carbon fiber thickness
 

Is 3mm carbon fiber suitable strength-wise for a chassis about 16" long? I'm thinking of a stretch chassis for a stampede vxl. I am about to buy a panel of CF, just want to know if anyone has experience with it and what strengths 3mm has, or will 4.4mm be overkill.
Thanks!
-Matt

I'll go with at least 4mm.

I think 3mm is enough, CF is very strong for it's weight. I tried to brake some 2.5mm CF (from HC) last week and it didn't brake, only after some heavy pressure it started to "splitter" (or how do you say that?).

Where do you buy that 3/4.4mm CF? (HC only has till 2.5mm)

Some local guy where I live has a little bit in his auto body repair shop.
4mm I'll try that.
Byte you tried breaking 2.5mm carbon fiber? how big was the piece and how did you try to break it?

The piece was very small like 5x80mm, it already had some "splittering" on both sides. I tried it with my hands lol, I was very surprised about the strength.

I think 3mm should be ok, but 4mm will definitely be beter :)

I used 3.5mm for the chassis and shock towers of my project and 2mm for everything else, subjectively the 3.5mm seems about as strong as the 3mm 7075 it replaced but significantly lighter.

LOL byte, that is pretty small piece but thanks for your input!
Thanks nativepaul, (your build looks pretty tight btw) I think that I'm going with the 4mm. Also on your CF chassis, how did you compensate for the front kick up on the stock chassis, or is it really not needed?

I am using 3 mm for my directdrive Maxxler....3
mm is more than enough!!

the kickup was all that stopped me doing it a long time ago, bu I heard that for on-road the extra caster from the kickup wasnt needed, was counterproductive even so, after a bit of research on road cars all of which had no kick up I went ahead and made a flat chassis. You may not want to follow suit for an off road car or if you doheath the lower arms and twist them so they retain the angle of the kick up then, either mod the diff housings to mount the uper arms further back which may be tricky but would get your caster back, I dont know the stampede but on my buggy the top arms are assimetric and simply turning them round woul give me extra caster, dead easy but probably not the right amount though, or another option would be to cut material off the back of the top arms where the hinge pins go through then add shims to the front to take up the slack, easy to do and you can get the right amount but it wont be as tough as stock.

What's the "Maxxler"...some sort of E Maxx truck?
*EDIT* just searched for it and it looks pretty tight plettenbergs!! The Maxxler chassis looks like the CF is aluminum reinforced? So 3mm is enough if braced with aluminum, or even without?

Okay thanks! I'm sure that the stampede chassis won't need kick up, just curious as to how you compensated and you explained it well! :yes:

3mm is OK if you go with a double-deck chassis, or brace it with Al angle or something. Otherwise I would use 4mm+.

okay thanks. I'm also thinking of doing a chassis for my Muggy, so 3mm probably too little. 4.4mm seems about right.

4.4mm with a bit of bracing should work. If you can get 5mm, that would be ideal for a plate chassis. 5mm is just over 3/16" if you were wondering. It would eliminate a lot of the flex which is inherent with CF.

There are two kinds of CF plate that are avalible . There is bi-directional & quasi-isotropic . The quasi-isotropic is stronger,stiffer & in turn will flex less. Quasi-istropic CF usually costs more the bi-directional CF. 3mm will be fine if you have a chassis brace that goes FR to RR like the onroad & 4wd offroad cars . If your trying to make a chassis with out a brace thicker CF would be better to use .