pic: FRC 1771 Concept Drivetrain

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

The main reason I have the bends going outwards is so that it is easier to work on things on the inside although I don't know how much difference it would make looking back on it.

We never had an issue with it being faced inwards. It was a tiny bit harder to get a wrench in there to tighten our chain tensioner, but not by anything significant.

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

Also on the front and back piece would you maybe recommend switching to 1/4" thick plate. The weight gain wouldn't be too substantial since it's a small piece, or maybe even switch to a composite like fiberglass, something that wouldn't bend as much.

I would personally recomend just putting a nice piece of 1 inch thick solid wood up there in front of the 1/8th inch thick metal. Our sheet metal sponsor told us that the maximum thickness aluminum they could laser is 3/16, and that they prefer 1/8th because the cutting time is a lot shorter. We attached a piece of 1 inch thick wood up front, and that reduced the damage to our frame by a significant amount. Our frame only got bent up where the wood wasn't. The wood is pretty light, and absorbs shock nicely. Our wood is missing quite a number of chunks, and all the left corner is very well rounded off, but the metal behind it held up well.