I don't know what I missed or turned around - you stated as fact about 4 times and different ways, with your experience to back it up, that it is completely unnecessary to gusset or support the upper shock mount in any way. I couldn't care less if you personally want to take the risk, but I don't like that you are posting your still limited experience as though it were completely proven and concrete fact and giving others false confidence to take the same risk. I only take risks if the gain outweighs the risk - what do you have to gain by not beefing up the upper mount?
your narrowing and ignoring the rest of the post. lets break it down
i have not touched mine and brian has not touched his. for street use, i would not worry about it but im also not a shop with customers.
first this. after all that has been written in this thread about the mounts, i have not once stated DONT brace the mount. all i have done is tested on my truck. brian feels plenty confident in his as well to run them as is. Now if i had a shop or a kit, i would have braces going on the trucks. Why? because of liability. if i sent a kit out and someone decides not to use them primarily because they have a street truck and no quick access to a welder, so be it, thats their choice, just as you mentioned about stock motors running high HP.
when i first installed mine, it was "oh no, you HAVE to reinforce that mount, it wont last long". then it made it through hitting curbs, slamming speed bumps, finally going off road and handling washed out roads, whoops, and a few ditches i didnt see at speed so it changed to "It will bend/crack in time" (this was after 1000-2000 miles). Now i have almost 10k on the shocks and had them for well over a year without letting up and had no issues (other than leaky POS shocks) but im sure the next saying is "your only one truck, it can be said for all". Which, yup, thats true but the abuse and weight i have on my truck exceeds alot of what you guys here will ever see on a street truck. I seem to be the only one who actually tested the theory of the frame mount cracking and breaking and results show its not so. :thumb:
now here, i explain why i tested the mount on MY truck. everyone ASSUMED these stock mounts would not hold the trucks and they were like glass just waiting to break. So i went out and showed otherwise on MY truck, thus letting others come to a decision for them selves what they want to do on their truck. again at no point have i said do NOT run braces. Just like guys pushing stock rods, they can decide from here and possibly try it them selves. all you have to do is keep an eye on the frame mount at the bottom corners for cracks. these will not instantly fold up and cause you to wreck miss daisy unless you go dukes of hazzard on them. your going to see them start going. ive explained this before in previous posts as well.
and im going to make this clear, im only stating NO need to brace on a street truck. if you want to go out punishing it off road, slam the front end with weight from a sled puller, and so on, all bets are off.
now i figured this comment here would have cleared any discrepancy with my post but it seems not as its been read into too far. that word there in the bold. its pretty key. its reiterating my point on the key factors i posted to those, again, who have read this thread and want to make their own decision based on my findings and what they are comfortable with and others findings on what they want to do. It makes it clear to the reader, or should i say, should have made it clear to the reader that the mount is not a piece of glass and in a street truck application its your choice on what you want to do. no part in there says DONT run braces on your street truck.
i have a truck coming in, in a week or two that will be getting some bracing as the coilovers going on it will see lots of abuse off road and will be valved accordingly
and the last bit. Hey looky there, im actually putting braces on a truck for coilovers. Again because i know where this truck is headed and will need the support. would someone so against them and so willing to risk lives that could kill innocent people, children, dogs, cats, birds, worms, sheep (a shit, dont read that part mike) and damn mosquito's put them on a truck he works on??? lol
Dustin, im not saying at no point should anyone ever run a brace, dont run a brace, i know all, my one truck tells all, blah blah blah. i and only i have been one to try going with out the brace and beat on the truck to see what happens with the mount so i posted about it. id be happy to hear from others who may have done the same. ill most likely brace my own damn truck at some point soon because it will see air time when i get time to revalve the shocks.
does this all make sense now? please dont read attitude into it, i have none and is not ment to have any. simply a discussion picking apart my own post to explain where im coming from before we get guys reading too far into it, not understanding what i mean and so on.
