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Welding rocksliders to frame

K30Blazer

K30Blazer

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I have Kurts rocksliders that are currently bolted to my body. I was gonna take some 1.75 tubing I have laying around and weld from the slider direct to the frame. Seen this done quite a bit for the added strength.

Seems that most will use some plate between the frame and tubing. Is this totally necessary or just if you want the sliders to be removable.

I mean I understand the physics and why you would do it but in terms of stress on the frame?
 
Never weld to your frame directly unless you understand the side effects. Welding incorrectly can lead to failure under certain conditions and load cases.

The safest thing is to weld a mounting plate to the tube and bolt that plate to the frame.
 
kennyw said:
Never weld to your frame directly unless you understand the side effects. Welding incorrectly can lead to failure under certain conditions and load cases.

The safest thing is to weld a mounting plate to the tube and bolt that plate to the frame.
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This conversation again?




Theres nothing wrong with welding directly to your frame. Especially a round piece of tube...
 
Stomis said:
Theres nothing wrong with welding directly to your frame. Especially a round piece of tube...
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There is nothing wrong with it if you do it right. But there is also risk involved that can easily be avoided.
 
There are even engineering standards written to deal with it.

https://www.aisc.org/store/p-725-field-welding-to-existing-steel-structures.aspx

Over the years, various rules-of-thumb have been applied: no welds where calculated stress exceeds 50% of working stress; no transverse welds across tension members; no welds where calculated stress exceeds three ksi unless shored; make all welds parallel to stress lines, etc. Most of these made sense at the time and were the result of practical experience plus common sense.
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Oh boy here we go again. :D

I welded a plate for the slider right to the frame and never gave it a second thought...Of coarse my frame is bent and has cracked in other places, but not due to welding something to it.
 
There is also an argument for using bushings on the frame ties since the slider is bolted to the body which in turn is mounted on the frame with bushings.
 
nvrenuf said:
There is also an argument for using bushings on the frame ties since the slider is bolted to the body which in turn is mounted on the frame with bushings.
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This is what I would be concerned about much more than welding to frame.


If you weld to frame just weld a fishplate on first and weld the tube to that plate. Spreads out the force on the frame.

I would weld plates for bushings at the frame, or do solid body mounts.



Welding to the frame is fine. I have welded lots and lots to my frame, caught air on many occasions and then drove 70mph down the highway for an hour to get home.
 
Deuling said:
I would weld plates for bushings at the frame
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If you feel like you need the extra support I would do this ^


Deuling said:
I have welded lots and lots to my frame, caught air on many occasions and then drove 70mph down the highway for an hour to get home.
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Better hope you don't kill a bus of nuns :D
 
And this is my super bitchin DIMPLED double welded fish plate frame tie ins of awesomeness :whistle:





 
Engineering standards vs welding to a light duty vehicles frame is like citing international war criminal evasion laws in a Jay walking case. It's just so out of the league of forces it's stupid.
 
Stomis said:
Engineering standards vs welding to a light duty vehicles frame is like citing international war criminal evasion laws in a Jay walking case. It's just so out of the league of forces it's stupid.
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This could not have been said any better, haha :haha:

Just weld that shiz to the frame and don't worry about it. Everyone always thinks they may want their sliders to either be removable or worry about damaging the frame....it's a 25+ year old frame anyways, it's not perfect and I doubt you will ever want to remove your sliders. I just welded the tubes to the frame and then did my own tabs that were welded to the body mounts (similar to Kerts design, I just made them and welded instead of bolting). I have hit them really hard mulitple times and the sliders and frame look the same as the day I put them on
 
Yeah I'm not trying to be a dick but any properly done weld is boo coo stronger than the edge of the heat affected zone of the material anyway...

The only no no that really should be heeded is a dead vertical weld from the very top to the very bottom of the frame in a high stress area.
 
Stomis said:
Engineering standards vs welding to a light duty vehicles frame is like citing international war criminal evasion laws in a Jay walking case. It's just so out of the league of forces it's stupid.
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Do you think these light duty frames were tossed together in someones back yard or engineered using these same standards? I would venture to guess that engineering standards were used to design and manufacture 100% of automotive frames on the road today ;)

You can weld to a frame and not cause problems because you know what you are doing or you just get lucky. Or you can introduce unnecessary problems and have a failure on the road. I wouldn't care if a weld failed on a rock slider, I would care if my frame failed.

Suggesting someone learn some basics on the dos/don'ts of welding on a frame is should make some sense to you.
 
Stomis said:
The only no no that really should be heeded is a dead vertical weld from the very top to the very bottom of the frame in a high stress area.
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Welding straight across the bottom flange (transverse) is another big no.
 
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