A CNC machined part is a part made by a machine that uses a computer to cut it into the exact shape. It’s used when you want the part to be very precise and consistent.
Optomechanical design means engineering both the optics (like lasers or lenses) and the mechanical parts that position them. The goal is to keep everything aligned and working correctly.
LiDAR is a sensor that uses lasers to measure how far away things are. It helps a vehicle “see” the world in 3D so it can understand where obstacles and terrain are.
CAD is computer software for designing parts. Instead of drawing everything by hand, you can model it on a computer and test the shape before building it.
SOLIDWORKS is a computer program for designing parts. If someone is proficient in it, they can turn an idea into a real, measurable design on the computer.
Control arms are parts of the suspension that connect the car’s body to the wheels. They help the wheels move up and down while keeping the car pointed the right way, which matters a lot off-road.
Term
roll pages
“Roll pages” refers to the documentation or drawings used to design and build a vehicle’s roll structure—typically the roll cage/rollover protection. In off-road fabrication, these pages help ensure the structure’s geometry and mounting points are correct for strength and safety.
“Baja bugs” are old Volkswagen Beetles that people modified to race off-road in Baja. They usually get suspension upgrades so the wheels can move more over bumps.
Trailing arms are suspension parts that help the wheel move up and down. Off-road builders often change their length to give the suspension more travel over bumps.
“Class 10” is a category for off-road racing that sets rules for what kinds of vehicles you can build. It’s like a competition bracket with specific guidelines.
Term
class one
“Class one” is another off-road racing category with rules about what the cars can be. The point here is that the same basic design ideas show up across different classes.
A transaxle is basically the transmission and the differential combined into one unit. It helps fit the drivetrain neatly in the vehicle and can handle the hard work of off-road racing.
This is a way of building parts by shaping thin metal sheets and joining them together. It can be great for strength and cost, but it may not allow as many complex shapes as machining.
Billet parts are made by cutting a part out of a solid metal block. That can help you get very precise fitment for parts that have to line up perfectly.
Portal hubs are off-road wheel hubs with gearing that lifts the axle higher. That gives more ground clearance, which helps the vehicle clear rocks and ruts.
Generative design is when you tell software what you need (like strength and weight limits) and it proposes shapes for the part. Instead of you drawing every detail, the computer helps search for efficient designs.
CNC machining is a way to make parts by cutting material away with a computer-controlled machine. It can be tough to make very complex shapes efficiently compared to other methods.
3D printing is making a part by building it up layer by layer. In the example described, a laser melts powder to form the shape, and it can even be done with strong metals like titanium.
An exhaust manifold is the part that gathers exhaust gas from the engine and sends it to the turbo or exhaust. On turbo cars, it has to be shaped and positioned correctly for good performance and proper fit.
Garrett G32 is a turbocharger model. A turbocharger compresses air so the engine can make more power, and it often requires custom exhaust parts to fit correctly.
A V-band is a quick, secure way to connect exhaust parts. It uses a special clamp shape so you can take the joint apart and put it back together more easily.
A turbo header manifold is the exhaust pipe system that collects exhaust from the engine and feeds it into the turbo. Because exhaust pulses don’t all arrive at the same time, the manifold shape can help the turbo get a steadier flow. That’s why people talk about runner length and flow optimization.
Additive manufacturing is a fancy way of saying “3D printing.” Instead of carving a part out of metal, it builds the part up in thin layers. It can make complex shapes, but the strength can change depending on how the part is printed.
Flow analysis is computer modeling that predicts how a fluid moves through a part. In exhaust systems, it helps you see whether the exhaust will flow smoothly or get messy and turbulent. Designers use it to improve how the exhaust runners are shaped.
Equal length means the separate exhaust pipes inside the header are made the same length. That helps the exhaust pulses reach the turbo more evenly. The result is usually smoother response and more consistent flow.
Vortexes are swirling, chaotic pockets of flow. In an exhaust manifold, they can make the exhaust move less efficiently and less evenly. The goal is to shape the inside so the flow stays smoother.
Inconel is a metal alloy that can handle very high heat without breaking down. Turbo exhaust parts get extremely hot, so this kind of material helps them last longer. It can also be difficult to work with using traditional methods, which is why 3D printing can help.
Print volume is the maximum size a 3D printer can build. If your part is bigger than that, you can’t print it in one piece. You may need to print it in sections or use a bigger machine.
An upper control arm is a suspension piece that connects the wheel to the car’s body. It helps control how the wheel moves over bumps and during cornering. Because it takes real forces, the material and how it’s made (like 3D printing orientation) can matter a lot.
With 3D printing, the part is made by stacking thin layers of material. How those layers bond can change how strong the part is. So if you print the part in a different orientation, it can handle stress differently.
Layer orientation is how a 3D-printed part is rotated in the printer relative to the direction of the layers. Because printed materials can be stronger in some directions than others, changing layer orientation can noticeably affect strength and failure modes.
Term
waterjack
Waterjacking here means building in water-cooling passages around a hot part. The flowing water helps pull heat away, which is especially useful in marine setups.
The Dodge Ram is a full-size pickup truck line built for hauling, towing, and heavy-duty everyday work. It’s frequently discussed in automotive podcasts because owners and shoppers compare how these trucks handle load, comfort, and long-term ownership costs. The mention of “RAM” in your transcript appears to be a wordplay reference, but the car name points to the Ram truck platform.
Large assembly mode is a setting in CAD that helps the program deal with very big 3D projects. It can make loading and editing large models faster and less laggy.
Light weighting is a CAD technique that reduces the computational load of large assemblies by simplifying what the software loads and processes. In the segment, the host says it loads only the outside surface and skips editable internal features, which speeds up opening and working with big models. It’s especially useful when you’re doing analysis or iterating designs.
FEA is computer simulation for engineering. It takes a part you want to build, breaks it into tiny pieces, and then estimates how it will bend and how much stress it sees when forces act on it. That way you can test ideas virtually before making hardware.
Finite element analysis is the “how” behind FEA. The computer turns a part into tiny pieces and then calculates how it responds to forces. More detail in the tiny pieces can make the estimate more accurate, but the inputs still matter a lot.
Von Mises stress is a way engineers summarize how “hard” a material is being pushed inside. Instead of tracking every direction of force separately, it turns that into one number you can compare to how strong the material is. In FEA, it helps predict whether a part might start to deform permanently.
Statics analysis is a “balance the forces” kind of calculation. It assumes the part isn’t accelerating, so you can figure out what forces and stiffness you need to support a load. It’s often used early to estimate things like spring rate and shock force.
Spring rate is how stiff a spring is. A higher spring rate means you need more force to compress it the same amount. In suspension, it helps determine how the car responds to bumps and cornering loads.
An iterative process means you don’t just run one test and stop—you test, learn what’s wrong, change the design, and test again. In this case, they use simulation to find where a part is too heavy or too strong, then redesign it.
This phrase means the computer can only be as good as the information you feed it. If you guess the forces wrong, the simulation will also be wrong—even if the math is correct.
A shock load is a big force that hits quickly, like when the suspension gets slammed by a bump. Instead of guessing slowly-changing forces, you simulate the part being hit hard and fast.
“10 Gs” is a measure of how intense the forces are—about ten times the pull of gravity. Engineers use numbers like this to simulate extreme impacts so parts don’t fail under hard hits.
A front suspension bulkhead is a structural mounting area (often a reinforced panel) where the front suspension components attach to the vehicle’s body or frame. Because it carries suspension loads, it must resist bending, cracking, and fatigue from impacts and cornering forces. In racing contexts, its design and reinforcement strongly affect durability.
Reverse engineering is analyzing an existing component to understand its design choices—materials, geometry, and load paths—so you can replicate or improve it. In this context, they’re suggesting using a proven Baja suspension mounting part as a baseline, then identifying where it may need reinforcement for the new application. It’s a practical way to learn from real-world durability data.
Stress fractures are cracks that form when a material is repeatedly loaded, even if each individual load is below the part’s ultimate strength. Over time, microscopic damage accumulates until a crack grows large enough to threaten structural integrity. In race hardware, this is a common failure mode under long-duration vibration and cyclic forces.
Fatigue (often discussed as “fatigues”) is the progressive damage a material experiences from repeated loading cycles. Instead of failing from one big impact, a part can crack after many cycles of smaller stresses. That’s why long races and constant vibration can be especially demanding on suspension and chassis components.
G forces describe acceleration relative to gravity (1G is the acceleration you feel at Earth’s surface). In motorsport, side-load G forces and vertical G forces indicate how hard the car and components are being pushed in different directions. Higher G loads increase stress on suspension links, mounts, and bulkheads.
A safety factor is a margin of extra strength. Engineers make parts stronger than they strictly need so they don’t fail under unexpected stress. But making things much stronger can also make them heavier.
Inside corners are tricky to cut because the cutting tool can’t always get into tight concave shapes. If you design them poorly, you may need extra steps or special tools, which drives up cost.
A three-axis CNC machine can move the cutting tool in three directions. Because it can’t tilt/orient the tool as flexibly, making complex shapes usually takes more steps.
A five-axis CNC machine can move and also rotate the tool/part more ways than a three-axis machine. That helps it cut tricky shapes without as many repositioning steps.
Spindle time is how long the CNC machine actually runs while cutting. If the part is more complex and takes longer to machine, the quote usually goes up.
GD&T is a standardized “drawing language” for telling a machine shop what has to be accurate. It can specify not only measurements, but also how parts must line up with each other.
A reamer is a tool used to make a hole more accurate after it’s been drilled. It’s used when you need the hole size to be very exact, but it takes extra time.
Inspection is when the shop measures the finished part to make sure it matches the specs. They often do it in a controlled room because temperature can change how measurements come out.
First article inspection means they measure the first produced part to confirm the process is working. If the drawing doesn’t specify what’s critical, they may not measure every part the same way.
Five axis machining is a CNC method that lets the cutting tool reach a part from more directions. It helps make complex shapes, but it usually costs more because it’s harder to program and set up.
Suspension kinematics is basically how the suspension “moves” as the wheel goes up and down. The geometry matters because it changes how the tire touches the road or trail, which affects grip and control.
“Virtual world” here means they design the suspension on a computer first. That helps them test ideas quickly, but the real car can behave differently once parts are physically built.
The hub is the part the wheel mounts to, and the spindle assembly is the rotating/steering component that supports the hub and bearings and connects to the suspension links. In suspension design, their dimensions and mounting points strongly affect where control arms can attach and how the suspension moves through travel.
Wheel travel is how far the suspension can move the wheel up and down. Off-road, more travel can help the tire stay on the ground when you hit uneven terrain.
These are the spots on the frame where the lower suspension arms pivot. Where they’re placed changes how the wheel moves and how well the suspension can travel without hitting anything.
A trophy truck is a high-end off-road race truck built to handle huge bumps and jumps. Its suspension is designed for lots of wheel movement and strong control on rough terrain.
A spherical bearing is a joint that lets parts move through suspension travel with less “rubber squish.” It can make the suspension feel more precise, but it may be harsher and needs good setup to last.
A bushing is a compliant mounting material (often rubber or polyurethane) that isolates vibration and allows controlled movement at suspension joints. Bushing size affects stiffness and how much the suspension deflects under load, which can change handling feel and alignment behavior.
These are two “tilt angles” that determine how the tire sits on the road. Camber is how the wheel leans in or out, and caster is the angle of the steering axis that helps the car track straight and turn predictably.
Droop is how far the suspension can extend when the wheel drops down. It matters because the wheel alignment can change, and you want the tire to stay in a good position for grip even when the suspension is extended.
Full compression is when the suspension is pushed as far as it can go over a bump. Designers check it to make sure nothing hits, and that the suspension still moves the way it’s supposed to.
Shock length is how long the shock is and how much it can move. If it’s wrong, the suspension may not travel correctly or could hit its limits too early.
Progressive suspension load means the suspension gets stiffer the more it compresses. That helps the ride feel more controlled on small bumps while still preventing bottoming out on big hits.
Independent rear suspension means the two rear wheels don’t have to move together. That can help the tires stay in contact with the road better over bumps.
A solid axle connects both wheels with one rigid structure. If one wheel goes over a bump, it can influence the other side too, which is why it’s common on trucks and off-road vehicles.
Bump steer is when the steering “turns itself” as the suspension goes up and down over bumps. Good suspension geometry keeps the wheels pointed where you want them even when you hit uneven roads.
Optimum Kinematics is software that helps designers predict how a suspension will behave as the wheels move. Instead of guessing, it can estimate things like how camber changes and whether bump steer will happen.
Suspension kinematics is basically how the suspension moves and changes angles as the car goes over bumps. Designers use it to predict whether the wheels will stay aligned for good grip and handling.
Four-link calculators are online tools that help you plan a four-link suspension. They help you understand how the suspension will move and what the wheel alignment will do as it travels.
Camber is how tilted the tire is when you look at it from the front. As the suspension moves, that tilt can change—this is what they mean by a camber curve. The goal is to keep the tire working well on the ground so you get more grip.
An i-beam suspension is a simple suspension design that uses a strong beam to hold the wheel. It can let the wheel move a lot up and down, which helps when the ground is rough. The host is saying early Baja cars used this kind of setup to get more wheel travel.
“Whoops” are a series of closely spaced, uneven bumps in off-road racing that force the suspension to cycle rapidly. The host links the term to early Baja setups where the wheel could tuck/dive to maximize travel when hitting these bumps. Managing suspension travel and tire contact is crucial to staying stable and maintaining speed.
Suspension travel is how far the suspension can move up and down. More travel usually helps the wheels stay in contact with the ground over big bumps. The host is saying off-road needs more of it to handle rough terrain.
The sidewall is the part of the tire between the tread and the rim. Off-road tires flex more than street tires, and that flex changes how the tire grips. The host is saying that this flex makes camber effects more important.
“Death wobble” is when the front of the vehicle starts shaking violently, usually because the suspension/steering can’t stay stable. It can happen at speed, especially on rough terrain. It’s dangerous because it can make the car hard to control.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck made by Ford. It’s designed to carry stuff and handle everyday driving without being as big or expensive as many other trucks. People mention it because it’s a practical truck option for normal use.
Ultra4 is a type of off-road racing where the cars are built to handle huge bumps and rough terrain. The host is saying these cars use very large tires and long suspension travel so the ride is more controlled. It’s basically “extreme off-road” engineering.
The Can-Am Maverick is an off-road side-by-side vehicle you can buy and use on trails. The host is using it as a starting point to explain how Ultra4 race cars are basically “scaled up” versions with much bigger tires and suspension. It’s a comparison, not a direct race car spec.
The Polaris Razor is a popular off-road side-by-side vehicle. The host is saying Ultra4 race cars are like those vehicles, but scaled up massively for racing. The big difference is the extreme suspension and tire setup.
LIVE
The rest of SOLIDWORKS I learned throughout my university education and then by the time I
graduated and started my first job, I was pretty expert at it. And there's sort of an inflection
point with that tool where once you know where all the buttons live and what they all do,
you can kind of make anything. You make anything you can dream of.
Welcome to the HPA TuneIn podcast, I'm Andre your host and in this episode we're joined by
Nate Wilkerson from the Instagram profile Wilkerson Customs. I stumbled on this because I
guess the algorithm is adapted to the fact that I like 3D modelling in CAD and cool renders as
much as I guess the next car guys. So Nate's content started getting really served up and
suffice to say it's pretty impressive. We talk to Nate today about how he developed his skills
with 3D modelling in CAD and why he's chosen the SOLIDWORKS platform. There's a lot of I guess
debate about what platform is best, why you would choose a particular platform between the likes
of SOLIDWORKS and Fusion 360 for example. There's obviously a bunch of other options out there
we took to Nate about all of these as well as whether the skills from one platform can get
transitioned across to the other. Nate has a passion for developing some pretty extreme off-road
vehicles, some pure fiction I would say and others more closely aligned with something we might see
rock crawling or maybe at the King of the Hammers or something like that. And interestingly
Nate does not actually work in the automotive industry but he's got an angle here to potentially
bring some of these custom vehicles to life in the real world. We talked to Nate about his
philosophy on developing these projects, how he models the different parts and particularly
using the likes of SOLIDWORKS to develop suspension geometry and essentially make sure that before
anything is made in the real world that everything is going to work, everything's going to fit
and everything is going to have sufficient clearance. Before we jump into our chat, for those
who are new to the TuneIn podcast, High Performance Academy is an online training school we
specialise in teaching people how to build performance engines, how to tune EFI, how to
construct wiring harnesses, we also cover topics on fabrication, 3D modelling in CAD, race
training, you can find all of our courses at hpacademy.com forward slash courses. All of these
courses are delivered in high definition video modules that you can watch from anywhere in the
world provided you've got an internet connection. This means you can learn from the comfort of
your own place and you can learn at your own pace. All of our courses also come with a 60 day
no questions asked, money back guarantee. So if you purchase them for any reason at all, decide
it wasn't quite what you expected, no problem, let us know, we'll give you a full refund.
And for podcast listeners, you can also use the coupon code podcast75 that will get you $75
off the purchase of your very first HPA course. We'll put the coupon code in the show notes
to make it nice and easy for you to find. Lastly, if you like free stuff, then I've got a great
deal for you. We are constantly partnering with some of the biggest names in the aftermarket
performance industry to give away some great prizes. You can always find our latest prize
at hpacademy.com forward slash giveaway. It might be an aftermarket ECU or dash,
it could be some engine components or engine building tools or just about anything in between.
They are great prizes and we will ship them free of charge to your door if you're the winner.
There's no tricks here, no purchase required to get your name into the draw.
All right, enough with our introduction, let's get into our interview now.
All right, welcome to the podcast night, thanks for joining us and as we always do,
we'll start by finding out a little bit about your background and specifically how you developed
an interest in cars. Yeah, thanks so much. So my background is in engineering. I went to school
for optical engineering and got a minor in mechanical engineering as well. But prior to that,
I grew up in a machine shop starting by sweeping the floors and then running the machines when I
was a teenager. And eventually they let me do some drafting. And that's where I learned
SOLIDWORKS just doing drawings for parts. And I just found it so fascinating that
you can bring this idea to life on a two-dimensional computer screen,
something starts in your mind. And if you have the software proficiency to put it on the computer
and you have the approval of your peers, that idea can come to life in the material reality
in the form of a CNC machined part. So that process was always fascinating to me. I carried
that interest through college. And although I was studying optics, which is basically more like
physics than anything else, I always opted for mechanical engineering classes on the side
for all of my electives and really stayed focused on that world and then worked in engineering for
about 10 years doing optomechanical design. So I was designing laser systems for autonomous vehicles
and LiDAR applications for military applications. That was just more of the fun creative process
of doing CAD and design. Okay, there's a lot to unpack there. So optical engineering, I guess
probably I've made the same assumption incorrectly as it turns out that a lot of people have from
sort of scrolling through your Instagram page. And that I assume that you have a day job where
you're designing and building off road race trucks. That's not the case, obviously, but there's a
lot of crossover in there with the degree that you've done. I guess you've got an optical engineering
degree, but sounds like you've really leveraged the mechanical aspects that you learned along
the way as well with that degree. Yeah, certainly. And the reality is all this stuff that's
on my Instagram page, there are ideas that have been in my head since I was a little kid.
And so originally, it was just pen and paper drawings of these same vehicles.
And then as my SOLIDWORKS proficiency matched my imagination, finally I felt like it was the
right time to start sharing that with everybody. And yeah, people really like it. I mean, it's not,
I'm not in the competitive race space. So there's no hiding of secrets or anything. I show people
exactly how the design process works, exactly how everything is engineered. And I think people
really resonate with that. Sure. Alright, I guess you still maybe haven't quite filled in how the
passion for the automotive side came out. And I guess as part of that as well, it seems your
passion is clearly in that off road realm. So why is that? What sort of excites you about off road
racing? Yeah, I mean, it's been an interest of mine since I was a little kid. It's just so
fun to be flying through the desert. I grew up in Arizona. And so dirt biking and pre-runners
were a big part of the culture in the Southwest. When I was a teenager, I had sort of like a
mentorship with a guy named Dan Spencer, who was really big in the Baja world in
the 90s and the early 2000s. And he built really competitive class 10 buggies and
raced them Baja for years. And so that was sort of how I got to know the world of off road
engineering. I'd be in the shop with him working on control arms and roll pages and seeing how
that fabrication process works. Yeah, one of the questions I sort of head in the back of my mind
is if you are coming into this world with no sort of hands on experience, I imagine it would be
very easy to make some design mistakes that those who have been building these trucks, vehicles for
decades have kind of ironed out all those kinks. So you've leveraged that experience into these
designs you're doing now. Yeah, big time. I mean, there's so much evolution that's happened just in
the world of Baja, not to mention Dakar or any other off road racing. But I mean, the interesting
thing to remember about that world is it started with Baja bugs, like old VW Beatles, where they
would just extend the trailing arms in the front and the rear to get a little bit more suspension.
And then that architecture has carried forward into what you see now with class 10 and even class
one, where the engine's in the back for weight balance, there's a trans axle, and then these
long Y shaped trailing arms. Yeah, so to answer your question, it's definitely important to keep
in mind the lessons that have been learned over decades for what works and what breaks.
And I try to work those best practices into all of my designs.
Okay, let's just take a little bit of a step backwards here before we sort of get further
into your actual designs. And you mentioned you learned solid works in the machine shop. So
what's that process look like? Was that self taught or did you have someone actually showing you
the ropes and helping you build those skills? Yeah, that's a good question. I actually had someone
asked me this recently. And the answer is the times that I've learned the most is when I have a
more experienced, you know, either SOLIDWORKS user or engineer looking over my shoulder, showing me
tricks in the software for how to make workflows more efficient, not necessarily for how to design
a specific part for a specific set of constraints, but just how to use the tool in a more time
efficient manner. And so it started for me in the most basic sense, just doing two dimensional
PDF drawings, that there's a really rigorous set of standards that you have to meet in order to hand
a printed piece of paper off to a CNC machinist. And if it's wrong, you will hear about it. And so
that's where I learned those engineering best practices. And then the rest of SOLIDWORKS I
learned throughout my university education. And then by the time I graduated and started my first
job, I was pretty expert at it. And there's sort of an inflection point with that tool where once you
know where all the buttons live, and what they all do, you can kind of make anything you make
anything you can dream of. Yeah, the way I sort of see it, and you might have a different take on
this, I kind of see the level you're working at there is going to be a combination of proficiency
in SOLIDWORKS itself, obviously that goes without saying. Then the mechanical engineering
sort of background and understanding, so you can actually design parts that could be made
in wood function. But then I feel there's this aspect of sort of artistic flair that goes into
some of these designs as well. I don't believe I've got that, so I think I'd struggle to ever get to
your level no matter how many hours I put in on SOLIDWORKS. Do you sort of agree with any of that?
Well, first of all, thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. I'm blown away by surfacers.
One of my buddies is really good at fusion and blender, and you can really make some wicked
looking artistic stuff. I think the most interesting part about the design process to me is form
following function. Let's say in a suspension mechanism, you have a bunch of moving parts
that all need to be mated to each other properly to cycle without breaking in the assembly in the
software. But all those connection points leave you so much room to make something like a control
arm or a trailing arm look like a functional piece of art. The way that I think about how to design
a really cool part is I think about machining constraints rather than sheet metal fabrication
because the world I grew up in and CNC machining, that's an artistic process in itself. The machines
make harmonic noises while they're running. It's very musical. Then you get this really cool
looking part with pocket cutouts and light weighting features and strength gussets.
I always try to make my parts look cool. That's for sure.
I think that form follows function aspect is so critical because you can make a part that'll
do the job that it's going to look ugly. Maybe the form factor isn't necessarily important to
everyone but I think it certainly separates good designers from bad designers potentially as well.
In terms of when you're deciding on the manufacturing process, you've just mentioned CNC,
why is it purely because it gives you that flexibility with the form factor over a sheet
metal fabricated assembly instead because either would work, right? Yeah, it's a good question.
I think it used to be the case that in the off-road world almost everything was fabricated out of
chrome molly sheet because they're all custom one-off parts but we're seeing more and more
as machining costs go down, more and more people are using billet parts for trailing arms,
control arms, and even portal hubs. Those have to be machined because there's so many precision
interfaces but yeah, there are certain times where I will make a decision to design a part
in sheet metal. It's a lot harder to do in SOLIDWORKS than designing and billet because
SOLIDWORKS as a software was invented to aid CNC machining so you start with a block and then
you start cutting away at it just like you do in a CNC machine. There are certain applications
where it's appropriate to do like a boxed sheet metal part but there's usually more opportunities
for like you mentioned like the artistic flair when it comes to machined parts in my experience.
When you are designing parts that are going to be CNC machined, the next question I've got there is,
do you ever use generative design and if not, why not? What's your take on it? Yeah, generative design
is fascinating and I wish I knew more about it. It sort of came on the scene after I had
exited engineering to start my own business but that's definitely the next tool that I want to
learn. It's more interesting to me than even surfacing is because I could spend the next six
months trying to gain proficiency in blender or Fusion 360 but yeah, generative design is just so
cool and then when you tie that to finite element analysis tools, you can get some really wicked
organic shapes that are weight optimized and strength optimized in the right parts and like
we've seen cars come out that are doing just that so yeah, I definitely want to learn that.
I guess actually when you take generative design to the extremes that probably in a lot of ways
can't actually be manufactured using CNC machining, it lends itself probably as I'd say
better to additive manufacturing. Am I correct there? Yeah, I mean 3D printing has evolved
faster than any other technology I've seen since I got into the world of engineering. I remember
I went to engineering summer camp at the end of high school and they had this, it was like an early
state of the art at the time. This was like 2008. It was a basin full of powder, plastic powder and
it was laser centered so they shoot a laser down into the top layer of the powder and they just
build it up layer by layer and now they're doing that with titanium. Yeah, it is crazy how fast
the technology has advanced. I think for us mere mortals, home enthusiasts, probably still a long
way off to get to a point where you could afford to have a 3D metal printer sitting on your workbench
but the advantage there I guess is we can just leverage companies that do outwork, outsource
their working for anyone and a good example of that actually my general manager's in the process
of building a jet boat at the moment. He's got a Vdub engine in that that he wants to turbo charge
and we looked at the options for fabricating an exhaust manifold and he's been learning CAD
since he's been working for us from Connors courses and he scanned everything and designed a
manifold to mate up to a V-band Garrett G32 I think it is and he got that 3D printed in China.
I want to say it was like 900 or 1000 USD and I looked at it and you could not fabricate it for
that much money. It was actually mind blowing and then straight away my mind went to why are
more people not doing this. He put in probably six months of part time work learning that skills
and developing everything, he's also got Connors sitting there to sort of lend him some guidance
but yeah I mean it is such a powerful technology and the stuff that we can do with it is home
enthusiasts we don't have to have the $100,000 machine or two $300,000 machine we can just
pay a small amount of money to a company in China and yeah get the results turned up a few weeks
later on your doorstep. Yeah you're absolutely right there's so many companies that do rapid
prototyping like that that are just like crushing it in the market there's a few CNC shops like that
there's send cut send for sheet metal and then there's a bunch for 3D printing but I think
what you mentioned turbo header manifolds are the perfect application in my opinion for additive
manufacturing because it's the right envelope it's not too big and if you're doing flow analysis
on headers you can really optimize that path where you have equal length on all of them if you want
that where there's no vortexes created internally and you can use exotic materials that are really
hard to fabricate like incanel that are really heat resistant that are there's actually a
offshore powerboat racing team that I heard about using 3D printed incanel turbo header
manifolds but one thing to consider with additive manufacturing is a lot of times the envelope is
the biggest constraint on the part because your print volume is only so big whereas in CNC
machining there's basically no limit those things are gigantic typically I've seen I've seen CNC
tables that are like eight feet long where you can put a gigantic piece of yeah you can make a whole
six foot long trailing arm on that but it would be really hard to print that you'd have to do it in
section or have a machine that's so large that no one's ever made it yet. No that's a good point
obviously everything has its use case and maybe a six foot long trailing arm is not that fit
for additive manufacturing. We're a little off topic here but since we've sort of gone down this
rabbit hole let's keep going with your sort of knowledge of mechanical properties and mechanical
engineering the sort of pros and cons in terms of strength and weight for a CNC machine part
versus something that's being produced with additive manufacturing. Yeah so I think it's
really hard to model the material properties of a printed part because if you print let's say a
turbo man let's say a structural piece let's say you're gonna make an upper control arm that needs
to be strong in two directions you know it needs to be strong in camber and it needs to be strong
on side loads if you print it at a different orientation like 90 degrees to another print
they'll have completely different strength properties because they're done in layers
whereas a machined part those material properties are very well studied and I mean if you wanted to
get a PhD in mechanical engineering you would go do like a strength analysis on some new material
or some new process so there's a lot of documentation on that. I don't think the world of academia has
caught up for additive manufacturing yet but I'm sure people are working on it so it'll be
interesting to see whether the most popular FEA softwares start to have options for
printed aluminum, printed titanium, printed incanel and layer orientation. Yeah I guess that's a
pretty big can of worms to open as well when you start getting into that like you say depending
on the print direction the strength properties are gonna be different I'm guessing there's
probably an element of that comes down to the specific machine that is being used to do the
print as well but yeah we're probably getting a little bit off track here. Just coming back
one thing I wanted to add about that turbo exhaust manifold for this jet boat which is again
something that would be borderline and impossibility to add in if you're doing this with
conventional fabrication is it then becomes clearly pretty easy to actually waterjack at the
manifold which is something that's pretty commonly done in a marine application as well.
Again just it's no more difficult than printing the base manifold, you're just gonna be using
more material there so it just opens that flexibility of making parts that would be
close to impossibility using normal fabrication techniques. Now just coming back one step,
you've mentioned Fusion 360 and Blender a couple of times and most people probably have any
interesting cat have heard of Fusion 360, that's probably the most popular sort of home enthusiast
level 3D modeling software. What is Blender and what's the link between Fusion 360 and Blender?
Yeah that's a good question so I think, well I'll start on the other side of the equation,
there's SOLIDWORKS at least in the States, that seems to be the industry standard for engineering,
every place I've ever worked has had a professional license for SOLIDWORKS and you
can get a private license pretty cheap. I think Fusion 360 is what I see most often online
and it's highly compatible in terms of file import with Blender and the great thing about
Blender is that it's an open source platform so constantly people are uploading custom built
tools that they have developed themselves and sharing that with the community and so
it's a really good software for surfacing complex organic shapes. I think it's popular in video
game design although I'm not a hundred percent sure about that but what it's really good at
is animations. So for example let's say in one of my off-road designs I have a suspension assembly
with steering and both the wheels go up and down. That's a lot of interconnects and mates
and stuff that has to be perfect geometry otherwise it doesn't work. In Blender what I think is true
is that you can take a complex assembly like that and make the interconnects a lot simpler
via nodes rather than mates and then you can animate the movement up and down and then that
makes its way into other popular online rendering for off-road like BeamNG, I don't know if you've
heard of that one but I don't know much about that either. No I haven't. So this is essentially
taking your model from Fusion and there's the animation aspect but then also rendering out
so you get these nice pretty reels that you can post online. Is that sort of the jester things?
That's probably the ones that you're seeing yeah. Okay yeah fair play but that connection
between Solidworks and Blender not quite so straightforward is that what I'm sort of picking
up? Yeah in my experience so the only files that I've been able to open up in Blender were
object files which or STL files which is Stereolithography which is what they use for
3D printed file sharing but it turns the whole thing into like a big heavy surface and it
doesn't always work but I don't know I'm no Blender expert I'm sure people in the comments will
school me on how to get Solidworks to be compatible with Blender which is something I would love to
learn. Okay in terms of new people sort of getting involved with CAD I think Fusion is probably still
the most sort of accessible given that for home use it's essentially free, some limitations that
come along with that. Now you're a Solidworks guy and we spoke before we started recording and
you've never used Fusion so I'm not going to sort of try and get you to give me a comparison
between the two. Is it reasonable to sort of assume that any 3D modelling software essentially
has similar workflow and similar functionality but the buttons are going to be in different
places, the hotkeys are all going to be different so what I'm going with this is could you take
your skill set in Fusion and transfer that reasonably easily to Solidworks at vice versa
or is it not as straightforward as I've got in my head? I think you're right, I mean
at the end of the day they're all built off of the same root process which is either an extrude
or a cut so you're either drawing material out or you're taking material away.
What people view as the steep learning curve with Solidworks is all the additional capabilities
that it has and that's why there's just zillions of tutorials on YouTube that try to teach people
where all of those buttons live because yeah it would be nice to transfer those skills from one
platform to the other but once you've got your keyboard shortcuts dialed in you just
weigh faster at it but I think that's actually part of the reason why I wanted to share my
design process on Instagram because I didn't see anyone making the type of content that I liked
which is time lapse with voiceover where I'm not showing you button click for button click
what to do in a tutorial there's other people that do that. What I'm doing is talking through
the design philosophy when I'm conceptualizing and making a first draft at a part and then going
back and refining that part in the context of a larger assembly and I think that that
engineering process rather than the software workflow is what people are resonating with more
than a three hour long tutorial on YouTube because some of them are kind of brutal.
Yeah I think that probably that approach is much easier to digest and stay kind of
involved with than as you say a three hour tutorial. One aspect actually with learning
these skills as well is as you mentioned there's an unlimited number of free tutorials out there
on YouTube and one of the reasons we actually produced our CAD course or Connor produced
our CAD course is that I found there wasn't sort of one single place that would give you
all of the skills you needed there'd be a 20 minute or an hour long tutorial on one aspect
of how to use Fusion or SOLID works but not the entirety. The other aspect though that I think
is quite interesting is car guys who want to learn CAD want to see CAD being demonstrated
making car parts and if you just jump on for a tutorial on how to do XYZ, it's probably not
going to be a car part. I mean to a degree it's irrelevant in my opinion, if you can design
a car, a trailing arm for an off road truck, you can probably use those same skills to
design a part for a machine or something like that but everyone wants to see it being applied
in the area that they're personally interested in. Would you agree with that?
Oh yeah 100% and that's why I love you guys stuff. I mean what you said is so accurate which is in
the enthusiast space people don't want to spend time learning how to design a water bottle.
They want to make parts for their car because that's what they're passionate about.
Yeah exactly. In some ways it might almost be detrimental because I think I'm guilty of this
just like probably most people you sort of want to run before we've learned how to walk
and it is about building up those core skills in infusion or solid works before starting
to get more involved so I think you do sometimes have to take a step back, be a bit more patient
and build up all those foundational skills before you go too far. If you're a fan of the podcast
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full VIP package and everything it contains. Alright let's get back to the episode.
In terms of someone getting into CAD, what sort of computing power is required? I sort of see
some of your reels with all of your projects lined up in massive amounts of detail and sort of doing
a pan around those and I'm sort of thinking you must be just about using some kind of data center
for processing power. Yeah I mean computing power is a big deal, you know. I think there's
some popular CAD tools that are hosted on a web app that I've tried and eventually you just run out
of RAM and your Chrome browser. So I like to run local software on a substantial device and so
in engineering we always had the craziest top of the line laptops with like a legit desktop style
graphics card inside but they're big and bulky and they're hard to get move around. So the setup
that I have that I recommend to everybody is I have a regular laptop, it doesn't need to be
anything fancy, but I have an external GPU and so it's like a little box that houses a full size
graphics card and I run an NVIDIA workstation graphics card. The gaming ones work too if you
real graphics card and as much RAM as you can afford. Okay. Because that's really what takes
the majority of the, it's not really the rendering, it's keeping the files open. So like I'll open
like that one that you mentioned where it's a whole fleet of vehicles, that assembly was probably
two gigabytes by itself. So it takes like minutes to load, minutes just to open it
and then once it's open and it's on the RAM, you're good. Okay. So it's just that initial load
that takes the time. Right and then the graphics card takes care of the rest. Are there any tips you
could give to people who are maybe a little bit underpowered in the graphics card department
on how they can modify their workflow to help speed the process up? Yeah, certainly. So there's
actually a function in SOLIDWORKS exactly for this. It's called large assembly mode by a different
name. It's called light weighting. So you can select when you're opening an assembly, you can open
it in large assembly mode and it will automatically load each of the parts in light weight. So it's
only loading the outside surface and not all the feature, editable features within it.
And I would not be surprised if other CAD tools have similar functionality. Yeah, that would
definitely make a lot of sense. All right. You've mentioned FEA and this was actually a question
I had in regard to some of your off-road truck development anyway. What is it? How does it work
and are you leveraging that in the design of the components for your vehicles?
Yeah, certainly. So I send all the parts through FEA. Those videos are not very popular. So you
don't scare me. I did a couple at the beginning where I shared that process. So finite element
analysis by its name, it means you're taking an object that you want to make in the real world
and for the purpose of simulation, you're breaking it down into little tiny prisms.
They're usually triangular prisms and the corners of those prisms interact with each other
via nodes and those nodes interactions are governed by the material properties of the actual
material in the real world. So like strength, stress, von Mee coefficient, all the stuff that you see
in a material science textbook are programmed into that software, but they're broken down into
little bite-sized chunks that the computer can process that gives you a pretty close approximation
to reality. And then the smaller you make those little prisms, the more refined and accurate the
model gets, but the most important thing with FEA is setup. So you can't load an entire car
into an FEA platform and try to model that because it's too complicated. You have to do
usually one or two parts at a time and how they interact with each other. So let's say, for example,
the simplest case is a trailing arm because it's just a long beam. It's constrained at one end
with a fixed constraint and then it's moving at the other end with a force load and then there's
a shock in the middle. And so you can do some really simple what mechanical engineers would call
statics analysis to come up with for a given weight, given corner weight, how much force
do you need on that shock? What is your spring rate? And then how does it interact with that
lever arm that is the trailing arm? Load that into FEA, run the simulation. And the other most
important thing about FEA is you can't trust the computer by itself. You have to actually do
the physics on paper with a simple free body diagram as well to validate your results.
And then you got to send it to another smarter guy who's got a PhD to make sure that you're right.
All right, so I guess that kind of begs the question. If you're kind of doing it
manually anyway, where is the advantage of the FEA? Or are you doing that as a one-time
sort of sanity check? And then once you're confident that the FEA is outputting results
that match reality, you can carry on down that path? Yeah, that's actually a really good question.
So the hand-done calculations with the simple free body diagram, that's just to validate
your first result to make sure that your model is set up correctly. But just like anything else,
FEA is meant to be an iterative tool in your engineering toolbox. So once you do your first
simulation, you find out, oh my gosh, like in my case, I usually overbuild things. This part is
like eight times stronger than it needs to be. So now I can go back into the CAD software and
whittle away at the features of the part that are overbuilt and add material to the
parts that are going to see the most stress. And then back and forth and until
you have a part that's strength and weight optimized and ready to jump it. Two sort of
follow-up questions that come along with this. FEA, all your hand calculations tend to be a bit
of a garbage in, garbage out situation in terms of if you don't have a pretty good understanding
of what the loads or the forces are actually going to be, then kind of all bets are off. So
particularly in off-road racing, I can only imagine that these forces could be so variable
depending on a million factors, what speed are you hitting, the whips, whatever. Yo,
can you talk to that for a little bit? How do you go about estimating these forces?
Yeah, that's a tough question. So I was actually wondering the same thing the last time I was
running FEA. So I went back to a Horsepower Academy podcast with Joe Scabro and he said that
they run 10 Gs for their analysis. So they put a shock load in as if the vehicle was going to
impact the ground at 10 times the force of gravity and that's their sort of benchmark for.
That's when they allow parts to fail. I mean, alternatively, what you could do is take a part
that already works. Let's say you have a front suspension bulkhead from a real Baja car that's
been through a bunch of races. Essentially, reverse engineer that and see how that holds up.
Totally. Yeah, maybe it's got stress fractures in certain places that need to be beefed up,
but yeah, it's a really good question. I can imagine for the world of road racing,
it's completely different because rather than shock loading big bumps, it's fatigues over a
really long race and a lot more side load G forces than vertical G forces.
Yeah, very, very different forms of motorsport and obviously both with their challenges,
I guess, I would definitely see off road racing being the more challenging. I believe that's
probably a fair statement. In terms of designing in a safety factor here, because you obviously
want to over engineer things and make sure that they're more than up to the task. But there is
obviously a trade off here that to make the part, as you mentioned, eight times stronger
than it needed to be, that comes with a massive weight penalty and weight even in off road racing
is still the enemy of performance. So yeah, where are you comfortable in terms of a safety factor?
Yeah, two to three is usually pretty good. So I'm reminded of when one of the places that I
worked, we were building helicopter mounted LiDAR systems. So it's kind of it's pretty sensitive
set of glass optics and laser components and fragile electronic sports that we're going to be on
the most violent environment available, which is a military helicopter. So the vibrations
are unimaginable. And the temperature ratings, it was like negative 40 degrees Celsius to 150 degrees
Fahrenheit. So I don't know what that is in Celsius, but negative 40 is the same in Celsius
and Fahrenheit, I'm pretty sure. I think you might be right. I still can't get me hit around
swapping between Fahrenheit and Celsius on the fly. I can't do it.
Let's imagine it's like 70 degrees Celsius at the upper limit, negative 40 degrees Celsius at
the lower limits. It's a pretty brutal environment to try and keep sensitive electronics alive.
Right. And then, you know, for a military application, you want triple redundancy on
everything and a safety factor of like five. But if you're racing Baja, the stakes are not as high
and you really care about durability balanced with weight, the same with road racing applications
that's even more important. So yeah, I usually stick to a safety factor of about two or three
sensible to me. When you're designing parts that are going to be CNC machined, I think you probably
sound like you're in the perfect situation given that your background was in machine shops. So
you've kind of learned to design for manufacturing. And I think that's a trap that a lot of people
get into when they're learning CAD, is you can make a part that looks great, but when it comes
to actually manufacturing, it's going to be either impossible or incredibly expensive because of the
way it's been designed and could have been done half the time if it had been designed slightly
differently. Can you talk to that for a little bit? What is important to understand and what,
I guess, have you ever seen any real common mistakes being made by people who are new to this?
Yeah, certainly. So rule number one, no inside corners. No inside sharp corners is the biggest
thing because you just can't get an end mill in there. So one example where I talked about this
in pretty great detail, I was designing a tall knuckle portal hub assembly for the Ultra 4 design
and it was this great big part and it had a lot of stuff that it had to do. It had to house the
hubs, it had to hold the gears for the portals, and it had to interface with the upper and lower
control arms and accept an axle and have the steering components in the right place. So
all of those constraints are all pointed in different directions and they have to be really
precise. So the way I approached it was I thought about the part in terms of machining operations.
So you start with just a big stock of billet, a big chunk. What does your first pass look like?
They're just going to plop it on a three-axis mill and they're going to start carving away
and then they're going to flip it and they're going to do the other side. I think nowadays,
now that there's more access to five-axis mills, you can start to get some of those features that
are off at weird angles whereas when you're constrained by a three-axis mill, you can really
only orient things in like a square. But with a five-axis machine which are more common and a
ball end mill operation, you can start to add some really interesting looking features that suit the
functionality of their requirements off at weird angles or at a slope or maybe even a curved part
that you wouldn't be able to do with a three-axis mill. So to answer your question, I think
designing for the constraints of the machine and thinking about operations is the most
important thing because yeah, I mean you can hand over a crazy part to a machine shop
and they'll quote it but you're not going to like the number unless you designed it with
the machining process in mind. I can only assume here that a machine shop buying CNC equipment
like this, a three-axis versus a five-axis must be a substantial difference in price point.
So if you're designing something that needs to be machined on a five-axis machine,
am I safe to assume here that the cost of manufacturing is going to be substantially
greater than designing something simpler that could have been made on a three-axis?
Yeah, 100%. So this is something that people should understand about how parts are quoted.
So the size of the part is only half of the equation. I mean you're going to buy a piece of
stock and it's going to have a fixed market price and everyone pretty much knows what that is.
Where the machine shops are going to start tacking on additional dollars to your quote
is the only metric that they care about which is spindle time and that means while the machine
is running cutting away at the part and the more complicated or detailed or difficult to get two
features you have the more spindle time is going to be added to your quote. So yeah the best thing
to do is if you have a really simple part that absolutely has to be machined and you're cost
sensitive make it as simple as possible rather than making it look cool unless you got a buddy
with a five-axis mill but those cost like 2000000 dollars so I don't know who's got friends
like that. Surely someone out there, yeah that's a fairly steep entry price I'd say.
The other element that comes down to this as well I just wanted to add in there,
your tolerances that you're allowed so basically for every measurement we've got a plus or minus
allowance because nothing is ever perfect and right in saying here the tighter you want that
tolerance to the specification then the more costly it's going to be to machine.
That's right yeah so there's certain ways to sort of game that by using geometric
dimensioning and tolerancing but the reality is if you have a really really tight spec on let's
say a whole feature they're not just going to drill it they're going to come back with a precision
reamer and make it the exact right dimension down to the thousandth or half thousandth and
that just adds spindle time. You're just adding another process into the manufacturing right?
Totally because you got to think about the time that it takes for you to do the tool change like
grab the other tool switch reorient and then you know ream that feature really slowly that's
just additional spindle time and then the other thing is if you you really have to think about
which dimensions are important to you and only specify those ones and leave the other ones
alone or unspecified because the second step that adds a lot of cost is the inspection process
so most machine shops have a whole room separate from the machines that's temperature controlled
where all they do is measure the parts to make sure it actually matches the specification that
was delivered. Exactly and then there's things you can do there's best practices like if you have a
critical dimension put a box around it if you leave tolerances unspecified they probably won't
check it or they only check the first article and anyway it just gets into more manufacturing
processes but it's always a good idea whenever you're getting a quote to call the company talk
to their engineers and see what kind of adjustments you can make to refine the part make it better
make it more machinable. I can only assume with your background though doing the machining seeing
how that's all works as well as the design everything you would do now is in your head
you're sort of thinking ahead about how this part's actually going to be manufactured to make
that workflow as simple and therefore as cost effective as possible. Yeah definitely I try
not to do anything too crazy like I will allow myself features that require five axis machining
if and only if it contributes to the cool factor of the part but yeah I mean billet is expensive
and that's why it's all shiny and cool looking and it's sort of like a piece of candy that people
show off on their vehicles whenever you've got a nice billet part. Yeah definitely yeah.
Just wanted to talk a little bit about designing suspension systems and not just individual
components but when I guess you've got a blank 3D canvas and you're designing a suspension system
you could literally put things anywhere you want and the kinematics of the suspension obviously
is going to have a massive impact on the performance of the vehicle be on road or off road.
These currently these these projects you're working on are sort of only designed in the
virtual world they haven't been manufactured as yet but we'll talk about the fact that maybe
things might change in the future but you know how much effort are you putting into designing
the suspension with kinematics that are actually going to be functional in the real world.
Yeah it's literally all I think about like when I go to bed at night I'm in my mind's eye
thinking about suspension mechanisms and yeah it's the most important part of
any of my designs is like sort of unconventional suspension assemblies and it's like I'm thinking
about it like cost unlimited what's the highest performance set of suspension components that
I can assemble together that will work and so the way that I usually do that process is I start
from the outside and work my way in so I'll start with the wheels and the maximum width
and then design the hubs and the spindle assemblies and then that sets a really nice
constraint for where the rest of the arms are going to interface with the chassis and I usually
do the chassis last okay which is not typically how you would fabricate a car but I'm trying to
maximize wheel travel so in the example of a like a trophy truck getting those lower control arm
pivot mounts as close together as possible being constrained by hardware selection like
bushing size, bolt size, spherical bearing, diameters and how all that stuff interacts
with each other and then there's so many considerations you have to make on a front
suspension assembly like everyone has sort of an intuitive sense of how a trailing arm trophy
truck rear suspension works just this big thing flapping up and down but the front suspension
is really complicated because you have to have camber and caster you have to have acrimon on the
steering which I have not been able to figure out how to model acrimon properly if anyone knows
please tell me it's really hard but camber and caster droop and making sure there's no bump
steer I take all that into consideration and usually what I'll do is I'll model all that stuff
in a sketch prior to designing the components because I mean you could get eight hours into a
part design and realize it's the complete wrong dimension you have to throw it away and start
over so I skip that go straight to just a simple either 2d or 3d sketch make sure everything is
going to cycle without interfering figure out what the shock lengths need to be where their
positioning is because the other thing to consider is at full compression you want to make sure that
your shocks are perpendicular to their mounting arms so that you have a progressive suspension
load as you move through travel and then at full droop you want to make sure that your camber isn't
crazy where you're only touching the bottom corners of the wheels and so then then you get into
different suspension configurations like independent rear suspension or solid axle and then I can
just talk about this for hours. Well let's just dive in a little bit here with working out stuff
like bump steer, your camber curves as you move through travel like clearly you can move an assembly
in solid works through its travel and kind of get a sense of what it's going to do. However
I'm guessing solid works wasn't designed exclusively for high end suspension development,
where I'm going with this is we've internally used some software from Optimum G called Optimum
Kinematics which is designed for optimising suspension kinematics so you can map out your
points and basically it'll run some tests and tell you what your camber's going to do,
what your bump steer is going to look like etc. Can you do the same in solid works?
I don't think so at least I haven't figured out a way to do it unless I was able to
build like a custom macro or or hosted app or something. There are some really valuable calculators
that I found online like there's in the rock bouncer world there's four link calculators that
really good but the reality is for camber curves I think in off-road your target is a lot bigger
than it is in road racing because camber's like one of the biggest deals when it comes to grip
on road racing applications as far as I can tell but in off-road I mean think about the early days
of Baja they would have those i-beam suspensions you know I'm talking about people call them whoops
scissors yeah where the wheels would just duck to get the maximum travel the wheels would tuck
way down and way in just to maximize travel because you're in a low grip environment and so
all that sidewall that you have on that big tire is going to account for that really
high camber angle that you're dealing with. Caster is kind of a big deal because the
trucks are getting faster and faster and you want to make sure that you're not going to get
a death wobble at 120 miles an hour unlike the part of the race where you're able to make up the
most time but yeah I think about all of that I think you know in my designs I'm trying to scale
everything up as much as possible because I'm trying to find the limit of with the biggest
tire size commercially available what's the maximum suspension travel that I can get and so
like for example in the ultra four design really what that is is like a can-am maverick or like a
Polaris razor scaled all the way up so instead of 30 inch tires it's like 58 inch tires from
Mickey Thompson which are really heavy but it's the only way to make the bumps smaller and another
note to sort of close that loop about the early days of Baja with those unconventional
i-beam suspension styles those my buddy Dan Spencer told me those guys thought it was crazy
when people went from 33s to 35s they're like that's way too big you don't need it and now
they're running 40s and some guys are running 42s so we see that tire size just creeping up and up
and up and I'm like okay I just want to find the limit and see how much travel and the answer on
the trophy truck was four feet of travel with a 58 inch tire yeah but the trailing arm was
seven feet long yeah okay yeah that'll do it geez that's um yeah that is some suspension
travel wow just you've mentioned the ultra four design a couple of times and I just wanted to
dive into that because not that I'm a specialist on ultra fours but it seems like the way that
everyone's kind of converged on a platform that works is independent front suspension
and live rear axle you've gone independent front and rear can can you give us sort of a
rundown on your philosophy around that yeah I find those vehicles the most interesting the
independent rear suspension and the reason I find it interesting is because everybody's doing
something different you know everybody's got a different way of approaching that goal of having
independent rear suspension and the jury is still out on whether or not it's better at King
of the Hammers specifically because it's such a varied terrain it's a mixture of low speed
rock crawling high speed rock bouncing really technical desert driving through whoops and
turns and berms and a high speed section so it's sort of like I don't know it's like the mixed
martial arts of off road if you think about it yeah okay gotta be good at everything there yeah
but you know there's another guy who you've interviewed Dobry designs and he's uh he designs
those cars for Jason Pellegrino and he runs independent rear suspension and his is different
than everybody else's there's only a few guys doing it and so the inspiration for that I was in Moab
Utah with some buddies and they were on I was on my dirt bike and they were on some rented side by
sides and the Can-Am Maverick the new one has this really interesting setup where they call it a
tall knuckle where the spindle reaches up and over the tire and what that does is it reduces the
moment arm on the upper control arm and makes it really strong like three or four times stronger
than a conventional setup and so if you apply that logic to the rear suspension as well then you can
have four hubs portal hubs that are identical on all four corners and you can have those that the
advantage of reducing those moment arms on all of those upper control arms and you don't really
lose that much in terms of suspension travel the reality is you're still axle limited on irs and
you're just not going to beat a live axle when it comes to full droop angle but I think a lot
of people have said that driving an irs car feels like rock crawling in cheat mode okay
just coming back a step you mentioned there that uh with irs independent restless mentioned you're
going to be axle limited you're talking about the articulation of the the half shafts essentially
that's going to be the limiting factor on travel exactly and it's usually about 30 degrees I think
there's some people coming out with some pretty crazy high angle cv joints but that's the weak link
in everything because the cvs snap whereas a live axle just doesn't snap sure and they're
angle limited so there's only so much you can do in terms of travel as I'd see it the the key
advantage with irs over the live axle for this application would be the massive reduction
in unsprung weight is there anything else that you need to be affected in here in terms of pros
and cons yeah that's a big deal I think uh I guess the con the con would be for irs by the
sense of it you're just not going to get ever get the travel of of a live axle yeah so like if you
were jumping it you probably want a live axle but for crawling yeah unsprung weight is a big deal
it's probably the biggest deal in any off-road application is reducing the amount of unsprung
mass that's why some of my designs I'll put push rods suspension and it just to save a few pounds
and the other thing that's interesting about irs is that the wheels are decoupled from each other
when it comes to grip so you can be bouncing over one rock on the left side and losing traction
but the right side is completely unaffected and in fact the weight bounce pushes it more
and to get more grip whereas a live axle if you bump one it's going to upset the other one no
matter what yeah good point good point all right um let's let's dive into a little bit of your design
philosophy I guess and what I'm what I'm meaning is how do you first of all come up with a project
in your mind that you want to develop and then once you've sort of got this this high level idea
with what it might look like how how do you get started in the design process in SOLIDWORKS
yeah so whenever I decide to design something new it's when I just can't stop thinking about it
like to the point where it's keeping me up at night and usually that's an iteration on some kind
of a something that I've had in my head for a long time you know like a lot of these cars
I've been thinking about since I was a little kid and it usually starts with engine and wheel
package so what's the most interesting combination of powertrain transmission
drivetrain configuration and wheel set that I can come up with and I'll usually start there so
like whenever I'm starting a new design I pop in the engine and then transmission in the wheels
before anything else and then build around that and yeah it's like there's an infinite combination
of those things but I have my favorites and I'm sure like a lot of your listeners have like an
encyclopedic knowledge of engine codes and displacements and power levels and all that all
that you know nerdy stuff that that we all love yeah yeah definitely when you're building these
do you make sure for like the Ultra 4 or the Trophy Truck is it built to be if it was ever
constructed in real life to be legal for a class?
Not really yeah that I think that's a big a big difference that I'm noticing is like
there's the enthusiast guys and there's the race car guys and so like I would put in that category
like Morgan Clark builds enthusiast vehicles 100% they're race spec but they're meant to be
fun cars and so I usually build four-seaters because I want to bring the whole family and
I'm not limiting myself to a rule book I'm just trying to find the limits of what's possible
in a specific type of terrain whether that be you know rally racing on forest roads or
rock crawling slash bouncing or bombing through the desert in a Trophy Truck style four-seat
pre-runner that's usually how I conceptualize a vehicle design well I guess it's gonna depend
very heavily on the particular project but could you kind of give us an idea of how many
man hours go into developing these yeah I was thinking about that a couple of days ago I think
it's about 80 hours that's that's significantly less than I would have thought you I guess you're
showing your proficiency and solid works more than anything pretty fast with solid works but
yeah I mean so the reason I could be way off I don't know I mean it's a lot easier to design it
than it is to build it but I usually I record all of my design sessions and then once there's
about 10 hours of those I'll record a time lapse where I'll compress that 10x it turns into a one
hour voiceover recording and then edit it into a 30 minute YouTube video which nobody ever watches
and then clipped into Instagram which everybody watches short short short form video as unfortunately
taking over the world yeah so I try to make them topical like I try to constrain what I'm talking
about in any three to five minute segment to be like a consumable topic but yeah but I move pretty
fast through designs I think I've done like three full designs in the last year okay well we've got
got a line in the center I mean no not it's not something you probably really sort of start the
stopwatch when you when you begin designing and yeah I just wondered if you had a sense of what it
actually does take do you ever sort of get halfway through quarters the way through a development
design and then kind of just completely scrap it does that ever happen or is it you know you can
just go back and heavily modify and tweak it to get where you need to be? Yeah all the time that's
one of the most difficult lessons to implement in engineering is you have to be willing to throw
stuff away entirely to iterate on it because you could have a part like completely done beautiful
ready to ship to the CNC shop and either it's ugly or it just doesn't work and so yeah I throw
stuff away all the time I mean even if my computer crashes I'll take that as a sign that like all right
time to work on a different different aspect of this actually I think I watched one of those videos
it was maybe I think you were designing the hood for the half track and I think you said you
computer crashed and you just started again yeah you got to be willing to iterate because you know
you're never going to get it right on the first draft almost never but there's some things you
can do to avoid that so one like workflow efficiency thing is I never design a part to completion
until the very very end of the entire assembly so like for example I'll put in like a really
blocky simple version of a suspension component and then design everything else just to make sure
that it works before I do the refinement pass of the dfm features and the chamfers and the cutouts
and the radiuses and everything else because it can be wasted time but you know there's certain parts
where you kind of got to do it all at once like on the chassis so chassis at least the way that I
design it I use 3d sketches and tube work feature and solid works and that's got to be all done at
once because otherwise it just doesn't it doesn't render properly and it behaves strangely so I usually
save the chassis for the final the last part that I design and I design it all at once so I've got
all the suspension components in the upper assembly everything moves properly then design the chassis
around it yeah no that makes sense are we gonna see one of these designs in reality or are these
just designed for the virtual world yeah a hundred percent I mean that's the the secret master plan
the the secret master plan for this has always been develop an audience which consists of like a
community of people who are really enthusiastic about this type of stuff and then develop the
relationships required to see this stuff come together in the real world and what I've found I
mean I didn't you know I have like a social media aversion I don't really want people looking at me
I like the fact that people are looking at the designs and not me and what I've found is the
comments section is super enthusiastic and nice and helpful it's refreshing actually yeah it's
great and I've had people reach out to me who I would consider like my off-road a-list celebrities
of heroes that now they're just like a click away like hey dude I noticed you like cool stuff and
that is super empowering so yeah I think as time goes on I'll continue to develop those relationships
and you know the people who are ahead of me in this world have all sorts of access to partnerships
and sponsorships and I can't even imagine what one of these things would cost to build in real
life probably a lot but yeah yeah wouldn't be cheap yeah but yeah that's the secret master
plan is to to build one of these okay build one for yourself or build them and sell them to customers
because that's it that's two very different directions to go in yeah so this is this is
something that I don't have a good answer to that I've thought about for like literally a decade is
like how do you make a business case for boutique off-road manufacturing I don't think it's a high
volume thing I think it's more like a conic seg model well I sort of I guess the Morgan Clark
sort of angle is very similar isn't it like you say I mean he knows what he's developing as well
it's not for a race class it's for wealthy people who want a cool off-road vehicle that they can go
out with their mites and it's got all the creature comforts as well yeah I think that's the only way
to do it because like all this stuff you know outside of the race because people manufacture
race cars at pretty significant volume and sell them like spec trucks that's totally a thing
for the stuff that I like they're also different they're all custom one-off they all serve a
different function and I might be the only person that actually wants to drive one of these things
I don't know maybe maybe someone would be interested I think you might be surprised actually
yeah and then the other thing is like the capabilities that these vehicles will have
like it's just there's no way to make that cheap no no exactly no it's gonna definitely be a high
ticket item for sure I'll be interested to see if that does come to fruition in terms of what you're
doing with your online presence have you got sort of a bigger picture in terms of
of what that what that can become yeah I don't know I'm sort of going with the flow with all this
stuff you know like I mentioned I have like almost an attention aversion but I just decided to
start sharing what I'm doing with people and see what happens and it's been the fastest growth of
anything that I've ever done whether that's in engineering or in business or anything so I'm
just going to keep going with it the other really cool thing about it is it's a collaborative project
between me and my wife because she manages all the social media okay she knows all the tips and
tricks for like how to optimize on the app that I can't be bothered with but I produce the videos
and then she schedules the posts and you know makes all the captions and so it's fun that her and I
are working on something together that's like really taken off how long have you been doing it for
just a year wow that's yeah okay that's really good growth I must have actually stumbled across
you fairly early on because I think it must have been at least nine months ago I sort of
gave Brad our podcast producer I think I seen him one of your reels and said oh we probably
should talk to this guy let's do some cool stuff oh rad on oh I'm glad you found me yeah I think
you sort of end up in that world where now my Instagram feed's either made up of golden retrievers
or mountain bikers other than that it's 3D modelling CAD and all that sort of good stuff so
the algorithm is very very hyper focused on the things that I spend my time doing as it always does.
Alright no I think we'll move towards wrapping this up and as always we've got the same three
questions we ask all of our guests at the end, first of those is what's next in the future for you
in our case we've kind of just touched upon that at least with the social media side of things but
yeah anything else you want to sort of angle that question towards? Yeah so I'm just gonna keep
designing more and more vehicles and I'm not limiting myself to off-road I find that my
vehicle obsession has some seasonality to it sometimes it's cars sometimes it's trucks
sometimes it's boats and sometimes it's airplanes and then obviously motorcycles are a constant
because they're the coolest but yeah I'm just going to continue to share the design process with
anyone who is interested and continue to develop those relationships we just had a
baby six months ago and so we're sort of out of that newborn cave and so this summer I've
had some intentions to meet up in person with some of the friends that I've made in that world
this summer. Okay next question, is there any advice you'd give to a younger version of yourself
to help reach where you are today in your career faster? Now again I'm normally interviewing
people who work in the automotive or motorsport industry as we've touched on, you don't but
again yeah irrespective of industry any advice? Yeah so definitely number one is be adaptable
don't be afraid to pivot I think anyone who is in engineering you have to be mindful that
AI can either be a threat or a superpower depending on how you've positioned yourself
so yeah be mindful of where you are on the economic landscape and keep your head on a swivel for
any opportunities that might present themselves and then the other thing is I would tell myself
like don't be afraid to share the stuff that you're working on you know all these ideas that
lived just in my computer and nobody ever saw I'm like that doesn't help anybody so actually
sharing and you know not being shy about posting progress is the move. What you've just mentioned
there is actually something I hadn't considered before just the aspect of AI, obviously it's
changing very rapidly and you don't know sort of from one month to the next what its capabilities
are going to be in terms of jobs that I see very much at risk with AI would be something like a
lawyer I can only imagine that you know paralegals jobs are going to be taken over by AI doing
research and writing drafts probably if you're a builder or a mechanic you're probably not going
to have a AI chat GPT is not going to be building a house or you know doing an oil change on your
car anytime soon so the obvious sort of angle with this is where do you see AI coming in in
terms of taking over design roles? Yeah this is something that is so hard to predict but I think
about it all the time you know we we mentioned generative design towards the beginning and
I think that's that's going to be a really valuable tool for people who really know what
they're doing I think for AI and engineering specifically you're going to need to develop
a proficiency that outclasses your peers to be competitive or you're going to have to have
proficiency in those tools specifically that sets you apart but like you mentioned the world of
atoms like the analog world is much safer right now than the world of electrons in the digital
space yeah it's actually a good way of putting it yeah that's something I'm actively thinking about
is like how how can I shift my business into more you know not like brick and mortar but
you know real people real things interacting with each other rather than just online one thing
I would say about AI as it sits at the moment you know probably for about the last year 18 months
there's been a lot of chatter about AI taking over the job of engine tuning which was in as
still sort of my my core skill and there's been a few YouTube videos made of guys you know getting
AI to basically create a map for the XYZ car and we actually put that through the test late last
year got ChatGPT essentially helped me build a base map for one of our vehicles and I had it on
the dyno and it was actually a complete train wreck which was great it gave me a lot of confidence
that I probably still have a job for the foreseeable future but then when I actually dug in a bit
deeper and sort of gave some thought to how AI works it was no surprise I mean all AI is doing
there is basically trawling all of the forums and technical information that exists on the
internet about the task that I'm asking it to do and as we all know the skill is kind of sorting
through fact versus fiction which often it doesn't do a very good job of, it's not that ChatGPT's
physically spent 20 years sitting on a dyno learning about tuning and seeing all the different
nuance of that and I think the same would go for design as well however it is developing very
quickly and is sort of a bit of a watchless space situation so for the moment probably don't have
too much to worry about anyway. Last question for today Nate if people want to follow you and
see what you're up to how are they best to do so? Yeah the best place to see the latest stuff is
on Instagram under Wokerson Customs and yeah there's a link to a school community in there
if you want to get more in depth and get design advice and share stuff it's a pretty cool
group that we've got in there. Nice. I have a YouTube channel under the same name but nobody
watches it so. It's a tough one to break the YouTube algorithm it requires a lot of work.
I think as well as when you're something very on a very niche topic that can make it
both a blessing and a curse as well. You don't kind of have all of the eyes on your channel.
For sure. Well look as usual we'll put links to those in the show notes to make it easy for
people to find. Look it's been great to catch up and have you on the podcast. As I mentioned
been watching your Instagram account for a fairly long time now. Love your work and look forward
to seeing what else comes up in the following months and years. Thank you so much Andre I
really appreciate the time and yeah thank you. No problem.
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tune In and don't forget by using the code podcast500
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So this week a big shout out to Josh Evans from YouTube who has said,
I really love all the intuitive questions Andre asks the guest to build on some info
that he may not have full concepts of as it makes me question the same things. Also explaining
himself or getting the guest to explain the basics around some practices also makes it
a whole lot easier for a novice like myself to understand the difference between the science
behind it and the magic we all come to believe tuning is. Well thanks for the kind words there,
Josh and yep, can confirm there is absolutely no magic when it comes to tuning.
If you want to get in touch with your t-shirt size and shipping details, we'll get a fresh tea
fired straight out to you. Alright that concludes our interview and before we sign off, I just wanted
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About this episode
CAD is treated like the bridge between imagination and fabrication, with Nate Wilkerson’s SOLIDWORKS workflow used to validate suspension geometry, fitment, and clearance before anything gets built. The conversation connects off-road design history (Baja bugs and modern buggy layouts) to practical CAD-to-CNC realities: machining constraints, tolerances, and why FEA needs hand-checked validation. Generative design and 3D printing come up through turbo manifold examples, plus how CAD skills transfer across Fusion, SOLIDWORKS, and Blender.
We all dream up incredible vehicle concepts—Nate Wilkerson of Wilkerson Customs brings them to life. Combining engineering expertise, CAD design, and a lifelong passion for off-road racing, Nate has built a huge following by creating some of the most ambitious virtual vehicle concepts on the internet.
In this episode of Tuned In, we dive into Nate’s background, from growing up in a machine shop and studying optical engineering to designing advanced laser systems for autonomous vehicles and military applications. Along the way, he developed a passion for mechanical design and engineering, eventually turning the off-road vehicle concepts he’d been imagining since childhood into detailed CAD creations shared with a growing online audience.
We then explore the tools and processes behind Nate’s designs, covering everything from SolidWorks and finite element analysis to CNC machining and additive manufacturing. The discussion highlights the importance of designing for manufacturability and understanding engineering fundamentals before they ever reach the real world.
The conversation also dives deep into off-road vehicle design, from suspension geometry and wheel travel to weight optimisation and structural analysis. Nate explains how he balances performance, durability, and practicality while constantly pushing the limits of what’s possible in his designs.
This episode is packed with insight for anyone interested in CAD, engineering, fabrication, or vehicle design. Whether you're creating parts for your own project car or simply fascinated by the process of turning ideas into reality, Nate’s unique perspective makes this a fascinating listen.
0:00 CAD: The Gateway to Making Dreams a Reality 3:56 How did you get interested in cars? 09:26 How did you learn Solid Works (CAD)? 13:00 Why do you prefer CNC machined assemblies? 14:52 What’s your thoughts on generative design? 15:58 Additive manufacturing had developed so fast 21:50 What is Blender and how is it used with Fusion 360? 25:08 Can you apply your Solid Work skills directly into Fusion 360? 31:02 What sort of computing power do you need to run CAD? 33:34 What is FEA? 39:16 What sort of safety factor are you applying to your designs? 41:18 What do we need to think about when designing for manufacturing? 48:16 How do you design the suspension kinematics? 55:22 Why do you prefer an independent rear in your designs? 59:41 How do you get started with a design? 1:02:11 How many hours go into your designs? 1:05:50 Are we going to see one of these designs in real life? 1:10:30 Final 3 Questions
