Nooodle Chassis

Re: This isn't a Nooodle Chassis

How stiff is a new sprinter here's a example to illustrate, doesn't take much elevation difference (side cross front to rear) to two pod them.

Observation ; I didn't see any change in the door margins during these exercises.

btw A floor jack isn't needed to work on the wheels.

Interesting stuff.

For anyone thinking that the Sprinter chassis is so stiff that they can tie bars solidly across the width of a Sprinter for things like beds.

You may get away with it, but I still feel it is best to design some sort of give into the cross supports or you may find that things will crack or pull loose. Even if the doors don't stick, the body does move as you ramble down the road.

Just my opinion though. vic

This vehicle is very good @ keeping it's wheels on the ground, not one wheel up in the air. The vhicle works good at what it's designed for, it does articulate very much. ~"{Nooodle Chassis}"~

Obiter Dicta; If you would like a measure of your vans stiffness/flexibility, a simple visual aid should work, ... I haven't tried it.

To measure start with putting a rubber band on the rearview mirror.
With the van on flat ground visually view and align the band (retical) parallel to a vertical line on the rear doors.

Now move the van to uneven ground and observe (retical) ,
any out of parallel will be a measure of how much the van has twisted (front to rear).

By moving your eye closer to the mirror (and keeping the retical in focus, make the rear vertical line as long you can). Say the rear line is 30 vertical inches and the retical is 1/4inch out of parallel, that indicates the van is twisting from front to rear a 1/4 inch every 30.inches or 1" of twist in 10 feet.
I'm don't know how many degree-minutes'-seconds" of angle that is.

I have a 2010 516 CDI (3500 dually) cab chassis, for a motorhome fitment.

Normally we anticipate chassis flex, and install a pivot arm at one end to allow the chassis to twist under a rigid body. The Sprinter Body Builder's Guide is very comprehensive in every aspect EXCEPT it is silent on chassis twist, instructing that bodies be mounted hard to the chassis and even to the cab as well.

I did a twist test unladen and found about 8mm of twist from back of chassis to back of cab. This is not a lot (compared to Nissan Navara shorter chassis - 25mm!) but still enough to make me concerned about stress transfer to the body, which will be a pop-top, so 'open top box' without the inherent rigidity of a closed box. Construction will be foam sandwich unitary - very stiff and light - but don't want cracking.

I have emailed MB in Germany three times but no response... Any experience out there?

When I first got my 06 140 at about 170k there was quite a bit of body flex but this reduced greatly when I installed my roof rack and even more so when I extended my rack and added twice as many crossmembers

InsideOutBack, if you’re doing a pop top, you’ll need to weld a sturdy frame for the top of the van ala Dr A’s pop-top

InsideOutBack said:

I have a 2010 516 CDI (3500 dually) cab chassis, for a motorhome fitment.

Normally we anticipate chassis flex, and install a pivot arm at one end to allow the chassis to twist under a rigid body. The Sprinter Body Builder's Guide is very comprehensive in every aspect EXCEPT it is silent on chassis twist, instructing that bodies be mounted hard to the chassis and even to the cab as well.

I did a twist test unladen and found about 8mm of twist from back of chassis to back of cab. This is not a lot (compared to Nissan Navara shorter chassis - 25mm!) but still enough to make me concerned about stress transfer to the body, which will be a pop-top, so 'open top box' without the inherent rigidity of a closed box. Construction will be foam sandwich unitary - very stiff and light - but don't want cracking.

I have emailed MB in Germany three times but no response... Any experience out there?

Click to expand...

A 2010 will be an NCV3 so you may get more appropriate answers by posting your question in the 'NCV3 Talk' sub-forum.

Keith.

You might contact Victorian (the OP in the thread below, and operator of Total Composites). He is building a unibody chassis camper currently (its based on the ford Transit). but he also built a sprinter cab chassis before, and has a fair bit of experience with expedition camper bodies.

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/ford-transit-cab-chassis-with-composite-camper.209666/

Midwestdrifter said:

You might contact Victorian (the OP in the thread below, and operator of Total Composites). He is building a unibody chassis camper currently (its based on the ford Transit). but he also built a sprinter cab chassis before, and has a fair bit of experience with expedition camper bodies.

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/ford-transit-cab-chassis-with-composite-camper.209666/

Click to expand...

We are big fans of composite construction - this is our expedition Navara motorhome which has negotiated Arnhem Land, the Simpson Desert, Central Australian ranges, Fraser Island etc very successfully: http://www.insideoutbackcampers.com.au/vehicles/2018-micro-motorhome.html

...all with a flexible chassis supporting the body on a pivot beam. That way the body remains as stiff as a - I dunno - a really stiff thing! Seriously no twist or flex. It was designed in conjunction with a sailboat builder, so it's also very light.

I'll post a new thread on the NCV3 section and see how we go. I love the breadth of experience in members of this forum. Thanks guys!