Rail crack, Repair or Replace

[meats75]

My Lt. rail has 2 small cracks by the center boggie wheel. If I get it TIG welded will it last?
My buddy said his Doo did same thing a had it welded and it cracked again. Any one have any advice, I have a 07' IQ 600 and I found a couple fusion rail for $60. Are these interchangeable rails?
thanks,

 

[xcr440]

A GOOD TIG welder would be able to make it strong enough NOT to crack.

Actually have had CUSTOM rail extensions made, and never cracked once.

Also repaired 2 rails with egged and cracked holes, never had a problem since.

And I just noticed you are from Farmington. My welder (My father) lives in Lakeville. Too bad he's headed to AZ for 6 weeks on Friday, or he'd probably do it cheap.

 

[Snirtdawg]

I made the mistake of tig welding a crack on the rail of my 06 Fusion. Two rides later, same crack, replaced the rail.

 

[miaferominka]

07 sled, if you plan on keeping it for a while i would replace for sure. ( will just keep cracking)

 

[raceinsnow]

I would just replace the rail,everytime I had rails welded they cracked again in a differant spot.You don't want that on your mind every time you hit a bump-did it break again?

 

[bigred_tr]

cast

Well...as one said it, if ya know a "GOOD TIG" welder you might get by but you know the part is made of one cast and when you heat it, there could be a weak spot now in that area. Get the part numbers off the web here and you can see if the fusion rail will work. Replaced one a while ago $80 for the rail on a 500.


Think Snow !

BR

 

[jimfsr]

If the rail is extruded alum. it should weld fine, it would have to be heat treated properly though, That is an alloy material, pretty hard stuff. I have welded rails before, but if not heated right, they can crack again next to the original weld. I would check into why it cracked in the first place, there shouldn't be that much stress concentrated in one area like that. Unless it is a bad design, or you bottom out too much. It may need to be re-inforced in that area.

 

[xcr440]

If the rail is extruded alum. it should weld fine, it would have to be heat treated properly though, That is an alloy material, pretty hard stuff. I have welded rails before, but if not heated right, they can crack again next to the original weld. I would check into why it cracked in the first place, there shouldn't be that much stress concentrated in one area like that. Unless it is a bad design, or you bottom out too much. It may need to be re-inforced in that area.

Probably hit something, or as I had happen, didn't keep an eye on a bolt that came loose egging the hole, stressed a part it shouldn't have, and crack. It happens. But the key is what was said above.

If you got the money, spend it. If not, find a good TIG welder.

 

[caged_beagle]

A true, trained welder with the right equipment is going to charge you at least half of what a new rail costs just to try and fix it, with NO guarantees. Buy the new rail, be done with it and have peace of mind!

 

[meats75]

cracked rail

thanks for advise, it probably cracked from not noticing that my front H bracket had broke and was hitting the track and the front shock was hitting the H brkt. cross shaft for a couple hundred miles. then my track got cut right down the middle, now I have 2 tracks that are 7 1/2 inches wide. nice!! getting to be a spendy repair, but I learned a good lesson. Harder you ride the higher the maintenance cost.

 

[yamadooed]

Replace it!!! Had a cracked rail stab the track window and then I hadta replaced the rail and the track...

 

[indy_500]

replace replace replace

 

[bigred_tr]

Maintenance

We pull our racks out every year...check for cracks and such through out the rack. Pull all the bogeys and regrease or replace ...operator preferance. Check for missing bolts and such and reassemble the rack...Takes about 4 to 5 beers to complete. Sometimes prevents these sorta costly mishaps. If ya doing this already...S*it happens !

Think Snow

BR