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So i have started to play around in fusion 360(its free) to try different chassi designs. So far i have only drawn a front end. Taking values found in books and in various threads i have applied some loads but the deflection i get seems excesive so does the loads and stiffness found. So im asking what loads should i apply and where should i apply them? Im building a three wheeler but lets pretend its a standard locost when talking loads.

This is my test front end its made of 25*25*2mm square tube, loads applied are 6800N and the back is constrained since that is where the rest of the frame will attach, i have drawn in the wishbones i guess the shock will mount inbetween the top wishbone mounts.

That looks great! By free it looks like it means you sign up as an "enthusiast"? I'm willing to give that a try, I guess.

It looks to me you are applying a reasonable load and getting a reasonable answer. It's about 1500 lbs. giving a .3" deflection.

You should put in the wishbones and upright with bearings and a fixed tube for the coilover, also on bearings. Then you'll get things like jacking forces out of the model too. As you progress you'll have to make your frame mounting less rigid in the model to get honest results. One point fixed XYZ and two others with one axis less constrained.

The coilover is the highest load so it should be favored in mounting near a node and not just in the space between frame nodes. Big difference in stiffness, and with this model you can test that quickly.

Is there an easy way can share these models? It would be nice to have a locost model. I have been using Grape which works well and I trust it, but it is not very visual and can only do tubes.

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Its cloudbased so you need to be connected to use it and you can share with others aswell somehow but i have never tried it myself

How much would a locost frontend deflect with the same load applied?

I actually drew it up and converted the displacement to angular movement so i can compare it to others and found that im in the ballpark just sounded like alot when you see the actual frame move that much.