what type tubing does all or most builders use such as dom, hrew, etc....?

and also i know most main framing is 1 1/2 but is it .120, .090, etc.... wall or what ?

ive heard you can use thinner wall dom and chromoly but that hrew and others should be a little thicker wall and i was just wondering what the consensus is thats best to use because i been thinking about raising the roof on my buggy for a little extra headroom and dont want it to come crashing down around my head in a rollover?

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

I'd say any of it is alright except chromoly for the woods. It's more brittle than the others, so instead of smooshin in on ya, it could actually break. I'd use DOM, or just regular .095 or .120 wall 1 1/2 pipe. Depending on how concerned you are with weight.

-Dakotah/koko

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-Dakotah/koko
keep on keepin' on!!

erw tubing like crew, hrew, erw is usually made form 1010 steel, dom is usually made from 1020...which is higher carbon content... higher carbon content make for a higher tensil strenght....but also remember with ahigher tensile strenght the metal becomes more brittle....which wouldnt come into effect till using chromoly tubing....sorta like koko stated.. would i be afraid to use a .120 erw type tubing? nope...but you can usually buy dom for not much more than erw type tubing....hope that helps some

Clubman 500 or T45 (similar to your chromoly) is what we use, as ductile as 1010/1020, but far higher strength, most of our frames use 2" main hoops with 0.1" wall thickness, then 2" tube with 0.08" wall for the rest of the framing and 1.5" diameter 0.08" wall for the bracing tubes, 1" dia. for stuff we want as a crumple zone.

Chromoly is fine in the woods so long as your crumple zones are made right, it takes more force to break it than it does to bend + break 1010, so just make sure the impacts in the crumple zones are taken by thinner wall chro-moly or mild tubing, otherwise they'll transfer a lot more force into the chassis.

if you go chromoly is should be tig welded..if not, you are goin to defeat the purpose of it....

I would say that 99% of the buggies you see in the woods are .095 erw. it is the cheapest and is plenty strong up to 2500-3000lbs, then I would step it up to .120 wall. 4130 (cro-mo tubing) is harder to work with, its generally 3 times the cost and is VERY effected by the heat you put into it when welding that is why they suggest tig welding it.

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

thanks to all that replied with all the good info especially racebug as this is more or less the kind of answer i was looking for

so how much difference is it between erw and dom strength wise and is one heavier than the other?

also how much difference is in weight between the .095 wall and .120 wall?

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

.095 weighs 1.426 a foot and .120 weighs 1.769 a foot. when you hold one in each hand, it is a huge difference! For general woods riding, erw is just fine, dom costs about twice what erw costs and cromoly is about twice what dom is generally. When I built my race car, i think I spent around $800 for DOM. it was going to be close to $2000 for 4130 cromoly, and I figure around $350-400 for erw. I feel plenty safe in a erw frame for all around useage, but thinking about a 75-85 MPH barrel role in the race car is going to ba a diferent story!

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

That's exactly what killed a friend of mine 2 weeks ago, and his car had a full DOM, CDS spaceframe to FIA/MSA specs....

Made me glad ours is all T45.

my buggy is 1 1/2 .120 wall dom tub. and its a tank,way heavier than any buggy ive ever owned,but i guess its safe.the only down fall to mine is i'm back to running a 1641 and i carry so much extra stuff its hard to carry the fronts over really steep stuff so i tend to saddle alot.but a bigger motor to go a little faster out the top and it should be cured of this problem,lol.chad

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NOW GAS IT!!!!!

ok im guesing there is no difference in weight between the dom and erw as long as they have the same wall thickness correct?

hey gasman do you by any chance happen to know what your buggy weighs without all the extra gear and supplies?

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

it weighed 2480lbs on a set of big truck scales and that was fully loaded and im as close to 300lbs as you can get,lol.but id say you could take another 300lbs of stuff i carry off and that puts you at 1880 and with those scales give or take a couple hundred.i want to put it on a set of race car scales soon with nothing on it and see for sure.chad

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NOW GAS IT!!!!!

If it makes any difference to you, SCORE doesnt require a .120 wall frame till you hit 2500lbs. are they are saftey a-holes!

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I've been using 0.12 ERW and I'm using a Lincon 220 mig for welding. I have to keep it at one step up from bottom any higher and it burns through. So anything thinner would probably have to be tig welded. Just a tought as to wether you could actually work with some thing lighter.

I guess that depends on your personal weld speed. Wire feed speed can cause your welds to burn thru too. I use a miller 220 mig (model210) to weld 20ga and thinner auto body sheet metal nearly every day, with very few burnthrus ever. (Blowouts n burns cost me money, more filler work to do )

Have used same welder to weld 095, 083 and 065 erw buggy tubing.
(its settings are 1-6, I weld sheetmetal on 2, buggy pipe on 4 or 5)
It'll blow thru if you dont move out with it.

^^What he said, I've seen a friend of mine weld 0.6mm draw steel up with a MIG.
I blew a hole straight through it when I tried

Unless you've got a tank of a buggy, .120 wall tubing is too thick. your just adding unnessary weight, and unless your buggy has too much power, you dont want weight I agree with kybuggy, I mig tubing from .065 on up. If the .065 gets a little gappy, its time to tig. If your burnin through .120, speed yourself up, or turn the voltage down, try thinner wire, or speed the wire speed up!

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ok if i use 1 1/2" .095 for the roof/main frame should i use 1" .065 for bracing or something different?

i also need to x-brace the front of the buggy and was thinking of using the 1" .065 for that also,,,,,,so what do yall think?

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

Thats your call! I used 1-1/2" .065 wall for my x brace. remember a tube is only goin to be as strong as what it is attached to!

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

^^What he said, most rail frames suffer from a lack of rigidity rather than outright strength that you gain from thick wall tube...

I should have mentioned that I was running 035 flux core. Guess I could fork out for gas and .025 wire. That would keep things more under control.

That does make a difference.

I don't think your buggy is gonna be involved in a rollover... it never leaves the shop.....and if it does leave , it's usually on flat ground

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Smith

I like to use 2 in black iron gas pipe

i believe yours was sitting in the shop today also

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris