:h
That plate was not needed.
You could have totally avoided that mess if you would have had the shock directly mounted to the frame.
I would have drilled the frame, added a plate on both sides of the frame to add some reinforcement for the hole. Then you could have simply bolted the shock directly to the frame (with a couple of spacers to hold the shock away from the frame).
Welding can actually alter the strength of the steel anyways so a hole with added reinforcement would not have caused any problems for strength..
That setup was doomed to failure since it relied strictly on the top and bottom welds on one side.. It really needed a side gusset(s) to add more welding surface..
