BMW Adventure Pannier Weld Quality

BMW Adventure panniers are outsourced to Touratech- welded an hour south of Stuttgart.

Welding aluminum is difficult and not nearly as clean as steel. Gven their quality standards, they probably focus on weld quality vs. looks and I've yet to hear of any leaking or vibrating apart. I'm not shocked by the quality as much as I am with the prices.

i though mine looked awesome when I got them. Very strong looking welds. Purchased them about a month ago from eBay.

Low paid illegal Romanian welders then.

home made welding in panniers for my old DL1000

WHAT ! ! ! That's a bunch of BS. I've welded steel, aluminum, stainless...ect and it all can be welded easily. The quality all depends on the person welding, pride in his or hers work.

Welding aluminum is more difficult than mild steel. Almost anyone can weld mild steel with a little effort, not so with aluminum especially TIG. You must be highly skilled to find aluminum "easy".

Spray arc some aluminum..then say that..it will be beautiful...and super clean..

That said, I think welding aluminum (tig) is the same as steel..one melts at a lower temp...that's all..they will both blow out at the end if you don't control your heat..

If you think aluminum is as easy to TIG as steel than I'm sure you haven't done much welding, much quality welding, or used 'exotic' alloys. Tell me they both blow out... only ONE turns colour and ONE turns just a little shiny before it falls on your foot. The specific heat of aluminum is 6000 jules for cubic centimetre.

If you're saying that both may be welded so that it looks like jewelry and shoots 100% X-ray by a top welder, I'll agree.

As for pretty welds being weaker and uglier welds being better, that's a steaming load. The best welders make good, consistent, nice looking welds, especially on a bench, especially with a good fit up and running on the flat-- like the fellow who TIG'd those cases had. Those welds also pass destructive and non-destructive testing. That same golden arm will be able to make an ugly weld when the fit is junk and he's standing on his head, too.

The only salient point is the lack of correlation between pretty welds and weld strength-- there is little. But they can be both. And I'll put my 6 certs up against that statement any time.

We have 65 welders on the job and 6 in my crew. Two are golden arms. Two ought to have been looked out on his tacks judging by the way they weld. I'm sure they'll bust out their first 2 X-rays and we'll forget their name by next week.

If they are TIG'd in Germany they are probably welded by apprentices.

Oh my...welding snobs!

Perhaps the worst type of snob.

Next to the BMW snob.

I only test rode a BMW and already felt like most of the world was beneath me.

Also, FWIW my Touratech Zega panniers were made in Austria, racks in Germany.

Anyone confirm this on the Zega Pros?

I must also add a small complaint that the fit is not as desirable as I had wished on my (for 2011 Adventure) BMW branded panniers. The welds are strong and look fine as far as I can tell but the fit is another story altogether. I have to fight with the tops to get them aligned enough so I can lock them down. My 05 GS had the Vario and they were perfect, wish the same engineering was behind the all metal ones.

Never said aluminum was "easier" than steel, just that it isn't hard. Once you've TIG welded enough to know your heat levels, you shouldn't blow out the weld and should be able to hold your splatter down to a minumum, and then if you have much pride in your work, you should at least clean up the excessive splatter before it leaves the shop.....at least I would. I don't think there is much X-raying done on a pannier. Not much structural integrity needed there. Some of the welds on some of the pannier look like the were welded by a first timer. Just saying.

spatter.

Mud gets splattered.

Welders must clean their spatter.

The welds originally shown look OK to me, maybe passivation would have tidied them up more.

Yes, aluminium is pretty difficult to weld for joe average. Good welds on the very thin aluminium with TIG for tight temp control comes with much practice.

The problem with the newer BMW and Tourertech alu panniers is the 1.5mm thick material - way too thin. I think 2mm should be the standard.

Cheers


Rob A.

Too many are using them as a kick-stand.

I do not believe those are welds worth of the 1,100$ or what it may be for the BMW boxes. Many of the welds shown in the above pictures appear to have cold-rolling (incomplete penetration) into the base metal.

Welding means more than just slapping some filler on something like glue. Its the process of turning a joint into a solid piece of metal. They do look like they we're spot-welded together, but that is no excuse. Everything needs to be spot-welded together before final welds.

EDIT:
My viewpoint is only that of a hobbyist. I don't weld as a profession, and as such, I have much more time to make sure anything I weld is as close to perfect as I can get it. If I was welding boxes together day after day with a quota, I'm not sure how that would transfer over.

My friend has been welding for a living for over 45 years. I showed him my boxes and he thought they looked just fine. Just saying

Spot welds...or TACK welds?

Good Gawd, three pages of how welds look?:huh Stop it.......