Everything You Need to Know About the Chassis

Your vehicle's engine compartment is one of the most perplexing things and it's easy to lost in it all. Every moving part, hose, tube, and electrical component working together to keep your vehicle moving. What if we told you that your vehicle has another big part underneath your engine? If you're shopping for a car, a car enthusiast, or just want to know more about what you're driving, then you need to know about the chassis. This part acts as the frame upon which your Orlando Toyota vehicle is built and holds everything together. Want to know more? Check out this brief guide from us at Toyota of Orlando on the chassis.

The Ins and Outs of the Chassis

As we said before, the chassis is the frame on which your vehicle is built. This holds your vehicle together in one cohesive piece and allows for the engine, suspension, and other systems to be placed where they need to be. These parts also take on a lot of weight and stress from your vehicle's parts and while driving. There are several different types of vehicle frames and knowing which is used to assemble your chosen vehicles can make you a better informed driver and better contour your driving experience. 

Body-on-Frame

Typically, body-on-frame chassis vehicles are usually larger SUVs and trucks. This system consists of a ladder-like frame and then the body sitting on top of it. The frames are highly resistant to twisting and maintain a large degree of strength and they're great for towing and off-roading. Adding custom suspension parts or larger wheels is easy with body-on-frame Orlando Toyota vehicles because of the additional space drivers have to work with. 

Body-on-frame chassis can be distinguished by their ladder-like design. This frame type was, at one point, the most common type due to its ease of customization. Auto manufacturers were able to retain the frames of vehicles year after year while changing the designs of the body which sped up production. 

Vehicles with this type of frame include the Orlando Toyota 4Runner, Sequoia, Land Cruiser, Tundra, and Tacoma. 

Unibody

While body-on-frame Orlando Toyota vehicles use two separate pieces to make up the frame and vehicle, unibody combines the two parts to make up the overall frame. This single piece style frame is popular with smaller vehicles like compact SUVs, sedans, and other compact vehicles because of its light weight and safer qualities. Without having steel struts to support the weight of the vehicle body, unibody chassis vehicles enjoy much better fuel-efficiency. Plus, they're safer builds as Orlando Toyota vehicles with unibody frames are able to absorb crash impact energy better than vehicles that use body-on-frame construction. 

In fact, Toyota is responsible for the popularity boost of unibody SUVs because of the RAV4's introduction in 1994. This popularized the unibody frame on compact SUVs and eventually lead other manufacturers to follow suit. 

Vehicles with unibody framing from Toyota's lineup include the Toyota Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Avalon, Yaris, 86, Prius, Highlander, Sienna, C-HR, and Corolla Hatchback. 

Before purchasing your next ride, it always helps to know every detail you can to make sure you find the perfect vehicle for you. If you have questions about chassis or anything else Toyota, feel free to give Toyota of Orlando a call at (407) 307 - 3671 seven days a week!