve equivalent strength in billet....or it's more of a serviceability thing (easier to weld in the field during a race if it's damaged).
-G
I would stick to billet spindles etc. I'm guessing it's going to be to bulky/ heavy. But cool factor would be through the roof.
The thing with aluminum is it has a fatigue limit at all stress levels. Steel has an infinite fatigue limit below a certain threshold of stress depending on the alloy used. If you look at the fatigue life vs the stress level charts for steel, it has a near flat line at the lower stress limits, anything below that should never fail from fatigue (can still fail from overstress obviously). Aluminum does not have that flat line, the number of cycles continue to rise the lower the stress is, but there is never a stress level where it is infinite.
7075 is very strong aluminum that also has titanium in the alloy, but it cannot be welded and it is very expensive.
6061 is pretty typical structural aluminum because of its cheaper cost and weldability, but it can't be bent very easy without annealing and re heat treating.
5052 can be welded and bent, but its not as strong as 6061.
If I were you, I would stick with steel, if you want the lightest weight, I would use thinnger wall chrome moly steel tube or plate.
If you stay under a certain stress level steel will never crack or break. Now, aluminum might go millions of cycles before it breaks if the stress level is low, but on something this critical, without a lot of overkill, or a lot of engineering analysis, I don't think I would do it.
Remember, the closer it gets the wheel end, the more bending moment there will be, and the closer it gets to the frame end, the more it will be just tension/compression forces. Which is why you see most of them get a lot taller in material height as they get closer to the wheel/knuckle.
Now if you are just talking a simple suspension link with rod ends at both ends, those are strictly compression or tension and would probably be easier to make. But if you are talking beams or trailing arms with the shocks mounted to the middle of the arm, then I would stick with steel.
7075 is very strong aluminum that also has titanium in the alloy, but it cannot be welded and it is very expensive.
6061 is pretty typical structural aluminum because of its cheaper cost and weldability, but it can't be bent very easy without annealing and re heat treating.
5052 can be welded and bent, but its not as strong as 6061.
If I were you, I would stick with steel, if you want the lightest weight, I would use thinnger wall chrome moly steel tube or plate.
If you stay under a certain stress level steel will never crack or break. Now, aluminum might go millions of cycles before it breaks if the stress level is low, but on something this critical, without a lot of overkill, or a lot of engineering analysis, I don't think I would do it.
Remember, the closer it gets the wheel end, the more bending moment there will be, and the closer it gets to the frame end, the more it will be just tension/compression forces. Which is why you see most of them get a lot taller in material height as they get closer to the wheel/knuckle.
Now if you are just talking a simple suspension link with rod ends at both ends, those are strictly compression or tension and would probably be easier to make. But if you are talking beams or trailing arms with the shocks mounted to the middle of the arm, then I would stick with steel.
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Aldight ditching the aluminum though, how about the same thought of a solid machined. Canoe style trailing arm? Now weight i would have to imagine would be heavier, buy id havr to do some calculating to find out for sure. So rule out weight momentarily. Would a solid piece trailing arm be stronger then a tube/plated trailing arm.
Im not trying not to just do a tube and plated trailing arm its just that if structually and weight wise it equates close enough to the same then for me personally with my resources available i could build machined trailng arms for about the cost of scrap metal, and i think the cool factor alone is worth a few pounds in weight if thats what it ultimetaly boils down too.
I'm not trying to re invent the wheel....oh wait yes i am 
Im not trying not to just do a tube and plated trailing arm its just that if structually and weight wise it equates close enough to the same then for me personally with my resources available i could build machined trailng arms for about the cost of scrap metal, and i think the cool factor alone is worth a few pounds in weight if thats what it ultimetaly boils down too.
I'm not trying to re invent the wheel....oh wait yes i am
Well trans is dropped off. Can't wait to finally have a built trans that can take some abuse. No more $100 CL trannies.
Then made my way over to my buddies shop. (The dude that built the burb on beams I posted above.) Hit him up with plenty of questions and he said he wants to be apart of the build so i'm sure at some point my blazer will find its way into his shop...which I'm totally okay with. Super cool dude that's more then willing to help whatever way he can to get another truck on beams.
Then made my way over to my buddies shop. (The dude that built the burb on beams I posted above.) Hit him up with plenty of questions and he said he wants to be apart of the build so i'm sure at some point my blazer will find its way into his shop...which I'm totally okay with. Super cool dude that's more then willing to help whatever way he can to get another truck on beams.
Sounds spensive $$$... It depends on how much OT I work... And how much space is left in the engine bay after bypasses, coil overs, engine x member, and engine cage. Turbo and intercooler may not fit
Nice! Can't wait man!
Put a big ass Blower on it....
Will the ride height be lower on the beams than what it does now?
