i fully agree with hokey and mud trucks going hand in hand. like i said it is a personal choice. i come from the world of rock crawlers and it is rare ('cept for jeeps) for things to be bolted on. when was the last time you saw a nhra approved bolt together cage as far as the frame flexing all domestic full sized trucks do.
if the weld is done properly, you will not have a problem with cracking.

 

I have been welding for 30 years, and 20 of those for a living. My father and his father welded lake frieghters for years and my father is still welding. My mothers father built lift gates for 40, that is 2 generationsover 90 years experiance in the welding and fab field. I have seen guys weld there stuff (pros) that in the end wished they hadn't. I watch those idiots on powerblock do it and cringe knowing that guys out there will do it thinking they do it so it must be ok. Sure if you can controll the cooling just right and keep the heat of the weld just right it can be done. But I ask you when was the last time your home welding rig was calibrated to insure it was pushing the same volts and amps that it says it is? If welding was better than bolting you can bet that Ford and the rest would have been doing it from the beginning as it would be faster and cheaper than rivoting

 

never mind

 

No flaming.

Personal prefference and different uses is what this is really all about.

When you start looking at what you do with yours and what I do with mine, we are into completely different things.
That also means completely different stress factors, flex factors and right down the line for differences.

Lift I have no use for, critical for you crawling over rocks.
33" tires are big for me, but I do deal with snow and mud, again critical for you for traction/cushioning on rocks and the like.

Would you load 4 plus tons on your crawler, not likely, which is what I do with my dump bed almost every day for 24 years now.
And I will be plowing, snow, in a couple hours, again what mine has done for 24 years.

Even traction devices, I have limited slip with clutches on both my axles.
I bet you also have traction devices, but they are lockers.

A locker cost me a rebuild for my rear axle, when you are hauling a heavy load up a steep hill, something has to give when you corner.
The Sterling axle shaft did not break, but i sure did trash the locker, ring, pinion and all the axle bearings.
A limited slip with clutches is critical for me.

You built yours for what you do, I built mine for what I do.

 

Sorry about that. I do get carried away at times.

 

We have to remember, we all came from different backgrounds, we all use our trucks differently and we all live in very diverse terrains.

Otherwise there would be one kind of every product out there, not 100 kinds.

What works for me here, may not even be worth consideration where you are.
But that also works the other way around.

When I post in this forum, what I type is what works for me and what don't work for me.
An I bet the same thing enters into what everyone else that posts here posts as well.

Sometimes we all forget, there are other ways of doing things that may work well for someone else.

 

LMOA thats the reason I stayed out of this one I have gone both ways here with good results. Am I the only one that has had the rivits loosen up in a front crossmember.
So I guess everybody can call me bonehead.