Frame Critique

[mxer75]

I would be doing what minibajaman said, plus maybe 1 cross brace behind the seat at least. I think safety should come 1st with any cage design....isn't that what a roll cage is intended for to begin with? Regardless of speed.
Where abouts did u get your components from? Are they in the file library? Could you post them up if not, the seats look like they are well drawn.

[K-fab]

Very cool design from a design point of view, but not safe in a few aspects (as pointed out). The bending and blending required would almost require a CNC bender - not that one couldn't do it with a manual setup, but egad that would be tough.

The hump in the middle, while very unique, won't affect the way you sit - unless you plan on having the calves of your legs rest against it - and then they'll get beaten senseless.

Your biggest thing with foot/leg position is actually set by the seat: What angle it's set in the car, where your pedals are and such.

Make sure that when you put the pedals in that you place them so that you have to just ever so slightly flex your foot back (toes towards your knees) when you sit down and put your feet against the pedals. You want to have as much throw available from you ankles as possible. Many people tend to set the pedals up where you have to tippy toe to touch them and/or to reach full thrown. Makes controlling the vehicle a task if set up wrong.

Find the sweet spot for your feet then take a 1/2" diameter bar or something similar and put it under you heels, as a spot for you to push your heals against.

Getting ergonomics right can be a pain.

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To attach the thumbnail type pix, hit the "Go Advanced" button.

When the Advanced screen shows up, go down to the section that you find under the Additional Options banner - second box down says "Attach Files".

Hit the "Manage Attachments" button and work from there.

[ws6vert]

mxer75 - I found the seats on 3DCC, and I can post a link in the files section if you want. The steering wheel I also found on 3DCC.

KFab - I see what you are saying about the hump in the frame now. I'll put it down on my list of things to re-think for the next revision. With all of these suggestions I will try to re-thnk the out of plane bends to hopefully make it a more economical to a manual bender.

Quick question: What is minimum radius I can make on 1.5 OD tubing without structural issues? The present design only incorporates a few 90 deg bends, each with radius of 3in. Just tryin' to get some of the technical things out of the way for the next revision.

Also: Just wondering how the majority of you design in solidworks. For complex open structures requiring several planes, I almost always have a Construction sketch which I use mainly as a "jig" to define my other sketches. Just wondering if others use this same method. Makes it easy to change length and height dimensions of several objects from one sketch.

[Deranged]

It looks pretty crazy, but in a good way. From a fabrication standpoint, it looks like it could get really complicated in a hurry.

[Turbolark]

Most 1.5" tubing is bent with a 6" radius. i have heard of some 4", but that tight comes with athe risk of crushing the bend and/or stretching the outside of the bend too thin.

[ws6vert]

Finally done with mid terms, hopefully i'll find some time to make the alterations in the coming weeks

[jumpin jellybean]

wow it amazes what you can do with cad! I can barely master paintbut you will not even notice tubes in regular buggy design. a pillars are great branch deflecters, greatly appreciated zipping down trails, got cleaned off bike in woods doctor told me had 3 deeply bruised ribs wish had pics of bruises left by branch great work so far can't wait to see redesign

[ProtoDie]

Your bending radius is determined by what bender or dies you are building with.

These dies are according to tube thickness.

I use a JD model 3 bender for 1 1/2 x .083 tubing. The bend radius for this one is 5.5"

here is a link to there dies, and they call out bending radius sizes according to material
JD Squared, Inc.