myredracer wrote:
The whole point of starting this thread was to show how bad a professional suspension shop's welding and work can be and what the consequences could have been, not to argue where shocks should be installed. Done, done, done...
This always happens. The OP starts a thread by "look at what crappy work so-and-so did on my RV". Then they show pictures. The problem is that there are many very experienced people on this site that know how it should have been done. When they start to question the OP, the OP eventually throws out a statement like the one above, "done, done, done".
I build off road vehicles as a hobby. I have a welder in my garage. Used it yesterday to weld some axle brackets together! In a prior life, I made airplane parts for Northrop and Boeing. I have designed many parts, and made many shock mounts. Maybe the issue is just a bad weld. I never would have trusted this to some shop that an RV place wants to use! But, that is just me. The design, IMO, was not a good design. I would have mounted the shocks inboard of the frame. I don't care how much clearance there is outside the frame or who else mounts the shocks outside the frame. I would have made custom brackets that were strong and gusseted that would have just bolted to the frame. Not welded. If that was not possible, I would have created a new cross member that would have gone from frame to frame and welded brackets to that as the upper shock mount.
While your intention was to show how bad a professionals work can be, this thread actually turned in to much more than that. With feedback and opinions from some very smart people. So, while you don't seem to want to listen to any opinion other than your own, I have learned a great deal from this thread. So, thank you for starting it.
Good luck.
