At 06:52 PM 5/25/2011, Scott Daniel  - Turbovans wrote:
>ok,
>what is the tensile strength, in lbs, of a double loop of 4mm thick
>sheet metal ?

That's much too general a question to answer, and I suspect you're
looking for the yield strength anyway.

But on the low end, ASTM A36 mild steel has a yield strength of
36,000 psi.  With a safety factor of four that gives you 12,000
psi.  Figuring out the cross-sectional area of this hypothetical loop
of metal and looking up data for stronger types of steel are left as
an exercise for the reader.

Since I'm sure you're talking about usable strength of the Vanagon
front tie-down point - remember that unless you are pulling directly
in line with both strips of metal, which is not possible, geometry
and vector arithmetic enter into the problem.

Yours,
David