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Old 05-19-2016, 08:25 PM
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ckau ckau is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: central North Carolina
Posts: 915
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tkeagle View Post
Since playing around in tree's now, I really need to think about beefing up the bulkhead up front. Just incase a tree is hit. From what I've ppl do, is just take some 3/8 plates and weld them across the bulkhead, from end to end. And put in some longer, and high grade bolts. So guess can be next project.

Question. Has anyone done this?? Beef up there bulkhead? Just curious What size of bolts would I need? Length, and grade to use?

Another question. Has anyone, or do I need to mess with it. The piece welded from the body to the bulkhead. Does that need to be beefed up any as well? If so, got any pics to show me what you did to it?

Thanks guys. It's a fun little area.
There could be a chapter written on beefing up that spiderbox bulkhead I've got a bunch of pics showing carnage and failures and what was done for a cure but unfortunately these pics are in my old hard drive and have not been retrieved yet. Here's a few I do have on hand. The first is a hoot! Thought you guys would get a chuckle out of this one. Picture is courtesy of a fellow rider" Teamhog". Puts a new meaning to " Hitting the trail". There are several instances of this happing, including to myself!
The second pics shows where to address frame failure.
Some triangular plates on top to relieve stress fracturing and stopping the upper box bolts from pulling through the frame.
Frame tubing on each corner keeps the upper and lower frame rails from racking and adds strength, support and squares the front end.
The third pic show a length of angle steel welded under the bottom mount bracket for a secure mount to the frame rail. This is another area where stress cracking shows up.
The forth pic is a spider box bulkhead that has been "bullet proofed" as much as feasible. The whole unit is re-welded with continuous welds rather than the factory stitch welds. Thicker steel plates were used as replacement in some areas like the R&P mount, The upper section that bolt to the frame and the A-arm tabs are both double plated. The larger plate surfaces were cut out in a attempt to lighten the unit but with the extra bracing added I doubt there is much of a weight loss gain. The upper frame rail through bolts are in thick wall bungs welded through the frame for a solid fit eliminating the bolts pulling through simply holes drilled in the frame tube.
All the hardware was upgraded to grade 8 and also up in bolt size, 3/8 to 1/2 etc. along with shurlock nuts.
It's kinda tough to explain all this in a post so if you got any questions, Hollar
Attached Images
File Type: jpg TeamHog-LostFront-2-1.jpg (73.1 KB, 38 views)
File Type: jpg user3765_pic1427_1328754494.jpg (43.8 KB, 36 views)
File Type: jpg 019.jpg (87.9 KB, 37 views)
File Type: jpg 066.jpg (95.3 KB, 40 views)
File Type: jpg 2451.jpg (81.6 KB, 38 views)
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