Hi guys, I snapped some pictures of our chassis this morning (wanted to get them before sandblast/paint). Anyways, I thought I would share some of them with everyone. Criticisms/Critiques are very much welcome.

BTW, this is a Baja SAE chassis, built by engineering students (or any students, actually), with the purpose to race them against other schools from around the world. With the name Baja, it's not hard to guess, but this is actually an ATV based vehicle, not a street car (we leave the concrete for Formula SAE).

Anyways, Pictures (some of them are dark, and I apologize for shitty shop lighting and my lack of camera skillz):





Some control arms, and a tie-rod:


Some of the larger nodes and favorite areas:





You can't really tell in that picture, but that last steering box bit has some pretty fun compound bends in the plates, it was pretty cool to build.

Finally, my favorite area, my steering and controls stuff:







That's all for now, I'll have more when the car is closer to complete. Thanks for looking.

 

looks pretty good. wheres the harness bar though?
i probably wouldve done front triangulation too though since you have the space there and it isnt being used since the steering sticks that far back. seems like thats just some dead space.

heres our site
http://www.baja.org.vt.edu

Ill get someone to start an album today for our current car.
we're almost done as well.
got delayed 2 months due to JD2 benders being on BO.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dfoxengr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks pretty good. wheres the harness bar though?
i probably wouldve done front triangulation too though since you have the space there and it isnt being used since the steering sticks that far back. seems like thats just some dead space.
.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The harness bar is there (tacked that is, just went in yesterday). You have to look close, it has dark mill scale, and it's in the darker pictures. The frame is still missing quite a few things though (kill switch tabs, fire ext. tabs, harness lower attachments, rear tow point and bumper, drivetrain tabs, etc.), I'm the only welder, so it's been hard for me to keep up this last month, being the welder, chief fabricator, AND captain (plus my design roles, DESIGN REPORT FREAK OUT TIME), so I'm backed up, and also waiting for drivetrain componants to come in.

We opted out of the front bracing to free up visibility and front suspension design. Our designs have used rear triangulation AND front triangulation for a couple years now, and since they simplified the rear triangulation rules last year, we decided to just go with it by itself. It really free'd up quite a bit up front, I like the results.

I will say it's a much different feeling to sit in a car without front bracing, I got used to a tight cockpit the last 4 years, this one is very open, it's odd.


Modified by Goullish at 8:56 AM 2/25/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Goullish &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm the only welder, so it's been hard for me to keep up this last month, being the welder, chief fabricator, AND captain </TD></TR></TABLE>

this describes me on my team too, lol. it sucks doesnt it.

 

I've found that regular doses of budwieser go a long way in maintaining sanity, but, after almost 45 straight 6+ hour days (plus 18 hours of class), a day off would be freaking amazing. Two days off would probably give me a heart attack, the shock would be too much.

 

Nice work guys. Looks very similar to our initial design from last year, before we went with dual trailing arms in the rear. I was the captain, welder, and machinist last year, so I know how you feel!!

Which event are you going to? At UCF last year performance in the water made all the difference in the world. We were as fast as most of the top 5 teams on land, but second slowest in the water!

 

We do all 3, skipping the Portland years. I've always advocated all 3 (if travel cost isn't an issue), why build one and not take every opportunity to race it.

The water won't be that bad this year, distance wise, but it will be tight. TTU has one of the best handling 'boats' out there, so you better believe that they'll use home court advantage (even if the current team can't see the course, alumni builders always build to their teams strengths). Plus, they have to build the pond, no natural water around there, and the word is it will be only about 150' long by 75' wide, with a double back.

 

thanks for the heads up on the water.
we just got back from the michigan tech winter race last weekend. it was a blast, and i drove half of one of the enduros.

cant wait to goto TN.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Goullish &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I'm the only welder, so it's been hard for me to keep up this last month, being the welder, chief fabricator, AND captain </TD></TR></TABLE>

That sounds remarkably familiar. That was pretty much how it was for me when I was team captain there in 95&96. Lots of 60hr weeks plus schoolwork. These will be good memories for you. I still keep in touch with Dr. Jones, and was able to come back and help out when Auburn hosted the event. I plan to help out in 09 too.

-Chris (one of the original half dozen or so who re-started Auburn Mini-Baja in the 90's)

 

Nice fab work
How many people are on a team?

 

teams generally range from about 6-30 members.
I think that we have one of the larger teams of 19 ME seniors (we get senior design project credit), 8 lower-classmen who get independent study credit, and about 5 more volunteers.
Our team was 35 seniors 2 years ago, but that's far too many.

Im not sure how many auburn has.

 

looks good!

Im not sure why you guys decided to connect the rear subframe into the middle of the tubes

And the side section where the bay is triangulated at the middle of the tube.

Just seems to me that you'd design the loads to meet at notes and not put the tube its meeting in bending.

the WWU Baja team is busting *** and coming along. They should be competitive again this year.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EMod Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That sounds remarkably familiar. That was pretty much how it was for me when I was team captain there in 95&96. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, small world, Doc Jones and I were talking about those years just last friday.

Bailhatch - We have 9 or so fabricators/machinist, 12 people total.

.RTErnie - The rear connects there because the loading in that area is almost zero, and there is a transmission component that sits right beside one of them (on the outside), so we decided we could break a few standards with those tubes to help with ease of manufacturing instead of trying to bend them around the drivetrain component.

The mid-triangulation in the side impact member is there because the seat actually connects at that point, so it transfers those loads to the lower corner nodes.

 

I see...makes sense now! I spoke with the baja kids today and I said the auburn team had some pics up of their chassis...and they quickly informed me that you guys were #1 last year. Props. They all turned and looked at me and said...you know someone on the Auburn Baja Team?!?!?! I was like....well he's on H-T Fab Forum. They lost interest in me after that lol.

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks man, we'll try.

The car seems to have the makings of a winner, but, of course, it still has a long way to go, and it takes more than just a good car to win these days.

 

How much does that thing weigh? It's lookin kinda beefy...

 

im betting the frame alone weight about 70 lbs
ours weighed 63 last year, and this year its supposed to weigh about 58

remember that the tubing used is 1.25" x 0.065 as the larger tubes.

 

As it sits, 66 lbs and change. All said and done, projected is 376 lbs.

Are you thinking it looks beefy in general, or beefy for a baja car?

 

Looking good..

Here is a link to some of what we have done so far..

SDSU

http://www.sdsuminibaja.com/Galleries/frame1/ Link

 

What was used for the initial design process prior to full scale chassis fabrication? Deciding suspension geometry, engine location, seating position beforehand I assume is done entirely in some type of software (solidworks, etc). Do you have any screenshots from the early process?

Looks good so far.

 

all our stuff is done in CATIA...


Viking 43 (FSAE car)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Goullish &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As it sits, 66 lbs and change. All said and done, projected is 376 lbs.

Are you thinking it looks beefy in general, or beefy for a baja car?</TD></TR></TABLE>

For a baja car. Of course, the one year we actually got one done, it was ~500lbs by the time it was all said and done.

THAT one was beefy. And terribly slow.

 

LRC000E - We use Solid Edge for most work, along with Unigraphics NX, Lotus Shark, Ansys, and ProSurf.

I'll post up some screen shots when I get back to the office.

 

In for screenshots!

 

Two from Solid Edge:





Ansys (Pre-Analysis):





Unigraphics NX:




Prosurf: