74Weld Portal Review

[TruckCamper]

My experience with quin is that he has zero qualms blatantly lying to save face.

Is he lying? Or just failing to tell the truth? He'd get a lot more respect if he owned issues and was forthcoming about solutions. Sad really.

Sponsored

 

[SierraBronco]

74 == Tungsten
55 == Cesium??

I guess there isn't a 100 Falloffium.

The internet has given them a nickname of 55weld, as one corner is bound to fail. So you can only expect 75% of your shit to be working

 

[userdude]

Is he lying? Or just failing to tell the truth? He'd get a lot more respect if he owned issues and was forthcoming about solutions. Sad really.

There are lies of commission and lies of omission. If someone should have known based on empirical evidence, that can still be interpreted as lying since you can't prove a negative (I didn't know vs should've known based on a preponderance of evidence). I think it's more ego driven than a clear attempt to control a serious business issue, but that's only based on how he's out there in the marketing.

 

[SierraBronco]

Is he lying? Or just failing to tell the truth? He'd get a lot more respect if he owned issues and was forthcoming about solutions. Sad really.

“Failing to tell the truth” by omitting relevant details to make yourself look better is lying, in my opinion.


For example, dude gets caught by his wife with suggestive text messages to another female.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No, I did not sleep with her.”
Later discovered that they did indeed have sex.
“You said you didn’t fuck her!”
“No. You asked if I slept with her. I did not sleep with her. You should be more direct in your questioning. That’s your fault, not mine”

Technically not wrong. But yeah-still lying.

 

[Dannebrog53]

To be clear, if you have the pins in place I believe the fatigue on the bolts is no longer an issue, assuming they (pins) don’t eventually break. I mean, they’re being subjected to bending every time you break so there is fatigue there which is why dowels are considered to be wear items, but I have no clue how long they’ll last.

Looking at your brackets that is indeed the updated design that accommodates the dowel. If you look closely you should be able to feel it with some heavier-weight paper that has some stiffness to it.

I definitely have the dowels and everything fit snug, a few “taps” with a dead blow hammer and they were on.

 

[87-Z28]

It seems to me that is where all the problems seem to have originated. Mine still have not shown ANY issues. But boy I sure am checking them constantly. None of my bolts have loosened, ever. Nor have they shown any signs of significant fatigue. And yes I have the dowels and a one piece brake bracket that nests tightly against the housing.

It is becoming fairly clear that joint was under designed. There is just not sufficient clamping force available from the current geometry and location of the three smallish bolts. This highlights the importance of tight tolerances to share some of the load, ie, bearing surfaces and shear pin. Otherwise bolts will be over stressed and fatigue.

A true fix requires a complete redesign of this interface, ie, more, larger, strategically placed bolts. This probably requires a redesign of housing to optimize interface surface with bracket. Something 55weld is obviously fighting against. Perhaps this shows the “race built and proven” ideology. A bolted joint can most definitely be designed this way and be good for short term “race” longevity, 1k miles. But this joint is not really adequate for a 200k mile oem type longevity.

 

[SierraBronco]

I definitely have the dowels and everything fit snug, a few “taps” with a dead blow hammer and they were on.

Good good good.

I checked ours and they’re still safely sitting in a pile. Phew!

 

[87-Z28]

Subjective opinion.

In my book 37weld (and decreasing) has no credibility and Quinn takes all the blame for how his business is run. Untrustworthy and highly suspect for anything they produce.



Fairly objective based on current knowledge state.

This bolted joint is a poor design. And I would not want to have to count on bearing surfaces and a single shear pin to keep the bolts from excessively loading and failing in fatigue, for 200+k miles nonetheless.

 

[87-Z28]

Good good good.

I checked ours and they’re still safely sitting in a pile. Phew!

No load, no fatigue, no aerospace tolerances required.

 

[SierraBronco]

No load, no fatigue, no aerospace tolerances required.

Despite my personal experiences with the owner of the company, I always strive to be fair when presenting information on a product. Some people haven’t had any problems at all, and some have had significant issues. And that’s the same with their steering racks.

Either way I’m not going to compromise my reputation just to persuade people to agree with me one way or another. So keeping that in mind I will say that we have had ZERO issues with the 21weld portals since removing them

 

[SierraBronco]

Is he lying? Or just failing to tell the truth? He'd get a lot more respect if he owned issues and was forthcoming about solutions. Sad really.

I will say that they handled things completely differently when the rear toyota portals started spinning off the axles. (Not from missing bearings, but from using the same size bolts Toyota used for the axle flange to bolt the portals on to the housing) They posted about it and owned the mistake, saying the bolts were too small and that they will be replacing everything with bigger bolts.

There are some concessions though-
Myself and others had already heard about the issue and shared pictures publicly. So the information was already out. This was also in the middle of 74 coming on to my build thread and getting absolutely demolished with their bullshit. I do think Kristian is trying to turn around their image of deception and untrustworthiness, and we were talking on the phone for at least an hour about the brake issue. As the call wrapped up he then mentioned that he needed to “put out the fires” associated with the Toyota fiasco, and I told him they just needed to own it and be honest. IT DID sound like that was his intention already and my suggestion had no influence on what they posted.

 

[Dannebrog53]

Good good good.

I checked ours and they’re still safely sitting in a pile. Phew!

Good good good.

I checked ours and they’re still safely sitting in a pile. Phew!

Thankfully I kept all the takeoff parts and if I have problems in the future they’ll be going back on and my 68 Bronco will be the primary crawler

 

[SierraBronco]

Thankfully I kept all the takeoff parts and if I have problems in the future they’ll be going back on and my 68 Bronco will be the primary crawler

As long as you don’t break the LCA ball joint mount or the tierod mount off of the upright you’ll be fine. I think there were only maybe 5-6 breaks like that. That we know of anyway.

 

[userdude]

That we know of anyway.

 

[SierraBronco]

A very poorly designed bolted joint. An understanding of the shear loads at the joint is required. Sufficient clamping force to deal with the expected loads (number, size and location of bolts). And/Or adequate bearing surfaces to resist loads so bolts won’t bend, shear, fatigue (so proper tight “aerospace” tolerances). And/Or sufficient shear pins with good tolerances so bolts won’t bend, shear, fatigue.

A very poorly designed joint. Incompetence or oversight?? Likely just oversight. A proper and adequate bolted joint can be designed and implemented here. The response from 55weld on the subject is disappointing and not confidence inspiring.

This is purely on 55weld and can be rectified. This is not a good reason to avoid portals in general. There is a good thread describing what you are getting into with portals.

@SierraBronco has the link.

This link?

Sponsored