I am going to try and lump all the information that pertains to
all of the chassis plans I offer in one spot. Some of this will be a repeat of
what is on the chassis plans page. there are also nearly a hundred build up
pages that cover everything I did and purchased over the course of my builds.
Please read them over before e-mailing questions.
Question - What is
included in the chassis plans?
Answer - Hardcopy prints on 11 x 17
paper that details the required tubes to build the base chassis including cut
lengths, bend start points and angles. All the plans are broken into stages, the
first being the lower section and moving up from there.
This video
should give you a good idea of what you get. It covers what is
included in the second stage of the Project Hellraiser Pickup chassis and
includes the bending and mocking up of the belt line tubes from the plans.
The plans basically give you an envelope that can hold a drive train and
passenger compartment. They are is easily customizable to make changes to the
size of the chassis or just to add you own style to the final outcome. I do not
provide suspension mount points due to the sheer numbers of ways of doing it,
however you can copy exactly what I have if you desire using the 4 ink numbers I
provide with the plans. For more information please look thru the above builds
as well as the suspension links listed below.
Question - Do the
plans also detail the suspension mounting points?
Answer - Yes. From 2015 on
I will be adding a page to the chassis plans set which shows you how
to fill in the 4BarLink
calculator** and gives the suspension mounting points I used for
my Hellraiser 3 chassis. Previous purchasers of my plans can
download a PDF of this file from the electronic files link I sent
you after you purchased the plans (see below for an image of what it
looks like). The mounting points given can be used with any of my
chassis designs or can be used as a starting point. You may also
read thru my project build threads and in my tech section I have
write ups covering
the basics to a link suspension,
suspension links, and
4 link numbers. The 4 link numbers link discusses some of
the 4 link numbers used by others and how their vehicles performed.

** Written by Dan Barcroft and Greg Blanchette
Question - I don't use PayPal,
how can I use my credit/debit card to pay?
Answer - You still use the shopping
cart buttons but when the PayPal checkout screen appears click on the underlined
"continue" in the lower left corner of the screen where it says:
Question - How much tubing is
required?
Answer -
For costing purposes I used approximately 8 sticks of 1.625 x .120 DOM, and 2
sticks of the following: 1.50 x .095 and 1.50 x .120 for the main chassis
bracing. To save money you can get away with using HREW for any piece of tubing
that does not contact rocks.
Question - Can I
use a different diameter tubing or bender die?
Answer - Yes, 1.5" OD or
1.75" OD tubing can be substituted for the 1.625 OD the plans call
for. The difference in tubing diameters makes almost no difference
in the bent tubes and can be easily compensated for in the straight
cut tubes (lengthen or shorten by .125"). Honestly between the chop
saw cuts and coping the +/- .125" can be ignored, which is what I
did when I fabricated my last Hellraiser 3 chassis with 1.5" OD
tubing. I made no corrections from the plans.
I used a 4.5" bend radius tubing die when I built my first
chassis but those size dies are no longer readily available. A 5.5" bend
radii seems to be the most common die set out there now and only minor changes
need to be made to compensate for the larger bend radius. Using a 90
degree bend as the baseline, the bend start point shown on the plans needs to be
started 1" sooner with the a 5.5" radius die. This scales with die size so a
6.5" bend radius die needs the bend start points to start 2" sooner. For
angles less than 90 degrees, scale the bend start point correction factor
with the angle, so for example: if the plans call for an angle of 45 degrees
(half of 90 degrees) the 1" correction factor becomes .50". I put together
a model that overlays a tube from the plans, the yellow is the 4.5" bend radius
die and the blue is a 5.5" bend radius die. If the 90 degree bend is
started 1" sooner and the 60 degree bend is started .66" sooner the finished
tube will match the plans.

The cut lengths are affected slightly but if you are adding a couple inches
(like you should be) you do not need to adjust. In the above example the
90 degree bend side requires another 4" of tubing in order for me to lock the
end of the tube into the u-clamp on my JD2 bender and
I cut the end to length after both bends are installed.
Question - What are the differences in
the chassis plans?
Answer - The sub-chassis on all my
designs is very similar with only minor changes.
BMP 3, BMP 2 and Hellraiser 4 were all designed with a front
mounted radiator in mind. Structurally the A & B pillars are offset from the
outer tubing on the lower chassis to create a nerf bar. BMP 2 has the longest
nose of the 3 to accommodate longer drive trains. It is very easy to make
adjustments to any of these 3 chassis's and I point out where you can make
changes on the blueprints.
The Hellraiser 2 Pickup, Buggy and Hellraiser 3
chassis's were all designed around a rear mounted radiator so if you
look thru my HR3 buildup thread it should be pretty easy to see how
you get better visibility and a sleeker front end over my previous
designs. The trade off is more complex plumbing and heat
management with the radiator out back. These 3 chassis designs also
have the A & B pillars flush with the lower chassis which gives you
roughly 3 more inches of width in the passenger compartment over my
first 3 designs.
The bottom line is you could make the changes yourself to
convert any set of my plans to the others without too much difficulty or you can
pick one closer to what you want and make minor tweaks from there.
Question - How much time is required
to build a turnkey rock crawler from your plans?
Answer - It took me over 615 hours of
constant work (every weekend and after work) over the course of 4 months.
Question - How much does it cost to
build a crawler?
Answer - Material prices vary by
region so you will need to get a quote for the amount of tubing listed above.
I did a complete budget of my
original
build here which includes all the little stuff I bought. Some of that
information is a bit dated so I have
started another costing
page as I build up my Project Hellraiser 2 chassis.
Question - Can I buy a pre-built
chassis from you?
Answer - I do not build chassis's to
keep some in stock. In fact up until now I have not done any fabrication
work outside of my rig mainly due to time constraints. I may consider
building a bare chassis, contact me for more details at sales@azrockcrawler.com..

Question
- What drive trains fit?
Answer - Pretty much
anything can be made to fit. 4 cylinders are no problem and
most 60 degree V6's are actually more compact than a lot of the
inline 4's currently out there (Suzuki 1.3/1.6, Toyota 2.4/2.7l,
etc). About the only engines that would give me pause are 90
degree V8's like a Ford 5.4L or 4.6L since they are so darn wide
(see picture above). That said It is easy to make adjustments to the
chassis so if you did have a blown 5.4L and wanted it in the chassis
you could as long as you were willing to put up with a wider front
end. The Chevy V8's (250, LT1, LSx) are an easy fit. Inline
6's present another problem - length. You'd have to stretch
the nose of each chassis a few inches (assuming a front mounted
radiator) except for the BMP 2 seater which was designed with a Jeep
4.0l drive train in mind.

LS1 shown
If you go with a rear mounted
radiator you should be able to fit just about anything.

Short Block Chevy w/ TH350 Shown in the Hellraiser 2 Seater
Chassis (Buggy or Pickup version)
For reference my 3.8L/904/D300 is roughly 54"
long (pulleys to rear output), 28" Tall (oil pan to top of motor) and 22" wide
at the valve covers.


6.0l LS2 and Atlas Shown
Here's a link to customer's Facebook page, he installed a
Chevy 8.1l into
his chassis.
Question -
What wheelbase can I run with this chassis?


Hellraiser 2 Chassis with 100" Wheelbase and 37" Tires
Answer - Your wheelbase
will be determined by your drive train. For example any motor in front of
a Toyota 5 speed with dual transfer cases will be at least 12 inches longer than
my current V6/Auto/Dana 300 combo. Pretty much any chassis with an
automatic and a single transfer case behind a "V" motor could run a 100-112+"
wheelbase. The dual transfer cases behind a 5 speed make for a long drive train
and could push the wheelbase from 105" and up depending on how far forward you
push the motor and what kind of rear driveshaft you are running. The best
thing to do is mock up your drive train and drive shafts and see what sort of
angles you end up with. For reference when I had my inline 4/Toyota 5 speed/dual
Toy cases I had a 29-34" long rear CV driveshaft, 10.
One other thing to keep in mind with wheelbases under 105" is that the chassis
will have to sit higher to allow for adequate clearance between the front axle
and engine. This added height can be offset with smaller tires.
Question - How much does
chassis "X" weigh?
Answer - That depends a
lot on what you install into the chassis but I can provide a few
references:

3 Seater with Suzuki 1.6/Toyota 5
Speed/Dual Toyota Cases, Toyota axles, 37's, steel bead locks -
2800lbs. This was about 100lbs lighter than my tubed out
Suzuki Samurai with a single 8:1 transfer case.

3 Seater with S/C
3.8l V6/TF904/Dana 300, D60 Front & Rear, 14 Bolt Rear, 42" tires,
aluminum bead locks - 3800lbs (motor is about
450lbs)

4 Seater with S/C 3.8l V6/TF904/Dana
300, D60 Front, 14 Bolt Rear, 40" tires, aluminum bead locks,
aluminum links - 3844lbs
The bare chassis weight is
anywhere from 250-350lbs depending on the bracing, material
thicknesses, etc.
Question - What kind of
tools will I need.
Answer -
Check out the chassis fabrication write up here.