pic: 6wd Chassis Design

[Alex.q]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

And with box tube, you would no longer need the extra piece of c-channel to support the axle in a second spot, so you don't need those particular bolts any more anyway, AND you've gotten rid of 30 components (1 bracket, 2 bolts, 2 nuts per wheel) in the entire drive base, making the whole thing much simpler and less prone to failure.

But if I eliminated the axle brackets, I wouldn't be able to slide the axles to tension the chain. That was the idea behind using them as I did. Would box tube really make it much more rigid?

Originally Posted by BJC

That wheel tensioner isn't going to work very well. 2 tightened locknuts holding a tightened drivetrain chain in tension only by keeping the bolthead and nut in compression with the hub is not going to work for any reasonable amount of time. You really need some kind of cam device to keep your chains from falling off.

Do you mean a cam that pushes the chain down, or do you mean a cam that rotates to push the axle brackets farther out? Assuming you meant the second thing, then I was wondering why that keeps it tight. Couln't the force just cause the cam to rotate an pull the brackets together as you described before? (I'm not saying it doesn't work, just that I don't understand why it does)