Welded On Draw Bar?

Mine is welded the crossmember, and bolted. Is this factory? I'm suspecting it isn't and want to have the draw bar powder coated.

 

Your talking about the rear right? Mine is not welded to the crossmember. Just bolted.

 

Yep, on the rear. Thanks!

 

Nope, never seen that from the factory. Maybe some PO's idea for improvement. My latest one (the CJ-6) had a big I-beam welded to the rear cross member. I removed it with my cut-off disk.

What does the weld look like? Jeep frame welds are pretty awful typically, with burn-throughs and bits of like 18 ga weld wire left behind. If it's arc weld, more blobby or significantly neater, it's not Jeep.

 

The welds looked pretty good. I unfortunately found out why it was welded though... There were quite a few cracks originating from the holes where the draw bar bolts on. I didn't expect that, haven't seen anyone report that issue and I do have the braces that go from the side of the draw bar to the frame. My draw bar only has the two outermost mounting bars, it doesn't have the two in the center that would be used for a pintle hook-I've seen a couple other intermediates this way, I think it would have fared better with 4 mounting bars.