Has anyone weighed there Fug?

There has been lots of chat about brake biasing, I wondered if anyone knows the weight on each corner of there Fug.

I was tempted to have a go with bathroom scales to get a very rough idea, but we now have digital ones that makes that very difficult.
(also keen to calculate a power to weight as I don't have mine on the road yet and don't know what to expect)


Cheers

Steve

i've seen figures of between 550kg and 600kg mentioned but i don't know for sure :unsure:

that seems reasonable though and even with a relatively modest 100bhp you'd get a decent power to weight ratio B)

Steve - as mentioned many times elsewhere on this fourm - the only thing you need to consider when building a fug (especially a fug-2) is to put plenty of weight in the front, in an attempt to help the front tyred bite better when braking - so that means you put the battery (in a safe enclosed battery box) and also the fuel tank up front......if you dont, the front wheels lock-up under braking and you will be slamming into the car in front in no time :(

I managed to 'borrow' a set of corner weight scales and laptop off a mate who works for williams F1.... :rolleyes:

Anyway I didn't go into too much detail as I couldn't see how it all worked but suffise to say the AUW with no fliuds was 535 kg and the C of G was 18 inchs forward of the centre line of the rear torsion housing...or where my bum was once init B)

so with fliuds etc I reckon 600 kg all in

Nice one Tigger, that's quite usefull to know B)
Cheers

Thanks Knighty & Tigger, I have read that you need as much weight forward as possible.
I am going to try to get the fuel tank to sit at least partially under the steering linkage, and sit the battery as close to the steering box arm as is reasonable.

Has anyone seen any front mounted rads? My Fug has a kind of skid/bumper that extends a foot forward of the front torsion tubes. There is a kind of squared off hoop from each end of the torsion tubes, and two more tubes coming forward from the lower torsion tube to meet the hoop at the front.
I was pondering on sticking a rad in front of the torsion tubes, or trying to wedge the battery in there.

The bonnet has been moved forward to sit over the front of this hoop, so that the top of the steering box doesn't poke out.
It did have a different windscreen and the "roof" and windscreen sides have been chopped off. I plan to put these back. I have a mig welder and a friend with a pipe bender, I just need to get the steel tubing now.

Here it is before I cut the windscreen off


Not sure how drastic to get with the lower frame rails at the front. They are bad for about a foot and a half on each side where stones have chipped the paint.
May be time for surgery...


Doesn't look too bad but it's eaten well into the metal :(

I would have thought it quite sensible to mount a radiator at the front for maximum air flow and weight balance. :)

Not quite sure i understand the "squared off hoops" any chance of a photo of that bit? ;)

As for the lower frame rails it's hard to say, if you think they look a bit dodgey and you're buying some tube for the rest anyway then why not replace them.

If i was concerned about the integrity of the chassis i would instantly replace the bits that are questionable, i don't think it's worth chancing. :)

the lower chassis rails will be OK - just fit a wire wheel to an angle grinder and polish them up - goggles are a must! - and hamerite them twice - might want to underseal them too.

if your doing a full strip - once all the welding is done - just send it off to be powder coated - as they will shot blast it before coating - bye bye rust

regarding the weight - your fuel tank looks OK where it is .......just put the battery up front in a proper box and all will be fine.

regarding the front bumper - I had one of those and I hated it - I removed and binned it - just my personal preferance.........am surprised to hear the bodywork is over it - sounds like a first!

regarding all up weight distribution - ideally you want to be between 50/50 or 40% front 60% rear.......those are good guide lines.

regarding the radiator up front - the massive tube runs will weigh a ton and probably cause more greif than they are worth when full of water at 1 Bar and 100DegC - and sorry - the radiator will look silly up front on a fug........

I know I'm contradicting myself here but you might want to consider putting it across the lower back, like on my fug-4 (link below)......the rad aint heavy so its no big deal - plenty of air flow and very short pipe runs.

http://forums.fugitives.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=14

or look at this link (at the bottom of page) of how this bloke used two mini radiators above each drive shaft - a nice hidden solution, with plenty of air-flow - but a bit more involved

http://www.hbpsystemsplc.co.uk/engine.htm

.

HHM if the pitting is rather bad i wouldn't just wire wheel it off as you won't get rid of all the rust, so when you paint it you are just covering it up while it carries on attacking the metal.

Also the the pitting is severe enough the metal will be compromised.

As for tube work down the length of the chassis, i can see a perfect opertunity here for creating some heating inside the fug.

A shallow height radiator or even two at an angle(slightly laying down) at the front will not only cool the engine more efficiently than at the back (due to clean cool air flow) but will reduce rear axle weight.

The body panels on the fuge could easily be adapted to subtley hide the rads IMHO.

:)

Steve,I have the same engine as you and my rad is mounted across behind the seats,under the roll bar so to speak. There's a couple of pics in the gallery. It used to have an old style rad,the sort of thing you'd have on a Morris Minor. This was ideal as it had a filler cap on it,new one is a 2ltr Mondeo,now plumbed in stainless with a modified Land Rover header. It may not look it in the pics,but I can see over it from a centre mirror or by looking over my shoulder. Figured it's safer there out the way and looks a bit more like the stuff from the Baja rally. The reason for a 2ltr Mondeo rad is the fact it's the right size,has twin fans included and it's going to cost you about a score. Should you choose this route I now know exactly how to plumb in the header,that was the trickiest bit,simple once I knew.

We have a weigh bridge pretty near us at the scrap yard,this I reckon is the easiest. Mine isn't on the road yet so I can't do it but I'd say most scrap yards would be happy enough to weigh one. Don't think I'd want to take the £30 it'd probably calculate but it'd be a definative answer. I've read the 500kg-600kg on sites in the past,but concider a bike engined westfield weighs 500kg I'm sure a Fug must be a fair bit heavier due to engine and box alone,not to mention the wheels they generally have.

I've been doing some weighing today.

Firstly I weighted the front end with the engine in the car. 125Kg

Then I unbolted and chopped a lot and weighed bits by themselves.


Swing axle gearbox with driveshafts and drums (not trailing arm things) and with starter : 74 KG (!)

Fiat twin cam engine with carbs, exh manifold, oil but no water! Best guess 160Kg
(a piece of wood, engine in the middle, scales one end showing 80Kg)

Beam of rear suspension, torsion bars inside, trailing arms (plates) and the funny tubie bits that go under the engine 30Kg

Rear of frame with engine and gearbox and rear beam removed (i.e. lifting the back of the car from the very back) 56Kg
Weight at front (lifting by lower beam), 150Kg (with seats, wheels and cat.)

Please comment guys!
(my Peugeot engine with box is about 180Kg, +13Kg per strut, + subframe +driveshafts +brakes)


Steve

HELLO,MY FUG WEIGHS 682KG WITH ALFA LUMP,3 GALLONS OF FUEL,AND MINUS DRIVER.