this afternoon I did some scraping of the welds on the tabs of the receiver,
and I made a startling discovery.
The receiver has 2 vertical tabs that are apparently designed to be welded
to the frame. With ideal conditions and alignment, each tab could be welded
on their front and rear vertical ends. The tab on the street side was welded
on both the front and rear ends of the tab. However, the alignment of the
receiver to the frame members was not good enough to enable a weld on
both sides of the curb tab. A thick bead of weld was done on the frontward
side of the curb tab, but no weld was applied to the bumper side of the curb tab.
There was not enough room available, from overall improper alignment.
So, instead of having 4 welds done, there are 3 welds.
Some rust had formed on the curb bumper tab side, and that appeared to look
like a crack.
My explain may not be all clear, but all the welds are good. Apologies to the
welder, whoever did it.
"Uniqueness means things are not what you expect them to be."