Hot Rods Frame gussets on kick ups. Overkill?

Nothing too strong ever broke.

 

My opinion differs greatly.
Gussets create triangles
and add a great deal of strength and rigidity. They do not make a connection stronger, the spread the load of that connection across a bigger surface.

Fish plates change a **** weld connection into a lap joint weld connection with a little **** on the side.

Attemp to illustrate :

**** weld = **** weld.
But weld with fish plate =
Lap joint + **** weld.

Did that make sense

Internal plates with plug welds changes a **** weld connection into a sleaved or slugged **** weld. There's a bigger gap and 3 pieces are welded together in the gap. A sleaved **** joint is really nice because its like 2 more hands and makes measuring accuracy less critical. This also creates an additional connection within the joint.
Belt and suspenders.

The aircraft splice doesn't change a **** weld, it creates an additional connection within that joint. Belt and suspenders type, but better buckles.

 

That's cool!
The little knob and divot pull the joint together around the corner.

 

Except the ***ANIC

 

I see nothing wrong with overkill.

 

And more recently a bridge in Minnesota.

 

There's lots of stuff . The list could be endless.
Saw a prototype bulldozer blade that kept breaking. It was too stiff for its job. So they make it stronger and stronger until it broke the bulldozer.

 

Take a look at the SFI specs for tube frames and get some inspiration there. Your avatar says you may likely over power whatever you build at some point, and you recently mentioned getting one of the greatest engines of all time, a BBC. With good ol TQ being applied in the occasional perfect traction scenario I would personally feel better knowing I put a smaller size filler into my joint and rosette welded them in. Even on angled and mitered joints, having additional thickness in there and rosette welded, well the potential for failure is greatly reduced. All the bravado about being a good weldor and not needing it? Hey, I'm a pretty good metal fusician too but I'd gusset any joint in a high stress area that may see exponentially higher loads from time to time. We all be hot rodders, we all are guilty of pushing anything to the limit at any time. Some tubes spanning the frame in key places would help too. A corner tube out back on each side, an 'X' brace somewhere in the kick, you get the idea.

 

I think that one place that we really drop the ball is when we get the idea that because Henry could make a frame hold up to 15 HP with no bracing that it should hold up to 300 (or so) with the same lack of bracing.

Building a ch***is is a balancing act. Too flimsy it is going to fail but too rigid is it still going to fail, its the 3 bears syndrome, too hard too soft and just right.

 

Yeah, I saw it firsthand, the aftermath that is..and it was a fish plate/gusset plate failure that caused a support beam to buckle and all came tumbling down.

 

In sweden we are not allowed to use fishplates becouse you build in
tension that increase the risk for cracks. True or not? I don know.
But i have really put some time to prepare my weldingjoints.
Sorry for this is metric figures.
The steel in my tubes have a stretch limit at 355 nm/mm
The welding sticks i use have a stretch limit at 425 nm/mm
My weldingjoint will be my strongest part of the frame if
it properly done. So why try to make these stronger?

 

D-Russ, that's a good tech article.

 

The stresses the rails see depends on how you suspend it as well. If you use buggy springs front and rear the ch***is won't see much twist. If you put springs on the four corners the rails (in most cases) will be subject to more twist.
Always bothers me to see a swept ch***is at the cowl without plates. Seems like a high stress area in the midpoint in the rail.

 

No matter how you weld them up it is always good to "get some **** on the side!"