Welding Or Bolting?

I'll be working on rock sliders and tying my cage into the frame on my '75 soon. What I'm looking for is opinions on whether or not to weld everything directly to my frame or to bolt them on. I’ve got my opinion, but I’m really curious what other fabricators think.

CJ for reference:

 

I'ld bolt it with sandwich plates. Spread the load out and it is removable making repairs easier.

 

You know the right answer.

 

Here is what I did.
The flat plate is the sandwich plate for my cage plate.

 

Agreed.

I know how I want to do it but I also think it’s interesting when looking around in internet land what others think. There’s the whole “if you think you trust your welds” and “what about the heat affected zone?” on the pro bolt side. On the other hand is “how is putting a ton of holes on your frame not affecting it?” or “things flex and bolt holes elongate” from the pro weld group.

I guess I was looking for opinions specifically from the early CJ crowd that knows how these frames flex and move over time. This goes hand in hand with plating, not plating, or partial plating.

 

This is a great example in tying a cage to a frame. So many people don’t use a bottom bushing though. My sliders will be out rigger style that won’t be bolting to the body. These will essentially just be frame extensions so there won’t be any bushings.

 

Since my cage is tied to the body and the body is mounted with bushings, I used bushings on the bottom to allow some give when the frame flexes.

 

I actually tried to do something like that last night. Spent more time removing what I did and doing it the way I should have done it the first time.

 

I welded 1/2" plate to my frame that had four 3/8 - 16 tapped holes that I bolt to. My frame is boxed so I didn't want to "sandwich" and I wanted them removable.

 

My original plan was to sandwich thick rubber mat between the underside of the body and a matching plate to the floor plates. Went scrounging through my parts and found these instead.

 

Weld sliders and bolts where the unite with cage as well as some easy accessible tack welds for insurance

 

To wrap up this thread, I ended up bolting my sliders to the frame and then used bushings from the outriggers to the cage legs.