Thread: Chassis strengthening

Have you welded the extra plate yet?

My RRC chassis was showing some minor bulging inside the rails - 4 pound mallet resolved that issue. Then I got a certified welder to put some white tigers on. They are galvanised. Welding had to be certified as part of my provisional alterations approval from motor vehicle registry. The welder charged minimum of 3 hours at $100 an hour - he would have finished in about 2 hours and 30 minutes, but I took him out to 2 hours and 55 minutes with lots of welding questions

I asked the Richardson sales guy how they should be welded. "Your welder will know" was the response. Pressing the point, I was told only weld the valleys, circles, and half circles - not the valley walls or crests. For a complete seal lather it in chassis paint.

Adding the chassis strengthening plate reduces the space into which the cross member must fit. Rather than just cut the cross member in half and shorten it I decided to unpick the welds at one end and adjust from there - probably stronger.

The RRC chassis (viewed externally) is not much different to the D1/D2 (I've actually installed a poly D2 tank into the RRC). The Defender is about 2 inches deeper in the mid section of the chassis rails than the RRC/D1/D2 - but suspect Defender chassis over the axles might be similar to the RRC/D1/D2. Can't vouch entirely for what internal bracketing goes into each model's chassis.

If the pictures on their website were a bit clearer I probably wouldn't asked!