Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Rebuilding the Fuso Szulc part 3






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michel,
I know its hard to wait, and deadlines did not get met,But I think you will be very happy with the results!
Ron

Ken Norton - Image 66 Media said...

Nice to see that you ignored his request! I believe your photo-documenting this process is essential to the future repairs of your vehicle as well as informative to the expedition vehicle community itself.

What I took from this is something I had suspected all along. The Fuso is a vehicle specifically designed to have additional framework mounted on top of the frame. If you look at any cargo van (straight-truck), or flatbed hauler you will see a second frame securely attached to the primary frame. This is to keep all possible frame flexing to a minimum.

When you had the box isolated from the frame with the pivot system, you allowed the frame to flex which is actually an advantage for off-roading, but does stress the metal to the point where it will eventually fail. I was concerned about this when you had the vehicle built.

My one continuing concern about this project is that the rear portion of the frame will be rigid with the additional framework, but in a high-flex environment as presented by the common off-road trail, the flexing will be moved forward to the front end and much flexing will be concentrated in a smaller space.