I know these are week and flimsy, but unless someone sells me their beefy rails for really cheap I can't drop the cash for some real ones, so I am making do with these and having fun while doing so. I enjoy any kind of mods to the KJ. I first chopped the brace arms off the round rail and extended them 3" out from the KJ. I inserted steel flat bar into the rail and welded all around the seems and welded it back to the brace arms. So the flat bar is inside the rail and not just touching it at the weld. I then cut some short angled pieces to weld on as gussets to help side to side rigidity. I joined them at the weld where I lengthened the brace arms as well to beef up the welded spot. I then added a bar that I will attach to the pinch weld. All I need to do is mock up a template for the holes that need to be drilled and then bolt everything back together. It is a temporary fix, I know, but at least they are stronger than before. I am still going to add some more flat bar gussets I think on the opposite side of the ones I have now, but longer. The brown you see on the rails is mud, I apparently didn't clean them off very well last week after some fun in the rain soaked desert. This whole project has cost me roughly $5. I already had all the metal, the only thing I had to buy were some nuts, bolts and lock washers. Not too shabby I guess. Now I only need to figure out how to strengthen the round bar from bending when being abused.
I keep coming back to buying a new thicker bar and welding it on there. Problem is I don't particularly want to do that. All the cutting and rewelding and what not. Might as well start over or buy new ones if I were to do that.