Frame (vehicle)

A vehicle frame, is the main structural element of a motor vehicle. All other components are connected to the frame. Another term for this design is body-on-frame construction.^[1] A vehicle's frame is part of the chassis.^[2]

The first motor vehicles were almost all built on a frame.^[3] Since then, nearly all cars have changed to unibody construction (see below). The last UK mass-produced car with a chassis was the Triumph Herald, which was discontinued in 1971. By contrast, today nearly all trucks and buses still use chassis frames.

↑ Mark Gustavson, Custom Car: Modeling (Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1999), p. 7
↑ Tim Gilles, Automotive Chassis: Brakes, Suspension, and Steering (Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2005), p. 317
↑ Hugh Dolner, 'Considerations of Motor Car Elements', Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, Philadelphia (1 April 1906), p. 78

[1] Mark Gustavson, Custom Car: Modeling (Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1999), p. 7

[2] Tim Gilles, Automotive Chassis: Brakes, Suspension, and Steering (Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2005), p. 317

[3] Hugh Dolner, 'Considerations of Motor Car Elements', Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, Philadelphia (1 April 1906), p. 78

[1]

[2]

[3]