Before they had there's, XV had their own system, ours works a little bit better....
Do you have some data or competitive testing to draw that conclusion?
I did look at XV before ordering the US Car Tool parts. The pricing was close, but XV didn't offer [at least from what I saw] the torque box set, which I need. I had to make one order and pay shipping from one vendor.
The engine bay brace is a nice piece, but I will be building my own for my car.
I thought everybody knew???
As a matter of fact, I believe the XV products were the only ones tested in this manner???
I would have to drag out the data, I have it somewhere, but here's a picture of the chassis stiffness being tested. They found they didn't need the torque boxes, the system met their criteria...
There's a video somewhere of the testing, they showed a before with a "X" of tape across the engine bay and you could see the tape go slack when the body was twisted, and after, only a slight bit...
Nice picture.
I was a bit more interested in how you concluded kit XV's was better than the US Car Tool...and now also how it was concluded torque boxes "aren't needed" on a leaf-sprung application.
As a fellow engineer, you know we like to see data, test constraints, targets, etc, more than talk. Not that you must to provide it or anything, but it would be nice to see what is driving your claims.
Sure the US Car Tool video isn't the highest of caliber, but it does show their point in laymen's terms very well. A simple table of results in foot-lbs per degree/torsional stiffness as they added stiffening components and various weights would be easy enough to show which components did what for the car.
First off, the tests on the XV stuff was performed by a independent company called Multimatic, not in house. The fixture as you can see from the picture is something that is designed for this type of test by industry engineers. This company does all types of analysis for the OEM's. Being an engineer, then you understand that the test rig and standards are as important as the data... Unless you have a baseline, and a standard, your data is only applicable to that particular vehicle..
To answer your question, I did find the system achieves 9800lbs per degree of twist... Not sure how many crankshafts that is?
And is the real life load on the vehicle from the bumper brackets?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's better than not having anything, but I'm pretty sure the stamped pieces they have don't compare to our mandrel bent tubing inner fender braces and lower radiator supports...
By the way, our rear suspension is hung off the front leaf spring perch as well, never had any issues without torque boxes... The frame connector is picking up that connection...
Really good discussion, thank you for the opportunity...
