Description
TRICK TABS ARE THE FABRICATOR’S CHOICE for quickly and easily mounting body panels, removable brackets and mounts to cages, chassis and any tubular structure. But all Trick Tabs are basically the same, right? Not quite. Although they seem like a commodity whose features nobody pays attention to, at CSD we were never quite satisfied with the generic Trick Tabs that were available everywhere. So of course we designed and manufactured our own! These are the same high quality Trick Tabs we use in our own race and motorsports fabrication, now available to you for your own fabricatoin projects.
4130 Chromoly Steel
So what sets these tabs apart? First of all, they’re CNC laser cut out of high strength 4130 chromoly steel. That might seem overkill for something as mundane as a trick tab. But in many of our racing applications these tabs, and the components that are mounted to them, are subjected to high speed and harsh terrain, resulting in them taking a pummeling from inertia and lightning-fast cycle times. So whether it’s a fiberglass body panel or a remote-mounted fluid filter, any build that’s going to see some abuse can benefit from tougher materials where those critical components are connected. And for our racing friends, who know that every ounce counts when the green flag goes up, chromoly plate allows us to get the same strength out of an .090″ thick tab that we would expect out of a .125″ thick tab made of mild steel. That might not seem like much of a difference but when multiplied by the dozens of tabs a typical race car uses it can be a smart thing to do when designing and building to maximize strength while minimizing weight.
Correct For Your Tube Size
Another feature of CSD Trick Tabs are that they’re not just “One size fits all.” As with all Trick Tabs, The brake-formed wings form a gusset on each side for strength and also provide a notch for positively indexing the tab onto the tube. In order to minimize pre-weld gaps and ultimately result in a stronger structure, CSD Trick Tabs come in two tube sizes, which we nominally designate as 1″ and 1-3/4″ as those are the most common tube sizes we work with here in our own race shop. But in practical terms, the 1″ tabs are suitable for tubing from 3/4″ to 1-1/2″ OD. The 1-3/4″ tabs may be used with 1-1/2 to 2″ tubes.
Tangential Component Mounting
Another important feature ignored by other Trick Tab designs is that the tab usualy sits on top of the tube, meaning that the component mounted to it is at least the tab’s thickness away from the outside of the tube. CSD Trick Tabs are designed so that the mounting surface of the tab ends up on a plane that is tangent to the outside of the tube. So items that attach to the tab but also rest against the underlying tube structure for extra reinforcemt, such as interior panels, body panels, have a continuous flat plane across both the surface of the mounting tab and the curve of the tube. This tangential feature is also helpful where clearances are tight, wither between mounted components within the vehicle or between the vehicle itself and other cars on the course or trail obstacles. Sometimes those milimeters count!
These tabs are CNC laser cut from steel plate with a 3/8″ bolt hole. Use the tabs made of .090″ steel for most applications, from body panels to medium-weight components. For heavier duty assemblies choose the .125″ thick tabs. The Trick Tabs designed for 1″ tube may be used on tubing 3/4″ to 1-1/2″ OD. The Trick Tabs designed for 1-3/4″ tube may be used with tube OD from 1-1/2″ to 2″.
