SXS Weld Porn or Weld Horror?

[L.R.S.]

Yup, if the weld isn't pretty the weld isn't good.  

 

[NIKAL]

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[NIKAL]

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[L.R.S.]

No ones saying an ugly weld can’t be safe. A ugly weld can be just as structurally sound. But would you accept any of the welds in my first post if they were on a buggy? Funco, DD, Tatum, Alumicraft etc.. 

And some of the welds I showed actually do have issues. Some look to be filing poor tube fitment. One of the Polaris pictures show the weld missed part of the bracket. 

Thought this was about SxS's? And you'd be surprised at what I find when prepping high dollar cars once the panels come off. 

 

[KLC]

Agreed 100%. Not all is as it appears on the outside.

 

[Rockwood]

No ones saying an ugly weld can’t be safe. A ugly weld can be just as structurally sound. But would you accept any of the welds in my first post if they were on a buggy? Funco, DD, Tatum, Alumicraft etc.. 

And some of the welds I showed actually do have issues. Some look to be filing poor tube fitment. One of the Polaris pictures show the weld missed part of the bracket. 

Buggies aren’t mass produced and cost a little more though. 

What’s always fun is to look at seat and accessory tabs on buggies. Usually where the sin lives. Lol

 

[Fullthrottleguy]

Those welds are not handmade. That chassis was a recent test chassis made by the robot welders at the factory. Robby posted a IG video walking around that chassis showing the weld improvements since the first robot chassis we all saw at the Sand Show. He also shows the marks they made on the chassis where the robots need adjustments on.  I don’t think Robby would be showing off these better welds if the final production welds were going to look like the first Pre-Production cars we saw and Rockwood showed. That would make no sense?? 
 

On the most recent video #100 it was said there are 60 chassis welding  stations to make one chassis. 

Robbie is a Marketeer - we will see if/when Speed gets 100's of cars in the field - I hope you are right-  that will raise the standard for sure

 

[1HasBeen]

I have to agree on the Honda. In working on my buddy's Talon I was amazed at the shoddy workmanship.  The frame also cracked near the rear swaybar mounts.

 

[Crusty]

Bummed to hear the Kawasaki and Honda were sloppy at the welds.

 

[carboy]

@Sausage450r

Yep. Lots of gross welds on OE vehicles. Jeep JL has decent ones:

But, in the end, robo welds are cheap. If Robby figured out a way to make pretty robo welds at the same speed, definitely cool.

@NIKAL I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought to post The Bolt Seen Round the World. Leaving Speed out of this thread would be favoritism. If it’s on a SxS, good and bad welds alike, they should be posted. The chassis you posted looks good. Hopefully that’s what’s delivered to customers. 

Pretty funny... to the haters, "The Bolt Seen Round the World" defines what the Speed is.  I couldn't agree with you more, of course we don't want favoritism, but for comparison sake, perhaps posting more recent photos would provide an honest, more accurate representation, rather than the 9 month old pics you chose.  Short video of the progress made in the welding department...     https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce6ADDhlr3L/

 

[Rockwood]

Pretty funny... to the haters, "The Bolt Seen Round the World" defines what the Speed is.  I couldn't agree with you more, of course we don't want favoritism, but for comparison sake, perhaps posting more recent photos would provide an honest, more accurate representation, rather than the 9 month old pics you chose.  Short video of the progress made in the welding department...     https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce6ADDhlr3L/

Yep.  @NIKAL posted them on this thread, and I said they look great.  Since the 1st post of this thread was pretty much examples of weld horror on SxSs and oddly excluded Speed's, I posted some weld horror from a Speed UTV.  I assume this thread will be updated with actual delivered customer rides and the welds (good, bad or indifferent) on the chassis.  In the meantime, that's what's on the completed builds to date.  The rusty chassis with hand grinder marks and new welds on it, while promising, should be taken with a grain of salt. 

"Haters".  For the record, I don't honestly care one bit about Speed the company and definitely don't "hate" them.   If pointing out missed deliveries on self-imposed timelines and the hypocrisy of Robby's weld criticism on other manufacturers makes one a "hater", I guess that's just a sign of the times.  There's a lot of showmanship happening, and for guys who do what they say and eat crow when they can't make it happen, it rubs you the wrong way when you see it.  To me, there's really only one person that stands out as having an agenda against Speed (BUFF). The rest vary from general annoyance to Robby Gordon hero worship.

In any case, Speed should be sick when it comes out. 

 

[NIKAL]

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[Crusty]

Variety in the Menu is great, but why do folks forget its the same restaurant with the same guys cooking the burger?

Nothing changes but the toppings.

 

[Rockwood]

Variety in the Menu is great, but why do folks forget its the same restaurant with the same guys cooking the burger?

Nothing changes but the toppings.

Speed is the McRib: everyone can't wait for it to come out, but not available.

RZR is the Jalepeno Double: burns.

Can Am is the Double 1/4 Pounder: tasty and beefy, but the patties aren't double-sheared like the Big Mac.

Japanese models are the Premium McWrap: healthy choice and won't kill you, but leaves you hungry for more.

 

[Crusty]

Speed is the McRib: everyone can't wait for it to come out, but not available.

RZR is the Jalepeno Double: burns.

Can Am is the Double 1/4 Pounder: tasty and beefy, but the patties aren't double-sheared like the Big Mac.

Japanese models are the Premium McWrap: healthy choice and won't kill you, but leaves you hungry for more.

Bwhahahahahaaaaa...

You win the internet for today Sir - well played :lol:

 

[Dune-Track-N]

I went out to the garage and got you guys some dirty Textron wildcat xx weld pics

 

[NIKAL]

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[FOG]

I was surprised because the Japanese brand cars have the worse of the welds I showed. 
 

The first two pictures posted were on the Kawasaki KRX. The first picture was the KRX rear upper shock mount & gusset. The second picture was a front a-arm. 
 

The Blue chassis’s were a Honda Talon and Yamaha YXZ. Both were shockingly bad IMO. 
 

The tan was a Can Am x3 as most could identify by the rivets. Strangely enough I found out that Can Am rivets all tabs, gussets or mounts that are welded on to the main chassis. They rivet everything to the finished chassis, then go back and weld them up, but going around the rivets. The sketchiest part of the Can Am is the lower frame where the suspension mounts. Structurally It’s a mess, and the welds are just as bad in that areas. Besides that the welds look like typical machine welds. Some places could be improved as the welds did not complete the joint or tab. That’s more a programming issue or lack of choosing quality. 
 

Most of the black chassis pictures were Polaris. Picture #7 was a red a-arm on a XP1000 and the weld was pretty sad. The rest of the black chassis pictures were either a XP Pro, or a Pro R.  Not the worst of the bunch, but at the highest price point they were not great. Again lots of incomplete welded joints & tabs. 
 

My ranking of weld quality from the models I took pictures of are . 
 

Worst was the Honda Talon. Without a doubt I was the most shocked at the poor weld quality.  Sorry Honda fans but it is what it is. Take away the trans and the Honda offers nothing worth buying imo. 
 

Second worse was the Yamaha YXZ. Again I was surprised of the poor quality for Yamaha. Not much better then Honda.  The welds on my daughters Yamaha quad are 10x better then what I saw on the two YZX’s I looked at. 
 

Third worst was the Kawasaki KRX. Most of the chassis that I could see was not as bad as the two pictures I showed, but still not as good as Polaris or Can Am.

Second best goes to Polaris. Most welds look like sloppy machine welds, “thick toothpaste” some areas show allot of splatter. Polaris must calculate how much welding wire is used per chassis and try to reduce were they can, as they do lots of stitch welds, or what I would call incomplete welds. It’s clearly by design, but guessing it’s a cost decision vs a quality one. And they offer the most expensive machine with the Pro R. 
 

The best of the bunch was the Can Am X3. The welds from what I could see around the s#it tons of plastic. The welds looked mostly completely around the tubs. A few areas like the lower front chassis where it’s tight, those areas looked really rough, but if they are using machines to do the welding I can see those being tough to get into. But like Polaris if Can Am cared they could fix that. 

Curious as to the criteria you used and the credentials you have to rank the above welds?

 

[DOGGY]

Curious as to the criteria you used and the credentials you have to rank the above welds?

Oh boy, pull up a chair, this response won't be short  :classic_biggrin:

 

[NIKAL]

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