LR Series Aluminum Chassis/Frame ? has anyone seen one?

[LH Drive]

One of my neighbors has been helping me with my frame rust repair. He is into fabricating automotive/bike parts and is a cert. welder. Works as a project engineer for one of the bike shops in my area. We are almost done with my frame, it just needed the front 3 inches of the front horns replaced and while I have the truck dismantled down to just the frame I decided to cut/replace some thin rear section areas. Finally some progress on getting my truck closer to being assembled.
After looking at the bare chassis construction, He couldn't help to mention how one could be made out of boxed aluminum to match the original chassis. Would use aluminum to match the strenght of the 14 Gauge steel, prob. 200 or 250 wall aluminum. Other aloy (6061) heat treated strength would also be considered. Was wondering if one already exist and is being produced. After all the aluminum welding is done, it could be anodised and should withstand almost anything.
I'm not in the market for a new chassis but if I was, having one made of aluminum vrs. galvanized steel sounds like a better choice. Although for me, price would be the deciding factor.

[giftshopduane]

What about wear and tear over time? Wouldn't aluminum tire and fatigue, what about the shock and spring mounts? Aluminum is pretty soft, but stiff. Wouldn't ride quality be compromised too. In comparison a steel bicycle is much more enjoyable to own, not as light but supple and comfortable, aluminum yes lighter, but tighter, and over time an aluminum framed bike stretches and begins to flex quite a bit. Take into account the stresses and forces put on aircraft, don't they have stringent QC measure in place, and retire after X hours due to the fatigue? I am no expert but I think that in the long term its nice to stick with steel, stronger, proven, you can galvanize it, its easily repairable, cheap. Aluminum is a wonderful material to have things made of and I think an aluminum series frame would be quite a sight, but would wouldn't be a suitable material for a truck frame. That's why they are steel. Plus after all the cost and effort one could buy a brand new galvy frame.


Cool thought though! Titanium now that's a frame.

[o2batsea]

Resin infused carbon fiber would work. Trouble is you'd spend an awfully long time making the molds.

[mongoswede]

Great idea until you saw the bill. The cost of Aluminum VS steel is significantly higher. Any welding will have to be tig. ALuminum is very rigid and would likely transmit a lot of vibration into you the driver. Bump a frame rail with a rock and you risk compromising the structural integrity of the chassis. Aluminum will be a lot harder to repair out in the field as well. If you are ever considering it consider a tube chassis instead...a lot easier to build, available, and a lot more practical. I think QT services in England offered defender tube chassis at one time...but with a tube bender and some planning you could build your own.

A quick look at onlinemetals.com shows that a 1 foot long 6061 aluminum tube with a .375" wall thickness costs $37.03 while the same sized tube in A513 DOM steel costs $21.62.

[antichrist]

Aluminum is used for some heavy truck frames, so it's certainly doable. But I think the cost would make it prohibitive. Plus, the steel chassis helps to lower the CoG.

[LH Drive]

If someone did produce an aluminum frame it sounds like it would be a hard item to sell for above mentioned reasons. It wouldn't be much of an upgrade and hard to justify spending the extra cash on one. Thanks all for your post.

[mongoswede]

If someone did produce an aluminum frame it sounds like it would be a hard item to sell for above mentioned reasons. It wouldn't be much of an upgrade and hard to justify spending the extra cash on one. Thanks all for your post.

I was thinking about this some more...the future potential for bulkhead to chassis galvanic corrosion could be a real eye opener too.

[martindktm]

I think an aluminum bulkhead would be nice instead of a chassis.