Poison Spyder Customs, Inc. Hey guys this is Dusty at Poison Spyder. We're not an advertiser at Wayalife.com so I can't respond on the thread over there but maybe Eddie will repost this there. Anyhow here is our official statement on this matter: Yes that is a poor weld and therefore a defective part that made it out of our shop. I am not even going to try to make excuses for it. We have been in contact with the owner of shop that installed it for the Jeep's owner (and who was riding with him at JKX), almost since the day this happened, and they seem to be satisfied with our response and support in this particular case. So the obvious questions that remain are 1. is this typical for that product? 2. what are we doing to correct it and ensure it doesn't happen again? and 3. should current owners of this product be concerned? So let me take those one at a time.
First, no, that poor weld is not typical for our products. Yes we do use a trigger weld technique that some people have questioned. But unlike what some have suggested, its not just a series of tack welds. Our technique is to burn each segment in long and hot, to get proper penetration while pre-heating the metal ahead of the weld. This obviously was not properly done with the broken bracket shown in the photo, which does indeed look like a series of tack welds that didn't penetrate the steel much. We have built over a thousand of these since this specific tire mount bracket was designed, and a failure like this is definitely not typical (I don't know of any other similar failures of this part).
As for number 2, what are we doing to correct it. I have tasked our production manager with pulling all of our completed units back off the shelf and re-inspecting the welds. In addition, we are welding the other (inner) side of the bracket so that it is fully welded on both sides. We are doing this to any units in stock and also making it part of the standard build procedure for this item, for all future runs.
And third, should current owners of this product be concerned. You should always be concerned about the structural components on your Jeep and since there is the evidence in this photo that at least one defective one left our shop, we encourage any current owner of this bracket to inspect theirs closely. If the welds look like they trail off smaller and more spaced out like the one in this photo does along the sides, then it should probably be replaced or beefed up. I'm not going to issue a general recall, but anyone who takes a look at theirs and has a concern is welcome to send us some photos of it and we'll repair or replace it if needed. If you have any further questions you're welcome to email me at
dusty@poisonspyder.com since I don't monitor this page.
Finally, I wanted to say for the record we don't see this post as Eddie bashing Poison Spyder. Its true we haven't had the closest relationship with him over the years but in this case he was just reporting what he saw, which legitimately appears to be a failure of a defective part. We appreciate the loyalty of our fans in defending Poison Spyder. But rather than make excuses we'd rather stand up and take our lumps, acknowledge the problem, fix it, and move on.