Adding my 2 cents on the subject.
I have built and raced buggies in a few series and super thick wall tubing is not really needed for strength and durability as much as proper design. I raced a single seat 1600cc car in the desert that weighed 1200 pounds and it was built with 1-1/2" OD x .095" wall DOM (ERW was allowed in the SCORE rulebook), some of the bracing was 1" x .095" wall. If you used Chromoly the wall thickness could be .083". This rule applied for vehicles weighing up to 2000 pounds if memory serves me correctly. I built a Class 7 Ford Ranger and used 1-3/4" OD x .134" wall DOM and that was a 3000 pound vehicle. I think the rulebook only required .120" wall for that class though. So, with a little planning and good construction techniques you can build a strong, durable, and light chassis. Generally the smaller OD tube the greater the wall thickness needs to be to obtain the same strength as a larger OD tube with a thinner wall.
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