BMalm
Active Member
- First Name
- Brian
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2020
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 69
- Location
- Manassas, VA
- Vehicle(s)
- Ford Range XLT
- Thread starter
- #1
I removed the front crash bars to make space for me tires and tire offset. I was getting rubbing with the zero offset so I purchased some aftermarket crash bars that fit nicely and look really good. I was curious how these new beams stacked up against the OEM ones. So I ran an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) on them so see which are stronger.
Legal.....I have to say this for legal reasons. 1.) I do not work for Ford or any aftermarket company. I did this purely on my own as a check. 2.) I do to take ANY responsibility for other peoples actions and do not make any recommendations with the information I'm supplying here. This is purely something to discuss and that is all. 3.) I do not have actual data and real world loads to apply to the FEA that I show here. There are many factors that are taken in this design. I don't know or have the data I would need to represent these in a real world situation. 4.) The crash bars are likely designed to work with the structure of the truck and predicted impacts.
I don't want to get sued by anyone for doing this, I just wanted to show the difference between the beam that comes with the truck, a modified version of that same beam, and an aftermarket beam that I purchased.
The first test run I did was with the beam that comes on the truck. The tube seamed rather light and is very thin material. Looks to be about 2mm thick wall. I applied loads to the entire back side of the tube that sticks out and kept adjusting the load until it passes a typical static stress analysis. I ended up coming up with a static load of 1150 lbs, which put the beam right on the edge of passing a load test. This is just a static test, not a dynamic test.
The second test I ran was with a modified crash bar or tube. I've seen a lot of people cut the tube back by about half the tube width. So that is what I did. I results were way worse which I expected. By removing the front side of the tube, you are removing a lot of the tube structural strength.
The results I got were complete failure at 1150lbs. I was only able to get it to pass at around 500ls which is a bit less than half.
The third run I did was with the aftermarket beam (I don't want to say who again for legal reasons). This beam was much narrower and cuts back enough to clear the tires. The beam were ALOT heavier. The wall thickness was almost double that of the OEM beam. There was also a middle rib that really helped add support. The results were pretty surprising. I was worried because the beam was a lot narrower that would be an issue but it wasn't These beams passed the load at 1150lbs by almost double. I was able to increase the load on these beams to 2000 lbs before they started to approach the danger zone. So by simple loading, it seems that the aftermarket beams were better than the other two.
Again, please understand that I do not recommended changing or altering your vehicle in any fashion. But I would say that it is defiantly safer to put an aftermarket beam in over modifying or removing the beams all together. Any engineer would recommend not removing or moding the OEM parts at all.
Take this for what it's worth. I thought the results were pretty interesting. And please don't make decisions based on what I have shown here. Your car or truck is your responsibility, and I take no responsibility for decisions you made from a web forum. I don't want anyone to get hurt or worse because of something I posted on the internet.
Legal.....I have to say this for legal reasons. 1.) I do not work for Ford or any aftermarket company. I did this purely on my own as a check. 2.) I do to take ANY responsibility for other peoples actions and do not make any recommendations with the information I'm supplying here. This is purely something to discuss and that is all. 3.) I do not have actual data and real world loads to apply to the FEA that I show here. There are many factors that are taken in this design. I don't know or have the data I would need to represent these in a real world situation. 4.) The crash bars are likely designed to work with the structure of the truck and predicted impacts.
I don't want to get sued by anyone for doing this, I just wanted to show the difference between the beam that comes with the truck, a modified version of that same beam, and an aftermarket beam that I purchased.
The first test run I did was with the beam that comes on the truck. The tube seamed rather light and is very thin material. Looks to be about 2mm thick wall. I applied loads to the entire back side of the tube that sticks out and kept adjusting the load until it passes a typical static stress analysis. I ended up coming up with a static load of 1150 lbs, which put the beam right on the edge of passing a load test. This is just a static test, not a dynamic test.
The second test I ran was with a modified crash bar or tube. I've seen a lot of people cut the tube back by about half the tube width. So that is what I did. I results were way worse which I expected. By removing the front side of the tube, you are removing a lot of the tube structural strength.
The results I got were complete failure at 1150lbs. I was only able to get it to pass at around 500ls which is a bit less than half.
The third run I did was with the aftermarket beam (I don't want to say who again for legal reasons). This beam was much narrower and cuts back enough to clear the tires. The beam were ALOT heavier. The wall thickness was almost double that of the OEM beam. There was also a middle rib that really helped add support. The results were pretty surprising. I was worried because the beam was a lot narrower that would be an issue but it wasn't These beams passed the load at 1150lbs by almost double. I was able to increase the load on these beams to 2000 lbs before they started to approach the danger zone. So by simple loading, it seems that the aftermarket beams were better than the other two.
Again, please understand that I do not recommended changing or altering your vehicle in any fashion. But I would say that it is defiantly safer to put an aftermarket beam in over modifying or removing the beams all together. Any engineer would recommend not removing or moding the OEM parts at all.
Take this for what it's worth. I thought the results were pretty interesting. And please don't make decisions based on what I have shown here. Your car or truck is your responsibility, and I take no responsibility for decisions you made from a web forum. I don't want anyone to get hurt or worse because of something I posted on the internet.
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