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Originally Posted by Tango Charlie
If a guy would want to construct a tube frame chassis for a road vehicle, where could he get guidance for its design? I've looked on Amazon for books, I've googled, but haven't found much. There's books on suspensions and what not, but nothing really for the actual frame itself. One thing I have uncovered is Finite Element Analysis. I think the AutoCad Pro program can perform FEA. Is this what you need to calculate strength of a particular design? AutoCad Pro is darn expensive, though...
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There are some great software for tube bending and design,some are free.I would not try to reinvent the wheel,look at what others do and build off it.I would not use anything less then 1026 DOM or 4130 steel,you can't go wrong with 1 inch or better,using 4130 you can reduce the thickness for weight saving's but 1026 will be more practical.Look to JD squared for some great ,affordable and safe bending tools.Be careful using cheap bender's,I'm thinking about buying the model 32,hydraulic bender,1000 plus dollars and you can make headers,exhaust,chassis,motorcycle frames etc.Excuse my writing,I just like to get to the point.good luck.