Mount cracks

[Stu Olson]

A good friend of mine here in Phoenix sent these to me today. Without a doubt, he wheels more miles per month than probably anyone here unless you hit the trails two days per week, every week. His runs are from mild to wild (well, probably no more wild than what I hit). We've done a number of runs together and he does not thrash his rig.....I would not hesitate to let him drive mine as I know he would take good care of it.

Since a lot of folks run this mod, I thought you may wish to check yours to see if there are any showing on your mount.

If you want the hi-res versions of the pics, let me know and I can e-mail them to you directly (PM me a good e-mail address)

[Dan-H]

Stu,

this mod is the rear outboard shock mod, yes?

is it driver or passenger side? or why I'm curious, is the crack on the front edge of the mod, or the rear edge of the mod?


does he have anything else hanging off the back, like a heavy spare tire carrier?

Also, does he have a trackbar?

thanks,

- Dan

[Stu Olson]

Dan,

I can't answer all of the questions as the e-mail I got didn't indicate which side it was.

If I had to guess, I would say driver's side though because thay may be fuel line in the one picture.

However, yes, he has a 35" spare tire tucked up against the tail gate. It is on a carrier that is part of the rear bumper. I would not consider it a "heavy" tire carrier.

He does not run a track bar. He has trianguated rear uppers.

[Dan-H]

thanks stu,

I too thought driver side at first, but it is hard to tell by looking at it.

I asked, because if it was passenger side, and if he had a trackbar, I'd wonder if the mod weakened the frame's ability to deflect the forces from the trackbar. --- but --- obviously that isn't an issue.

I'm curious if there are other mods, like removal of the crossmember where the stock shocks mount.

I'm really curious, because this is a mod I've been considering. Well, its on my someday/maybe list.

[Robert J. Yates]

Dan - just to give you an idea on how well the mod holds up - mine has been on for close to 4 years and I have no cracks. I think Blaine can probably say the same thing about his rig. Granted I have not done much wheeling in the past year but in the past, my rig has been subjected to some fairly brutal terrain and.................................... a track bar

OTH, cracks can and do happen. My stock upper rear frame and front axle lower brackets got pretty toasted along the way. Just fix it and go on. I think the benefits far outweigh the risks for this mod not to ake advantage of it.

[Stu Olson]

Before anyone takes my posting the wrong way, it was NOT meant to place blame, point a finger, imply that the mod is not good, or anything else along these lines. As Robert stated, yes, cracks do happen....hell, I cracked factory welds many years ago before hitting the harder trails.

I posted this because as I said, lots of us run this setup. I'll be the first to admit that I've never stuck my nose into that little corner to conduct a close examination of the metal. As of now, it gets added to my list of things I routinely examine, bang on, twist, tug, hit with a dead blow hammer, etc. We all put our junk through a lot of stress and strain and it is bound to take its toll on the hardware.

To answer Dan's question, I am 100% certain that his upper crossmember is still in place near the stock shock mounts.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Stu Olson
Before anyone takes my posting the wrong way, it was NOT meant to place blame, point a finger, imply that the mod is not good, or anything else along these lines. As Robert stated, yes, cracks do happen....hell, I cracked factory welds many years ago before hitting the harder trails.

I posted this because as I said, lots of us run this setup. I'll be the first to admit that I've never stuck my nose into that little corner to conduct a close examination of the metal. As of now, it gets added to my list of things I routinely examine, bang on, twist, tug, hit with a dead blow hammer, etc. We all put our junk through a lot of stress and strain and it is bound to take its toll on the hardware.

To answer Dan's question, I am 100% certain that his upper crossmember is still in place near the stock shock mounts.

What will help with that is to let the original tower hang down out of the frame about 3/8" or so and run the bottom bead as a fillet around the outside.

Gives good surfaces to fill and I suspect the reason his failed there is the original cut in the frame was a little sloppy in the corners and got filled with weld. Were that not the case, both corners would be cracked as they see nearly identical stresses.

As a good fix for this, run a piece of metal about 1/4" thick on the inside of the frame and overlap that area. If it can be bent to turn down under for a little more suface area, all the better.

[Stu Olson]

Thanks Blaine for the tips on the patch up. I'll be sure to pass them along.

Likewise, I'll pass along the recommendation to let the tower material initially protrude a bit along the bottom to provide a better fillet area when doing the install.