What thickness steel for plating frames?

[Eagle]

A few years ago my brother's Nissan pickup broke. The frame started to fracture right at the junction between the rear of the cab and the front of the box. He took it to a nearby welding shop that has developed sort of a specialty in repairing broken pickup frames.

 

I'm curious -- what thickness or gauge steel would you use to plate a frame to repair such damage?

[TurboedMJ]

Myself not being a structural engineer of any kind, at least 3/8"(?) of an inch, or the thickness of the original frame, depending how thick it is. Imo, over built is underated

[ghetdjc320]

I’d expect maybe 3/16 or less. The strength will be in the design and welding methods vs just material thickness. Original frame rails were probably only 1/8 material or thinner, so adding a thicker metal and welding it will only be so successful. Adding a sleeve and some nice fillet joints with some boxed tubing will be a solid repair. 

[Tex06]

Not being familiar with Nissan as much as Jeep (I'm assuming a hardbody and being an engineer/welder) I'd expect the frame to be the Metric equivalent of roughly 12 gauge sheet steel (slightly thinner than 1/8"), possibly 10 ga. 

 

Going overkill on the thickness for the frame repair patch usually results in too much heat needed to make a good weld so either its a cold joint on the repair patch or you get burn thru on the factory side. Either way, you end up with a weak spot for future failure. 

 

Our Jeeps are something like 18ga going off memory and AI searches (both highly questionable at best 😂). But it's 2-3 layers thick depending on where in the frame you are. 

[ThatJeepGuy]

X2 on the same thickness peronal opinion, or slightly thicker. 1/8 or 3/16's to be on the heavy gauge side.

 

Going over kill in sections per say 1/4" its "just a patch" will create weak points around the patch job. The thinner material will give out against the thicker material resulting in a bend or tweak. I've seen a number of jeeps tweaked and pulling themselves apart from the "overkill sections" approach.

 

I'd argue it's just as important the Method to your madness along side the thickness material you chose. Spreading the coverage area to not deflect around points of leverage or fulcrum points. Example: don't butt-coverage plates around suspension or frame mounts.

[75sv1]

3/16 is usually what frame stiffeners are for XJs. IRO uses 10 ga on the rear,  3/16 center and front. I have seen some advertised for 1/4. The rear frame rails were rusted out on the bottom of my '00 XJ. I used 3/16 Hooligan frame stiffeners there. Then went 3/16 IRO on the center, and 3/16 Ruff Stuff on the front. I did have a cracked frame on the front of my '98 XJ. It was just zip welded up. 

[ghetdjc320]

When I LS swapped, I went with 10awg frame reinforcement from the control arms brackets forward