Modify factory Xmember?

I like the idea of Rustys xmemer with the one inch drop, but its a little pricey. Could you mod the factory Xmember by cutting out the part that the tranny mount bolts onto, inverting it into the bottom half of the xmember, welding it in, then pound down the resulting "tabs" flat with the bottom half of the xmember, and runing a weld down that?
Here are some paint pics of what im talking about.

This is a (crappy) representation of a factory Xmember. The red dots represent welds.

This looks like a great Idea to me. If it works it is a great option. The geometry of the member would still maintain its strength and it might not take much work. Besides once the Xmember is open you could strength it with additional material if you wanted.

Please let us know if you do it.

Why waste your time,for 15$ you can make one that wont bend,break,dent,collect debris!The factory sheet metal one just isnt worth meesing with.My new one is completly sealed has a 3/4" drop and retains stock clearance.

I don't weld, some of my friends do, its a lot easier for me to take this to them and show them what to cut up and weld than to give them a pile of scrap and tell them to make something from scratch. And it costs a whole lot less beer too.

I followed Goatmans lead and cut the whole bottom off my stock crossmember and then replaced it with 1/4" steel. Didn't net any drop, but gained strength and clearance... and was easy and cheap! Jeff

I modified my stock cross member by cutting out sections to fit my NV4500 installation. In the end the X member cracked because it was weakened and caused internal damage (minor wear to shift fork) to my T case. Granted, the NV4500 outweighs the BA10 it replaced but the lesson was learned. $10 for material from the cast off pile and $60 to have it welded together and I have a crossmember that's stronger, affords more clearance and helps stiffen the chassis. Clearly a better choice

Yeah, you could do what Jeff and I did, make the stock crossmember stronger with better clearance, and then add spacers to drop it some. Later, when you don't need the drop any more because you finally installed an SYE, you can remove the spacers and you have a nice high clearance crossmember.

Here's a couple of pics of what I did. It has held up very well to a couple of years of hard wheeling.

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