At the last P.M.C. swap meet it was recommended that I add some reinforcement plates to the sides of my front frame horns. I'm running springover with flipped springs, 35" tires, saginaw power steering, on the old style shackel reversal where the front and rear spring hangers are switched in positions. The inside of the front frame rails are boxed with 3/16" plate. My question is, how much reinforcing is needed to handle the extra stress this setup puts on the frame? I was told the frames crack on the outside where the large holes line up with the front crossmember, is this a common problem?
Thanks

You mean like this?

Yes, box it in on the passenger side. If you have a Saginaw box it provides boxing on the drivers side.

hey nolen.....what exactly has happened in this pic?

im starting to think my front end with winch and SR and steering is getting some strange movements, and i was searching re-inforcing earlier in the week on what to do and stuff........

cause wehn i steer it seems to move away a little then catch up........weird......was thinking maybe i need a panhard :rasta:

This is what happened from my understanding...:D

Joseph A.

What he said :D

Extended shackles have lots of leverage!

Box that frame! Rusty B cut a peice of angle iron off my trailer and patched it so I could finish the weekend!

Man, Nolen, every time I see those Alcans it reminds me of those monster arch springs the Poser trucks use!!!!!
Butch

Wngrog the picture showed a frame without boxing, I have already boxed the inside of frame horns. But what I'm hearing is the outside of the frame rails needs some sort of reinforcement too. In your pic you can see the large hole that is in line with the crossmember. This is where the weak spot is. Maybe some 3/8" thk. plates cut to match the frame rail from the bumper to several inches past the hole. Think if I do this I'll make them part of the bumper mounting bracket and bolt them on , what do you suggest?

Dave, i think Jeff and dustin did almost what your talking about when they installed dustins PS... not sure if it went that far up the frame though, they had alot of good pictures, might wanna search and check it out.

Matt

Kinda like this??? There is also a bar going between the front two shackle hangers...Its about to have p/s so that will strenghten the driver's side frame, I just need to get the passengers side boxed.

Joseph A.

I think he means outside the frame rail, from the shock tower to the riveted on bumper bracket. I did this on my FJ40 with 1/4" plate. MAde a cardboard template to match the contours of the frame and had it cut out of 6" wide 1/4" flat stock. welded it on...No pics, computer with camera software crashed a couple of days ago.

-Brett

Yeah what Cruiserbrett says. Brett this is what I was told needed to be done to mine. What was the reason that made you decide to reinforce yours? I'm wondering if this should be included in the S.O. S.R. process for anyone running 35" tires or bigger and power steering. Seems like we should be hearing about alot more people having frame cracking problems.