homemade ladder chassis

Chuckman

Chuckman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2005
Location
Huntersville
anybody got any do's or dont's for building a ladder frame for a Willys/ anything? I totally get that part of their offroad prowess is the flexy frame, but I need more support with this build Im starting.

for the small axle hump risers, would you cut the angles mitred to match and not have 'open ends' or stack the tubing then cap the ends?
obviously fishplates either way.

Pirate seems to have examples of both.
 
Either way will work fine for what you're doing, and you're likely not worried about the minor weight differences between the two methods. The mitered is lighter because there's no extra steel in the joint that doesn't contribute anything to the load path, but the stacked method can be easier to mockup because you can slide the partially assembled kickup forward/back along the rails if you're playing with locations or whatever. There's also a few ways you can arrange stacked/overlapping pieces as well, just to muddy the waters some more (you can miter the main rail and stack the kickup on the top of the rail, or miter the main rail shorter and stack the kickup against the end of the rail, or...). Again, I don't think much of this matters for your Willys.

I think there is an advantage to the mitered joint for making a cleaner-looking weld (you can chamfer the miter joint to whatever you want before welding, instead of having to weld into the edge radius of the overlapped tubing), but I think that's more of a cosmetic issue. I'll leave that part to the welding experts to weigh in on.

I've also seen people do a combination of the two methods, for example if the kickup is a different tubing size than the main frame rails. The kickup can be make with all mitered joints in the rear section (say it's 2x3 tubing or whatever), and then the kickup can be joined to the main rails with a overlap joint. It's a lot easier to overlap and closeout a joint between 2x3 and 2x4 than it is to miter both pieces.
 
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trying to replicate a willys frame as best as I can, so same material. starting with an old, crack prone frame and boxing it simply doesnt seem like a smart way to go. and since Im swapping drivetrain, steering etc, its easier just to start from scratch than modify.
 
pirate does have the knowledge, but damn the drama.
going stacked /capped tubes. then full sandwich reinforcement plates to tie in the plow mounts. copying Meisers build somewhat
 
Chuckman said:
pirate does have the knowledge, but damn the drama.
going stacked /capped tubes. then full sandwich reinforcement plates to tie in the plow mounts. copying Meisers build somewhat
Click to expand...
Please have a build thread....damn looking at pirate.
 
hmmmm for you ^ - yeah ok

did anyone catch that I mentioned 'plow'? ...
 
Chuckman said:
hmmmm for you ^ - yeah ok

did anyone catch that I mentioned 'plow'? ...
Click to expand...
I since sarcasm. Well played. Plow. I like tractors and jeeps. I'll sub. Rear PTO an option?
 
I'm getting ready to build my frame for my truck. I'm basically using the same design that a guy did on one of the Willys forums. He called it a parallel rail frame, which is, as you described, stacked capped tubes with reinforcement plates. His project was called Project Superior.
 
@Chuckman you're gonna need a plow if you move back to the high country. Or something similar. Rear PTO would be cool if you could find a plow that worked with that, but it seems so much easier to set up an electric/hydraulic plow configuration.

Also for plowing make sure you have good clearance between the diffs and the ground; that’s an easy way to get hung up in deep snow and tall skinnies seem to be the tire choice for deep snow.

This last 22” storm we got, you’d have to have like a 16.50” wide tire to “float” lol.
 
Also let me recommend Fluid Film or New Hampshire Oil for coating the chassis/body/anything ferrous once you do get it done so that it’s not a rusty pile in another few years!

It’s what the DOT uses on their salt trucks. Lanolin based, works great for rust prevention over time.
 
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Not a Willis but I’m sure there are plenty of plans out there for them.
 
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