1998 Sierra z71 Bent Crossmember
 

Hey guys, so I got my truck a few months ago. Had fun with it and decided to do some mixing before the freeze over. On Friday I bottomed out and a stump smashed into my rear crossmember, bent it to he'll and now is running agin at my drive shaft. Can I just grind off the rivits and get one from a scrap yard and have a shop re rivit it? Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

-Mike

Whoops, I mean mudding not mixing.

Pictures would be good. I'd say cut the rivets off and just use grade 8 bolts to replace it.

I would use grade 8 bolts. Thats why it doesn't pay to horse around with your truck though.

I got high centered on railroad tracks once...it was deep in the woods...and bent the crossmember under the transfer on my '69 Chev Shorty 1/2 ton 4x4. One quick crossmember swap later the truck was happy. Grade 8 bolts will be fine, but I do crawl under my truck every once in a while and tighten every bolt in sight & you will need to do that once in a while.