Lorry chassis thickness?

[steviec_lj]

Afternoon guys and girls,

Potentially scored a new job, although it all hangs on a "weld test", more of a "lay a bead of weld here and lets see if it'll break, test".

Question stands above though, what thickness would a lorry chassis be? If its alot out of my current range, then I'll turn it down and not waste their or my time.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Flange maybe 10/12mm and web 6/8mm going off one I was hellping turn into a farm trailer last month, but if it's a bigger one or low loader could be more.

Dan

 

[Benthosboy]

If it helps, the chassis on my wagon is 7 mm thick. It's a Mercedes 3 axle rigid and is designated "2533" , the 25 being the gross weight (26 ton gross, in reality) and the 33 being the engine size, ie: 330 horsepower. AFAIK it's essentially a stretched version of the artic cab, which is usually designated "2640/43/50, the second referring, again, to the engine size. As Dan says, heavier wagons such as low loaders and serious kit such as modular trailers for Very heavy work, known as "Special Types" will be much thicker.

Funnily enough, standard artic trailer chassis' aren't as thick as you might expect. They seem to be working to the bare minimum these days to gain maximum payload. The good old days of overspeccing are long gone.

HTH.

Martyn.

 

[BrokenBiker]

we had a 2014 scania rigid in work for testing a few weeks ago to make sure our brakes fit them, and I was surprised the chassis metal was as thin as it was

 

[Sean]

its usually made from trick steel , you may have to scrape the "do not weld" stickers off to get clean metal to weld to

 

[steviec_lj]

Probably worth my 30 minute commute each morning then. Would love to get back in to employment.

Hangs on a weld test though, so I'll be cracking the scrap out tomorrow, and turning my crappy little 130amp Siegen hobby mig up to 11 and laying some pigeon s**t down.

Chucked some 5mm wall box together tonight, and a couple of beads on some 5mm plate, probably the best I've managed with it since I bought it.

Cheers

 

[Wedg1e]

I was talking to a guy a couple of weeks back who used to work for ... a certain Scandinavian truck company's local branch... they occasionally do chassis extensions etc. and had to submit a weld test piece from the guy who did the welding.
Apparently they've been cleaning up and re-submitting the same test piece for several years...

 

[BrokenBiker]

I was talking to a guy a couple of weeks back who used to work for ... a certain Scandinavian truck company's local branch... they occasionally do chassis extensions etc. and had to submit a weld test piece from the guy who did the welding.
Apparently they've been cleaning up and re-submitting the same test piece for several years...

that sounds very familiar, myissus father told.me about a similar scenario where he used to work

 

[rory1]

There was a member on here that was working for a truck builders welding up chassis's up near manchester i believe. can't remember who it was tho.... I have a feeling that he moved abroad. Can anyone recall who it was?

 

[steviec_lj]

Very resourceful cleaning the test piece up and resubmitting it

The place I worked at 2 years ago before going self employed had a piece exactly the same. The best thing was, no one knew who had originally done the piece, nor if it was someone who actually ever worked there.

For saying they were in the security products industry, I thought it was brilliant. I think there were only 3 people there who actually knew how to weld to any useable standard, some of the folk could only put pigeon s**t down on clean metal after having the machine set up for them. God knows how they ever managed to get stuff approved

 

[wookie]

There was a member on here that was working for a truck builders welding up chassis's up near manchester

Not me, although I worked at a truck builders at Leyland for 7 years, I don't think anybody there was coded or even had a weld test. I did plenty of chassis extensions/stretches in my time, I'd happily put my name to any of the welding I did.

Some of the "welding" I saw would give you nightmares I remember hearing one lads welding sound wrong and went to have a look, he'd run out of gas and couldn't be bothered stopping to change the bottle so the last 6 inch of that bead looked like an aero-bar, his solution was to smear sikaflex over the top before painting it.

 

[steviec_lj]

Update: A lorry chassis seems 6mm thick, and these guys get it in from Ireland for some reason.

Bonus is, I got a job out of it, start tomorrow!

 

[wookie]

Bonus is, I got a job out of it, start tomorrow!

Nice one ! Enjoy your self, I know I did.

Couple of tips for you...

1. always cover the wiring/air pipes when grinding/cutting I've seen people burn them and have to spend hours repairing.

2. always cover plastic bits before welding, I've seen the aftermath of a few weld splatters landing on a plastic air intake (he nearly burnt the workshop down as it was just before he went home for the night, he switched the lights off and happened look back and saw the glow, We came in the following morning to find a truck covered in extinguisher powder and a melted high stack air intake )

3. always disconnect the battery before welding, don't rely on those clip on boxes, I've seen ecu's get fried and they are hundreds if not thousands to replace.

4. always remove keys from ignition before working underneath, there is nothing worse than hearing the engine start when your working next to the propshaft

I've only done No.4 myself but I nearly sh*t myself and learnt to keep the keys in my pocket from then on...

 

[AndyStobbs]

Think it was Sipmerlin150 who was fabbing the lorry chassis'

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Think it was Sipmerlin150 who was fabbing the lorry chassis'

Yep it was me indeed! Worked for Cartwrights & Sons in Altrincham... Anything from 5 -8mm was the norm.