Material Thickness For Frame Boxing

1/8? Seems too thin to me.

3/16? seems too thick?

I dunno. What say ye? There’s are guy around here that has 10 gauge metal for sale which is just a little thicker than 1/8.

I guess the type of material is important too.

Spock! Hypothesis, please.

 

The frame is 11ga so 10ga is appropriate. I would go for the 3/16 in the high stress areas.

 

I boxed the 3B with 3/16's. Gross overkill and added unnecessary weight. 1/8" should be good.

 

Thanks guys. The 10 gauge metal purchase didn't work out. He has 5' x 10' sheets and won't cut any. Can't blame him. But I don't the extra hanging around for eternity. I only need a fraction of one of those sheets. I'll look elsewhere. But now I know what I'm looking for.

 

Here in road-salt country, 1/8" wouldn't last long, unless well protected.

 

Is this for the cj5 or another frame?

 

I have some 10/11 guage you can have. we just have to get it to you. How much do you need? I have many strips of 1'x4"

 

I can facilitate that. Need some myself

 

The purpose of boxing is to simply remove the twist. When a C-style section of steel (a.k.a frame rail) twists, the tips of the flanges move in front/rear opposing directions. The boxing locks those flanges together and limits the shear. It takes very little material to achieve this.
1/8” is plenty.

 

My thinking is the same as Ryan.
The boxing is essentially a gusset…. 1/8” is perfect. There are places on the CJ frame that are only 1/8” or thinner.

 

I used 1/8th inch as well. You can always add layers in high stress areas. There's parts of my frame at the front that are over a 1/4 inch thick

 

CJ5 frame. It what is under the 3B body.

Good explanation Ryan and I agree. 1/8 or 10-11 gauge is fine. And this will will never see road salt. Hell, at this pace it may never the road.

So, considering the area already boxed from the factory, I'm thinking like 9-10 feet of material for each rail with cut off waste at the angles, etc.

Chris, your 1' long x 4" tall would be great to start with. I would however like to use longer pieces at the straight section of the frame above the trans x member.....between the arches in the frame above the axle areas. Your shorter pieces would work well to fill in those arches though. I'll get a guesstimate on how much I can use. Thanks.

The area at the steering box might get some slightly heavier material. Maybe across from it on the opposite frame horn as well. But I can't see making it much thicker than the frame itself. That would just move the weak spot to the original frame wouldn't it. I sort of like some degree of consistency to spread the stress as evenly as possible and not create problems in other areas. Instead, maybe I'll just sleeve all the through bolts. I dunno.

I'll be building custom x members as well. Just one or two or three. For the transmission for sure though. Thats another process. Been on my mind for years. Anxious to screw it up and do it 4 times before getting it the way I want it.

 

Its the same stuff I gave to you.