Welcome, Jeff! Usually I'd say go for it anyway, but this is definitely not a beginner project. These welds have to be strong. Where are you located?

 

Thanks for the heads up, France! I looked around and didn't see anything like that, but I'll keep an eye on mine. I may end up welding a piece of plate to either side to beef up the walls when the weather warms back up. I haven't seen any deflection or anything yet, though. Course, haven't had her off road yet. The only trail near me just closed!

 

Haha, thanks again, France. My welds have come a LONG way. Go look at my header install post. Amazing what a couple years of practice can do.

I really wanna get better at Tig welding. Now that's the trick. I've only tried it once for about 5 minutes, but there are times it could be real useful.

 

Thanks guys. Rover is kicking good. All the transfer-case parts for the rebuild have been sitting in my living room for many months now... time to get cracking on it.

I'm in San Diego. I know a good welder, who I had do my greg davis bumper, but I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to do it logistically (tear down the watts first, then flatbed to shop? Or see if he offers mobile services? I don't know), and I have some concerns about the strength as Offroad pointed out. When I spoke to Simon @ RTE, he mentioned a bunch of people having the welds fail. Simon said that if he were to sell a kit for this, he would prescribe the brackets to be bolted and welded.

 

To avoid weld failure I like the idea of initially bolt and latterly welding the Panhard brackets in place. It would certainly help for the welding aspect. There is a problem with welding though, one is the lack of weld penetration and the other is the HAZ adjacent to any welds, both can cause instant failure due to hard work. I know plenty about the theory of welding and testing but I'm actually rubbish at physically welding .

 

I would offer to help, but wrong coast!

It's funny you guys should mention bolting on. I was just thinking about the logistics of a bolt on kit. The frame side would be easy, but I don't know how you would bolt on to the axle tube. U bolts, maybe?

I feel like the quality of the welds is where most of these horror stories come from. A lot of people think they're much better welders than they actually are, and it's too easy to get a pretty weld that's also a weak weld with a mig welder.

As for your order of events, I would suggest not moving it once you've removed the watts. Luckily removal is pretty easy. Could be completed in 15-20 minutes no problem.