oops...i ripped the front bag mount off

friday i was coming home and hit a nasty pothole. my bag was filled with air i hit so hard it pulld the front bag mount off the truck and bent the top of the shock tower. i broke the two side welds on the shock tower abd bent it back behind the steering linkage. i had the two gustes going down the side and the top mounted two the bottom of the shock tower. was i supost to reinforce it more? im in the process of redoing them now, today i added two gustes to the top of the bracket facing upward under the shock tower, and two on the sides going all the way down from the bracket to the bottom of the frame. so what do you think will that be alot more support structalyor did i just waste my time?

this is the way it was except for the welds they were redone.....

Instead of running those gussets down, run them facing up!




Dev

i just cut those gustes off and ran them up and made new ones to take there place and they are much bigger, they go all the way to the bottom of the frame. do you think that 4 gustes are going to make it alot stronger or where two of them a waste?

I little bit of an overbuild imo, but if you had it there then its def. not a waste!



Dev <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

thanks for the reinsurane.

Cool...



Dev

it may just be the pics but it looks like your not gettin really good penetration in your welds.






-justin

thats what i was thinkin too.

You might want to make sure the gussets you ran upwards dont hit the upper control arms at full lift. I dont think the gusets had any thing to do with the bracket ripping off, it seems that your welds penetrated the frame but not really the actual bracket. That is most likely where the weak point was. I'm not trying to start nothing, just looking out for your personal saftey, but take some scrap 1/4 steel and practice you welds a bit a get your technique down so you can insure that you have good solid welds.

just remember that a pretty weld isnt necessarily a strong weld and vice versa. you have to burn the filler in to the metal and not lay it on top of it.







-justin