Back legs attach-point weakening


 
Darrel Williams said:
The legs themselves, while thin, are not the problem. They are straight.

The bowl itself is not the problem. I don't think the bowl itself has deformed much.

The problem is/are the "tabs" on the leg flanges that are spot welded to the bowl. These bend. When mine bet, I pounded them back straight with a rubber mallet. That worked about twice. On the third time, the spot welds failed and the whole flange delaminated from the bowl.


I would love to mount the kettle in another fashion. I just can't figure out a way that seems right to me. I don't weld. I love the guy who welded his own 26.75" OTP frame, but I cannot do that. I don't want to drill into the bowl.
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That was me Darrell. Another option would be to use shorter legs constructed of heavier metal. The legs would have to be just long enough to allow the ash catcher to be removed for dumping. The base of each leg would have to be designed to be anchored so that all three legs would be fastened down to a solid base. That base or table or whatever could be given it's own set of wheels for motion.
 
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I'm not sure if this has happened to others perhaps unknowingly, but the weight of the kettle tends to cause the thin and flexible three-point legs to twist reeeeally easy, and when it does, it contorts and shifts to an unlevel position. And the first time I fixed it by twisting it back the other way, it was weakened thereafter, and it got worse and worse until the plates finally broke loose from the bowl. Now, the one thing that separates this purchase from a hunk of junk, is that I bought a Weber :)

I called them and sent them a couple of pics via e-mail, and I got a new bowl in the mail not long thereafter. This just drives home my feeling that I made the right choice, because I use my 26s all the time. But I'll admit that I do worry about this problem on my other two 26s as well. So far they've held pretty well, but that's because they're only used when I need more room or as extra cookers in comps, etc. I absolutely love the 26, and use the heck out of it, I just wish that the rest of the grill was made as tough as the bowl and the lid...lol.
 
You really do have to wonder how much it would cost to make a quality improvment in the assembly. It seems Weber gives a lot of product away after the fact.
 
Hi everyone,

Although I used a 22.5 OTG leg set to build a 26.75 based on what I was gifted by a local TVWBB member (and things are still holding up very well), I thought of another alternative - as long as no side tables are needed, how about using/building something very similar to a Kamado egg nest for the 26.75 to rest/sit in it?

Have a great one.
 
George L said:
I think perhaps it makes more economic sense to them to keep giving away components than to retool.
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My guess is most people have the grill on their porch and don't move it very often. So, it's most likely a very small subset of owners for whom this is a problem. And in that case, it's probably easier and cheaper to have generous customer service than to repair something that's not a problem for most of their customers.

Bill
 
But also aside from moving the grill I think the back and forth motions from simply cleaning/brushing the grate can also be stressful on the flanges.
 
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