Vehicle frame

A vehicle frame, also historically known as its chassis, is the main

supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other
components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an
organism.

Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a structural frame separate
from its body. This construction design is known as body-on-frame.
By the 1960s, unibody construction in passenger cars had become
common, and the trend to unibody for passenger cars continued
over the ensuing decades.[1] Ladder frame pickup truck chassis
holds the vehicle's engine, drivetrain,
Nearly all trucks, buses, and most pickups continue to use a
suspension, and wheels
separate frame as their chassis.

Functions
The main functions of a frame in a motor vehicle are:[2]

1. To support the vehicle's mechanical components and

body The unibody - for unitized body - is
2. To deal with static and dynamic loads, without undue also a form of a frame
deflection or distortion

These include:

Weight of the body, passengers, and cargo loads.

Vertical and torsional twisting transmitted by going over uneven surfaces
Transverse lateral forces caused by road conditions, side wind, and steering of
the vehicle
Torque from the engine and transmission
Longitudinal tensile forces from starting and acceleration, as well as
compression from braking
Sudden impacts from collisions

Frame rails
Typically the material used to construct vehicle chassis and frames include carbon steel for strength or
aluminum alloys to achieve a more lightweight construction. In the case of a separate chassis, the frame is
made up of structural elements called the rails or beams. These are ordinarily made of steel channel
sections, made by folding, rolling, or pressing steel plate.
There are three main designs for these. If the material is folded
twice, an open-ended cross-section, either C-shaped or hat-shaped
(U-shaped) results. "Boxed" frames contain chassis rails that are
closed, either by somehow welding them up or by using
premanufactured metal tubing.

C-Shaped

By far the most common, the C-channel rail has been used on
nearly every type of vehicle at one time or another. It is made by
taking a flat piece of steel (usually ranging in thickness from 1/8" to
3/16", but up to 1/2" or more in some heavy-duty trucks[3][4]) and
rolling both sides over to form a C-shaped beam running the length
of the vehicle.

A ladder frame, named for its shape

Hat

Hat frames resemble a "U" and may be either right-side-up or

inverted with the open area facing down. They are not commonly
used due to weakness and a propensity to rust. However, they can
be found on 1936–1954 Chevrolet cars and some Studebakers.

Abandoned for a while, the hat frame regained popularity when

companies started welding it to the bottom of unibody cars,
effectively creating a boxed frame.

Pickup truck frame, with heavy c-

Boxed shaped longitudinal rails (slightly
arced over the rear axle), a similarly
Originally, boxed frames were made by welding two matching C- sized c-shaped crossmember just
rails together to form a rectangular tube. Modern techniques, forward of the axle, and a tophat-
however, use a process similar to making C-rails in that a piece of shaped smaller gauge crossmember
steel is bent into four sides and then welded where both ends meet. towards the rear

In the 1960s, the boxed frames of conventional American cars were

spot-welded in multiple places down the seam; when turned into
NASCAR "stock car" racers, the box was continuously welded
from end to end for extra strength.

Design features

While appearing at first glance as a simple form made of metal,

frames encounter great amounts of stress and are built accordingly.
The first issue addressed is "beam height", or the height of the High-performance custom frame,
vertical side of a frame. The taller the frame, the better it is able to using boxed rails and tube sections
resist vertical flex when force is applied to the top of the frame. This
is the reason semi-trucks have taller frame rails than other vehicles
instead of just being thicker.
As looks, ride quality, and handling became more important to consumers, new shapes were incorporated
into frames. The most visible of these are arches and kick-ups. Instead of running straight over both axles,
arched frames sit lower—roughly level with their axles—and curve up over the axles and then back down
on the other side for bumper placement. Kick-ups do the same thing without curving down on the other
side and are more common on the front ends.

Another feature are the tapered rails that narrow vertically or horizontally in front of a vehicle's cabin. This
is done mainly on trucks to save weight and slightly increase room for the engine since the front of the
vehicle does not bear as much of a load as the back. Design developments include frames that use more
than one shape in the same frame rail. For example, some pickup trucks have a boxed frame in front of the
cab, shorter, narrower rails underneath the cab, and regular C-rails under the bed.

On perimeter frames, the areas where the rails connect from front to center and center to rear are weak
compared to regular frames, so that section is boxed in, creating what are called "torque boxes".

Types

Full under-body frames

Ladder frame

Named for its resemblance to a ladder, the ladder frame is one of the
oldest, simplest, and most frequently used under-body, separate
chassis/frame designs. It consists of two symmetrical beams, rails,
or channels, running the length of the vehicle, connected by several
transverse cross-members. Originally seen on almost all vehicles,
Ladder chassis with diagonal cross-
the ladder frame was gradually phased out on cars in favor of
bracing and lightening holes
perimeter frames and unitized body construction. It is now seen
mainly on large trucks. This design offers good beam resistance
because of its continuous rails from front to rear, but poor resistance to torsion or warping if simple,
perpendicular cross-members are used. The vehicle's overall height will be greater due to the floor pan
sitting above the frame instead of inside it.

Backbone tube

A backbone chassis is a type of automotive construction with

chassis, that is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a
relatively flat, ladder-like structure with two longitudinal, parallel
frame rails, it consists of a singular central, strong tubular backbone
(usually rectangular in cross-section), that carries the power-train,
and connects the front and rear suspension attachment structures.
Although the backbone is frequently drawn upward into, and
mostly above the floor of the vehicle, the body is still placed on or
over (sometimes straddling) this structure from above.
Backbone chassis of the 1962 Lotus
Elan
X-frame
This is the design used for the full-size American models of General
Motors in the late 1950s and early 1960s in which the rails from
alongside the engine seemed to cross in the passenger compartment,
each continuing to the opposite end of the crossmember at the
extreme rear of the vehicle. It was specifically chosen to decrease
the overall height of the vehicles regardless of the increase in the
size of the transmission and propeller shaft humps since each row
had to cover frame rails as well. Several models had the differential
located not by the customary bar between axle and frame, but by a
ball joint atop the differential connected to a socket in a wishbone Rolling X-frame chassis
hinged onto a crossmember of the frame.

The X-frame was claimed to improve on previous designs, but it lacked side rails and thus did not provide
adequate side impact and collision protection.[5] This design was replaced by perimeter frames.

Perimeter frame

Similar to a ladder frame, but the middle sections of the frame rails
sit outboard of the front and rear rails, routed around the passenger
footwells, inside the rocker and sill panels. This allowed the floor
pan to be lowered, especially the passenger footwells, lowering the
passengers' seating height and thereby reducing both the roof-line
and overall vehicle height, as well as the center of gravity, thus
improving handling and road-holding in passenger cars.
Bertone FW11 prototype with
This became the prevalent design for body-on-frame cars in the perimeter frame
United States, but not in the rest of the world, until the unibody
gained popularity. For example, Hudson introduced this
construction on their 3rd generation Commodore models in 1948. This frame type allowed for annual
model changes, and lower cars, introduced in the 1950s to increase sales – without costly structural
changes.

The Ford Panther platform, discontinued in 2011, was one of the last perimeter frame passenger car
platforms in the United States.[1] The fourth to seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette used a perimeter
frame integrated with an internal skeleton that serves as a clamshell.

In addition to a lowered roof, the perimeter frame allows lower seating positions when that is desirable, and
offers better safety in the event of a side impact. However, the design lacks stiffness, because the transition
areas from front to center and center to rear reduce beam and torsional resistance, and is used in
combination with torque boxes and soft suspension settings.

Platform frame

This is a modification of the perimeter frame, or of the backbone frame, in which the passenger
compartment floor, and sometimes also the luggage compartment floor, have been integrated into the frame
as loadbearing parts, for strength and rigidity. The sheet metal used to assemble the components needs to be
stamped with ridges and hollows to give it strength.

Platform chassis were used on several successful European cars, most notably the Volkswagen Beetle,
where it was called "body-on-pan" construction. Another German example are the Mercedes-Benz
"Ponton" cars of the 1950s and 1960s,[6] where it was called a "frame floor" in English-language
advertisements.

The French Renault 4, of which over eight million were made, also used a platform frame. The frame of the
Citroën 2CV used a very minimal interpretation of a platform chassis under its body.

VW Beetle "platform frame" Renault 4 "platform frame" chassis

chassis
Where the Volkswagen frame design relies heavily on a strong backbone, the Renault design is much closer to
that of a typical perimeter frame.

Space frame

In a (tubular) spaceframe chassis, the suspension, engine, and body

panels are attached to a three-dimensional skeletal frame of tubes,
and the body panels have limited or no structural function. To
maximize rigidity and minimize weight, the design frequently
makes maximum use of triangles, and all the forces in each strut are
either tensile or compressive, never bending, so they can be kept as
thin as possible.

The first true spaceframe chassis were produced in the 1930s by Jaguar C-Type frame
Buckminster Fuller and William Bushnell Stout (the Dymaxion and
the Stout Scarab) who understood the theory of the true spaceframe
from either architecture or aircraft design.[7]

The 1951 Jaguar C-Type racing sports car utilized a lightweight, multi-tubular, triangulated frame, over
which an aerodynamic aluminum body was crafted.

In 1994, the Audi A8 was the first mass-market car with an aluminium chassis, made feasible by integrating
an aluminium space-frame into the bodywork. Audi A8 models have since used this construction method
co-developed with Alcoa, and marketed as the Audi Space Frame.[8]

The Italian term Superleggera (meaning 'super-light') was trademarked by Carrozzeria Touring for
lightweight sports-car body construction that only resembles a space-frame chassis. Using a three-
dimensional frame that consists of a cage of narrow tubes that, besides being under the body, run up the
fenders and over the radiator, cowl, and roof, and under the rear window, it resembles a geodesic structure.
A skin is attached to the outside of the frame, often made of aluminum. This body construction is, however,
not stress-bearing, and still requires the addition of a chassis.

Unibody
The terms "unibody" and "unit-body" are short for "unitized Integrated unibody examples
body", "unitary construction", or alternatively (fully)
integrated body and frame/chassis. It is defined as:[9]

A type of body/frame construction in which the

body of the vehicle, its floor plan and chassis
form a single structure. Such a design is
generally lighter and more rigid than a vehicle
having a separate body and frame.
Citroën Traction Avant unitized body (1934)

Vehicle structure has shifted from the traditional body-on-

frame architecture to the lighter unitized/integrated body
structure that is now used for most cars.[10]

Integral frame and body construction requires more than

simply welding an unstressed body to a conventional frame.
In a fully integrated body structure, the entire car is a load-
carrying unit that handles all the loads experienced by the
vehicle – forces from driving as well as cargo loads. Integral- 1942 Nash Ambassador 600 cutaway
type bodies for wheeled vehicles are typically manufactured drawing
by welding preformed metal panels and other components
together, by forming or casting whole sections as one piece,
or by a combination of these techniques. Although this is
sometimes also referred to as a monocoque structure,
because the car's outer skin and panels are made load-
bearing, there are still ribs, bulkheads, and box sections to
reinforce the body, making the description semi-monocoque
more appropriate.

The first attempt to develop such a design technique was on

the 1922 Lancia Lambda to provide structural stiffness and a
lower body height for its torpedo car body.[11] The Lambda Saab 9000 "safety cell" in red and orange
had an open layout with unstressed roof, which made it less (2005)
of a monocoque shell and more like a bowl. 1,000 were
produced.[12]

A key role in developing the unitary body was played by the

American firm the Budd Company, now ThyssenKrupp
Budd.[12] Budd supplied pressed-steel bodywork, fitted to
separate frames, to automakers Dodge, Ford, Buick, and the
French company, Citroën.

In 1930, Joseph Ledwinka, an engineer with Budd, designed

an automobile prototype with a full unitary construction.[13] Polski Fiat 126p shows underfloor welded
reinforcements, but no distinct frame
Citroën purchased this fully unitary body design for the
Citroën Traction Avant. This high-volume, mass-production
car was introduced in 1934 and sold 760,000 units over the
next 23 years of production.[12] This application was the first iteration of the modern structural integration
of body and chassis, using spot welded deeply stamped steel sheets into a structural cage, including sills,
pillars, and roof beams.[11] In addition to a unitary body with no separate frame, the Traction Avant also
featured other innovations such as front-wheel drive. The result was a low-slung vehicle with an open, flat-
floored interior.[14]

For the Chrysler Airflow (1934–1937) Budd supplied a variation – three main sections from the Airflow's
body were welded into what Chrysler called a bridge-truss construction. Unfortunately, this method was
not ideal because the panel fits were poor.[12] To convince a skeptical public of the strength of unibody,
both Citroën and Chrysler created advertising films showing cars surviving after being pushed off a
cliff.[12]

Opel was the second European and the first German car manufacturer to produce a car with a unibody
structure – production of the compact Olympia started in 1935. A larger Kapitän went into production in
1938, although its front longitudinal beams were stamped separately and then attached to the main body. It
was so successful, that the Soviet post-war mass produced GAZ-M20 Pobeda of 1946 copied unibody
structure from the Opel Kapitän.[15] Later Soviet limousine GAZ-12 ZIM of 1950 introduced unibody
design to automobiles with a wheelbase as long as 3.2 m (126 in).[16]

The streamlined 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr with conventional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout utilized a
unibody structure.[17] By 1941, unit construction was no longer a new idea for cars, "but it was unheard of
in the [American] low-price field [and] Nash wanted a bigger share of that market."[18][19] The single unit-
body construction of the Nash 600 provided weight savings and Nash's Chairman and CEO, George W.
Mason was convinced "that unibody was the wave of the future."[20][21]

Since then, more cars were redesigned to the unibody structure, which is now "considered standard in the
industry".[21] By 1960, the unitized body design was used by Detroit's Big Three on their compact cars
(Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, and Chevrolet Corvair). After Nash merged with Hudson Motors to form
American Motors Corporation, its Rambler-badged automobiles continued exclusively building variations
of the unibody.

Although the 1934 Chrysler Airflow had a weaker-than-usual frame and body framework welded to the
chassis to provide stiffness, in 1960, Chrysler moved from body-on-frame construction to a unit-body
design for most of its cars.[22]

Most of the American-manufactured unibody automobiles used torque boxes in their vehicle design to
reduce vibrations and chassis flex, with the exception of the Chevy II which had a bolt-on front apron
(erroneously referred to as a subframe). American Motors (with its partner Renault) during the late 1970s
incorporated unibody construction when designing the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) platform using the
manufacturing principles (unisides, floorpan with integrated frame rails and crumple zones, and roof panel)
used in its passenger cars, such as the Hornets and all-wheel-drive Eagles for a new type of frame called the
"Uniframe [...] a robust stamped steel frame welded to a strong unit-body structure, giving the strength of a
conventional heavy frame with the weight advantages of Unibody construction."[23] This design was also
used with the XJC concept developed by American Motors prior to its absorption by Chrysler, which later
became the Jeep Grand Cherokee (ZJ). The design is still in use in modern-day sport utility vehicles such as
the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The unibody is now the preferred construction for mass-market automobiles. This design provides weight
savings, improved space utilization, and ease of manufacture. Acceptance grew dramatically in the wake of
the two energy crises of the 1970s, and that of the 2000s in which compact SUVs using a truck platform
(primarily the USA market) were subjected to CAFE standards after 2005 (by the late 2000s truck-based
compact SUVs were phased out and replaced with crossovers). An additional advantage of a strong-bodied
car lies in the improved crash protection for its passengers.

Partial frames

Subframe

A subframe is a distinct structural frame component, to reinforce or

complement a particular section of a vehicle's structure. Typically
attached to a unibody or a monocoque, the rigid subframe can
handle great forces from the engine and drive train, and can transfer
them evenly to a wide area of relatively thin sheet metal of a
unitized body shell. Subframes are often found at the front or rear
end of cars and are used to attach the suspension to the vehicle. A
subframe may also contain the engine and transmission. It is The Lamborghini Aventador has a
normally of pressed or box steel construction, but may be tubular carbon fibre central monocoque, with
and/or other material. front and rear steel subframes,
mounting the mechanicals
Examples of passenger car use include the 1967–1981 GM F
platform, the numerous years and models built on the GM X
platform (1962), GM's M/L platform vans (Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari, which included an all-wheel drive
variant), and the unibody AMC Pacer that incorporated a front subframe to isolate the passenger
compartment from the engine, suspension, and steering loads.[24][25]

See also
Bicycle frame
Body-on-frame
Chassis
Coachbuilder
Locomotive frame
Monocoque
Motorcycle frame
C-channel

References
1. "Body on frame vs. Unibody: Pros and cons" (https://www.autonews.com/article/20170626/O
EM01/170629864/body-on-frame-vs-unibody-pros-and-cons). autonews.com. 23 June 2017.
2. Rajput, R.K. (2007). A textbook of automobile engineering (https://books.google.com/books?
id=nBVefxD_0agC&q=The+main+functions+of+an+automobile+frame&pg=PA409). Laxmi
Publications. p. 410. ISBN 9788170089919. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
3. "Kenworth Heavy Duty Body Builder Manual - 2012" (https://www.kenworth.com/media/5223
4/hd-t800-w900-c500-body-builder-manual-kenworth.pdf) (PDF). kenworth.com. PACCAR.
August 2012. p. 203. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
 4. "International HX Series" (https://www.internationaltrucks.com/-/media/navistar/trucks/pdf/bro
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2018. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
5. Niedermeyer, Paul (19 January 2012). "Automotive History: An X-Ray Look At GM's X Frame
(1957 – 1970)" (http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-an-
x-ray-look-at-gms-x-frame-1957-1970/). Curb Side Classic. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
6. "Thread: Mercedes Benz 190SL, the 'Teutonic T-bird' is born, 1954..." (http://forums.vwvorte
x.com/showthread.php?4743728-Mercedes-Benz-190SL-the-Teutonic-T-bird-is-born-1954)
vwvortex.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
7. Ludvigsen, Karl (2010). Colin Chapman: Inside the Innovator. Haynes Publishing. pp. 150–
164. ISBN 978-1-84425-413-2.
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s.com/2010/11/14/automobiles/autoreviews/14audi-a8.html?_r=1&hp). The New York
Times.
9. "unit body" (http://www.engineering-dictionary.org/Unit_body). engineering-dictionary.org.
Retrieved 28 March 2016.
10. Visnic, Bill (1 September 2008). "Shift to Unitized Body No Slam Dunk" (http://wardsauto.co
m/news-analysis/shift-unitized-body-no-slam-dunk). Wards Auto. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
11. Genta, Giancarlo; Morello, Lorenzo; Cavallino, Francesco; Filtri, Luigi (2014). The Motor Car
Past, Present and Future (https://books.google.com/books?id=KxTHBAAAQBAJ&q=Probabl
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Lambda&pg=PA23). Springer. pp. 23–26. ISBN 9789400785519. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
12. Simanaitis, Dennis (5 October 2011). "From the Carriage Trade to Carbon Fiber All about an
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7656/from-the-carriage-trade-to-carbon-fiber/). Road and Track. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
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a). Hagley Museum and Library. 29 May 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
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20-cars-changed-automotive-industry-forever). Magic Online. 13 October 2014. Retrieved
10 August 2016.
15. GAZ-M20 «Pobeda», "Avtolegendy SSSR" Nr 23, DeAgostini, 2009, ISSN 2071-095X (in
Russian), p. 3-4
16. ZIM-12, "Avtolegendy SSSR" Nr.3, DeAgostini, 2009, ISSN 2071-095X (in Russian), p. 3
17. "The Designs of John Tjaarda Result in the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr" (http://theoldmotor.com/?p
=131195). The Old Motor. 27 December 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
18. Auto editors of Consumer Guide (1985). Great cars of the forties (https://books.google.com/b
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unheard+of+in+the+low-price+field.+Nash+wanted+a+bigger+share+of+that+market,+and+it
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21. Narus, Donald J. (2012). Nash, 1939-1954 (https://books.google.com/books?id=E7KhAwAA
QBAJ&q=Unibody+was+the+big+news.+The+600+was+unique&pg=PA27). New Albany
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gle.com/books?id=Iem-AwAAQBAJ&q=In+engineering+the+XJ+Jeeps,+Roy+Lunn+and+hi
s+team+came+up+with+a+new+type+of+frame+called+the+Uniframe+a+strong+unit-+body
+structure,+giving+the+strength+of+a+conventional+heavy+frame+with+the+weight+advant
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solates+the+passenger+capsule+from+engine,+suspension+and+steering+loads). Car and
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External links
Media related to Vehicle chassis at Wikimedia Commons
What Is the A-Frame on a Car? (https://dottrusty.com/what-is-the-a-frame-on-a-car/)
What Is Car frame? (https://newsdustbin.com/2022/07/13/car-frame/)

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