[thzero]

Ah, obviously I misread it. :)

There are any number of designs with a top plate. Essentially its just a small plate that runs from front to rear. Essentially you could put one that runs from the front bulk head attachment across the center diff, attached to it, and then to the read bulk head attachment. Essentially making it sort of a "twin horizontal plate".

As I said, every truggy on the market is built like that your diagrams, however there is some flex in the chassis; mostly built that way to allow chassis to flex for traction purposes (i.e. racing). I know I've bent a few chassis braces on my RC8T conversion with bashing. So by either adding to, or replacing, the chassis braces that you have you would end with up with a stiffer chassis, theoretically. Stiffer chassis is probably bit better for bashing.

You could also turn up the sides; see the front chassis of the Baja 5B/T. This would strengthen the chassis too without needing the top plate. Would reduce the ease of maintenance somewhat though. Most truggy chassises I've seen do have a slight kickup along the sides of the chassis.