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Originally Posted by Stan
...Just a side to side, joint to joint, simple tubular brace. He does not care for the first design. Note that the loads are not the same side-to-side when the car is loaded in a car, which helps...
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As TimMullen mentioned earlier this may look like a double shear joint but is not. Double shear implies equal stiffness and equal load distribution between the restraining members.
If the brace is not tied into the chassis directly, all it is doing is pushing on the opposite suspension bolt which means the joints are still in single shear, you are just averaging out the load somewhat.
Also, for the same diameter tube, a brace which is attached to the chassis at it's midpoint can be 4x stronger in compression than a simple side-to-side brace. The critical buckling load (Euler) is inversely proportional to length squared.
With the bar Randy's installed, the percentage load carried by the chassis member verses the bar will be dependent on the relative stiffnesses between them. Attachment bolt stiffnesses, hole tolerances, relative cross sectional areas among other things influence the load distribution.
Is a simple side-to-side brace good enough? Maybe. Only with the suspension loads and fatigue loading spectrum could you answer that. All things being equal would a double shear brace be better - the answer is yes.
Michael