As anyone seen the new JCR front axle truss in person? For the price, it seems like a great alternative to their competition.
http://www.jcroffroad.com/product/JKF-Truss-44.html
Any thoughts from those more knowledgable than myself?

 

I like it a lot better than the Artec Truss. A whole lot less welding time and much heavier steel. Likely an overall stronger truss with that wall thickness. The Artec is a heavy top plate with very thin front and back vertical walls that are all welded into place on the axle to create a single structure. Looking at this, you have to wonder why Artec went that way? This is a quick cut and stamp, and makes installation much more efficient.

 

I agree, I think JCR's will also be much easier to install, not having to "put together" the truss before you weld it all up. However, I do think the Artec truss LOOKS beefier and stronger (maybe that's why they designed it the way they did?). I'd just be worried about warping the housing because the Artec involves so much welding.

 

As far as the welding goes, the area being welded to the tubes looks to be similar, so the chances of warping are about the same. These don't look to go up onto the cast differential like the Artec, but that isn't an area of concern for warping. It is an area of concern for getting a good and proper weld to join the plate steel to the casting.

For my Artec, I didn;t try to assemble the truss on the bench and then move to the axle, instead I had the pieces all being held in place by my buddy while I tack welded the parts together and to the tubes. Then once all were firmly tacked, I started working in circles around the axle stitching the artec plate to the tubes and finished by welding in the entire holes where the Artec vertical plates lock up into the slots on the top horizontal plate. The last thing I did was torched the casting and burned that in. I don't have a welders heat blanket, so I just went with it and nothing popped during the natural ambient cool down.

 

If I didn't already weld on my artec truss I would send it back and get this. It was a pain in the ass to get it to line up. The long section of side pieces has indents that lock into the top piece. None of mine lined up so I ended up just grinding them off until it sat flush. The top piece has a huge gap where it lined up with the middle section in the front. Maybe it was my fault, idk. But it doesn't really matter. It'll hold up. As for the center section, I planned on packing it with sand and pre and post heating, but I ran one bead on it and relieved it with a hammer, I let it sit for a few days and it held strong. When I welded the rest of it I didn't preheat or anything and it held nicely. Here's a few pictures, it's primed now so you can't see the welds as much...

 

My welder did not have any issues with the Artec truss install.

 

What welding technique did you all use on your trusses? I took a stick and MIG class and bought a 180 MIG but have heard that it may not be able to penetrate the cast housing enough. Would the MIG be able to weld the truss to the tubes properly? Do you really need to weld the truss to the cast metal?

 

Wish I would have seen this before buying the g2. Installing it next weekend. Did nitro sleeves this morning.

 

I would have gone with this if I hadn't already had a Barnes 4WD truss welded on.

 

I used my Lincoln 180c mig with .35 solid wire and 75/25 mix. Had no problems with any part of the welding process.