pic: Prototype Drivetrain

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

Clearly welded 6061 can be used with great results, many teams (like yours) have. I am merely suggesting that there could be a more optimal design.

There will always be a more optimal design. In fact, most people using aluminum tend to overbuild their chassis's as well.

I think you would have a hard time selling a change from aluminum to steel to many teams, not to mention quite a few air-frame firms and racecar teams.

Aluminum has a couple benefits that aren't immediately apparent.

#1 Cutting aluminum by hand, generally speaking, is far easier than steel
#2 Drilling is usually much easier
#3 Aluminum is usually used in wall thinknesses that support tapping directly without the use of additional hardware
#4 Because aluminum is generally large in size, it's that much easier to cheesehole and to make up for mis-located/designed components because you have extra leeway.

Our team learned to weld aluminum in a week, then taught the students how to do so as well. It really wasn't that bad.

That said, we built our frames out of 80-20 the first year, thin-wall steel the next two years, and aluminum the last 2. I wouldn't say any were heads-above the others. They all had their own strengths and weaknesses.

Back to the frame (I hate to make an off-topic post that isn't at least a bit on-topic), frankly I think you've overbuilt it a bit. I think you can remove a lot of your cross members and retain your rigidity and strength. Think about mounting your transmissions by their base (on a flat plate). This will remove the need for upper-long-ways beams internally, and you can move your cross-supports down onto the bottom portion of the frame.

Neat Design!