Does a body mount chop damage or make your 4Runner weaker?

Does a body mount chop damage or make your 4Runner weaker?

 

^Yes, be prepared to die like men in small-overlap frontal crashes.

 

I think it might impact a little on crash safety stopping the wheel and tire crashing in to the cab or redirecting outward. Not sure, just a thought. I prefer not to do it but those who do it I hope it's well engineered.

 

Assuming you weld in a filler plate where material was removed as it seems like most vendor options provide, I’d estimate the effect is minimal. #unprofessionalopinion

 

If you go that route, better make sure you have great medical liability coverage in the event of an accident.

 

The short answer is yes. I highly doubt that any filler plate is going to be as strong as the factory design. It's a risk everyone takes when they decide to run oversized tires. But, a lot of people do, including myself.

I think the safest option is to stick with a tire that clears the body mount, or do a body mount relocation.

 

I think a properly welded plate might actually make that mount extension stronger.

 

Overall strength of the material is probably only one factor. I would suppose the angle of the front face of the stock body mount is very much on purpose. In an overlap crash situation, the front tire is probably going to blow or come off the wheel. And the angle of the stock body mount looks like it’s meant to “catch” inside of the wheel rim and contain the wheel in alignment to the footwell. Essentially, it might be designed to make use of the wheel as additional “crush”’structure to absorb energy in a crash.

Crashes are like cookies though, you don’t know how it’s going to crumble. So even a stock body mount wont help in every situation. if your wheel is turned it’s gonna miss the body mount. If you’re lifted, you’d probably roll over in a small overlap crash. Even in cars with good overlap crash results, it’s a very sucky way to crash. It best to hit stuff head on wherever you have the ability to control things

It’s good to consider how mods will affect the whole system…that way you can make adjustments to the way you drive.

 

Is a body mount relocate better/worse than a chop?

 

It's fine. Don't even bother thinking about it.

Same with the relocation. It's fine.

 

If the BMC does, indeed, make the front so weak that I do need to conceptually carry a secondary life insurance policy and I’m endangering myself and every human within which I have near proximity, I also expect the cab to pop off like an ejection seat or separating the saucer from the spaceship thus saving humanity.

IOW don’t overthink it. Unless you like living in fear. Then dig whatever hole you like.

 

A lift increases roll over chances. Id be more worried about that then a body mount chop.

 

The short and long answer is no. I certainly did my due diligence and watched all the crash videos. It ain't a thang if you do minimal shave type chop n' weld, and don't buck half it off and cap it. I smell 35's in my future

 

They have done crash test videos with body mount chops?

Do you have a link?

 

Besides, I installed one of these just in case

 

No I mean the stock Runner crash videos, and then theoretical engineer analysis videos suggesting a BMC in the mix , and made my decision.

 

Ahh. And those engineers proved that a chopped body mount would handle an impact the same as the unaltered body mount?

 

No like McSpaz says, ur lucky if the accident works out that ur wheel is turned in the right position and the incoming car hits the right spots, they proved don't be such a worrier for the minimal increase for what it's worth

 

I don't think the question was whether or not one should worry about it. I think the question was whether or not it would reduce the strength of the body mount.

Also, if I was really worried about it, I probably wouldn't have done it.

 

Ur not wrong! Admittedly, a small part of my decision was influenced by installing 1.25" Spidertrax spacers with red locktite which caused rad rubbing

 

Was it the spacers or the loctite that caused the rubbing?

 

The gorgeous black aluminum spacers, and my overconfidence in goodluck

 

^^^ This.

Would that be chocolate chip or oatmeal, or…? Crispy or chewy?

 

OOOOOHHHH SNAP!

 

Lol!

 

There’s three important questions:

1) Does it reduce safety/integrity?
2) Does it result in any exclusions under your auto insurance policy?
3) Is there the potential for a lawyer to use it against you in a liability situation.


The first one is a ?

The second one can be answered by reading one’s insurance policy, which is good practice regardless.

The third one is obviously a yes, because that’s sort of their job.

 

No, no, and no. Absolutely not. No. No. Nope. No. Not even a little.

First one. Nah dude. No. The plate I welded is MUCH thicker than the stock metal which is poor quality mild steel and rusting after a year. If anything it's stronger.

2nd two. No. Bring the computer models into the court room showing this. It's really impossible to even speak to either. It's all presumption.

To actually show it in any way. And I don't want to use the word prove because you'd need to make assumptions when modeling a crash, it would take far more resources than available.

Where it could get used against you is if you clearly did a terrible job and it was falling off especially if it been documented prior to a crash that was clearly at least in part caused by this. And I've seen crashes on YouTube where the body comes off the frame. That's even possible without modifications. But again no. The times and resources to allocate and it really can't be proven. It's just absurd.

 

The answer to number two has nothing to do with computers. It has to do with the actual insurance contract, and whether it would fall under any written exclusions.

The answer to number three is based upon lawyer and jury quality.

 

There's a lot of modifications out there. If there were an issue with insurance we would hear about it and everyone would be warning everyone about it.

The lawyer thing. You'd need to prove it. Which you can't because it wouldn't cause an issue. Any lawyer or person would do that I just did. "OK so your position stands on no data at all. No theoretical modeling, no crash statistics, nothing? OK, welcome to the counter suit."

 

I think this is the 5th gen steel ratings