pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

If you want to go all in with a hexagonal frame perimeter, you could flip your corner wheels to the inside of your rails. This would let you spread your rails out further, increasing your wheelbase and giving you more room on top.

I played with the idea in this thread, but I think it could be even more effective with chain-in-tube.

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

What are the dimensions of the frame without the extra tubing?

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

Flipping the outer wheels to the inside of the chassis has been suggested but it does make your footprint nice. You also might as well make the center wheel super wide (3"?) to take advantage of the neat effect roughtop tread has on traction when you have a small, wide wheel.

As for your belly pan, I would leave a bit of a web / perimeter around the inside of the chassis instead of starting the lightening pattern immediately after the tube "ends". Maybe it's just aesthetics, but I think it's a smidge stronger that way. I would also use more smaller cutouts rather than the big wide cutouts so that the belly pan is a fair bit stiffer.

You can probably get away with 16 wall tubing for all of the bumper supports, which is a lot stronger than lightened 1/8" wall tubing and lighter than most lightening patterns in 1/8".

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

The frame (corner to corner) is 28" long and 24" wide. I believe the hex tubes are 14.5" long so it fits snugly in the frame perimeter but probably does not maximize area.

The bellypan is nowhere near complete as I just added it to post to CD but it's my first time so I'll definitely revamp it to have more support material and smaller cutouts. The rail tubing is currently 1/16" but the supports are all 1/8", something I think I'll switch out.

I just read through the entire thread and I really like the idea of moving the wheels in. My main concern is that there would be more scrubbing as the farthest wheels are a bit farther from the middle wheels, but it seems as it has the opposite effect (which is nice). I'll post a v2 later with the wheels on the inside.

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

Sorry if I'm stealing any thunder, but I had to make the drivetrain and see what it looked like. Here's mine.

Honestly, it doesn't seem any more difficult than a rectangular drivetrain. I may have convinced myself to build one of these this year if it's right for the game.

Re: pic: Tube-Based Hex Chassis
 

If this is going to be your frame for this season, i recommend keeping the tubes with the wheels open on each end. Assuming youre doing a chain-in-drive system, the open ends make it easier to access the sprockets for maintenance.