BADLY BENT 4WD

Search for "monocoque" chassis design......more and more common these days.

Andrew

I had an NP Pajero. It was a dog of a car with heaps of problems and I'd never by another one. But one thing it did not do was break in half. The places I took it and the terrain it traversed should have broken it, but it didn't. The monocoque chassis is actually very strong and the Pajero was measured to have less body twist than ladder chassis vehicles in the same class.

Who knows what went wrong with the one you saw?

Cheers,

Russ.

It may have been two separate vehicles in a previous life :)))

Does not matter what those morons from sales department says monocoque body (or “integrated frame” in case with multi-award-winner-best-4wd-of-all-times Disco) never going to be as strong as frame. Yes, it is better in crash…. but only because it can be jammed! Very sad to see how more and more 4WD (Paj surely was real one in the past!) became no more then shopping trolley. Hopefully I will die before all 4WD inherit such “advance” design.

Serg

Interesting comments about the Disco 3. It seems to me that their intergrated frame is actually 2 separate chassis' joined into a monocoque body. For what it's worth they are certainly very heavy and this seems to be due to their design according to the motoring writers.

It is interesting to note that in the real world of car accidents in the UK, Volvo S60, Jaguar XJ and Discovery 3 are the safest vewhicles on the road in terms of the occupants surviving an accident.

Of course, if a 777 lands on you while driving past Heathrow, then things might be different.

Cheers

Mark T

Hey Daza you wouldn't know the Boags would you???

I like your comment re the 777 being monocoque!!

If you talk to any automotive engineer, and by that I mean the guys who actually design vehicles, you will find that they all agree that monocoque is stronger than body on chassis. The Germans have been building monocoque tour coaches (including double deckers) for decades now.

However, a lot of "tradionalists" don't agree.

My late grandfather lamented the passing of crank handles. He predicted that there would be people all over the bush stuck with starter motors that didn't work. Thank god he didn't live to see electronic ignition systems let alone EFI and now monocoque on 4 wheel drives.

Cheers

Mark T

When I changed from Separate-Chassis to Integrated-Chassis 4WD I was expecting a lot more road noise, like in a sedan, because there are no rubber chassis-to-body mounts.

It was definitely no worse.

As for less strength, have look on the underside before you make up your mind on what you WANT to believe - there are chassis members the same size as before, they're just welded to the body. There is a separate sub-frame still for front and rear suspension.

The higher body rigidity of Integrated-Chassis proves that there is no loss in strength.

How come the Pajero keeps on winning the standard production class in the Paris Dakar Rally, ahead of all the Separate-Chassis competition ?

Actually, the production class last year ran
Toyota
Nissan
Toyota
Toyota
Nissan
Toyota
Mitsubishi

As for the super production class, about the only thing they have in common with production vehicles is the name. The whole chassis is manufactured from tube with the body panels added on to give it shape.


http://www.dakar.com/2007/DAK/LIVE/us/1500/classement/CGA_T2.html

To All Monocoque Advocates

Guys, please just make an imaginable experiment. Load a car in the middle up until it gets folded between wheels. Notice weight. Now cut body up until floor. Repeat experiment. Notice weight. One does not to be Einstein to figure out that with separate chassis car we can put more load (because body itself also weight something) while in monocoque case it would be far less. Now try to convince me that adding body to chassis make things weaker thus making monocoque design stronger.

Again, monocoque design is great from safety point of view, but no way it can bear as much load as proper frame! Otherwise why there are no monocoque trucks around?

Also please do not mix monocoque with 3-D frame design (tubing frame under body panels) found on some competition car in Parris-Dakar rally – it is not monocoque design where body panels itself bear load, but strong 3-D frame design. In fact it can be much stronger then just underbody frame.

And also mind you that there is no plane with monocoque body also – there are two strong beam holding everything together, one running from nose to tail and another one along wings.

Cheers
Serg