Frame tubing split

[Guest Lenny]

I was under my Trooper today doing some work and I notices a split in the frame tube. This split was 7" long. When you look at the picture, imagine lying on your back with your head just in front of the right rear tire. Your feet are in front of the left rear tire. As you look up, you see the pivot point of the swing arm. The split tube runs from the right side of the picture which is the front of the Trooper to the left which is the rear. I expect a lot from my machine and have tested the fox suspension setup by running It off a steep slope at some speed that is about 3 1/2 feet high. My rear tires leave the ground at the top, fronts too and hit at the bottom. It's a pretty hard hit but the suspension takes it. Anyway, I don't drive it like that generally, only for suspension setup reasons. So maybe (for sure) I have abused mine more then the average owner and this is the result. However the split is right at the seam in the tubing. My seam just happened to be on the bottom side. It shouldn't have failed this way so the seam must have been defective. Generally you would expect a crack at a weld or joint where max stress gets consentrated. When your under your machine or otherwise, you might want to keep an eye open. With this crack being filled dirt, I almost missed it. To fix it, I welded it shut and then went back over the weld to make it extra wide and thick.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Hey Lenny,

When I rebuilt the water lines to the house I used galvanized pipe expecting it not to fail in the balance of my lifetime. WRONG, seam split of about 7 inches in my Home Depot Chinese pipe that was only 2 years old. So now two seam splits of Chinese tubing/pipe. I won't even get into my Chinese Trailer tires.

Thanks for the heads up as this is something those of us running over-sized tires & shock need to watch for.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico